Night in Newark

On my recent trip back from The Netherlands, a storm in Moncton led to my spending the night in Newark, New Jersey. For those who don't know, Newark is one of the poorer and crime-ravaged cities in the U.S. I was a little nervous about leaving the airport to go to a hotel, but fortunately I found a couple of friendly strangers to accompany me. We booked ourselves into a major chain hotel, so I thought that it would be no different than any other of these chain hotels in any other city. WRONG!

First, there was a football game going on in the hotel bar, which meant the lobby was overflowing with rowdy football fans. Dead center of the lobby was a homeless looking fellow who was just standing there alternating between mumbling to himself and shouting to anyone who might be listening. My room was on the 8th floor, though, so I figured it would be away from all the craziness and at least be quiet (ha!). My second sign of the classiness of the hotel was the elevators. The doors, both inside and out, looked like they had been kicked repeatedly. Awesome. Then I got to my room and saw the broken door handle.

I walked into my room, put my bags in the shower while I checked for bed bugs. (Compulsive beg bug checking behavior is not irrational if the threat is real!)

I noticed a pile of flyers that had been shoved under the door, which let me know that a) The room hadn't been cleaned in a while, and b) They let random people wander the halls of the hotel. Awesome.

There was also a pile of crayons on the floor leading me to wonder if the room had EVER been cleaned. The decor was not much better with chipped and dented furniture and a ripped up boxspring. I have stayed in random motels on the side of the highway that were better maintained than this place.

Fortunately, there were no signs of bed bugs. I still left my bags in the shower just to be sure.

My room just happened to be right next to the elevators. I think that the hotel had no insulation because not only could I hear every groan of the creaky old elevators going up and down, I could also hear every footstep in the hall, including the children that were running up and down shrieking and laughing. The final level of awesomeness was the positioning of my room in the corner of a sort of U shaped part of the building. This allowed for the winds to whip very loudly and scarily past my window. Also, the windows weren't sealed very well because I could feel the wind coming through them. All in all it was shaping up to be a long, loud, scary night. Fortunately, I was still on Amsterdam time, and after distracting myself with some phone calls, I was able to fall asleep fairly quickly and slept soundly the whole night!

Brain Freeze!

One of the things people warned me about before I moved to Sackville was the wind. I was worried about getting used to the cold and the snow, and everyone said that cold and snow alone would be no problem, that it would be the wind that would get me. So far there hasn't been much snow, although it has been very cold on a few days. And the wind is DEFINITELY the worst part of the weather here.

The two worst experiences I have had were Sunday and Tuesday of this week when I walked the dog in the morning. Both days I was reasonably bundled up with a toque on my head and things were going just fine until I turned into the wind or rounded a corner into the wind. Both times my face and head were blasted by an icy wind that felt exactly the same as having a brain freeze from drinking a slurpee too fast. Except it wouldn't go away until I was completely out of the wind. It was so painful!  In all my years of skiing and snowboarding, I have never felt anything like that. I guess when I am on a mountain on a cold and blistery day, I cover my whole face and have googles and stuff. I think I need to invest in a balaclava if I want to make it through this winter.

Fire Hydrant Signs?

One of the first oddities I noticed when I came to Sackville to look for a house was that all of the fire hydrants have little fire hydrant signs beside them.

I had never seen this before, and I am not the sharpest tool in the shed sometimes, so it took me a while to figure out the purpose of the sign. To my credit, it wasn't like I was sitting there trying to figure it out; I just noticed that it was different and made some casual semi-conscious assumptions.

At first I assumed that it was because New Brunswick is bilingual and it makes more sense to just have a picture than to have words in French and English.
Then I thought maybe it had something to do with some sort of disability - like braille or something. (I repeat, I am not the sharpest tool in the shed.)
But then I thought, WAIT, why would you need a picture of a fire hydrant when the fire hydrant is right there in plain sight? This made no sense.
That is when, to my horror, I realized that at some point the snow was going to be so high that all the fire hydrants would be buried!!!! The sign is there so that firefighters can find the hydrants when they are covered in snow.

I am not going to make it through this winter if the snow is higher than fire hydrants.

My Home Office

It has been ages since my last post, but I will have a bunch of new ones over the next little while because I have been storing them all up. I have been insanely busy with work for over a month now. First I had a grant deadline, then a manuscript deadline, then a manuscript revision that took waaaaayyy too long, then a presentation, plus all of my teaching work. It has been crazy, but I am mostly enjoying it.

