Fire.
Yeah.

On Thursday, I was getting really fed up that we STILL had no power. Worse, I had to endure it because I soon discovered I wasn't going to be called into work. So, I had to ride the whole thing out. Well, at least till the afternoon when my dad brought the generator over for the day, at least giving me a nice dose of TV.

Still, I had to do whatever I could to keep busy. Biked around the block a few times, played solitaire (I am damn good at that game) and continue to listen for updates on my radio. I went in my backyard and down into the wooded area. I used to hang out there with my cousins, there's this neat fort thing which is a bunch of trees and wood and crap forming a circle that we used to hang out at. I have no idea who built it, but it was neat, and had a trail behind it leading to the lake. Not anymore. I don't recognize it anymore. There were more trees down than I could imagine, forming a maze of branches and huge roots sticking out of the ground. I tried to find that clearing with the fort, but couldn't. I hit a dead end, there was simply a wall of trees. It was quite the obstacle course, but keep in mind this is very thick woods, and I couldn't go around without risking getting lost.

That night, some cherry pickers came down the street. I felt like an Iraqi first seeing the U.S forces fight back Saddam's regime, well, at least without getting a bomb dropped on my house. They started clearing trees that were leaning against power lines. They weren't power trucks, but still, after a week of nothing, this was an encouraging development. The power company is now clear to come in and fix things, whenever that may be.

Later, my uncle came to pick up the generator. He said he noticed that just up the street has power now. Yeah, that sucks, but hey, his next door neighbor has power and he doesn't. So do the people across the street. There are only 5 houses including him on his street with no power. Needless to say, he was extremely pissed. He's got a nasty temper. If either of us got power, we'd be happy. The other could keep the generator full time, which would have been enough. He also said he noticed sparks coming from a power line up the street.

we unhooked the generator just as he left, and my dad decided to turn on the breaker, just in case they restore power later on. Wouldn't you know it, the lights flickered on! We had POWER! As it would turn out, the whole community had it, but our neighbors don't because their service lines are down. Go figure.

So, we are pretty estatic, and hop in the car to happily return the generator, which they now have as long as they want. At my cousin's house, he shows me around how the street has no power. He's pretty pissed that my out of the way home has power and he doesn't. Later, my uncle is about to call the power company and take a scraping off them, when the phone rings. My uncle answers, and says something to my dad in french. My dad gets up and says we're leaving. He said there's something happened back home, and the fire department was there.

My dad races home, and my uncle follows. I feel sick wondering what's happening. After all this, now there's a fire problem at my house. We arrive to see the power company and a fire truck outside. Power crews and firemen are checking out the house. My mom and sister are out by the driveway, holding the puppy with a very shaken look on their faces. My house, however, looks fine. We pull up to a fireman who explains the line to the telephone pole frayed and caught fire, causing a small fire to the siding. The power company put it out and the fire department, who was up the street responding to a similar call (Remember what my cousin said?) is inspecting the house. My dad starts cursing and losing his temper, and my mom is starting to cry also. No one was hurt, but it shook us up alot. They let us back in, and say they'll restore our power as soon as they find the problem. Disappointed, I was going to go to bed when I noticed the power company came back to our pole to work on it again. A few mniutes later, the power came back. Everyone calmed down, and things were back to normal.

Well, sort of. The surge melted our cable lines, meaning no cable and no internet. We still had satellite, but my TV seems to be damaged by the surge. I'm not sure if I can fix it or not. For the next week or so, we must serve as a bed and breakfast for our neighbors. We lend my uncle's generator to one, and we let them use our showers and sleep in our heated house. They had to wait 12 days before power was restored.

So, I go back to school after missing an entire week. A fair amount of people didn't have power for awhile. A nearby school had it's gym roof collapse and it's brand new floor ruined. Well, now I have to look forward to this week, where I have a dance and a driving test on the same day. Hmm...

Hurricane Part 2
Now, we come to Tuesday... last week, mind you.

I hang around for a couple hours, trying to stave off boredom. I make one of my bike runs around the block which I end up doing numerous times to see if there's any power trucks in the area. I then get ready to work at the only McDonalds that's open in the metro area.

I arrive to see the drivethru already backed up to the street. My mom drops me off in the middle of the road, unable to get in the driveway. You see where this is going. I go inside and see the line is backed to the rear entrance. I enter the kitchen and join the madness.

