Boycotts and blizzards

I hereby call for a boycott of Esso Imperial Oil. Despite my "automatic delivery" home-heating plan, for the 3rd time, we ran out of oil last night. No big deal, right? After all, it was only -15 degrees celcius outside (I'm not sure what that is in fahrenheit, but it's f*@king cold!). After visiting the scary but no-longer flooded basement (after all, if it was still flooded, it would be a personal ice-rink) to ensure it was lack of oil and not the furnace, I proceeded to the next logical step: call the oil company's emergency no-heat line. The first time I called, at 10 pm, I was on hold for several minutes before BEING DISCONNECTED! The second time I called, I did get through to someone after a few minutes who gave the (erroneous) impression that she was on top of the situation, and was dispatching a technician right away. With no indication of any technician on the horizon, and increasing fears that the taps would freeze yet again (oh yeah, not to mention the fac that by this point I was FREEZING!), at 11:15 I called back, to hear that dreaded message, "We are currently experiencing a higher than usual call-volume. You're estimated wait-time is 30 minutes." Great. After waiting more than 30 minutes, and watching the thermometer drop from 7 down to 6 degrees, eventually I got through, only to get the same telephone operator. She assures me she has called the technician, and that she will call again, and that she will even give me the number to call myself. But as she's talking it becomes apparent that she hasn't actually talked to anyone, only left a message on someone's voicemail. I knew that was a bad, bad sign. The number she gave me yielded a recorded message saying that hours of operation are 8-5, and spouts out 2 cell numbers and an 888 toll-free number. I left messages on both cells, and called the 888 number only to be told by yet another recording that this number was not available in my area. What?! Just after midnight I realized no one was coming. I crawled into bed with Naomi, she always has hot feet.

And this morning, when I called promptly at 8am, I learned from a new operator that the woman I talked to the night before CALLED THE WRONG NUMBER! She never talked to the technician because she didn't call the 24-hour number! By the time they did find a man with an oil truck, it took another 2 hours for him to get here, by which time the ambient air around my sofa had dropped to -2 degrees (that's about 31 fahrenheit, or f*@king cold).

I am changing oil companies Monday morning.

And the blizzard they predicted started an hour ago. Bet the power goes out just as the house starts to get warm.

winter wonderland

It's a picture-perfect winter world outside today, everything covered in a layer of fresh snow that fell during the night, silently. Naomi looked out the window and was, of course, ecstatic. "Mommy, Mommy! Look it's snowing! Mommy, get up!" I am not, however, a winter person. I lived overseas for several years in several places, all of which had no, or very limited amounts of, snow. I often wonder why it is I came back to Canada 11 years ago, and I often regret it, especially this time of year. I still don't want to stay here for life, it's too damn cold. I am a cold-blooded person, my hands and feet are freezing most of the year, like a lizard's. I am happiest barefoot (and Michael is all for having me barefoot and pregnant again, he jokes. I was so happy when I was pregnant, huge and happy. I thought it was hilarious to be 60 lbs heavier. Not so funny now, when I still haven't lost it all 4 years later...). But I need socks from late August until June. My feet are very accurate gauges for the outdoor temperature. I hate sleeping in socks, I wish I could wear sandals all year long. I am just a little bit SAD. I used to be much worse.

But Naomi helps bring some joy to the season I would not otherwise feel. She's right, it is pretty outside. But luckily her dad took her out to play, while I can remain my indoor self. It rather worries some people that left to my own devices I can stay indoors for days on end without even really noticing. She will go out and make snowangels gleefully, eat handfuls of snow, and eventually come in with cherry-red cheeks. I'll be here, huddled by my space-heater at the computer.

Anyone out there who has travel tales from Nepal, please share! We are still looking for contacts in the Pokhara region, with the university or any hospital. I am planning to do community health research while we are there, and I hope to find support over there to this end. If we can't link up with anyone suitable in Pokhara, perhaps we will stay closer to Kathmandu after all - Pokhara just sounds so beautiful, although we will visit both while we are there. Naomi and I read our National Geographic magazines together now, and have been looking at pictures of elephants in Chitwan National Park. I told her mommy and daddy rode elephants in Thailand, now she wants a try.