Notes From All Over

It’s a “snow day” here in [[Charlottetown]] today — schools and offices are closed, and the streets are all but empty. [[Catherine]] found me a mysterious pair of felt-lined rubber boots in the mud room; they barely fit, but they were enough to insulate my feet to work (although my left foot did spasm several times on the way here, as they’re about two sizes too small). When I arrived at the office there was a giant German Shepherd named Gail on her way out; this turned out to be [[Nathan]]’s parents’ dog Kayla (the blazzardic winds had caused my hearing to temporarily fail). Personally, I think she’s a better dog as Gail, and will continue to call her that.

The past three days have seemed like an continuous eating party: [[Mom]] and [[Dad]] arrived by air on Thursday afternoon, and we haven’t stopped eating since. Thursday was dinner at our house, Friday was dinner at [[Johnny]] and [[Jodi]]’s house, Saturday we all went out (minus [[Oliver]]) to the Harbour House restaurant, and Sunday was a repeat performance at our place. In addition to the wardriving fun, we’ve been out to see the Curious George movie, did a Saturday Morning Market Run with [[Dad]], and have had many Serious Discussions About World Issues around the dinner table.

In other news, [[Catherine]] says that her taxi driver told her that the much vaunted “downtown grocery store” slated for the old Carter’s space on Queen Street has imploded; something about the intractable dividing wall between the two halves of the building.

Speaking of implosion, part of our Market Run on Saturday included a stop at the Indigo store on University Ave., where the day before an out of control SUV had driven into the children’s section (nobody was seriously hurt). The hole in the wall was still there, and we were able to get a good look at it; apparently the building that houses Indigo is essentially “disposable,” as the walls appear to be made of steel studs and tissue paper (a fact that probably prevented a lot of cement black carnage, but doesn’t bode will for Historic Charlottetown moving north of Euston St.). Inside they were doing a brisk business, although not in children’s books, as the entire section was roped off to allow for emergency construction work. And to think that I’d recently started to let [[Oliver]] alone to browse while I shopped for magazines: no more.

Otherwise, today was [[Mitch Cormier]]’s first day in his new role as newsreader on [[Island Morning]], a role formerly ably filled by Kerry Campbell, Barbara Nymark, current host Karen Mair and, back at the beginning, Whit Carter (among many, many other over the years, of course). I’ve always enjoyed Mitch on the radio, and he’s a welcome addition to the morning; at the same time, I’ll miss Kerry Campbell, who did a bang-up job, especially on the “patter with Karen” front. I hope he has another local role to jump into, as it would be a shame to lose him.

Gail and Nathan are back now, and the [[silverorange boys]] are starting to muster for their Monday session of power-working in the front room, so I best sign off and hunker down for some serious snow day working.