7 January 2014 Christmas Season is Officially over!!!

So it is over, we had some fierce weather from 23 December onwards. We took down the decorations today house is back to normal.  It also means we now enter the dark period of winter, no festive lights, it's winter and the reality of icy sidewalks and difficult driving conditions, cold unpleasant weather and dark days with little sunlight is our lot.

            The tree waiting to be put away, puppies taking the morning sun. 

In Ottawa we will have a kind of, sort of bureaucratically nice Festival called Winterlude Jan. 31 to Feb. 17.
Last year the weather cooperated and the ice sculptures at Confederation Park where interesting. Skating on the Rideau Canal was good. Hopefully this year the weather will stay sufficiently cold for all the outdoor activities, if not it can be a watery mess. Winterlude is really a weekend carnival of sorts, all activities are concentrated on the weekends of the festival with nothing much happening during the week. The activities are mostly about skating on the canal with activities for children.
Though it is 30 years old it seems that the organizers have not much thought about what else they could do to make this festival more interesting to visiting tourists from abroad and for the population in general.

Until the May Tulip Festival that is pretty much all there is in Ottawa, meaning this is the worst of time in the Capital. Lucky those who can escape to Florida or warmer climes wherever they may be.

For me it will be a return to my volunteer activities, reading and being a pillow to my dogs.
I am reading the new biography of Johnny Cash by Robert Hilbrun, a fascinating book, I can see why it got such good reviews.  I am not a Cash fan but he was a popular music figure while I grew up and remember him from the 1970's.

As for being a pillow for my dogs, well the hounds have decided that they can just sleep on us whenever they feel like it. Just climb on top and make themselves comfortable. They go into a deep sleep and weigh more than elephants. After a while you have to move them, to which they do not take kindly, giving you sleepy eyes dirty looks, uncomprehending.

Of course Nicky can be bought off for the price of a cookie, just say the word ''Biscuit'' and he stares at you the way wolves do before the kill. Biscuit is an important word not to be fooled with. Nora is the same though not so obvious. She also will make herself comfortable on you but you won't be, it is very one sided. Hounds will be hounds I suppose.

Cold Ottawa

We had been warned by the Canadian Weather bureau that the New Year would bring Arctic air down to us in the south, well many cities in Western Canada have seen lows of -40 C and from Central Canada to the Maritimes its -30 C on average. Ottawa at -38 C today with the wind chill factor included which means that your skin should not be expose to the elements for more than 10 minutes if you want to avoid frost bites which are quite painful and can be dangerous to your health.

Last week the Director of the Soup Populaire (soup Kitchen) in Gatineau across the river from Ottawa was saying that it was known that 11 people in his area are homeless and refuse to come in, social workers and soup kitchen people have tried to entice them and speak with them, trying to convince them to come in. They may accept to come in maybe for a hot meal but will continue to sleep on the street at night. I cannot imagine how anyone can do that without risking death from hypothermia. Last winter in Ottawa 25 homeless people died from the cold. It is not that we lack space for people to sleep in warm and clean places or receive medical attention or get a hot meal. No, there is plenty of space for everyone and it is free, the problem as a friend of mine who works in social services explained, many are suffering from mental illness and are unwilling to stay indoors for what ever reason. They are adults and have rights, so we cannot stop or compel them if they refuse help. Sad but this is a reality in the big city.

Some are deranged to the point of walking aimlessly, screaming at imaginary people, cursing an invisible presence, in the summer it is annoying since they often do this in the middle of a busy intersection as people and cars try to go around them. In winter on a very cold day its scary because you know that they will harm themselves by not dressing warmly and suffer from exposure to the cold. What can be done for them is limited again because if they refuse help that is pretty much the end of it. In Ottawa the Police will no longer intervene, after being accused by several self-proclaimed rights groups of harassing the poor. It is up to the under-staffed and financially limited shelters to take care of such people if they can. But they do not have the specialize medical staff, mental illness is often seen as a marginal disease, unlike heart or other medical conditions which have a higher social profile.

All this to say that on a cold day like today I think of such people and what they are facing in our Canadian Cities.