Relaxing, Reorganizing and Raham's Reminiscing

The word of the week is whimsy.

May 16 – Four Years Already?

I moved into my current place four years ago this week.

Hard to believe, really, that I've shared this space with my sister for that long and we still get along so damn well. There's probably some sort of Guinness World Record in there somewhere, when I think about it, and I'm grateful for it. I can't imagine what it would be like trying to interview roommates, living with strangers or even friends to try and make or things work. For all of our differences, my sister has been the best roomie I could ever have asked for.

Living here has been interesting, and more than challenging a few times: crazy-loud upstairs neighbours, sleep deprivation, unemployment, a road full of motorcycles outside my front window, bouts of pneumonia and cellulitis and chronic wrist pain... I've dealt with all of these and more and I'm still here, still sane and( mostly )healthy.

Nothing stays the same forever; I know this well.

My current apartment, for all its warts, has been pretty good overall in terms of places that I've rented - the more recent two years far more than the first two years. Job stability and improved health helped balance that equation somewhat.

I find it interesting that I don't know where I'll be living four years from now. I'm almost certain that it won't be in this building, given my need for a more quiet locale to practice my writing craft( hear that, motorcycles? )in the future. Ideally, I'd like to have a place somewhere in the city, on a quiet suburban street well back from any main roads, hopefully without too many idiots in the immediate neighborhood.

Here's hoping!

May 17 – Rude Writing?

It was an odd critique group tonight, in that I didn't have anything to contribute of my own.

As I mentioned in last month's blog note, I've only finished half of Book 2, and last month I ran out of the current batch of first-draft chapters for critiquing.

On the bright side, it means that our critique nights are taking all that long, about 2 1/2 hours in total and we can get into more detail for each person's chapter under review since we have less overall material to go through of the night. We've been doing this now for over three years and I'm eager to start generating more new material for Book 2 in a few month’s time so that I can get feedback on it.

On a related note, we had a bit of skulduggery in our writing group today.

Thanks to the way Meetup.com is set up, anyone can join our group. Someone new did just that a week ago, then created a new Meetup meeting under the auspices of our writing group... without asking any of the administrators, or even having met any of the group members.

I understand this is the age of the electronic social group, but this behavior smacked to me of rudeness and also a form of hijack: it's was akin to a stranger showing up at a well-established local group meeting, handing out business cards for another meeting and then leaving immediately.

My fellow admin and I are going to handle this quietly, which I think is called for as it's not really a big deal but we don't want to set a problematic precedent. The next time this person creates a meeting, we're going to cancel it and immediately message them to the effect that if they want to use our membership, they should show up to a few meetings first; our writing group has been around a while and have certain standards to maintain with the use of the groups name, minor though that point is.

If they don't like that, they can form their own group. Easy enough.

May 18 – Move, Move Again?

Another sign that I should be moving on...

I learned today that work will likely be moving me to another department, still within the same office. I'll probably be doing one of a few familiar tasks, but not administration... which is a good thing, actually.

This time last year, when I was just doing invoices, I was able to listen to music all day long which I found inspiring to my creative side. It's perfect timing to be going back to that, in a way, as I need to spend this summer editing Book 1... and what better way to keep my creative juices bubbling all day then with inspiring music, just like last year?

I had it so good... and now it's no longer My Spot.

In the meantime, I've moved desk twice since I was turfed out of my 'corner condo' at the beginning of the month. As you can see from the pics above, I was gloriously ensconced in a corner spot of the office, with no glaring overhead lights and the sort of privacy that you get only after years in the same office.

Where I am now is likely to change again, as I get pushed over to the other side of the office were all the invoice folks live. Unfortunately, I'll only get two monitors( not the 3 currently enjoyed by the Admin team )and I'll be in a  space probably half the size of my current desk area... which will take some getting used to, I think.

But who knows? 3 to 6 months from now, I may be located at another office altogether, if one of my recent job applications bears fruit. A bump in pay is certainly worth some desk-size reduction, or other minor disruptions in one's daily worklife.

Change can be a good thing, especially if you're half-expecting it...

May 19 – Landing Life

I don't do sale flyers anymore.

It used to be that I'd seek out the occasional good deal on things Needed, or sometimes even things Wanted, by regularly visiting sites such as RedFlagDeals.com, NCIX.com, Newgg.ca and so forth. It was fun and interesting to see how good a deal one could get, before stock ran out or other factors came into play. Over the years, these sites have netted me many a good deal, but one thing has always remained the same: they involve spending money.

