earthquake

We experienced a nice little earthquake a little over two hours ago (here). Epicentred about 60km north of Ottawa, its estimated magnitude is 5.0.

Fittingly enough, I was sitting at my desk reviewing and tweaking some earthquake procedures when it happened. My home office being well above grade, the movement was considerable, so I scooped up the dog and headed for the basement. The shaking lasted at least 15 seconds.

I recall my only other earthquake experience (as far as I can remember). I was at work, sitting in the Langley BC office on the 2nd floor of a building of crappy construction. The place swayed like the dickens. To discourage us from running around or doing anything else untoward, our boss yelled at us to get underneath our desks. (I wonder how many people did that in Ottawa today?!)

The 2001 quake was 6.8 in magnitude, which on the logarithmic scale is 60 times greater than a 5.0. However, it was epicentred an hour south of Seattle WA, and at the distance from which we felt it, it was around a 5 for us. It felt worse than today's, but it definitely makes a difference what kind of building you're in and on what floor.

Ottawa is in the Western Quebec Seismic Zone, which actually has a quake every 5 days or so but they're not usually too big. Between 1980 and 2000, only 16 quakes were 4.0 or greater in magnitude. A 4.0 is 10 times less powerful than today's quake; it might be felt but is unlikely to cause any damage.

Still spring

Wow, two posts in one month! I should probably stop doing this.

Last week a law student friend finished all his studies and exams. To celebrate, a few of us had a guys' night out at a cigar lounge across the river in Gatineau. It may well be the only public place one can smoke indoors between Toronto and Montreal. Cigar lounges are the only establishments exempt from the indoor smoking policy.



It's a delightful little place with a nice view, complete with vintage leather chairs. A charming chamber to have a puff and a drink and to discuss the merits of the gold standard and such ballyhoo.

I read up on cigars to know what to buy, but I quickly realized it hardly mattered as the handful of cigars I've enjoyed hardly makes me an aficionado. Nonetheless, I decided upon a hand-rolled medium-flavoured Cuban.

I found a specialty cigar shop in Ottawa to check out my options. As it turned out, the options were plentiful but for the most part expensive. Buying one at a time (rather than a case of 25) doesn't help. Of course, neither does getting a parking ticket while you shop :(. Hopefully a cigar will never cost me that much again!

In the end I opted for a Montecristo No. 4. Apparently this is the world's most popular cigar, or at least close to it. I don't really see why; it smelled like cigar, not the "hints of chocolate and coffee and" bla bla bla. Perhaps the critics are just full of baloney. Or my palate has yet to be fine-tuned so a cigar won't just taste like any cigar to me... just like all red wines taste the same (gross). Unlike with wine, I'm willing to try to develop cigar-wise. I'll just have to get a humidor and a mustard-coloured tweed jacket to round out the hobby nicely.

Cheers and cheerio then!

Spring

So I came across this blog and wondered who on earth would keep a blog and not update it for over two months?! So now I'm updating it. I had thought that blogging once a month made for easy post titles, but it seems that blogging once per season is equally convenient!

I generally blog once we've gone somewhere, but we haven't left the city since our DC trip. What boring lives we lead. However, we have received some visitors in the meantime so things haven't been too lonely.

We had my sister and her family over in April. They took their two sick kids along, who sat around and puked for a couple of days. Those were the happiest sick kids I've seen in a while... Matter-of-fact remarks of "Mom, I pukeded again" were heard regularly that weekend.


Toward the end of May we hosted a young lady from Australia who was doing one of those crazy few-month trips that Aussies seem to enjoy doing. She stayed for a few days, just long enough to see Ottawa and Montreal, and she was off again.

In May we hosted a couple of old friends who were in town for an ARPA conference. It made for a couple of late nights and great conversation.

Last week Carrie's mom spent the week in Ottawa for a conference. She was quite busy but we got to see her most evenings and for a weekend. Her last day here ended a bit frantically, but she made her flight and that's all that matters...

A few days previously my eye started to feel scratchy, like some grit was stuck in it. This is nothing new; I'm always getting dust or eyelashes in one eye or another. It bothers me for a while and then it's over. But this time was different. It got rather red, and I noticed a whitish spot on my iris (the coloured part). After some urging and a sleep-deprived night or two, I made a doctor's appointment for the next Monday, but by only Saturday it was clear this was going to be an unpleasant weekend indeed.

Off I went to the walk-in clinic, wisely equipped with a nice difficult crossword puzzle. After 1.5hrs there I was told they could do nothing for me but I should certainly get myself to emergency. Sigh... So off I went to the hospital, fully prepared to spend all day there. I was fast-tracked (as was everyone else, it seems); they're very smart in moving you to different waiting rooms at various stages so it feels like progress of some sort. My stay was a mere 6hrs, but I must say that sitting there somewhat pain-free was much preferable to most people's situations there.

The doctor finally saw me and figured I had an ulcer on my cornea (transparent covering over the eye). It was serious enough that he tried to contact an eye specialist, from whom we then had to wait for a call-back; it was, after all, late Saturday.

Corneal ulcers aren't the result of stress. They're caused by an infection when a speck in your eye happens to damage the surface.

Here's the saddest picture I could find. It's after getting some orange dye put on my eye so they can see the extent of the ulcer damage using their magic machines. The ulcer is the little white half-circle to the left of the pupil.


The specialist called back and said to see him the following morning, which was Sunday. For all the apparent faults of our health care system, I can't complain about such service. I left the hospital and got some prescriptions filled, the tiniest eye drop bottles ever for $60.

In the meantime, the women had to get creative transportation-wise. I had taken the car to the hospital, and Carrie needed it to bring her mom to the airport that afternoon. So they took the bus (well, buses, which is what happens when you jump on the wrong one first) to the hospital and then drove back home to get the suitcase, and then finally made it to the airport. Everything worked out for them in the end.

So Sunday I saw the specialist at his office; he showed up for work just to see me, I'm that special. Then Monday and Tuesday he saw me again first thing, letting me jump the queue. Tomorrow I'll see him one last time, and that should be that. The ulcer is busy healing, and I'm down from 20 drops a day to 8.

And that was my fun eyeball story.

What's next? Carrie's brother and his wife are coming on the weekend for a few days. My (other) sister and her family willing be visiting in July. And we're going camping on the July long weekend. And we have to plan a road trip to Nova Scotia in August for a wedding there. So fear not, and expect at least four more posts before the year is out!