So, over the past 6 weeks or so, I have been spending excessive amounts of time working in my home office, and I realized that I still hadn't posted pics of it yet. So here they are:

First, we painted it a beautiful shade of purple:

Then D built me some bookshelves.

Then I painted them. I was so proud of myself for being so crafty. Usually I avoid this type of thing like the plague because it seems like too much work, and because I have absolutely no hand-eye coordination and everything I touch turns to crap. But! I painted the shelves and my office and LIKED IT. And both look totally fine.

Here is the finished version:

I absolutely love it. I can't believe I have never painted a room in my life. Every time I am in here it makes me so happy. I can't wait to paint the whole damn house!

A day of randomness

Saturday was a very random day filled with some New Brunswick randomness. Me and D headed to Amherst to do some shopping. We had both been lounging around in sloppy clothes and went and fancied ourselves up for the trip "to town." For D this meant changing from his tattered lumberjack coat into a hoodie. While in Amherst, it seemed like everyone we encountered had very strong east coast accents. I mean most people here say their "a"s like east coasters and have subtle hints of "oot" and "aboot," but these people had the full on accent. I was wondering if it was because it is Thanksgiving weekend and all the country-folk had come into town to be with their families.

On the way back from Amherst, we noticed a couple of overpasses with cars parked along them, which was weird. D figured they must be waiting for something to come down the highway. Right as he said that, we saw a bunch of flashing lights ahead and an entire convoy of big rig cabs covered in pink decorations. There were over 50 trucks all in a row (I stopped counting at 50), all driving down the Transcanada Highway with a police escort. Turns out we had driven right into the Convoy for a Cure.

Later in the evening, we decided to go to the truck stop restaurant in Aulac, which is the town next to us. People have been telling us about the truck stop restaurant and the Schnitzel Haus in Aulac since we have been here. I was hesitant to try the Schnitzel Haus, being a vegetarian and all, but I do love me a greasy spoon truck stop restaurant. While there, I ended up having their famous chocolate cake with boiled icing. I had only recently heard of boiled icing from a friend here, so I have decided that it must be a Maritime thing. Google has informed me that boiled icing is made by pouring hot sugar syrup over stiffly beaten egg whites. It basically is a slightly softer version of meringue. I had not googled boiled icing before I went there, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I wasn't expecting the piece of cake to be so huge, nor was I expecting there to be 2-3 inches of icing on top! This picture really doesn't do justice to the hugeness of this cake.

Normally I don't like frosting unless it is chocolate, but this was really good. It was much less sweet than normal cake frosting, which I liked, and it was beat so smoothly that it had a really  good, creamy texture. And because it was so huge, I got to eat the leftovers again the next day!

Bay of Fundy, Take 2

New Brunswick is just so pretty. While Brad was visiting, we had the opportunity to go back to the Alma area and stay in an adorable cabin overlooking the Bay of Fundy.

Isn't it cute, y'all?

Jane, who owns Cleveland Place B&B also owns this gazebo/cabin, and let us take it over for the night.
 This is the view from the cabin. The first bit of water is actually a marsh, but beyond that is the Bay.

The first thing we did upon arriving was walk down to the beach. The tide was out (but on it's way back in as we quickly discovered) and we were able to walk out quite far. The boys loved it - and so did Nova. She ran around like a crazed animal chasing the waves and gulping down massive amounts of sea water before puking it all back up again.

That night, we hunkered down in the cabin and played some games. I played scrabble for the first time ever! I have always wanted to play, but the opportunity had never come up. I wasn't very good at it.

And D took to long too place his words.

Brad totally won. Then, as a reward, we let him sleep in the loft, which was octagonal shaped like the cabin.

On our way back to Sackville the next day, we stopped at the Hopewell Rocks, one of the best places to see the tides change. During low tide, you can walk on the ocean floor. We were there at high tide, so we just got to look at the water. It was still pretty cool. At low tide, you can walk under the18 ft high archway formed by the biggest rock...

 It was a delightfully sunny day, and we walked around the park checking out all the viewpoints.

 See, people, you should totally come visit me! It is lovely here in New Brunswick.

Flood!

 So, as mentioned in a previous post, from time to time, when it rains, the basement of our house floods a bit. Today when I went down to do laundry, I realized that the entire basement was seriously flooded and was under about 2-3" of water!

 My first plan was to use the shop vac to suck it all up, but after a couple of buckets full of water, I realized the shop vac was no match for this flood. We had been talking about getting a sump pump for the basement and now seemed as good a time as any to get one. D went to the store and came back with a submersible pump and a hose.

First we directed the hose into the sink, but the pump worked a bit too well, and the water came rushing through the hose so fast that that the sink couldn't really handle it.