Given my current finances, it's just smarter not to even look.

If I keep things simple and avoid temptation of any kind, I think I'll do just fine. I'm not lacking in anything in my household by any stretch of imagination: I have more accumulated gadgets then I probably need, even after clearing out some of the more obsolete things last fall. By removing the temptation of "Hey, that looks cool, I could probably use that" from my vocabulary altogether, I'll be able to better concentrate on what Needs Doing for the rest of 2016, and ensure that I lower my anxiety levels by going very easy on my wallet.

Tonight I also attended a 'learning session' at the invitation of a family member, who thought that it might prove useful in my life as it has in theirs. This program is known internationally and has been around for several decades, with the distinction of costing a fair penny to get into while providing meaningful results for thousands of people needing focus in their lives.

Interestingly, while I was there for three hours listening to the speakers, my thoughts during the session all ran along the same lines: I don't need this in my life right now, as I have a pretty good idea of where I'm going and what I need to do to get there.

It was quite freeing to be able to sit there and listen, without feeling as though my life needed to be turned upside down in order to make it better. I felt grounded and relaxed, confident in the decisions I've made in the last couple of years to bring myself to the point where I am now and continue onwards with my life.

Good things are coming my way; some of them are already here.

May 20 – Long Weekend!

Thanks to good timing, today was my day off and combined with the holiday on Monday, I get a four-day Victoria Day weekend!

I made good use of it today, by doing a lot of cleanup with my papers. Usually around this time of year, I make a point of going through all of my old files and receipts to toss whatever's no longer relevant or useful or timely. I make sure to shred all the private documents and bills however; no sense in giving information to use by ID thieves these days.

It's a good feeling to get rid of a lot of the old to make room for the new. I especially enjoyed going through some of the folders and seeing things that triggered fond memories of days gone by, like this flyer from Rahams:

25 years on, it's still in my heart...

Raham's was my go-to place for RPG and boardgames in Grades 7 and 8, as well as throughout high school. It was located in downtown St. Catharines, in the basement of Raham's Office Supply, down a short set of stairs in the front of the store - I don't think I ever bought a single thing from the office supply store upstairs, in all the years that I went through their front door.

Downstairs was a wonderland.

They had it all, in the 80s and early 90s: RPG games, miniatures, boardgames and even computer games in their later years, including the Amiga system that would become my favorite personal computer of all time. It was a magnificent place to explore, even on a student's budget, as you could so many things of interest there and there was always something new coming in week to week. I was sad to see the store close in the 1990s and while a former employee opened up a spiritual successor store down the road, it was never the same. Rahams was where my imagination was given license to buy, a toy store for my purely creative side. 

It's sad that such a big part of my growing up hasn't a single mention anywhere to be found on the Internet today... save for today's entry.

In the evening tonight, my lady and I got a taste of the 2016 Victoria Kite Festival!

Tonight, after sunset from 9 to 11pm, there were night-flying kites galore! It was a cloudless night with a full moon and the lighting was just perfect, as you can see from this video:

There was a fair crowd out, despite the cool wind and it was simply magical there in the bright moonlight, with all the LED-lit kites in the sky floating high above:

May 21 – Busy Day, Relaxing Night

Today I continued organizing my papers from yesterday, and finished by midafternoon with a feeling of satisfaction for job well done.

I also seemed to have slightly injured myself - again.

Yesterday, while I was making changes to the A/V equipment under my TV, I was kneeling and standing a fair bit over the course of an hour. Apparently that stretching movement re-injured the muscle tear in my left leg, so that my thigh now burns painfully if I move it in certain ways or put too much weight on it.

So I'm possibly back to where I was last summer: not riding my bike. Argh.

It's a real bummer, as I was looking forward to getting out on my replacement bike this year, after spending the last nine months diligently not hurting myself to allow time to recover after last summer's painful experience. I can only hope it's a temporary setback.

In the evening, my lady and I went out to dinner and a movie.

We went to see The Jungle Book, a cgi tour-de-force with special effects by none other than WETA, who did all the work on Peter Jackson's Lord Of the Rings and Hobbit movies. The story, adapted by Disney from the classic story by Rudyard Kipling, was a solid entertaining 90 minutes from start to finish, with very few slow spots at all. The principal actor, a young unknown by the name of Neel Sethi, put in a solid performance throughout, with a few minor spots noticeable where he's acting to the green screen - quite forgivable in light of the rest of the pictures quality, I thought. Having Bill Murray voice the character of Baloo the bear was a pure delight...