There are people from nearby towns assisting us becuase their McDonalds still has no power. Yesterday the store came to the brink of closing due to lack of food, and there was a lack of change until I showed up, so the store would now have no trouble functioning. So, I join the chaotic scramble, reminiscent to the hospital scenes in the Pearl Harbor movie. We can barely move around, and the store is a busy as posible for a few hours.

Amazingly, things actually died down in the afternoon. At that point, the manager gave me some fresh air constantly sending me outside to change the 20 freaking garbages outside. You wouldn't believe the things people put in there. Bags of recyclables, empty potato sacks, other household garbages, it's like someone got their garbage service cut off and drives around at midnight looking for places to ditch their garbage.

I learn that school is cancelled again tommorow, and even though I was scheduled for that day, I volunteered to come in 5 hours earlier, noon, to help out. I go home to generator power and get a quick fix of TV before my dad has to return it. I join him to my cousin's house, and by the time I get home, I can go to bed.

WEDNESDAY: Did I mention this is my 17th birthday? Yep, spent it working all day. I was supposed to have my driving exam, which was still scheduled to happen, but I had to change it. It's now on the 16th, in the afternoon, the day of the school dance.

Things were crazy at first, but died down totally by ther afternoon. Still alot of people with no power, it surprised me no one was coming here as lately people have been looking for provisions or at least a meal that isn't soup cooked over a barbecue. Areas around my work are starting to regain power. On my break, I went downstairs with a friend of mine who works there. Suddenly, the power goes out. It's pitch black in the staff room, but comes back on in a few minutes. I think I put salt in my drink.

Tommorow, I guess I'll tell you the shocking conclusion to the power outage. Things did get quite crazy the next day...

*crawls out of hole*
I just got my internet back after losing it for 2 weeks to Hurricane Juan. Now, you get to hear the story! Well, just the power outage. I've had power for a week now.

SUNDAY: Word is spreading of hurricane Juan. No one takes it seriously, but we are semi-concerned about it. That night, I wake up around 11:30 to hear raging winds unlike anything I've seen here before. Then the power goes out. Figures. I try to sleep, but can't. Power comes on for 5 minutes, then goes out again. It makes no sense why it would suddenly come on, but oh well. This time, it stays off. I start to worry increasingly about my cat, who is outside. As the night goes on, I get more and more distraught. I mention this to my mom when I go to the bathroom, who is worried too. Winds are blowing at 145 kilometers an hour. I fall asleep, wake at 6. I decide to get up. I see my mom, who tells me the cat came back safely. I breathe a huge sigh of relief, in disbelief my cat actually survived that. I still have no idea how she made it.

MONDAY: Err... yeah, after that I look outside. I see trees down everywhere, snapped like toothpicks in my neighbor's woods. I see some very large ones gone in my backyard as well. We drive around the community, to see alot more destruction. Streets are a mess, service lines are down across driveways, trees lean against power lines and a couple are on the road. No real damage to any houses, although a couple cars had trees fall on them, but seemed undamaged.

We get a report on the radio about the damage. Two people are dead, and alot of damage has been done to Halifax. I go back home and check My backyard. The woods area, which is nothing but thick trees with a path to a clearing and to the lake, gone. I don't recognize it anymore. The path is gone, nothing but walls of trees and obstacles. It's quite the struggle, clmbing over everything, trying to find a way. Pretty fun actually. However, I soon hit a dead end. I simply couldn't get past this wall of trees. That place was full of dead trees, so naturally many fell. There are huge roots pulled up everywhere, some of them 10 feet tall.

Now that I've seen everything, I must now deal with liing with no power. My only contact with the outside comes from a small radio shaped like a cell phone my grandmother got me for Christmas. I thought I'd never use it, but was I ever glad to have it now. It was the only thing keeping me sane. We tried to go to Tim Hortons, but there was only one in the city that was opened, with crowds backing up around the whole resturant, and cars coming from down the street. We see more destruction and some damaged houses as well. We attemt to drive to at least get some much needed gas, but each attempt failed. There were hour long line ups, some ran out of gas.

My phone died around 9am. Later, my dad brought my uncle's generator over to get the toilets and fauets working, then took it away. I coped for a few hours, taking bike rides to look for power trucks. I saw a power van when I went driving that morning, but nothing else.

