28.5 years of service with Humanity

Last weekend after my house sprung a leak my dad came over with his ShopVac and sucked up the puddle in my basement. He took a section of paneling off the wall and didn't find rotting wood or moldy insulation. Mike Holmes wouldn't have been satisfied but we decided that the puddle was likely not to be seen again for another 50 years.

I packed up all my books and took them to my parents' where my mom let them bake in the sun on the deck for a day. Dry basement, dry books, everything is as it was again, although for a while there I still got pretty nervous whenever rain was in the forecast.

I am 28.5 years old (oh boo, I missed my half birthday yesterday) and to date I've:

• had my one and only snow day off from school due to the '97 Blizzard of the Century
• missed classes again to help sand bag during the '97 Flood of the Century
• waited for a bus during the coldest temperatures in 25 years ( −41.7 °C [−43 °F] on February 5, 2007)
• sweat it out during the hottest temperatures in 25 years (38.7 °C [102 °F] on August 6, 1988 and again on August 1, 1989. The highest humidex reading was 48 on July 25, 2007, although just 64 km [40 mi] southwest of the city, the town of Carman, Manitoba broke Canada's all time humidex record, with a high of 53)
• been 40km west of the worst tornado ever recorded in Canada (F5 in Elie, MB on June 22, 2007)

 and now I've also experienced the city's worst rain storm in 50 years. Good golly, what could possibly come to us now? (Did I just poke a stick at Mother Nature? Whoops. Guess those mosquitoes are coming...)

During my research I also found this interesting: according to Environment Canada, Winnipeg is the coldest city in the world with a population of over 600,000 (and don't forget, the world's Slurpee capital). We Winnipeggers like a good challenge. Not just anyone can live here, y'know.

Last Monday I had an important meeting I wanted to look extra stylish for. I chose my outfit carefully and the shoes to match. As on most days, I packed those shoes in my bag and walked out of my house in shoes more appropriate for riding the bus. When I got to work I pulled out my shoes only to find that I had packed two different shoes for the right foot. I had a spare pair of neutral coloured shoes in my desk drawer (a good fashionista is always prepared). They worked, but it just wasn't the same. So I called my mom, who was going over to my house anyway to check on the basement, and asked her if she would bring me my other shoe. Sometime around 10:30 I met her in the parking lot and she handed to me a single shoe: my left black heel with white top-stitching. In a span of four days I had my dad ShopVac-ing my basement and my mom delivering me a shoe. If I am not a Disney Princess I don't know who is. Is there really a Prince C. who will fix my castle and deliver me my shoe upon request? I don't know, but I do have some wonderful people in my life who already do this. Only thing is, I think they want to retire soon. It's been 28 years already and they'd like to go travelling.

I am using this weekend to be mostly lazy. Last week was a bit stressful and this week coming up is stupendously busy. Hopefully it will be bloggable when I have a moment to spare again.