May 22 – Soaring Skies!

Today, we flew some kites!

Well, actually we went to see quite a few kites in the sky, down at the Victoria International Kite Festival at nearby Clover Point. There were dozens of kites in the sky, small and large:

My girlfriend and I arrived there in the late morning, walking about 20 minutes from a quiet breakfast in Cook Street Village down to the ocean. We joined a fair crowd of folks walking along the shoreline paths of Dallas Road towards Clover Point, following the bright glimmering of colored kites in the sky ahead, then flying our own brilliant skysailer:

We stayed for a couple of hours, admiring the various kites appearing and disappearing in the skies around us as time went on. We left shortly after noon, just as a layer of cloud slid across the sun and dimmed the temperature a fair bit.

The rest of my afternoon was kind of quiet, which was exactly what I needed. I worked on my blog and catnapped here and there, while the day marched on outside. I did take time to meet my lady for dinner at Foo downtown, where we sat outside on the patio to enjoy the perfect late afternoon weather under the once-again sunny skies.

I caught a movie in the evening with my sister, choosing to watch Safety Not Guaranteed, a solid time-travel romantic movie from 2012. It's based on a classified ad that appeared in a CA paper in 1997 and quickly became a phenomenon, enough so that the movie almost felt familiar in some ways:

It was good in to a busy three days, leaving me in the great room to sleep in tomorrow, which is Victoria Day. Lately I've been waking up around 5 AM and having trouble getting back to sleep, but I'm trying to train myself out of it by going to bed a little bit later each night and with an ultimate goal of getting about seven hours sleep on average. That means staying up most nights until at least 11 PM and trying to sleep through until well past dawn's early light that manages to peep through my blackout curtains.

That's about all I have for this week. Looking ahead, it's just work, enjoy the summer with my lady, and edit Book 1... nothing else big planned, save getting more sleep. Doesn't sound all that exciting, but it sure does sound like I'll get a lot accomplished!

Fatigue, Farewells and Feathered Friends

The word of the week is intrinsic.

May 9 – Farewell, Chinook

After 17 years, we said goodbye to our little pal today.

To be honest, he wasn't doing so well, and neither were we because of that. As I've mentioned only a few times before, about two years ago, Chinook started waking us regularly at night to be fed, sometimes as many as four or five times despite our many efforts to discourage such behavior including staying up most of the night to literally keep putting them back in his pet bed every time he decided it was time to be fed. In the last 2 months, we managed to find some relief with the addition of a Feliway calming hormone dispenser, but he still woke us more often than not at the crack of dawn anyway - not good.

Examining the symptoms behind such behavior, we realized in late 2015 ago that he wasn't all there upstairs as much as he used to be and this, along with other age-related factors, was influencing his behavior. Losing his hearing, for example, made him yell louder in order for him to hear his own voice, we suspect. The same thing goes for feeling alone; even when we were home, he would often yowl as though wondering where we'd gone, even if we'd just stepped into the next room.

None of these behaviors were sustainable in the long run and neither my sister nor I were sleeping well for the last year, my sister in particular being the one that the cat most often asked for food in recent months.

When we took Chinook to the vets today for his final appointment, but that did confirm that the little guy's kidneys were in bad shape, far worse than when we had him checked a year ago while getting his teeth fixed up so he could eat better( he was steadily losing weight as of two years ago ). The vet said that it would have been impossible for Chinook to last another three months, and that the kidney condition explain why he was eating and drinking so much so often.

So it was time, and as hard as it was, we knew that his quality of life would have declined sharply from this point on. In some ways, it was as though Chinook knew today was his last hurrah: he behaved as energetically as a cat 10 years younger, chasing and playing with his toys all morning before we took him in, like he was expending the last of his energy to make us laugh and help us through today.

Sleep well, little guy, and visit us in our dreams: we will be doing the same.

May 10 – Rest and Recovery

I'm starting to think I'm not cut out for traveling, as it's so stressful.

Or maybe it's just that I'm still not handling my anxiety well enough, coupled with not being in better physical shape; the two factors can amplify one another, I think, if I'm overtired and overstressed like I was this past weekend.

Thankfully, all that came of it was a little fatigue, and a headache.

Now that my sister and I will be able to sleep uninterrupted through the night( passing emergency sirens or the occasional amplified-muffler jerk notwithstanding )we should both see an improvement in our health. For myself, it's going to take some time before I stop hearing cat yowls in my head when there are none, a psychological effect I've woken up to far too many times in the past.

