Skating on the Canal

I've always been a little amazed with the fact that the locals of a beautiful area rarely take advantage of the beauty right in their backyards as it were.

Until moving out (obviously) I'd lived in Ottawa since I was three years old, so for most of my life.  But I can not for the life of me remember when the last time I went skating on the canal was.  My clearest memory is a school field trip when I was in senior-kidnergarden... when I was five.  And I hadn't been skating since I was fourteen.  (I ended up giving my skates away since I wasn't using them anymore).

So needless to say I was really excited yesterday when some friends from church decided to meet up and head out on the canal.  But also a little nervous I'd fall flat on my face within two seconds. Nine years is a long time.... It's also crazy to think that it has been nine years since grade 9.... Moving on.

The evening held a few firsts for me:
First time tying up my skates all by myself with my bare hands!  (Well technically second since I'd tied them while trying them on).
First time skating on the canal at night!
First time having a maple butter beavertail. (Yuuuuuuumm!!)

I did wipe out a couple of times, but it's the canal.  Ruts and cracks will do that to everyone.  But it was really fun!  I remembered little things that I'd learn while playing ringette and just had a really good time with friends!

Can't wait to get back out there!



So pretty!!

Weathering the Cold

So, if you're in my area you know that this week was cold.  Colder than it has been for a really long time.  My first worry was about how "fun" it was going to be to work in it.  But my biggest worry, I hadn't even thought of till I got a text from my coach's husband saying that he was worried about my water lines potentially freezing and advising me about keeping it going.  He brought me a little heater, I turned up the heat in my place and ran the dishwasher and did a few extra water related things to keep things moving.  Just as I was about to head to bed, a little later than usual, I realized my water had indeed frozen.

Oh... my gosh.  Not a fun thing to realize at ten o'clock at night and you know most people near you are in bed by 9:30 (like I usually am).

There was panic, pacing back and forth and staring at the hole that lead under the trailer and thinking:  yuck I don't want to go down there, but I need to do something.

So, I grabbed a flashlight, hopped down and just stared at the lines going: what am I going to do?  I can't heat up water, running water is slightly the problem at the moment.  I'd had the little heater going in the porch area, but not right by the lines so then I thought, heck worth a shot.

Then I just waited, and prayed.  But y'know, the: ohmygoshpleasehelp, garbled type of prayer.

And then a minute or two at most I hear the water stream through the open taps.  Then there was a lot of thank yous.

It reminded me that you have to do all you can before (or during) prayer, and then leave it all up to God.

Sometimes I forget to do things.  Sometimes I just wait.  But we've been given our agency and our bodies and our minds so that we can use them to solve our problems, and then faith is that extra leap when we can't do it all ourselves.

I also became quite pleased with my layering skills.

Mucking in -37C weather, and I was nice and toasty!  It only took a bajillion layers and physical labour, but it worked!

I also was really thankful to my trusty little car that, although with a lot of protest, started up every morning.

This week was quite nice, albeit a little stressful.  I had plenty of extra time to write, paint, cook and play video games.