The irony is that I hadn't gotten too far on this post, and was actually finishing sending off Christmas cards (or rather e-cards) when we had a power outage and all my work was lost. So the fact I was procrastinating a bit meant I lost less work than I would have otherwise! It was a pretty bad time for a power outage, given how bitterly cold it was. Also our neighbourhood was one of the very few impacted by an outage (as compared to widespread outages in Quebec and parts of Ontario). However, that also meant that the crews weren't all over the city trying to fix things, and we had power back in 45 minutes (and obviously didn't freeze to death in that time*). I'm not entirely sure my daughter even noticed, as she generally works on her laptop with the room lights dimmed.
Once again, we didn't get that much snow, and I don't even see that the sidewalks are particularly icy. (Not complaining about that!) That said, I know the conditions were much worse east of here, with over 100 collisions on the 401 between Toronto and Kingston! So the advice to stay home was wise. I actually got out early yesterday (when it was raining and cold but not that cold) and got a few last stocking stuffers from the dollar store. Also, I lucked out and was just walking up to the streetcar stop when the streetcar pulled up. I would normally just walk to Broadview, but it was a miserable day out, so I hopped on. I had to return an overdue library book. This is a book I planned to renew but someone else had it on hold. I got it back two days late. I feel pretty awful about that, but I just had to get through it. Last week I had the same thing with a photo book (Sebastião Salgado's Migrations), and that was several days late as well. I suspect that I would have tried even harder to get them back on time if the TPL hadn't completely eliminated late fees as a (probably misguided) gesture towards equity and lowering barriers to library access. (A better approach would be to make late fees means-tested with lower income readers not paying anything, but middle class and above readers would still get dinged.) I actually had a couple of books out at Robarts, and those would have been returned on time if either my bike had been ready in time or the Kronos Quartet had a shorter encore or if Robarts Library was open slightly longer on Friday evenings. But it's not a large fine, and I'll pay it next time I am there. which will probably be Tuesday at this point.
I also procrastinated and almost missed the deadline for buying an exercise bike (and getting most of the cost covered as part of my company's plan). But I did get it in under the wire. I also submitted a bunch of outstanding insurance claims and had a quick turnaround on those, though in that case I don't think I absolutely had to get them in before the end of the year.
One thing that always seems to catch me off-guard is the holiday card. I guess because I can send them last minute (as opposed to mailing them out which takes far more pre-planning), I end up using almost all the available time. I had the card together relatively early on Friday and sent it to my team and others I work with closely. Then to some of the consultants I work with regularly. Then over the day, I sent out messages to the people on my mental rolodex -- my extended family, connections from past jobs, connections from Chicago, connections from Vancouver, etc. with slightly personalized cover notes, which of course added some time. I think I got it out to everyone by the end of the day, but I may have missed a few people. I do wonder every now and then if I should keep up this tradition, but it isn't that much effort in the end.
I was relaxing a bit when my daughter told me her headphones were broken. I waited until my turn to shovel the sidewalk. Since I was already dressed for outside and booted up, I thought I would head over to Dollarama. I got one block when I was hit with the arctic wind, and I just turned around. I told myself I would do it the next day when it would be at least a bit warmer.
Then we waited through the power outage. I took a bit of a nap, then woke up in the middle of the night** and finished wrapping the presents. We don't have a big Christmas anymore, which is probably just as well. This means that I am not going to be rushing around tonight, trying to get everything done.
* I wasn't trying to be entirely glib, as we have certainly had serious furnace problems over the years. Anyway, the storm in Buffalo was so bad that some people were essentially buried in their cars and couldn't get out. Over two dozen people have died directly or indirectly from the storm, including too much shovelling, whereas Toronto got off pretty lightly, all things considered. Even the sidewalks are pretty clear, though I won't be biking anytime soon.
** This is apparently similar to the medieval habit of "two sleeps," which was discussed in this BBC article.
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