Falling asleep early, and waking early, with light - especially during the day - seems to be the pattern for me of late. I'm trying to moderate it slightly, as I've been getting sleepy around 10pm... meaning I'm waking up around 6am, which coincides with the brightening dawn light. While I'm still groggy at that time, that's hopefully going to fade as I get more sleep-through-the-night rest in the next few weeks.

Falling asleep naturally case in point: tonight I was reading in bed, thinking about turning in around 10 PM... and the next thing I knew it was 1:30am and I'd woken, still fully-day-clothed with all the lights still on and the book I've been reading fallen on the bedsheet.

That's been rare for me of late, and I hope it's a sign that my bodies going to be quite good about conking out on a regular schedule once I start getting some solid sleep every night.

May 11 – Moving On?

My work doesn't need me. Well, to be clearer: they don't specifically need me.

I was moved out of my Corner Condo desk last week, to a new spot temporarily as part of a team restructuring which included losing my awesome team lead of the last year. The glare from the overhead lights is a bit much, and in a way I feel like I've been evicted from a home I loved. It's disconcerting, but it's also a familiar feeling: change.

It's time.

The positions I'm applying for are all steps up from my current level, all in the hopes that a few of them will sidle my way and discover that I'm a solid fit. All of them pay more than my current entry-level clerk job, and I'm crossing my fingers that they're located near the downtown core so I don't have to bus to work; biking would be fine, and good exercise too.

So I've been applying to more jobs lately and I have been in the last six months, helped by the fact that there seems to be more "better fits" for my skills and experience coming up in my GVT searches every week or so.

Working for the government, I've come to realize that the positions are looked at in one of two ways: you either keep upgrading yourself as far as you can based on your qualifications and skills, or you stay where you're comfortable for a long, long time.

Based on my skills, experience, needs and hopes for the future, I'm going full-on for the former: move on and move up, keep applying and keep trying.

I've been stuck in too few places for too long; time to climb!

May 12 – Cancellation Chaos?

Why don't watch television much anymore, today's news just made me shake my head and wonder about the future of the medium.

Today, ABC decided to cancel such amazing shows as Galavant, The Muppets, Castle, and Agent Carter... so that they can renew 'gems like Once Upon A Time, Big Brother and The Bachelor.

As a writer, I'll just say that there's no good writing on anything that was renewed, with the possible exception of Agents Of S.H.E.I.L.D. sure, I'm not watching much television of late, but I can appreciate the shocking difference between a well-written show and one that has as much thought put into it as someone blowing their nose and wiping it on a script before they submit it.

ABC: Keep the crap, scrap the good stuff... sheesh.

It's much the same on the other networks. Glancing at the renewal lists, CBS has greenlit shows like 2 Broke Girls( awful drek ), Amazing Race and numerous crime shows that all seem alike to me, personally. At least CBS has had the sense to keep New Girl alive, along with The Simpsons( meh )and NBC... well, they're still airing television shows, that's all I've really got to say about them.

In this day and age of independent channels, Internet streaming shows and the like, it's shocking to see a major network shoot itself in the foot like ABC has today. Dumping quality shows for reality television is a trend I'd hoped to see reversed a late, but apparently stupidity is alive and strong at the highest levels of the old guard.

Let's hope that the independents win, as they seem the most likely to bring smart, well-written shows to their audiences directly, without interference from above. You can check out all the shows canceled and renewed here, if it tickles your fancy - in the meantime, I'll be getting back to writing my book and ignoring TV-land for the most part... it's just too dumb lately.

May 13 – Lucky Me!

I just sailed through today.

It was the end of a long week, one that wasn't particularly wearing but tiring all the same due: coming back from ON, losing a pet... plus a few other things, including losing my camera on the flight home( and having it returned! )all added up.

Weirdly, today was Friday the 13th and a full moon, yet I didn't bat an eye.

I suppose I've become inured to the number 13, having included it in the title of my first novel... which kind of endears it to me: in a way, I've owned it, rather than the other way around.

I'm also not that superstitious. While a lot is happened to me in my life, for good and bad, I don't feel that there's some weird invisible hand guiding my destiny whether I want it to happen or not. Instead, I tend to go with the flow and see the best in things as much as I can, meaning that I don't ascribe the negative aspect to dates like today but just enjoy whatever comes along as much as possible.

Like today being Friday, with the weekend to look forward to after having a week of wonderful weather. Why worry about strange superstitions when there's so much else to do and enjoy?

