Well, the few hours of running at heater in the cellar turned into a couple of days and a visit from a plumber. Seems the water pump either froze and blew a fuse or blew a fuse and then froze. Either way it took a man with a torch to get that baby moving. I suspect it was likely the pump blew a fuse. Once the water was no longer moving everything else froze.

I went into the office in Oshawa today. I knew a snowstorm was expected to be blowing in but there is usually only two of us in the office on Saturdays and there was two appointments booked for one of the morning time slots. Wasn’t fair to expect my colleague to try to juggle two appointments at once.

I was about midway into the one hour appointment when I looked out the window and saw the first snow starting to swirl down. I made a mental note that I’d finish the appointment, go to lunch with my colleague and head for the hills. I probably should have just headed for the hills. I headed out at just about 1pm into what was a very nasty blowing snow.

In weather like that, I don’t even consider the 401 to travel on. I’d rather focus on road conditions than have to wonder what that transport(s) is doing and if its going to hold the road. The amount of snow they blow around kills visibility even more. So, along highway #2 I headed.

One thing that always surprises me is the number of drivers who do not put on their headlights when in bad weather like that. Yeah I know, most of the more current vehicles headlights come one when you start them. Mine does too but my taillights don’t and in weather like that, I need to have the guy behind me see me and I need to be able to see the guy in front of me.

Going through towns was difficult. When I had to stop for a light the snow would melt on my warm windshield and when I ran the wipers to clear the moisture, it would freeze in a thin film obscuring my visibility. If I was able to travel a distance before stopping again it would clear. Out in the country no problem keeping my windshield clear. The problem was keeping track of the vehicle in front of me and being prepared for the whiteout conditions created by vehicles passing in the opposite direction.

From Newcastle into Port Hope, I knew there was a van about 4-5 car lengths in front of me. Occasionally I caught a glimpse of part of the outline of it and I was able to see it’s fresh tire tracks. He was maintaining a pretty steady speed which was good but he didn’t have headlights on so there was no taillights to catch view of.

That was a bit frustrating but not near as frustrating as the run from Cobourg to home. I caught up to a line of cars which appeared to be going 40km/hr… no it was going 15km/hr.. No 20km/hr … you get the picture. Up and down like a flipping toilet seat. That is frustrating enough in good weather but in bad weather like yesterday it was nerve wracking. I kept trying to ease back to create good stopping space between me and the car in front of me. Just about the time I thought I had managed to ease back a vehicle would come the other way, create a momentary whiteout and I’d come out of it to discover I was almost on the guy in front of me’s butt. The car at the front had slowed down… again.

Over and over this was repeated in that section of my trip making me extremely grateful when my house came into view. That was somewhat shortlived when I discovered my water pipes are frozen. Hopefully a few hours with a heater in the dugout below my kitchen will fix that. If not, could be a frustrating weekend.

There is a movement afoot in the Province of Ontario to regulate paralegals operating in this province. This is not a bad thing, people need to have the ability to respond to bad and incompetent service from paralegals just like any other profession where people’s futures are stake.

Where the province appears to be heading at this point is regulating paralegals under the supervision of the Law Society of Upper Canada. That is akin to putting a fox in the hen house and expecting that justice and good order will take place. Competent paralegals can and do deliver legal services to their clients much cheaper than lawyers can or will. Needless to say, lawyers don’t like that.

In many instances, it isn’t just about cost of delivering the service, the issue is providing access to justice. Just today a client who has been served a notice to vacate his home for mortgage arrears contacted me. We had told him he needed to see a lawyer immediately and have the lawyer file a motion to set aside default judgment. The client has a commitment to funding to catch up his arrears and reinstate the mortgage. He needs a bit of time to get the deal done.

He contacted eight lawyers, two of which we had suggested. Not one of them was willing to even hear the details of the request. They weren’t interested in even taking him on. This is an action that under current rules in Ontario, requires a lawyer. How can the client have access to justice when the very ones who have the power to provide it will not?

This person doesn’t live in a large urban centre where he can just keep looking down the list, he lives in a small rural area which has a finite number of lawyers in the area. There are paralegals who would file this in a flash for him, but they would be charged with illegally practicing as a barrister. Go figure.

>Personally, I was quite happy that the Supreme Court has ratified same-sex marriage.

When Mary and I first got married 32 years ago, the sex was great, and now it is passed into law that we’ll have the same sex in our marriage that we had then.

>Trudeau was wrong!

There is a place for the government in the bedrooms of the nation.

Only if you’re into tying people up and giving them a good scre…er…. uh….. “screening”, like they do at Immigration.

I’ve added a link to my link list today. Mirabilis.ca is one of the weblogs I follow. Written by a lady by the name of Christie from Vancouver, British Columbia who says the word ‘mirabilis’ is a latin word for meaning wonderful or astonishing. It weblog is that and one of my favourite reads.

About two hours ago I did today’s walk-in-place, 30 minutes, 10 minutes longer than yesterday. The body is now sending me messages that it is noticing what I have been doing to it and the system is not happy. I’m trying to send it back a message of my own, suck it up princess! Sometimes I have to be cruel to be kind, and this is one of them. I like my body pain free, I just want it to be much smaller and pain free.

I’m going to be 50 in three short years, I would like to reach that milestone with a body at ‘normal’ weight, whatever that will end up being for me. Scary stuff to tackle a challenge like that but scary still to leave that roughly 250lbs of extra weight wrapped around me. I want my mobility and independence for as long as I can as I get older. I wont have it if I don’t drop the extra wrap.

I’ll give the bod a bit of a break for the next 3 days.. I’ll let it adjust to 30 minutes a day, then Friday the target is 40 minutes.

This article about inducing a coma to heal rabies reminded me of an incident in my life back in 1988 when my husband was still alive.

We had a dog named Lady at that time. She had been with us since just before we started living together some 12 years before. Lady was starting to act a bit erratically Read the rest of this entry »

All is quiet around my little abode at this time of day. Cookie having been successful in nudging me out of bed just before 7am is now happily curled up on my bed for the day, or most of it. Her buddy Raven has come down off the shelf she sleeps on during the night to first come and cuddle with me aka demand her breakfast and is now curled up at the other end of the bed sound asleep. Read the rest of this entry »