Appetizer: If you could live on another continent for 1 year, which one would you choose?
I am a “North American” in the truest sense anybody can be, as I am now unofficially a dual citizen. I love both countries, and would gladly bear arms on either of their behalfs because I am not a liberal, but the one other country I would (and already have) live in for a year is England. I love the music, movies, comedy, authors and pop culture in general of Old Blighty and have since I was a kid.
Soup: Which browser do you use to surf the Internet?
FireFox, 100%. I love the plugins, particularly AdSense Reader, GMail and GReader Notifier and “Copy as Plain Text”. The only exception is that I have to use IE for Quickbooks, and there’s even an FF plugin that allows you to assign specific sites to open only in IE and it does so in what looks exactly like just another FireFox tab. I suppose I should link to all of these for you, but you’ve got Google on your side, kids. I have work to do.
Salad: On a scale of 1-10 how much do you know about the history of your country?
A lot – I took several American history classes in high school in Massachusetts – a great place to be studying U.S. history because it has seen a whackload. I also had to brush up bigtime back in November prior to my citizenship test. As far as Canada goes I have been given (thanks Kate) and purchased an impressive stack of history books as I absolutely love the subject and obviously wasn’t here for the rudimentary Canuckian high school classes. The story of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and also text that challenge the myth, have been especially fascinating for me thus far. I went to a party in Ottawa a few weeks ago where the majority of the attendees were government employees spanning a wide range of departments and I asked them slews and slews of history-related questions. Particularly about how the intelligence arm of the RCMP split off into the CSIS in 1984.
Main Course: Finish this sentence: Love is…
Elusive, confusing, insanity-inducing (I speak from experience) – and that’s what makes it simultaneously wonderful and the worst thing in the world.
Dessert: Have you ever been in or near a tornado?
I’ve been in vicinities that have been warned several times but I’ve never been in actual danger or seen a tornado with my own eyes. The best story I can tell you is that of “Lost Lake” here on the Big Rideau. It’s not actually lost, nor is it a lake, nor is the area officially called “Lost Lake”. It’s spoken lake lore more than anything at this point. It’s a hard to find little inlet that was hit with a tornado back in the 70s. A woman was killed while sleeping in her houseboat, and you can still see enormous scars in the foliage where the twister twisted on through. I can find no mention of it online so I’ll take some photos the next time I sail past (the boat goes in the water tomorrow morning!) and get some more oral history from my neighbors. I hope to also get some serious sun, as my farmer’s tan is ridiculous and my arms look like candy corn.
Hi there – my name is Tina and I was searching on the internet for anything related to an accident – tornado – on Big Rideau Lake. This is really the only article that came up and I found it interesting. The reason for my search is that my mother was in an accident on the tornado in September 1985. The houseboat they had rented was hit by a tornado. The reason for contacting you is I was wondering if you were able to get any further information about the accident as was indicated in your post from June 20th. I know that you referred to the accident as happening in the 1970’s but I know that these types of stories over time can get a little scewed? My sister is coming to visit next week (I am in Ottawa) and we were hoping to go to Big Rideau so I am trying to find out any information that I can related to the event. I’ve heard that you can still see where the tornado hit (trees alot shorter etc) but not sure where on the lake this is? I hope this is not too out of line asking you all of this, any information would be so greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Tina Nault
Tina, I thank you for your email and would love to help you find and get to Lost Lake. We’ve been chatting via regular email, exchanged maps and I think we’ve found it thanks to one of my neighbors. I’d be happy to take you and your sister out there on my boat as it is very close to my house. I understand the closure of seeing the scene of your Mother’s accident will be very special for you and your sister.
Dave,
I was doing a search for anything about the tornado that hit the island on the Big Rideau on Saturday, September 7,1985. I was actually on Grindstone Island for a weekend retreat when the tornado hit. We didn’t know that a tornado had gone by until the next day when we were being ferried back to Portland. The driver took us over to the island to take a look and it was like someone had taken a huge razor and shaved a swath through the trees.
We were shocked when we heard that a woman had been killed. I wasn’t surprised that a tornado had gone through as the weather was extraordinarily ominous late that Saturday afternoon. There was an odd smell with an unsettling calm followed by extreme wind. Some of the folks at the retreat had decided to go out on a canoe in the midst of all this. They were fine but I was concerned…to say the least.
Looking on Google Earth, I was trying to determine which island it was that was hit. There are two small islands…one to the north and one to the west. Do you know which one it was?
Regards,
Andrew Dickson
Dave, I was in the Tornado of 1985 on the Rideau. The tornado touched down in Lost Lake, and then gained speed and touched down at our cottage. We lost all of our trees, but only minor injuries happened to us. It took us years of clean up, but the property is looking good now. You definitely can still see remains of the tornado going into Lost Lake. I am wondering if the boat with Tina’s Mom on it was the one a friend of mine swam out to save some of the people on? I do have many pictures of our property after the tornado. It is unfortunate that there is not a website about it. I do know that my husband was interviewed the next day by the news. We are directly across from Long Island, north shore, Bass Bay. Janine