Pass the tylenol!
The goal for now is to ignore it all more or less, and deal with it when we know what the outcome will be. This is easier said than done, but hey, nobody said we were perfect. Worst case scenario seems to be a move to Toronto to preserve the years that have been put into the pension plan.
In other news.......
We had a weird spring. Suddenly we had warm spells in March and the snow melted and then it got cold again, but not much snow fell. Why do you care? You will see later.
Today we participated for the first time in the annual Steps for Life walk. Each year in Canada 900 people die on the job and many others have life altering injuries. The Steps for Life walks benefit Threads of Life, the association for workplace tragedy family support.
We got lucky, we had a nice sunny day. We assembled at City Hall, picked up the yellow t-shirts and listened to a couple of speakers address the sizable crowd. Then they assembled us on a lawn behind City Hall and made us do stretches. Three clowns (the real kind, not insulting anyone) were doing the demonstrations. I slowly made my way to the back of the group. I had been up since 7:45 doing stuff around the house, no need to limber up for a walk, even though it is 5 kilometers.
We walked from City Hall to the Canal, and followed it to the Ottawa Locks next to the Chateau Laurier. The canal has been filled again as the tulip festival started this weekend, but the locks are still empty. From the top of the locks I could see the crowd ahead of us make it's way down to the river and around the cliff to follow the path along the river below Parliament Hill.
Towards the Ottawa River
The group disappears around the cliff.
Along the path signs were posted with pictures and mini-biographies of people who died on the job. Even though they represents only a handful from among all all the victims, each story is a tragedy on its own.
The walk continued to the end of the path near Victoria Island, and then back again. On Richmond Landing, which lies between the shore and Victoria Island , we saw the brand new Royal Canadian Navy Monument, so new it was dedicated only last week. No one knew what it was, I needed to google it to find out after the walk.
The Royal Canadian Navy Monument, and on the right the Mill Brew Pub.
On the way back about to pass below Parliament.
Once back at City Hall and the event over, we somehow decided we hadn't walked enough for one day, and wanted to spend more time outside in the lovely weather. Off we went to commissioners park at Dow's Lake to see the tulips.
And this is where we get back to the early spring thaw I mentioned.
The unusual early spring thaw did a number on the flowers this year. They began to grow and then there was hard frost again so many are damaged. A few beds are pretty badly damaged, but overall the flowers look good until you examine them closely.
Princess Irene variety planted with grape hyacinths.
In full splendor.
Up close you can see the frost damage.
More severe damage here.
No damage here.
People don't seem bothered by the occasional bare patch, or the fact that this year there is no actual festival activity in the park, just the occasional hot dog stand. They stroll about, posing with each other and the flowers.
It's a pity that the 60th anniversary of the festival marks a big downsizing of the festivities, and a move away from the flowers. After all it is what people come for.
By this point in the day we discovered that we were actually sunburned and we had skipped lunch, so we headed home to put our feet up and BBQ some early dinner.
Not bad for the first really nice weekend of spring.
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