Workday Wednesday Happenings - July 18th
Yes, when we arrived the property at Fred's this morning we were greeted with a little bit of Chaos - and not the type from the old "Get Smart" television show.
For, yesterday, Ottawa was under a severe storm alert with high winds and even tornado warnings.
While I don't believe we experienced tornadoes, the 'on again - off again' wind gusts I felt at my home here in Alta Vista were rather alarming.
All this to say that our patio area once again relies only on the shade the overhead branches offer.
Yes, our brand new 'pop-up' canopy was a twisted and tangled mess with legs bent and a number of upper supports snapped in two along with a torn canopy.
One consolation is the fact that we discovered that without the canopy the patio table and six chairs remain in the shade until 12:30.
This image was snapped closer to 1:00 PM.
This image was taken at Mooney's Bay yesterday which is about 5kms from Fred's location showing the gathering dark clouds.
The rain falling to the right of the image is located directly over Fred's area of the city of Ottawa.
Photo courtesy of Justin Tang
Once Bernie, Pat, Fred & I cleared the natural disaster scene, it was on to the business of the morning.
(Yes, I do have pics of the devastation a sudden downburst obviously caused to our newly installed 'pop-up' canopy yesterday, I feel it too stressful to post on the blog.)
I admit that I am not the best 'selfie' taker.
The gable is complete in this image and I am working my way down the side panel alongside the door.
In the meantime Fred is undoing all of the bolts that anchored the pop-up canopy to the ground.
While it is pure speculation, perhaps the reason for the total destruction of the canopy is that it wanted to get airborne but was not allowed due to the anchoring.
Note: We don't blame anyone for this incident - simply an Act of God!
Although, Bernie had recommended lowering the canopy after each operating session...but that fell on deaf ears!
Bernie got out the blower and blew debris off of the tracks.
Bernie later informed me that Mother Nature must've done a better job with her tornadic blower...as there was seemingly little debris to be found...except for the 'accident scene'.
After the gables were complete I lent the stepladder to Bernie so that he could photograph all of Fred's collection on shelves indoors and I got down to business on the lower sections of the hut.
Pat snapped a pic of handsome little ole me relaxing with paintbrush in hand - and none on my clothes! 🙈🙉🙊
Pat then got down to business lubricating the many choke cables governing the turnouts around the railroad.
Looking good there Pat! 👍👍
Coincidentally, the turnout cable leading to the facility named in Pat's honour was not throwing over...so he had to add another support at ground level for the cable.
His industry is the cooperage, aka 'Brewer's Barrels'.
Bernie, Fred & I take a break in the shade although the morning temperatures were lovely - not too hot...not too cold!
Who is Fred looking at?
Why...it's no other than our very own WDWD 'Skipper Pat' all washed up with a change of clothes.
He notifies us that he is heading out to lunch with former colleagues directly from Fred's place!
Hey, our Trainmaster, Dilip, has arrived!
He has brought along with him all of the paperwork for tomorrow's Narrow Gauge session!
Indeed, it takes Dilip some five to six hours to create the session using the RailOps program.
Incidentally, this is the same amount of time it typically takes me to create an individual blog entry from one of our weekly operating sessions.
Hmmm...but it does look rather good there in the dappled shade!
Aha...now we know!
Mike offered to paint Fred's stool for him!
That's better!
Then Fred asked Mike to 'anchor' the fence near Brewer's Barrels as it often seems to fall over.
Note the white metal coat hanger Mike bent that holds the fence down at the very end post of the shorter side.
You can spot it from this side of the fence.
"Ditto strategy" for the other end of the fence!
"The fence ain't goin' nowhere now!" says Mike.
Dilip managed to capture this image of a robin 'basking in the sun' trackside with one wing over the far track rail!
While Dilip initially thought the robin was injured, she flew off as soon as we got closer.
Thanks for checking in on this crazy blog entry where we mourn the loss of our pop-up canopy which we owned for a very short while.
A video sent from Dilip!
A second video test of Dilip's videos sent my way!
It was great being with Father Fred this morning.
He pitched in admirably with the maintenance work and the removal of the twisted remnants of the canopy.
We leave you with this wonderful interview I conducted with our very own Father Fred regarding the origin of the name Craig Leigh, our easternmost location on the IPP&W line.
I conducted a number of these interviews with him this morning to learn of the history of every town name on both railways.
I will share one interview in each of the future blog entries throughout this summer's running season.
We are the WDWD crew operating on a "Fix-Up Friday" on this day in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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