Saint John

Sign in Space

Okay, as a deaf person and a space nut, I'm not ashamed to admit this made me cry.

American Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, currently on the International Space Station, has sent the first-ever ASL message from spacen

I've written before about how it feels, as a deaf person. to be continually an afterthought.

Tracy Caldwell Dyson knows we we are here. And she spoke to us. Who knows what deaf kid will be inspired to pursue a career in space as a result of her six-minute video?

On the 41st anniversary of the moon landing, a very timely and moving development.

ronnie

After the apocalypse: cockroaches, twinkies, Tim Horton's coffee cups.

Noticed this on my walk home today.


This Tim Horton's coffee cup has been run over so many times it is, like, embedded in the asphalt.

I mean, like, integrated into the asphalt at a molecular level.

It's kind of poetic, almost.

Is this how fossils get made?

curiously,

ronnie

Savior and the Seven Dwarfs

This made me laugh out loud. The photo (from a blog where people submit photos of their weird neighbours and neighbourhoods) isn't nearly as funny as the commentary the webmaster added.

"Then Jesus said to Grumpy, 'What you do, do quickly.'”

ronnie

Lovely sunny yellow house.

Does it look yellow? It is yellow. A lovely, buttercream yellow that it took us weeks to decide on.

Quite jaunty with the blue shutters, and the matching blue PT Cruiser, I think.

We're very pleased.

(Oh, and note the lovely, lovely air conditioner in the window, upper left.)

Good summer so far.

ronnie

Beautiful Fredericton afternoon - 29 deg.

I paid off my student loan this week.

I PAID OFF MY STUDENT LOAN THIS WEEK!

This monkey has been on my back for 26 years, and this week I kicked it off.

Because of my health problems in the late 80s and throughout the 90s, I didn't work for months on end. Result: my student loan payments were spotty, to say the least, and the damned thing eventually went to collections. It's been a long, hard road of filling out humiliating forms explaining what I spend every shekel on and why I can pay just x amount on this debt each month. (Remember that for years after graduation I worked in the notoriously impoverished non-profit sector.) But with the help of Husband and a good financial planner (bless you, Scotiabank), I've gotten my lousy credit rating back into the black and this week, I got confirmation that the goddamned thing is paid off.

I know they have mortgage-burning parties. Do they have student-loan-burning parties? I have nothing to burn, actually. My student loan contract was lost many years ago. Maybe I'll burn my laptop, which is where I've been tracking this debt. After all, I'll have the money to replace it now, right?

Whoo-hoo!

debt-free ronnie

We're having a heat wave...

A heat wave is gripping the whole eastern half of the country, from Ontario to Nova Scotia (Newfoundland is cool all summer with temperatures from the teens to low 20s), and we're no exception. Temperatures topped out at 32° (90° F) here today; the humidex (a measure of the humidity and how it affects our bodies' perception of the temperature) suggested it felt like 41° (106° F).

I don't mind the heat much; I am the one who'd always rather be too hot than too cold. I luxuriate in heat. However, the sun shines on our second-story bedroom all afternoon and evening, and on hot days it becomes the hottest place in the whole house. That's why we got a very nice little air conditioner that keeps the bedroom cool and lets us sleep in comfort.

Except did I mention the house is being painted? Not only would the AC, which extends quite a ways outside the window, be in their way as they moved their ladders around that part of the house, but the window frames are being painted too. So for now we are just suffering the hot sweaty nights out. (Somehow the phrase "hot sweaty nights" sounds a lot more exciting than the reality we're living lately).

Supposed to be hotter still tomorrow!

Least you don't have to shovel it :)

ronnie

A few more photos

Managed to squeeze in a visit to Signal Hill. I try to visit this spot, my favourite in St. John's, every time I get back. This is Cabot Tower.














St. John's Harbour and downtown from Signal Hill. Pretty, no?









Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America, also taken from atop Signal Hill. It's quite fun to visit here and to walk out to the point and think to yourself, "Of all the millions of people on this huge land mass right now, I'm the one closest to Europe".

It was a good trip. A success, I think. We managed to completely surprise my Dad and present him with a very expensive bottle of excellent Cuban rum which I hope he'll savour. Told him I loved him and got to hear it back, face to face. That alone was worth the trip.

ronnie

The new and the timeless

You see things like this in Newfoundland now.

No idea which rig this is. It's in Mortier Bay having repairs or maintenance being done.

It looked a HELL of a lot bigger in real life than it does in this picture. It looked massive, quite surprised us as we turned a corner.

I took a picture of the Ocean Ranger here once and made a copy for a then-boyfriend living in Toronto. He liked it so much, he put a framed enlargement on his wall and had copies made for all his brothers and sisters living in the Toronto area. And all their friends asked for copies. Newfoundlanders loved that photo (this was before the Ranger sank, obviously. It would only become more iconic from that point.) Yep, I reckon there are photos of the Ocean Ranger by me on hundreds of walls of expat Newfoundlanders from Etobicoke to Calgary.





This is tonight's view from the back deck of the place we're staying. Not too shabby. Just about to go and surprise my Dad. Should be fun.

ronnie

A double-edged sword

I'm in St. John's, NL, on my way for a trip to my tiny hometown tomorrow to surprise my Dad on his 70th birthday. (He doesn't read the blog.) It's also Canada Day, but the local newspaper, the Telegram, doesn't have the usual festive Canadiana on the front page that papers across the country will today. Instead, it had a story about commemorations of the Battle of Beaumont Hamel, which also took place on July 1, and which had a place in Newfoundlanders' hearts and culture long before the country ever became a province in 1949.

This is what Canada Day is like here. In the morning, everyone goes to the Cenotaph downtown and remembers the blackest day in the Newfoundland Regiment's history; then, after 12:00 noon, it's deemed proper to turn our thoughts to celebrating our country (and people have been doing it in a big way, all day).

I took a picture with my Blackberry that I tried to post to my blog but it failed. My BB coverage is very spotty here. Take my word for it - even on a grey, now-drizzly day, St. John's is still heartbreakingly pretty.

Tomorrow - off to the hinterlands. Probably no internet access, so see ya Saturday.

ronnie