Also, a friend of mine is launching the Kickstarter today for his storybook Jinx The Black Cat. It's the work of almost a decade of dedication from a talented artist, Mike Hogue, so go check him out and get a copy of Jinx's adventures!

  

May 14 – A Year Of Wonder

Today marks a special day in my life...

It's been a year since I started dating my girlfriend: a wonderful, amazing year that I'm humbly grateful for in every way.

If you'd asked me five years ago if I thought I'd ever meet someone like my lady, I would have given long odds against the chance, let alone odds on her wanting to date me. Thinking about it, maybe I should've bet against myself and made some money? Is that how it works?

To celebrate, I took her out to Ferris' Upstairs Oyster Bar for dinner. It's somewhere neither of us had been and I surprised her with the location, which went over well. The atmosphere was excellent: we were tucked into a corner table above the stairway entrance, perfect for conversation and away from most noisy nearby tables. Our dinners were delicious, the service was excellent and attentive and the chocolate truffles we had for dessert were perfect in portion and taste.

We finished off the evening by watching Babylon 5, having worked her way through most of the third season on DVD( which isn't available on laserdisc, sadly ). I still have to pinch myself sometimes, when I think about how she loves the show just as much as I do and how rare thing that is to have found in someone, let alone a person that I love.

What better way to celebrate being together, than to look to the stars?

May 15 – Contentment

What to do on a cloudy Sunday morning... how about birding?

My girlfriend suggested that we head down to Island View Beach today, to join a local group of birders as part of an introduction to the pastime. My mother's been an avid birder most of her life, though most of its being done from the windows of the houses she's lived in over the years due to her mobility issues.

Getting out into the fresh air and flat-glare of the cloudy sky was lovely, as there were many spring scents in the air from the flowering plants everywhere in the park. Even the sea-smell was pleasant: crisp and salty and reminiscent of vacation.

While I'm not all that into birding, it was a surprisingly fun outing, made a little easier by bringing along my 34xzoom camera to get close-ups of the birds that we spotted with the supplied binoculars. I especially liked how the guide explained some of the nuances of the birder's art, of how to search the edges of tree lines for birds as well as techniques to both spot and identify birds with binoculars.

It also renewed my appreciation for nature, in that I sometimes take it for granted that the trees and landscaped gardens I see when walking the streets of the city are the be-all and end-all of the natural world. It's humbling to actually get out into the wilder areas of Vancouver Island, away from the urban hubbub and to realize just how gloriously wondrous nature is on both the macro and micro scale.

In the evening, we both attended our friend Courtney's birthday party at the 5th  Street bar and Grill, a great way to end the weekend. Many of our friends were there and we had a great time for a few hours chatting back and forth about all sorts of things. Several couples are going on vacations to Hawaii and Jamaica respectively, so that's going to be fun to hear their stories once they return.

I'm full of food while I finish off this blog, fresh back from the birthday party. I've had a wonderfully satisfying weekend, much of which was spent with my gorgeous girlfriend and has done much to boost my spirits into the stratosphere. I'm ready to buckle down this week again and get into editing my book, so that I can wrap it up by Summers and and get back to work on finishing the second novel! 

PS - sometime this past week, my blog surpassed 50,000 hits - hurrah!

Surprise Vacation Week!

The word of the week is surprise.

May 2 – New Month!

It's new month, and I usually say something about such...

Yet this month, I'm a bit of a loss, and I don't really know why.

It's a somewhat strange feeling, a little akin to anxiety in a way: I feel off-balance and strangely indecisive, with a bit of a worry tickling the back of my brain.

Kinda a weird to start out a month that way.

It's not like I don't have lots of things to look forward to: I have a lot to do over the next half a year and perhaps that's what's been on my mind. Getting down to the nitty-gritty means that some other things have to go by the wayside, but in thinking about it today, there's not a whole lot that I'll be giving up, per se.

Reading, I think is the one thing that's been on the to-do list for a while, with dozens of books languishing unread on my shelves, which I think is a tragedy. Even reading a book or two a month is nowhere near what I used to consume and I've wondered if my creative side has felt the lack the last few years. Probably.

As for other things, it's mainly organizing this or that, getting around to one thing or another or just finding some time to think about things that I don't usually ponder, making time to do something other than worry about finances or friendships.

I think I'll let May just be, and see how it turns out. Simple enough?

May 3 – Walking

One of the things my Pebble smartwatch does is keep track of my steps.

This is extremely useful, as I've been aiming to get more overall exercise on a daily basis, either through walking or riding the exercise bike that I now have and use 3 to 4 times a week.