This is when D decided to drill a hole through the side of the house, much to my dismay. We ran the hose out to the ditch beside our house, and pumped the water into there. Der then started sweeping the water our of the laundry room.


Flood from LDH on Vimeo.



Most of the water was gone in about 10 minutes. The basement was still soaked, but at least it wasn't splashable any more.

This house was clearly built to flood, since everything in the basement is about 6" off the ground. You can see the hot water heater in the pic above perched on a 6 in tall block. The furnace, chimney, and oil tank are all also about 6" off the ground.

Once we had gotten all the major water out of the house, it started to seep back in. I was surprised since it hadn't been raining for a few hours, but I guess the ground was still really damp. We decided to leave it for an hour, and then I went back down with the shop vac to clean up the new water. It wasn't very effective, so now we are waiting until later in the evening to hopefully do one last vacuum of all the remaining water. Then we will start a fire in the wood stove to attempt to dry it out a bit. We still haven't bought a dehumidifier. We should probably get on that.

Terry Fox Run

This past Sunday (September 19th), I ran in the 30th annual Terry Fox run for cancer. I ran 8 miles  across Confederation Bridge, from Prince Edward Island back to New Brunswick. I set my fund raising goal at $500 and thanks to the generous donations of friends and family, I was able to beat my goal and raise $560. Thank you to everyone who donated!

I was running in honour of my grandparents, Jim and Lillian Hamilton, both of whom died of cancer. They are missed.

Read more about my run on my running blog here and here.

The Damn Weather

For most of July and August, the weather in Sackville was unbearably hot and humid. Ever since the hurricane/tropical storm swept through, it has been bloody freezing. Somehow we completely skipped over Fall and went straight from summer to winter. Last night there was a frost warning. For the past several days, I have had to walk Nova with gloves and a toque on. How is this possible in September? It also doesn't help that our heating systems are not as automatic as the electric and natural gas heating I have been used to all my life. I actually don't even know what kind of heat the main heater is at my parents' house, all I know is that it is controlled by lever on a thermostat and is easy.

Here in our old house in our small town in rural canada, we have two options, neither of which seem particularly easy to me.

One is an old (1959) furnace.

Powered by oil, which is stored in this tank.

The other is an old (god knows how old) wood stove.

Powered by, well, wood.

Both of these sources of heat require maintenance before using them for the first time after not being used all summer. In addition to the basic maintenance, our chimney, which houses the output for both the furnace and the wood stove, is in shambles. So that needs to be repaired and hopefully it will be done soon since it also allows water to leak into the basement when it rains.

Today, since D has a visitor in town to assist him (apparently I am not good enough), he is cleaning out the chimney for the wood stove.

Which is apparently quite dirty. At last check, there was this much soot that had been banged out of the pipe.

 I am also happy to report that when I went outside to take pictures, I realized that it is actually kind of warming up today. It is about 19 degrees Celsius (66 Fahrenheit). I guess we might get a couple of decent days before winter fully sets in. Also, this weekend is the Sackville Fall Fair, and since today is the perfect day to be outside, I think that is where we are heading.

Classes have begun

Well I survived my first week of classes. I only teach 2 classes, but they have been taking up all of my time, which is why I haven't been posting. I definitely need to learn regulate my class prep time better. Both the classes have gone fairly well so far. One major difference I noticed between here and Texas is the students aren't as respectful. I guess I adapted to the Southern politeness, and it will take me a while to get used to non-Southerners again. That being said, I am in Canada, which is known for its niceness, so it really isn't bad at all. It's not like I am in the North East U.S. Now that would be scary!

Impromptu road trip!

Last night, I noticed on Facebook that a fair maid was in need of some electrical work. She lives almost 2 hours from Sackville right beside the Fundy National Park (Aside: I was recently informed that while everyone else says Fundy as it is spelled, Newbies say "Funday.") Now Sackville is also on the Bay of Fundy, but not the good part. There are no beaches in Sackville and the views, while pleasant, are not breathtaking. For those who don't know, the Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world, which is what draws people from all over the world to see it. I have been dying to go visit Jane and to explore Fundy park, so I offered D's electrical services for this morning. Shameless plug for D's company here: http://www.onsiteelectrical.ca/

First of all, the drive from Sackville to Alma is the official Scenic Fundy Drive that basically involves all the way up and all the way back down an arm of the Bay of Fundy. Although it is totally inefficient, the views of the water and the hills and the trees and the mud made up for it. We arrived at the fabulous Cleveland Place B & B shortly after 10 am, with Nova in tow. D was able to remedy the electrical issues in about 15 minutes while I chatted with Jane, and then me, D, and Nova were off to explore. I didn't think to bring my camera when leaving the house, and it wasn't until about half way through the trip that it dawned on us to take pictures with our cell phones, so most of what we saw is undocumented.

