Well, for a first night, it was quite an adventure! Late afternoon had the arrival of some delicious soup, a sandwich and a drink, followed by discovering $10 that someone left. Good thing it wasn't too windy then or I wouldn’t have found it!
The evening was quite nice, I spoke with more people as they walked by - had a great conversation with a previously homeless-person who now has an apartment nearby; and spoke with a man originally from England who has some interesting ways of looking at things.
Facebook and Messenger had a lot going on, I made a new friend, had a good messenger chat with a women who lifted my spirits.
I set everything up inside the tent, got my bedding on top of cardboard to cut down on the cold coming up from the ground. Used the same sleeping bags and blankets I use when winter camping and so was very warm as long as I stayed cocooned.
I noticed as I was reading, as the night moved on, how much windier it was getting… which raised my anxiety level. The wind kept blowing from the south, and whipping round the corner of the church down William street, pushing up against the rain tarps that were protecting me from getting wet. Around 12pm, after the rain had stopped thankfully, the wind reached its strongest and collapsed the one side of the tent right on top of me. I had just drifted off to sleep after talking myself down from super anxiety over the strength of the gusts, so i was quite surprised.
I got dressed and headed outside. It took quite a bit of work, and a great bit of stubbornness, but i got the blue tarps down so that the tent could be reached, repositioned the poles, tied them off to pegs with bungees for extra support and made sure that everything was secure.
I have to say at this point that I am very thankful that I didn’t let my anxiety get the better of me, that I kept my fear about being wet and cold at bay with positive thinking about how I could solve the problem of the collapsing tent. I was lucky that the rain had finished for the night and that all i had to deal with was wind, so that I could take the rain tarps off.
I climbed back into the tent, rearranged the bedding and crawled back in around 1:30 a.m. As i laid there waiting to fall asleep, i realized the wind had stopped. Annoying that it stopped after I finished all of that work for sure, but comforting too, i could sleep knowing the tent wouldn’t fall on me again!
I slept til about 6 a.m., which is when the traffic started to pick up again. Oh the traffic noise! Never have I ever slept so close to two roads before… so loud, and so by 7, I was ready to get up and start the day.
I will post more about the rest of the day later on this evening. Thanks for your support… if you haven’t yet, please visit trinitybeamsville.ca to send an email to the MPP of your choice.
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