The walking part is a bit trickier, as I work at an office job and moving one's arm around can fool the watch into thinking that you're walking instead of just doing paperwork. By setting the watch aside during time spent at my desk, I've been able to separate walking around the office or outside from said paperwork and the average walking distance of a workday is anywhere between 5000 and 7000 steps. That includes a walk around a few blocks during one of my breaks, as well as walking to and from work, with perhaps some local shopping after the workday's done tossed in for good measure.

Walking 2 to 5 miles a day is pretty decent, and it's a good base to add exercise to, which I've also been doing: 20 to 30 min. of cycling every other day. It's burning around 400 calories over a 10 km distance at low resistance and getting my heart rate up to the point where it's useful for cardiovascular health without overdoing it. Being as sensitive as I am to my heart rate of late, it's an interesting balancing act to ensure I'm not going too easy nor overdoing my biking sessions.

Just one step at a time, that's how you do it.

May 4 – Star Wars Day( again! )

It's one of my fave days of the year today! 

I'll let this video speak to you about it, from Emerald City Comicon 2015:




May the Farce be with you! ;-)

May 5 – Journey by Air begins!

Let the travels commence!

I can let you in on a little secret that I've been keeping for a few weeks now: my lady and I took a plane to Ontario at the last minute for the weekend - as of today!

A friend of mine is getting married later this month down in Mexico and unfortunately I can't afford to go down and be part of the destination wedding. A group of our mutual long-term buddies decided to throw him a semi-batchelor dinner-and-drinks sendoff in Toronto this weekend as a surprise, which again I wanted to attend but couldn't afford the $1000-round-trip tickets, plus other costs.

Happily, my parents caught wind of said plans and offered the use of their long-saved Aeroplan miles... for both myself AND my lady to head to Toronto for the weekend get-together! I managed to find solid hotel and car rental deals through Hotwire as of a week ago and booked everything then, while still keeping it secret from most folks say those who were planning the small sendoff so as not to spoil the surprise. I also worked out a tightly-packed yet comprehensive itinerary to allow us time for seeing everyone Friday and Saturday, planned down to 15-minute increments. Complex? Yes, but it worked!

We headed out to the airport at noon today and were on a plane by 3 PM, winging our way towards Vancouver and then Toronto. Due to the length of the flight and the time difference, we arrived after midnight and settled into our hotel around 1 AM EST, rather tired but happy to be in Ontario at last! My lady's never been out east, so it's an adventure for her...

As for me, it's been almost three years since I was last back visiting family and friends here and I am beside myself with happiness to be able to see some of them this trip!

May 6 – Toronto Visit!

We slept in a little, up for a 9am breakfast at a local diner, myself feeling somewhat out of sorts. We both decided to go back to the hotel room for another couple of hours of sleep due to the time difference and to shake a bit of travel fatigue in general. Also, the diner's food was rather overrated on Yelp: 4.5 stars compared to my own rating of a 3: adequate but unspectacular in breakfast terms, but it filled me up and sat well, so that's worth bumping it this time to a 4 at least.

We met my friend Jason for lunch at a little Thai restaurant on King St West, who served excellent food for remarkably low prices - a great choice! It is especially nice to be able to find FREE parking on a side street almost immediately, which turned out to be a theme for our trip: I'd spent some of my time searching for inexpensive parking lots on the Internet and having my eyes pop at their rates - an added trip expense I didn't want to incur, if at all possible.

After lunch, we headed to downtown Toronto to see some sights!

After driving around on a few too many no-left-no-right-turn streets, we managed to find the municipal parking lot underneath City Hall which was the perfect location for what we wanted to do in the afternoon locally. I showed my girlfriend a portion of the underground PATH system, which is always expanding and a great way to get around in the wintertime or during super-hot summer days.

We went on to the Eaton Centre, just for a walk-through so I could relive a few of my nostalgic memories: as a child, whenever we were visiting Toronto we almost always travelled here. My lady remarked that the mall was quite a grandiose place, but was likely more interesting back in the 80s and 90s before fashion outlets and other high-end stores took over most of the real estate inside. I agree, and I thought the Sak's Fifth Avenue store that has replaced the Sears on the one end of the mall was astromically overpriced and tacky-gaudy to boot. Give me a good bookstore anytime... and I was saddened to see the hole in the ground to the north where the World's Biggest Bookstore used to be.

Me, riding a unicorn!

