Room For All

Welcome to Wondercafe2!

A community where we discuss, share, and have some fun together. Join today and become a part of it!

Register Log in
Pinga said:
In addition, the city of brantford has a section being evacuated due to flooding concerns.
Click to expand...

Tssk. Just like somebody from Galt to not capitalize Brantford.

Anyway.

Technically three sections are being evacuated..These areas are historically recognized as flood plains. Holmdale is the furthest upriver section of Brantford it is being evacuated. Sections of Old West Brant and Eagle Place are also being evacuated. I predate the dyke system that Brantford built in the late 70's early 80's so I remember flooding affecting Holmdale quite regularly. Not so much West Brant (to the extent of the evacuation zone) and rarer still in Eagle place.

Historically the construction of the Lorne Dam to divert water into the canal system meant that much of Eagle place suddenly became that much higher than typical for water levels in the river and even spring run off barely caused a problem. Shortly after the Dykes were in place we had no real use for the Lorne Dam and instead of repairing it when it started to show its age we just let the river do its thing and cleaned up the mess afterwards. This resulted in a dramatic drop in the river level through the city of close to 8 ft.

The dykes are working and so while the river has risen to levels I have never seen in my life before most of that is containing a tremendous volume of water. The issue is that the dykes are about to be breached and in some places that has already happened. I haven't heard how the second surge has impacted the city yet.

Pinga said:
Headed out to Five Oaks to see how high it is there this afternoon.
Click to expand...

I expect that the lower campus will be underwater. The labyrinth is slightly higher than the playing field. Water may reach as far as the dining hall on the summer campus. From what I have seen of river levels at the Wilkes dam things don't look tremendously high upriver. The river is high n Paris primarily because of the confluence with the Nith. It hasn't been that high in a while but I have seen it that high in the past.

At any rate I hope, for Five Oaks sake that the buildings not designed to deal with flood water do not have to deal with flood water.

Brantford has ice dams of its own because of the shallowness of the river now. Add to that some of the ice from the jam that gave way in Cambridge and you see the river at an incredible height in Brantford. Last I heard all bridges crossing the Grand river in the city limits had been closed. The only bridges accessible for us to move from Brantford to West Brantford were the high level bridge in Paris to the North or the Bridge in Caledonia to the south.

I also love the river.

More than that I respect that river. It takes lives.
 
I heard that there were about 22,000 people evacuated from Brantford neighbourhoods yesterday. They've now been permitted to return, recognizing not all spaces may yet be habitable. Gas company will be going around tomorrow to restart services.

They commented that the conservation authority was do doing 'pulse releases' from the various reservoirs today in effort to clear the ice jams - which apparently did succeed eventually & all seems to be flowing through now, so that's good. They were saying the bridges etc still had to be inspected for damage before re-opening.
 
Correct revjohn re flood. It is the creek that is flooding and has moved across the road into playing field the Labrynth is relatively high on the flats so wasn't flooded yesterday.
 
@revjohn - as all the bridges are closed, folks are taking 403 to rest acres road. Was a major backup yesterday, and heard it was crazy today. Police are handling the traffic at 403 / rest ares exit for those trying to make a left onto rest acres.
 
Pinga said:
as all the bridges are closed, folks are taking 403 to rest acres road. Was a major backup yesterday, and heard it was crazy today. Police are handling the traffic at 403 / rest ares exit for those trying to make a left onto rest acres.
Click to expand...

I had reports they closed that one as well. Which I thought kind of extreme because it is very high above the river.

Have to give my source a stern talking to.
 
Can you imagine why deluge is entered into mental concepts as a flush of emotional content? Noah was struck by the concept ... and as a result today we have Noetic ... a late minister acquaintance told me there was no such thing ... In the eternal there is chance of anything ... albeit I am still inconsequential on the indeterminate ... as still I don't know as definitely as others on site ... I'm still out there ... wandering! But I do believe there is a' Moor tuit ... a round spot out on the highlands? Tis reserved for passionate folks attempting to learn rye soothing stuff ... may be oily, ole or well greased ... thus thoughts slip away ...
 