My dad brought the generator again that evening, giving us some lights and TV, which I didn't watch. My cousin came to pick it up, and discovered our phone was back online. He also mentioned the McDonalds I work at is still open, and is packed. I figure they probably did call me to come work, and sure enough, they did. I eagerly called them to see if I could work and get the hell out of my house tommorow, and said they'd love to have me for 11am-7pm. School is cancelled, and I need to get out of the house. I was feeling pretty insane at this point, my mind was just melted from boredom. I go take the generator back and am excited for the next morning that I finally get to go to a place with power, and escape this dark hellhole. Tommorow, I'll tell you about working at the ONLY MCDONALDS IN THE CITY. What fun!

Buster, shut up.
And stop biting me. God, I can't wait for my mom to get home and take care of that dog.

Well, I got that Friday shift over with. Long? Yes. I got my probation review that night, meaning they now need a good reason to fire me. I also get the discount card, and possibly a raise. My review was good, I'm pretty well set in now. We were also expecting about 500 people from a church group. 3000 people were coming into Sackville, and spread out around the fast food restuants in the area, I guess. However, nothing happened. We had a few scores of people, but it was quiet. I even got to leave 15 minutes early.

Today, however, was brutal. I got up 6 hours later. Apparently they called to see if they could have me in at 6. Hell no. Glad my dad didn't bother to wake me up to ask. It was pretty busy, people yelling, especially for fries. Dammit, man! They're cooking! Give me a break!

Hell, one lady told me not to say the word "shoot". I dropped something, and said "shoot, I'll pick that up". She said "Don't use that word. That's the 5th time today I've heard it. You shouldn't say "shoot" in front of kids." (she had a toddler with her) I thought she must have been joking. I mean, shoot? She must have been sarcastic. So I said "Well, it helps me not say words that I'd rather say but can't". Then she gets angry and says "Well, if you don't like your job, don't work here!" Jeez, why didn't I think of that? I'll just quit my job and do what I've always dreamed of! Hey, it must be great never having a bad day. Not too many people can not have bad days, especially when they have kids. God, I wanted to flip out at her. Hey, why don't you try working, bitch? I'm a student, you think I can work wherever I want? God, my mind was just boiling...

Well, I've been counting down the days, now. Only 4 more days till my 17th birthday, and I'm getting my lisence on the same day. So... yeah. We'll see what happens.

Dane Cook is funny.
Well, for starters, I just realized who has been leaving the comments here under the name "Christina" ... Christina. Yeah. I didn't know anyone was actually going to my website, let alone clicking on that link. Thanks alot... I'd show you all the website, but it's only on the school server, all made with HTML on notepad. Pretty sweet. Yeah.

So, I didn't have to go to school today. Sick? No, better than that, my sister is sick. So, I have to babysit her. I've done this on numerous occasions, this time I was just putting on my sneakers to leave when I could hear from upstairs "Would you rather Joey stay here?" Hell yes. And of course, she barely needs any looking after. I just treat today like another day off.

I went to work last night. I ended up taking a shift for Friday, which kinda sucks, but I couldn't say no. Well, I could, but I just didn't think I should. The guy now owes me a favor like taking a shift or something. It's 5pm-1am, so it's only about an hour of backshift work, then I leave. And I have to get up 8 hours later to work again.I was looking forward to a Friday off, but, well... I do kinda owe the guy for all the crap I put him through on my final backshift.

Hey Tubbs! I just lost my jengajams!
Ah, Homsar. Where did you go wrong?

Anyway, about that last shift I did. You wouldn't believe the amount of stress a McDonald's drivethru can give you. I was put on it quickly, and for some reason, it was busy. Very busy. Cars were backed up, and for some reason, the other guy there would not take me off drivethru. He's far more experienced than me, and while I got alot of training in, then was hardly the time for training. It was causing serious backups, and people were impatient. You'd want a training doctor giving you a checkup, not doing brain surgery.

One car was full of very stoned and drunk teenagers fresh from a bar. For the first 10 minutes I was struggling to understand what they wanted, they just kept shouting random things, acting like total morons. I finally had no choice but to send them up and complete their order at the window so I could free up more cars. At the window, they were even more idiotic and pretty much threw change at me. I just couldn't take it anymore and just took what they gave me (about a few dollars short) and stuffed it in the till, got their food and got them the hell out. They screwed things up alot, holding me back about 20 minutes for them alone.

Things piled up quickly and I got very overwhelmed. This happened on and off till about 4am, when things finally died down. This time I felt okay, I wasn't sick and I wasn't even all that tired. But man, you have no idea how glad I am to be rid of that. I had a shift a couple days later that was 8 hours long, my longest yet. Amazingly, time flew. I was a presenter for drivethru, meaning I just give them food and pour drinks in my little alcove. I even have all the drinks I want for free available to me. Pretty cool.