Outside again, we paid a quick visit to the Silver Snail's new location on Yonge Street. I thought the new store had retained some of the charm of the old, but had far less of anything that I wanted to purchase apart, from some extremely expensive polystone statues. It was also interesting to walk through the new 'Times Square of Toronto" located at the corner of Yonge and Dundas, which is a far cry from what I remember there 30 years ago: it's now full of video screens and frenetic pedestrian activity.

From there, we walked down to the CN Tower, south of Front St West, in glorious weather that everyone said was a far cry from the cloudy coolness of the week ago - I guess we brought it with us from Victoria! We walked around the entire base of the tower before we managed to find the entrance, tented over due to construction; no signs or anything, thanks! Once inside, we waited in line for about 20 minutes in a large fairly-quiet crowd before heading up the tower - we didn't opt for the Skypod for an additional $12 each.

At the top, we quickly headed out to the exterior walk on the lower level to escape the crowds, most of whom were packed around - and on - the glass floor. That's nothing I want to get anywhere near, as my survival instinct still overrides my logic, same as my last visit here a decade ago. Thanks to the perfect weather, the view outside was spectacular and my lady was treated to fantastic views of Toronto as well as Lake Ontario and even some of the shoreline on the far side of the lake. Incredible!

Once down from the tower, we made our way over to the Distillery District( a new and very cool Toronto development the last 10 years )to meet my friends for a few drinks before dinner. We ended up on the patio out the back of the Mill St Pub, in plenty of time to be at the table for our batchelor friend to arrive and be surprised that I and my lady were there! I introduced her and we spent a lovely time outside under the perfect sky, reminiscing and ribbing and having a grand old time together again.

Dinner was literally next-door at the Pure Spirits Oyster Bar and Grill, where we were treated to amazing service at our reserved table by the staff. The food was fabulous, including the pair of oysters I tried, my first in twenty years - yum!

We Six, and a Lady... had fun!

I can't describe just how great the company tonight was! On being able to sit at a table with my lifelong friends and my lady at my side, catching up and having old stories made new again when being told for the enjoyment of my lady. Each of these guys has been in my life for decades, and the years rolled away as we spent a few glorious hours together again. 

It was as good as it gets. :-)

We left the fellas around 11pm, for the half-hour drive back to where we were staying near Pearson airport. The thunder of jets overhead eased at midnight thanks to night curfews imposted by the airport on flights, and we finally got to sleep soon after that.

May 7 – Niagara Visit!

We managed to get some decent rest before scooting out the door for a 9 AM breakfast with my cousins in Milton, who put on a spectacular spread and we all had a wonderful time catching up. I saw more of my cousins when I was younger, and regret that life has led us to all move so far away from each other, even when I was living in Ontario years ago.

Then it was off towards Niagara!

We made a short unscheduled stop along the way after fighting some high volumes of traffic to meet my friend Mike for thirty minutes at a Tim Horton's. I happily introduced my girlfriend and then we caught up, at least for the bit of time we had. He's doing well and it's always a pleasure to talk to him, as he's a creative personality like myself, so we usually have much to discuss.

From there we continued on through more heavy traffic from the Burlington area all the way through to Stoney Creek, delaying us a further 30 minutes from my schedule's timing. We made it to my Aunt Connie's a little before noon, where we spent time with her and my cousin Anne-Marie, again catching up and just enjoying each other's company. Their house I remember well and fondly from my childhood, as my aunt has lived in the same place for my entire life. I remember it crowded with family at Christmas, Easter and at all the events in between... all I have to do is close my eyes and everyone's still there.

Unfortunately we couldn't stay too long, as we were expected in Niagara Falls for lunch; being an hour behind schedule didn't help either. We made it to my Aunt Carolyn's at last, another place that I visited many times when I was younger and I remember it being full of family members all the time. Today it was just myself, my lady, my Aunt and my cousin Paula, who had helped put together the lunch as my Aunt had fallen a few weeks ago and wasn't moving very well on her own. We had a wonderful time reminiscing and they enjoyed asking after my lady for details of how we met and what she did - another theme for the trip!

Then it was swiftly on down to the tourist heart of Niagara Falls, Clifton Hill!

We lucked into the perfect parking spot right on the Hill itself, in the middle of the crowded chaos of tourism( a reason I've never visited this area )that's normal on a nice weekend in Niagara Falls. We hurried down to the entrance to Hornblower Cruises, which has replaced the old Maid Of the Mist tours in recent years. There were a fair number of people there already, but thanks to the efficient operation and large capacities of the boats, we managed to be on board within 15 minutes of arriving up top. The view from the deck of the boat as it approached both the American and Horseshoe falls was simply spectacular: giant building-high walls of thundering water and blinding spray that seem so close that you could reach out and touch them across the churning water:

It was the perfect way to introduce my lady to Niagara Falls!

