Yesterday I took advantage of the momentary lull in the 90-day
rain event and managed to get Toby out for his morning walk in the sunshine for
a change. No, it didn’t last, but we go
every morning rain or shine and maybe even snow next week. We also do another walk in the late
afternoon. It’s good for him and good
for me too as it helps me to get my 10,000 steps per day in.
The walk became a little broken up and mixed up though. When we got to the top of the trail, all the
construction fences had fallen over blocking our way. So, we turned around and went all the way
back. While we were heading back down,
we could hear a rushing sound. It
sounded like our little creek had turned into a rushing river, or it was the
sound of escaping gas.
Suddenly, the air horns started blasting and I saw the
construction safety officer yelling for the workers to get off-site. They were all complying too. Dropping their tools and heading out in an
orderly fashion. That’s when I smelled
it. Natural gas, which has a very
distinct odor like rotten eggs.
We continued our walk and headed for the upper trail, which
is well away from the townhouse complex.
Unfortunately, the wind was blowing in our direction and the smell of
gas on the trail was almost overwhelming.
We completed the trail and headed through the neighbourhood and now that
we were out of the wind the smell of gas disappeared.
When we got back to the upper driveway of the construction
zone we found it full of fire trucks, police cars and Fortis BC trucks. There were construction workers, civilians,
policemen, firemen and gas workers milling about and figuring out the plan of
attack.
I got talking to the construction safety person and
discovered that someone using one of the big machines was digging out an area
near our soon to be finished club house, when the shovel pierced a
significantly large gas main. This had
the potential to be dangerous. Everyone
on the entire site had been evacuated.
So, I was still quite a distance from home and a distance
from my truck which is parked on the street.
One of the fire guys, seeing Toby and me both shivering, offered to
escort us to the truck to get out of the cold wind. I was cold because I had been working up a
sweat, Toby was cold because he got shaved down again a couple of weeks ago.
So, we headed down the street and got to go right past where
the Fortis guys were working hard to seal the leak. It was an impressive looking line. Anyway, we made it to the truck and got in,
got the heat going and managed to stop shivering.
Not counting the walk, we were only kept out of the house
for a little over an hour and then got to go home. The line had been capped, but the smell of
gas lingered for quite a while. I was
nervous about turning on the gas stove, but managed to do it without incident. That’s funny, because I saw someone on the
street, close to the leak, light up a cigarette. Someone with a shred more intelligence
convinced him to put it out.
Just as we got back in the house, the sun had disappeared
and the heavens re-opened and it poured rain once again. It continued all night and again all day
today. Noah only had to put up with 40
days and 40 nights of rain. On the
weather report, they said between September 1 and November 30 we have only had
5 completely dry days. The rest have had
measurable rainfall either at some point in the day, night or the whole day.
They are calling for the possibility of snow on Monday
afternoon, but we shall see. Either way,
I’m ready. I have a 4x4 and just put on
a set of Extreme All-Terrain tires, which even carry the snowflake symbol on
the side. I’ve never had trouble driving
in the snow, it’s what all the other poor drivers out there do that scares
me. Some are not capable of driving in
the sunshine, let alone snow.
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