Anyway, today at school we had a motivational speaker/knife juggler at an assembly. Notbad, although the unicycle stunt he pulled was obvioudly staged, since his "random audience volunteer" happened to be a die hard biker, so I get the feeling it was planned. After almost suffocating from the heat, I left and just hung ou twith people during a free, including a girl who thought I looked like my name was Tyler. Yeah.

PWNED!
My friends keep saying that word for some sad, unknown reason...

Well, work has been alright recently. However, in my absence, I have battled with a new enemy: Graveyard shifts. Why I agreed to do them I don't know, but I did my first one two weeks ago. I was nervous about the idea, not sure how I'd take it. The last time I stayed up all night was a year ago for a school trip, and didn't sleep in the morning either. I never can, I hate sleeping in the light.

So I went. I was put on drivethru, which I have yet to do. It took me awhile to understand it, but it wasn't too bad, I just didn't liek the system. At night, McDonalds only uses one of the two windows, meaning I have to do pretty much all the drivethru work with taking orders and money. It was full of stoners, and there were only 3 other people in the resturant. It was a quiet and long night.

However, my body didn't like it. Arriving at 11pm I felt tired on the drive there. Soon, I was starting to feel uncomfortable. At 5pm or so, I was sitting down on a break reading a newspaper, when I started to feel dizzy. I had been feeling uncomfortable most of the night, not eating anything during my breaks. I think the newspaper made me dizzy after being up and running around so much, similar to the way I always feel sick if I read while in a car.

I held on for about 45 minutes, then couldn't take it anymore. I only had 15 mniutes left, so they let me clock out early and wait in the staff room, my stomach hurting and I felt pretty sick. My dad showed up soon and I went home. Contrary to what I said about sleeping in the mornings, as soon as I got home I passed out on my bed. Almost instantly. I vowed I'd get rid of those shifts as soon as possible, but my name was already down for another just last Friday. Well, I spoke with a manager on my next shift and got it taken care of, but I still had to do my last one. Stay tuned tommorow (hopefully) to see what happened... or something.

Oh, what the hell...
I have nothing better to do, might as well give you the second update now.

I went to the first dance on the year last Thursday. I've been worried as hell that I would miss it due to work, but I didn't. Plus, even if I had to work, I am allowed to get someone to take my shift for any reason I want. So, that's no longer a worry. Me and my friends love to go to dances. Actually, just me and one of my friends. Usually, I have to hang out with just him unless a few others show up, which they usually don't.

Anyway, it was crowded as hell. The grade nines have completely infested the school. When the first slow song came on, something very unexpected happened. I was walking around, looking for someone to ask, when someone grabs my arm and asks me to dance. Odd enough, since girls asking guys has been rather uncommon lately. Even more odd, this was a girl in my grade, and I know most of them. I don't often dance with girls I know. Finally, to top the whole thing off, I go to class with this girl. She doesn't talk to me but knows who I am. She's one of the last people I'd expect to do that.

Did I mention she has a kid? Yep, she was pregnant last year. Man, she sure got her figure back awfully quick, having given birth 3 months ago. I ask "So, uh... you were in my class last year?" "Yep" Well, that confirms it. She was in my class last year. The song ends two seconds later, and says "Oh, well, I'll find you later, then" and leaves. Now I'm just freaked. Since when did she like me? She's got a pretty ugly face, I should add. Anyway, that fizzled out. She never bothered, despite running past me several times. I still have no idea why she asked me, but, oh well. A mystery, I guess, but I don't really want to know anyway. My conclusion? Stoned. Very stoned. It happens, some girls I know can act perfectly normal while high.

Also that night, this freaky girl I know told me and my friend to ask to save a dance for her. Yeah, okay, whatever, if I find you, I'll do it, but I didn't take it too seriously. Hell, she's usually too busy helping her firends who seem to have constant issues. My friend, however, took it seriously. He waited a couple times, but finally gave up, but he never got a chance to dance with anyone. He was furious, but is okay now. I had a couple other dances that night too, and the rest of the night was pretty good, althoughI felt really bad for my friend.

The next one is on the 16th of October. Can't wait, something werid ALWAYS happens at dances. I discovered this last year, I expect the unexpected, and boy, does it happen. Maybe I'll tell you one of the strange happenings from last year. Meh, later.