Been watching a lot of ups and downs online on another forum and wondering at how community can be strong among people who have never actually met. We have two couples on that board who are getting married this year. In both cases, the partners met on the board and then went in-person. One of the happy couples just announced the date of their nuptials a week ago and then, today, the bride-to-be announced that the groom lost his mother last night. What a thing to happen right before your wedding (March 17 is the date). His sister is a longtime board member, too, and just about every active member knows at least one of him, his sister, or his bride (the groom and I were both on the board's mod team at one point but I don't know his sister or the bride that well other than from reading their posts). The condolences thread is growing even faster than the "congratulations" thread for the wedding announcement.

We've seen that here, too, of course, eg. when CH lost her husband.

My first ever UU sermon was on virtual community and I am way, way overdue to give it a redo in the era of social media (FB was either not out yet or in its infancy and I'm not sure I was even on WC at that point). There really can be community and connection online, even if the relative anonymity also lends itself to more destructive behaviours.
 
Well, I had a bad experience yesterday, or maybe a good one. Something has gone strange with my computer, and it's back on, to a different extent, and needs further work, but what it taught me was a couple of things about myself. The first was how much extra time I had in a single day. I had no computer from first thing in the morning until after noon today. I had my phone, which was a really good thing because, paired with a little bluetooth speaker donated by my son, I did not also have to withdraw from CBC Music (which would be a much bigger deal than Facebook, but an almost equal deal to being without you all here to some degree), and I do have a tablet of sorts, which I don't use for anything except electronic reading. Consequently, I did some other things that made me feel good, like washing and catching up on the folding of laundry, working on the constant chaos that is my small kitchen, and knitting. And I'm almost at the thumb construction of my "return to knitting project" - the ribbed fingerless glove in a beautiful multi-colour splotchy merino wool. The other thing it taught me was incidental. For a variety of complicated reasons, my den set-up has had to be re-established in the dining room. This might be a medium term solution to a problem. From my seat, I can see my little house from a few views that I don't generally observe carefully. This is disturbing me to the point that I'm going to have to re-think some stuff about my space that might involve delving into some personal history stuff. My entire life is intricately woven into this space in that I live in the house I grew up in; changing things around is often fraught with bringing up some strange memory or another to some sort of conclusion.
 
Computers sure do steal a lot of our available time, the challenge I guess is not letting them dictate our actions. We camp regularly during the warmer months with the closest access point an hour's drive away. It gives us good practise, but being computer deprived at home is a different thing entirely. For me the computer is a bit of a connector as I haven't got a large group of friends locally.

I can't imagine living in the house I grew up in. I moved away from there in '67 and only returned for a couple of short visits and to clear out the house after my parents died. So little had really changed during my absence. My dad's personal items were gone - my sister's boys dealt with the tools and 'man things'. I found I had no reason to wonder what was in this or that cupboard as I already knew. The footstool with the lift up lid still contained pieces of brown paper for wrapping parcels (although parcel sending didn't seem to happen) and the half knitted sweater started by my sister in about 1960. My sister's adult kids claimed and took what they wanted and could use. Everything else went to an on going rummage sale that raised money for an activity centre for handicapped adults.

Congratulations on getting some knitting done and good luck as you pick through memories that need to be 'sorted'.
 
As many know, my husband and I will be retiring at the end of August and then will be living in a fifth wheel for an undetermined amount of time. We have started the process of downsizing, and are being ruthless. We have talked about what we want to get rid of, and what we want to store. We of course do not want to spend a lot of money on a storage locker somewhere.

This has been an interesting process. It has forced us to think about what is important in life. We have moved across the country, and have had to purge at different times. And yet, there are things we keep as mementos or memories. I shredded four bags of paper from my closed private practice. It was hugely therapeutic. It felt like letting go of the past. I was surprised by that. I got thinking more about "treasures" in my life. Are they holding me back? Are they anchors of some kind? How would my life be without them? I will have memories of the important people in my life whether I have their things or not.

Now the process feels like a journey to freedom. I've always admired people who live minimalist lives, yet felt I never could do that. I may not get to minimalist. I will get to less clutter. It will take work however. :(
 
My guy blames my son, and the delivery of a snow shovel (a good one, from Canadian Tire, in B_____) for the snow in B.C. Sure you will have a great re-connect with your sister, Pinga, whatever the weather. My dog would like me to make her a bed of her own. I'm starting to think of finding a companion for my cat...
 
Richmond. Find the Nature Park and visit. Nick and I spent a totally engrossed and wonderful afternoon there.

Also, near there, a total avenue of "alt religious" sites. We also spent a beautiful hour at a temple nearby, one of a row of such different religious landmarks. It was kind of amazing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top