After drying out, we paid a quick handshake-visit with my friend Al and then hit the QEW to make it to my grandfather's place right on schedule in the late afternoon. We took him out to dinner at Joe Feta's on Lake Street, which is somewhere that my family had quite often went due to the amazing Greek food they serve. We had a great time visiting with him; at age 95, his mind is still sharp and he still lives ably on his own, though our nearby family looks in on him every day to be sure that he's doing fine. I hope that I'm in as good shape when I reach his age... and he's another reason for me to make it back to Niagara more often.

After a quick drive through my old neighborhood in the North end of the city to show my girlfriend where I'd grown up( ravine!!! )we made it down to the Kilt & Clover in Port Dalhousie for 6:30pm, right on schedule - huzzah!

My friends started arriving around 7 PM and by eight o'clock there was easily a dozen of us on the patio. The weather had clouded over, but the patio heaters did a almost too-good job of keeping us toasty despite the cool breezes coming in. As a bonus, the demolition of the buildings across the street meant that for the first time ever in my many years socializing there, we could see Lake Ontario from our seats on the patio - neat!

More and more people showed up, swelling my heart with joy with each face that I had not seen in far too long. All the times I spent at the Kilt over the years I lived in Niagara, I was in the middle of a social mileau that I didn't appreciate as fully as I might have until I'd moved away. Seeing all my friends together, talking to one another and just plain enjoying one another's company made me realize how extraordinarily lucky I've been in the company I've kept over the years. One and all, they're a fantastic bunch of good people, and so many turned up by the evening's end that we had a hard time leaving on time... which we didn't.

The drive back was uneventful, but after turning in the rental car we didn't make it back to the hotel by cab until 1am. Ugh. So little sleep...

May 8 – Home again!

5am came way too early today, but we had a 6:30am flight.

We were on the shuttle and at the airport for 5:40am... which apparently wasn't early enough to be aboard our flight, according to the Air Canada lady at the counter.

Whaaaat?

Apparently, we needed to check in at least 45 minutes before the flight, and by standing in line for 10 minutes, we'd missed our window.

*deep breaths* *avoid panic attack*

While the Air Canada clerk was checking for alternative flights, I mentioned that I rarely flew, so I hadn't caught that particular time requirement... and that we also didn't have baggage to check. Something in the way I calmly put those logical bits together must have clicked, because she quickly conferred with her manager... and then opened boarding for us, with the admonishment that the flight wouldn't be held if we didn't make it in time - we had 33 minutes.

With heartfelt thanks, we took our boarding passes and ran for it.

Security check? 8 minutes. Total running time? 12 minutes.

Success! We trotted up to the gate just as the last half-dozen passengers were being boarded, with us not even out of breath. As it turns out, the flight was delayed another 10 minutes due to a minor cockpit glitch, so someone out there was looking out for us... and we're very grateful for the help.

But, sometimes there's a price to be paid...

On the last short-hop flight to Victoria, my tiredness caught up to me and I left my camera behind, under the seat. *sigh* I realized it an hour after I had arrived home and unpacked, so I called Air Canada right away... and spent 45 minutes in an online chat that was lagged to high heaven, since the Lost & Found # on their website rang busy all afternoon... *le sigh*

Then my lady and I parted ways for the day, both of us tired but happy that the trip had gone so well! It was a lovely mini-vacation and while fun, not something that I'd care to repeat again with so tight a schedule; a week is the minimum time we'd need next time.

Tired as I was, I didn't nap, as I wanted to be able to hit the hay tonight and sleep like a log. I typed up a good portion of the blog in the afternoon, so that my sister and I could watch How To Train Your Dragon 2 in the evening - she needed something to perk her up, as her cat of 17 years is being put down in the morning( more on that next week - I can't bear to write about it tonight ).

A friend of hers was kind enough to order us a huge assortment of Thai food, so we ate and laughed and in general tried to lift her spirits. It was a quiet end to a joyous weekend, but I  already knew it was going to be a somber one, since the kitty decision was made a couple of weeks ago... so it all balances out.

I'll sleep tonight, and deal with tomorrow when it dawns.

Tired, but happy after this whirlwind week and also a bit somber. I'm taking it all to bed to sleep on.