We began with an easy little jaunt just off the highway that was a loop through moose and beaver territory. We saw a couple of beavers, but alas, no moose. We really wanted to see a waterfall, but we didn't want to work too hard for it, so we found one that was not too much of a hike off the road. It was very cool to see, and I wish I had a picture of it to share, but unfortunately the picture is only in my head. I guess people will just have to visit me so that I can show them in person.

Next we drove to the end of a road that took us to Point Wolfe. This is where I realized that I could, in fact, take pictures. We stopped just outside of a covered bridge to snap this shot, which was only just the beginning of the awesomeness.

We drove down the road until it ended, parked and then walked through one of the trails where we were delighted with this view.

On the way into Alma, the bay looked to be at a fairly high tide. Here it must have been on its way out. (I am mostly guessing because I have no idea.) We could see people down on the beach on the right, and decided that it was time to dip our toes in the water. So we headed down.

Almost there:

Beach!

Nova had her first ocean experience. I don't think she could tell the difference as she still gulped down the water like crazy and then barfed it back up just like he does when we take her to the lake.

And just so I could say I did it, I stuck my feet in that freezing cold water!

I loved being at the beach, but definitely did not love having to climb all the way back up...

On the way home we took the extra-scenic route down Hwy 915, where we detoured to Cape Enrage, which definitely lived up to the hype in the tourist brochures. It was an amazing view and we could even see blue water beyond all the brown, which made it seem like the real ocean. It was also damn windy, and damn cold, so we did not stay very long.

Thanks to Jane for all the destination recommendations!

Hurricane/Tropical storm

Well it appears that I have survived my first real hurricane, or maybe not. I arrived in Texas right as Katrina was happening, but it was too far away from Austin to have much of an effect. Next came Rita and she was supposed to come right through Austin, but then ended up not coming anywhere near. The closest I have been before this, I guess, was Ike in 2008, which passed over Austin after it caused fairly severe damage in the Galveston and area along the gulf. It was downgraded quite a bit by the time it got to Austin.

Hurrican Earl was my 4th "almost hurricane." It appears that it was not actually a hurricane when it came to my part of the world. The news reports were up and down about whether it was a hurricane or a tropical storm. On Friday night it was declared that it would come inland in Sackville as a Category 1 hurricane. Overnight, it was downgraded to a tropical storm, but then it was upgraded to Category 1 again in the morning. It didn't end up hitting Sackville as directly as anticipated, and although it was windy and rainy, not much happened. In fact, I was taking a nap when it hit. I woke up, looked out the window at the sheets of rain blowing across the road, thought of videotaping it, but decided that napping was more important. So that explains the level of scariness of the storm. Pretty underwhelming overall, which is probably a good thing.  

Relaxing on the island

I know this blog is supposed to be about my adventures on the east coast, but my visits to the west coast were so delightful that I have to share about the west coast again. Specifically visiting my aunt on Vancouver Island. I got to see so many people I love while I was home, which was amazing but being on the island is always my favorite part of visiting. Especially when Sharon comes along.

First of all there is the view from the ferry. I was so overwhelmed by how beautiful it was even though I have taken this ferry ride many, many times. I guess usually it is in the winter when I go over or it is raining or something because I don't remember being this awed on past voyages. I kept thinking that I could use these pictures to lure my American friends to Vancouver for a visit. (Is it working yet?)

Then there is the view from my aunt's house:

In addition to the awesome views, we also get wildlife. Squirrels, raccoons, and deer. Now normally I am afraid of deer, thanks to my former labmate who managed to help me view these docile creatures as evil killing machines. Sharon is also afraid of deer, so we tried to do therapeutic exposures (from afar) during our trip.

We watched one attempt to eat a tomato. (You can't really hear it, but someone calls the deer a dumbass during the filming . You can hear me comment on it, though.)


Deer eating a tomato from LDH on Vimeo.


Then the next day we watched some fawns frolic and eat leaves. You can't hear it in the video, but the leaves are quite crunchy, so sharon started refering to them as deer chips. Crunch, crunch crunch. Nom, nom, nom.


Deer eating leaves from LDH on Vimeo.


Now I am back on the east coast, and my posts about east coast weirdness will resume. I just thought I would share my fabulous vacation and hope that it was successful in luring my non-Vancouver friends to Vancouver.