Big Ships Need Tugboats

Wednesday, Jan 4, 2016
When I wake up I can see the lake, but it is a bit cloudy and there isn't much of a sunrise. The bedroom window faces south and I am on the 25th floor, and I have partial views of the lake between buildings. There is one new building going up 2 blocks to the south, otherwise I would have a great view of things.

You have to decide what balance you want between privacy and a view of the outside world. Off to the south there aren't many residential buildings, so it feels fairly private with the blinds pulled back. The exterior wall is curved, so the other bedroom faces more to the east, and there is another condo quite close. I see people in those other units doing things, but whatever they are doing isn't so interesting that I feel like watching. Back in Calgary we keep our blinds open in the kitchen most of the time, but the neighbours across the pathway behind us mostly keep their blinds closed, so it is a pretty good arrangement for us.

It is a busy day in the office because we are short-staffed, and by the late afternoon I am ready for it to be done. Back before Christmas I had been filling in on one project and I made a mistake that now required some fixing. Plus there are 2 more projects that are coming down the pipe and we are busy with those. Gareth wants to go bike riding at 6:30pm but I am on a client conference call until 7pm, so that doesn't work out. It wasn't raining this time. It will probably be raining the next time I go. It has rained on me almost every time I have been out riding here.

I finally do break away and I arrange with Gareth to hit Ali Baba's for shawarmas. It is 2.2 km away so I pull on my running stuff and jog over there. The shawarmas are good and cheap. It's only $6.50 and it comes with a free drink. Afterwards, he hops back on his bike and I run a different way home, making a 5km loop, ending up at the grocery store across the street. I will finally have food in the apartment, but I won't need to cook tonight. I mostly get healthy stuff for simple meals, plus I snap up some chocolate-covered pretzels rolled in candy cane crumbs -- they were on clearance in the Christmas section.

I have 5 bags of groceries but it is a short trip across the street to the apartment. However, there are 3 fire engines outside the building, and it there is a wait to get on the elevator to go upstairs. That is a bad thing. I suppose it is a good thing that my place isn't actually on fire though. While waiting for the elevator a lady tells me that she is an owner in this building (which is a little more than a year old) and she can't wait to move out to another place down the street because this place keeps having issues with the fire alarms. I don't know what to say, but it reminds me of a time in Ottawa when R and I had to stand outside in the cold in the middle of the night because of a fire alarm in our apartment building. I don't want to have to do that very often.

I get upstairs and get a call from the family while I am putting the food away. R reads the scriptures and I say the prayer. Afterwards, I read books with Katie. We have matching copies of "The Little House on the Prairie" that we usually read together, but she needs to read something for school, so she reads to me. I learn that big ships need tugboats. Katie does really well reading, but occasionally he has to spell the words out for me to help her. I notice the ones she needs help with are usually things with multiple vowels put together to make a different sound. She needed help with "boat", "tugboat" and "out" maybe a few others. She did great though. My little tugboat.