11:50 p.m. - 2003-06-03
May in June
My May trees have finally blossomed. Usually my Hawthorn tree flowers the first week in May with the Rowan (Mountain Ash) following close after. They just both bloomed the past day or two - this is June. Colder spring by far, obviously, but we've had drought-like conditions for nearly eight years in parts of the province so a wet,soggy one once in a while is good - helps the farmers. I was surprised when I researched the family of most of the plants in my yard. I chose most of them because they produce colourful foliage in the fall and lots of berries for our avian friends - the robins are the apple of Miss Kitty's eyes. Turns out almost all of them belong to the rose family. I never realized how many varieties there were.
Three summer events start in the city tomorrow. The Spruce Meadows Masters event - world wide horsemanship competition with show jumping as the featured draw for most folks. The Comedy Fest. Turns out the student who shares my phone at work has lots of free tickets because her fiance is a well known comic in Canada. She offered to give me a pair but I really don't know anyone who would want to go on short notice. Too bad though. Last event is the Cirque du Soleil - Circus of the Sun; all sold out already. Suggested to number four son, who is looking for female companionship these days, that volunteering at some of the festivals that run all summer might be a great way to meet someone with interests common to his. Beats the online dating places, I think.
Work continues to be interesting. B hasn't been in this week, but T2 has been hovering in her place. Neither C or D would even look at me Monday morning, so I think I was correct in my surmise about Friday, when all three females were constantly badgering trying to make me too uncomfortable to stay to the end of the contract. I'm guessing someone higher up is insisting that I be there, so the only other way they can think of to make me leave is to make the time as miserable as possible. My network account wasn't fully reinstated until today - it had been deactivated while I was sick on T2's order. I called my walking partner just before lunch to confirm she had the time, with T2 still right behind my station. She left then, and by the time I got downstairs, C was standing there watching seeming to want to see who I was meeting. Maybe I'm just paranoid. I hope so.
Big news tonight was a fire at an explosives plant not far outside the city. Between the oil and gas industry and the construction industry there is a fairly high demand for the stuff. The RCMP evacuated the area for about four hours. Lucky no one was hurt. Five years ago, an oil plant that had slowly been surrounded by our growing city, exploded. I was walking eastward down the hallway of the company I was working in at the time, watching the sunrise with my first coffee of the day in my hand. Saw a huge fireball and then flames shooting skyward; black pall of smoke. Even though the plant was at the eastern edge of the city and we were downtown, we could see vivid details of the event - it was that dramatic. There were two deaths and a lot of injuries. All the communities around the plant had to be evacuated because of the toxins spewing into the air. It was months before all the clean up was done and people were told not to eat any produce from their gardens that year - couldn't even compost it. I'm glad that things didn't get that bad this time.
�
�
