Down in flames

Well, I almost made it. Christmas Day was going great and all I had to do was glaze and bake the tourtière, and steam the plum pudding in the double-boiler while listening to The Bells of Dublin.

Just before I vanished into the kitchen, word came through that our internet connection was down. No particular panic, because Sympatico (our beloved [cough,wheeze] service-provider) has been known to go on the fritz now and then. I was mildly concerned that this had happened on Christmas Day which might mean waiting through Boxing Day for things to be set right, but on the other hand, this is Ottawa, a city with enough computers to raise a fuss.

By the time we were enjoying our Christmas dinner, the Resident Fan Boy had phoned the service line and been informed that the connection had probably been lost due to the "extreme weather". This made us a little more uneasy, as Hades had had a sunny day, cold, but no colder than we're used to at this time of year. Toronto, Montreal, and points west of the former and east of the latter had had an ice storm and massive power outages, but we'd been spared.

Every year, I attempt to flame the plum pudding. I seem to succeed roughly every other year. This year, I'd been watching "life-hack" videos, and picked up the tip about lighting tricky-to-reach things (like, say, the candle deep within a jack o' lantern, or the warmed brandy surrounding a plum pudding) with a piece of spaghetti. Well, it worked a treat, but the kitchen lights were so bright, that it took me a few moments to notice the blue flames. I hurried out to the table, switched off the dining room light and the family watched it glow and flicker. And flicker and glow. And glow and flicker. After a minute or so, I sauntered over to pick up my camera, switched it on, took off the lens cap and waited about thirty seconds for the shutter to close. Then we watched the pudding some more.

By the time the flames went out, elder daughter had checked her phone and informed us that we appeared to be the sole household in the neighbourhood without internet. This started a long phone call with some Sympatico IT guy trouble-shooting. I went to bed while elder daughter, who has, of course, assignments dependent on internet access, and the RFB continued to struggle with installing a different modem.

So, it's just as well I didn't sign up for Nablopomo this month. I may write a few more December posts anyway.

I trust they won't be as silly as this one.