Hail To The Chief
So here I am on a Saturday afternoon, sitting in my room anticipating the start of the next World Cup match and it starts hailing. I check the doppler radar (fun, try it sometime) on the Environment Canada website and lo and behold downtown Winnipeg, where I am, is currently sitting under a cloud of dark red/purple. I've been in the habit of checking the doppler radar on Enviro Canada for a few years now - since I've known it to exist - whenever it rains because it gives you a visual using various colors that represent the amount it is raining anwhere in Canada at any given time. Dark purple is the heaviest possible precipitation and I am currently under a tiny dot of it now. The system also has the ability to show where the precipitation has moved over the past hour so you can determine whether it is coming towards you or not. So now I have not only seen the darkest possible color on the radar but have been able to look out the window and see what it means. FYI - it means rain and hail. Neato.
But now I will go back to blogging unaffected by the weather occurring outside because here, unlike on the farm, weather doesn't matter. I sort of miss being at the mercy of weather patterns that comes with farming, which was how I grew up. This was a built in way of keeping things in perspective, I think, which I now lack to some extent. So what I need is the constant threat of disaster to keep me from becoming complacent here in the center of the impenetrable metropolis that is Winnipeg.
Maybe not impenetrable. A house a few doors down from us burned down 2 nights ago. I woke up to shouts of "Fire!" and "Call 911!" Unnecessary, because several fire trucks with sirens blaring were already at the scene. Though even a threat like fire doesn't quite provide the instability that being reliant on weather can. If you don't leave your oven on and don't smoke in bed, your house probably won't burn down - there is still an element of control there.
So if any of you can think of ways to make my life a touch more precarious, I would like to hear them. Working with high-risk offenders seems to have partly done the trick. However, the element of potential financial ruin is still missing. Also keep in mind that I'm not looking for the kind of insecurity that our government seems poised to provide with their increased military spending and pre-emptive strikes against potential terrorists. I want to be careful what I wish for here. Just some intermittent reminders of fragility would be sufficient to keep me in line.
On an unrelated note, if anyone in Winnipeg is looking for a 5'X12' section of nice black fabric, we have three that were left on our doorstep overnight. If not, I'll just keep them for our funerals; there's one for each of us.
But now I will go back to blogging unaffected by the weather occurring outside because here, unlike on the farm, weather doesn't matter. I sort of miss being at the mercy of weather patterns that comes with farming, which was how I grew up. This was a built in way of keeping things in perspective, I think, which I now lack to some extent. So what I need is the constant threat of disaster to keep me from becoming complacent here in the center of the impenetrable metropolis that is Winnipeg.
Maybe not impenetrable. A house a few doors down from us burned down 2 nights ago. I woke up to shouts of "Fire!" and "Call 911!" Unnecessary, because several fire trucks with sirens blaring were already at the scene. Though even a threat like fire doesn't quite provide the instability that being reliant on weather can. If you don't leave your oven on and don't smoke in bed, your house probably won't burn down - there is still an element of control there.
So if any of you can think of ways to make my life a touch more precarious, I would like to hear them. Working with high-risk offenders seems to have partly done the trick. However, the element of potential financial ruin is still missing. Also keep in mind that I'm not looking for the kind of insecurity that our government seems poised to provide with their increased military spending and pre-emptive strikes against potential terrorists. I want to be careful what I wish for here. Just some intermittent reminders of fragility would be sufficient to keep me in line.
On an unrelated note, if anyone in Winnipeg is looking for a 5'X12' section of nice black fabric, we have three that were left on our doorstep overnight. If not, I'll just keep them for our funerals; there's one for each of us.
posted by brendo at 1:26 PM
3 comments