Oh yeah, that interview? Went okay. Probably won't get it, and I'd be fine if I didn't. I like where I am now, it fits well for me, and I'm working in the town I used to live in that I long to return to, so I'm happy. I won't know if I was declined till October anyway, when they'll be doing more interviews.

*puff* I'M BACK! I'M BACK!!!
Sorry, I'm still here! Kinda didn't feel like updating lately. Yes, some stuff has happened. I won't post it all now, since you don't want to read a huge post, so I'll just tell you some more stuff later.

Anyway, I can now give you some solid ideas about this year. Firstly, I don't like my English teacher. She's a strict, no nonsense bitch who says we can't have opinions in this class because they are unimportant and waste class time. We're also numbers, not names. We're really not on the same level as her. Yet, most long time students of her say she's really good. Apparently, she gives out bonuses every now and then that make people like her. Once she had a movie class and even ordered pizza. Us, she gave us 5 points on the term for doing an easy assignment that she said was to her satisfication. Uh huh...

Global History's not so bad. I'm in a better group now, I guess it's okay. I'm meeting new people in it, so it's all good.

Free class is still relaxing, and I have it with plenty of friends. However, there is one day when my friend who I usually spend those periods with isn't there (which is tommorow, actually) so, while I may be stuck by myself, it gives me a chance to do other things and talk to other people. With him, I'm usually just in the cafeteria playing cards with some other people. So I guess it's a plus.

Computer Related Studies is pretty cool. Nice people, funny teacher, and they teach us some interesting stuff.

I also got my second semester schedule. Biology, Math, Free and Sociology in that order. So far, no one I know on any of those. I haven't really checked much, though. I won't have any regulars on my free next semester either, so what happens then will be interesting.

Lunch time is always good since we have a friend with a car now, it's such a relief not to have to walk every day (except on those days when he goes home, as I mentioned earlier). speaking of which, I finally got my full lisence test scheduled. October 1st, my 17th birthday. I've had my doubts about it, but I know my instructor said I do handle a car well, and my mom is usually impressed with my driving. She says I may accelerate too much, but since I'll only be driving about 45 kilometers an hour, (5 below the limit in the testing area) I don't think I'll have a problem.

First day back...
Today was the first day of school. Actually, I should mention first I had my interview on Tuesday (it had to be rescheduled) and it went quite well. Yeah.

Now, I get to the busstop to see it has now pretty much doubled with new grade nines. I arrive at school, get my schedule, and reunite with my friends. I am pleased to see that a couple friends of mine have returned, and after comparing schedules, it appears this will be quite the year.

First was English. My teacher seems to have some mental problems (no joke) and I don't know why she teaches. But, it's not a bad class.

Then my free. Yay. Best of all, my friends from last year's free class are on my free again. My other friend has a free with me, and the class before it. He was going to get that changed so he'll be able to have one both semesters (you only get two) but decided 2-3 hours of classtime a day sounded pretty sweet, and decided to leave it as is.

Then lunch. It's been a routine to walk down to McDonald's or the local grocery store to buy lunch. We hate hanging around at school and this kills all the time. The walk is about 12 mniutes both ways. Usually a leisurely stroll during the warm months, but it's a death walk during winter, even though it's still worth it. However, now, my other friend has a car. It's awesome. A drive to McDonalds every day, you can't imagine how much easier that makes things, especially for winter.

After lunch, I had Global History. This course I'm not sure about. The teacher is good, I've had her before, and I like history, but I don't know anyone in that class. I'm also in an awkward seating position. Not much potential to meeet new people. I left my bookbag in an empty row and figured I'd see who I'd end up sitting with. Well, it's a close knit group of girls who moved my bookbag to the end of the row. Just great. Oh well, I'm just fine for my other classes.

Then my last period is Computer Related Studies, or CRS. The teacher is cool and I have alot of friends in this class. Basically, this class teaches programming, which I probably won't pursue later in life, but will be interesting.

So, this was a brief description of a pretty cool and exciting day. Now, I have a new goal. My last goal of getting a job is done. This year, I plan on getting a girlfriend. Not sure where to start, I'm not in the best position to meet new people now (but it's still early. Who knows) however, On Friday my friend that I hang out with during my free is going home by the time my free starts, since he has his non free classes first, and then free the rest of the day. I'll take that opprotunity to wander around and see if there's anyone else on my free Ican hang out with.

In case you didn't know, a free is a class where you do whatever you want. Hang around the school, cafeteria, it's just like skipping. You don't exist. Anyway, if things don't work out, there's always next semester, where I can start off fresh.