Lent 2009

So today is Shrove Tuesday - a day to eat pancakes. In some places there are Mardi Gras celebrations. This translates as Fat Tuesday - a day to eat up the eggs and butter and other goodies before the Lenten fast starts.

Then tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. The ashes are made by burning the palm branches from last year’s Palm Sunday service.

This past Sunday we said farewell to Alleluia until Easter. It was also the last Sunday to have flowers until Easter. There were some very nice tulips which spoke of spring.

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I will not be eating any pancakes this year.

Tomorrow I will return to the Wednesday morning service that I have been missing during the bus strike. My local bus is still not running early in the morning so I will have to drive and park my car close to a bus route. This will be my first time on a bus since December 5th.

February 2nd

So today is 2 important dates on the calendar.

Yesterday at church we celebrated Candlemass. Candles were blessed. During the reading of the Gospel, everyone was given a lighted candle and the main lights were turned down. The fact that it was a dreary day outside made the candles and their light quite pretty.

Today the groundhog who lives in various locations in Canada and the U.S. will be sticking his nose out of his winter residence. Six more weeks of winter or an early spring??

Here in Ottawa there are lots of large snowdrifts and the groundhog may have a hard time seeing out of his burrow.

I do see a number of groundhogs along the Transitway. Now that the Ottawa buses will be running again soon, they may be poking their heads up to see what are those strange red and white vehicles travelling close to their homes.

The bus strike is over!

Yeah - there will be many people in Ottawa with big smiles.

It was at 51 days and still counting. The Minister of Labour was going to introduce "Back to work" legislation in the House of Commons. The 2 sides decided to settle instead. In the picture of the 2 union bosses and the mayor - no one looks too happy.

So now there is great talk about when the buses will be back on the roads. I think the mechanics will be very busy in the next while.

So when will I hop on a bus again? I will report back soon.

An Ottawa bus: still not to be seen

This is a picture of the those articulated buses stuck in the snow. What a mess!

It is Day 41 of the strike. Still no end in sight. This is still a big mess. In the past week the city and the union have been back and forth with offers but no real agreement on anything.

It is getting very frustrating for the average Ottawa citizen. There is 20% more traffic on the roads and add some new snow sometimes and it is a big mess.

All of my friends have different stories about the strike.
One spends 4 hours a day at least in the car driving her son back and forth to work.
One has loaned her car to her granddaughter to get to university.
One has been busy driving friends around to appointments more than she usually does.

It is not so encouraging to hear that it will take quite a while to get the buses back in operation after sitting idle for all that time.

I think it is time to send another email to my city councillor - get it sorted and soon.

No bus in sight

Oh dear...the bus strike continues. What are the 2 sides up to? Folks in Ottawa manage to get around or not. Folks are getting frustrated as the strike goes into its second month.

I cannot really justify driving downtown once a week for my Wednesday early morning service. There is lots of traffic at that time of day. There is also the problem of where to park. So I have been missing that service and those friends.

When I went to Montreal to Trafalgar it was a big thing to get on the city bus. It seemed to be very high off the ground. There was no Metro yet at that time. In Lachute there was not public transit and I did not ride the school bus.

When I lived in downtown Ottawa I did not own a car for most of my time there. I took the bus to the stables. That is in fact how I started riding there - I could get there on the bus.

Let us talk

One of the first things Walter told me about Abra - you can talk to her; she is used to that. So I do talk to her often. I have heard others talking to her as well - you are a good mare. She likes that and I think her ears perk up a bit.

Sorry I cannot talk with you now - a long time friend said to me. Can we meet up later on? That sounded good to me.

It so good to talk with you - a friend said. We had been playing telephone tag - leaving messages and not connecting.

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On another local note, the two sides in the transit dispute are talking. As someone said - this is the only way we can work out our differences. Hopefully this will get settled soon.