Anyway, no this is about "making lemonade when life gives you lemons." Despite being pretty good at recovering when life throws curves at me, I've never liked this phrase much. I also don't take these set-backs in a spirit of good grace, which is at least partially implied by the phrase.
I'll give a quick rundown of the weekend so far. My wife is a bit under the weather and my son is getting fairly sick. So taking them around on a visit to Fort York was pretty much out of the question. I decided that I would swing by anyway, since I also wanted to check out this literary festival in Queen's Park. Also, there was a band playing called Autorickshaw. They sounded pretty interesting, and there is a droll connection with one of my nearly finished plays where I gave an Asian improv group the name Friday Night Rickshaw Race. (I'm starting to think this might be a bad idea because it is a bit of a stretch for the main character to be involved in a sketch comedy group -- it definitely seems out of character. I mostly did it on the basis of getting a punch line into the script, and also because actors so often love going meta, i.e. performing lines about being actors. I definitely will want to blog some day about the pros and cons of writing a play with a specific ensemble in mind.) While I had briefly considered just taking my daughter with me, I was quite sure she wouldn't want to listen to the band.
So I swung by the library, then caught the Queen streetcar to Bathurst. It was a drag how few restaurants were open at 11 there, but I ran into Tim Hortons. My luck held, as the line got really long right after I placed my order. Then I took a short streetcar ride to the Fort. I was actually almost 45 minutes early. The good news was that the Fort itself was open, so I wandered around for a bit. It is mostly of interest to War of 1812 buffs, though my son would have loved to see all the canons, many of which you can touch. I read up on many things I knew nothing about, including that the British commander in charge of Fort York blew up a gun-power magazine and that led to the greatest loss among the American troops. Apparently, the Americans really did capture Toronto and York (at that time York was actually the more substantial city) and caused much upheaval. Interestingly, the Americans burned down a government building right in the center of Fort York, and that was the primary cause of the British later burning the White House in D.C. I guess the Americans couldn't hold the city, though they attacked it two more times. Finally, a settlement was reached and the Americans left Upper Canada alone. It is somewhat intriguing that if Canadians at that time wanted to break free from Britain, then this would have been the time to do so. Toronto at least would almost certainly have been annexed, though who knows if it would ever have gotten much larger than Buffalo under such a scenario.
A few minutes before noon I wander over to the Fort York Visitor Centre. They were setting up for a band and moving all the chairs around and trying to encourage people to move up to the front. I noticed that a number of chairs in the front had bird crap on them, and I tried to tell two of the staff or volunteers about that. One really just responded "Oh really?" in a tone that said "What do you expect me to do about it?" Well, really I expect the chairs to be cleaned off or at least moved to the back. I mean it isn't like this is my big opening to the public, where I am trying to make a good impression. I felt I had tried and they weren't particularly competent and this kind of soured me on the Visitor Centre. (I was also unimpressed watching them struggle to find the keys to the door to let people inside.) The music finally started and it was ok, but not quite what I hoped for. I wasn't crazy about the actual lyrics. But mostly it was just too loud given how close the chairs were to the stage. I didn't feel like being a Nagging Nancy, so I just went inside the Visitor Centre. I was completely underwhelmed by the contemporary art, which was completely vapid. So at this point I may take the kids to the Fort itself next year, but I doubt I'd ever go back to the Visitor Centre. Good first impressions are important, and this one fell totally flat.
After this, since I still had the daily pass, I decided to go check out a few bookstores. I did not go into Seekers on Bloor near Bathurst, though I am pleased (and amazed) it still exists. I snuck into BMV. Now that I think about it, it does seem to be in the same general location as a book store that specialized in seconded books back in my day. This time I didn't get anything there. I went to Willow, which is relatively new (to me). It struck me as a bit overpriced for paperbacks, though if you buy two books, there is some discount. Almost a month ago, I'd seen a Yonge St. bookstore (that I rarely frequented back in the day) that was closing down. I just couldn't get to it in time (sans family). Now it's gone. Eliot's books is there, and that may be the used book store closest to my tastes now. I thought the paperback prices were fair, though trade paperbacks and hardcovers are too expensive. That seems to be the case everywhere, and you basically have to take shipping prices into account and add $6 (whoof) to the price of anything you see on Amazon.ca. Blah. It is certainly good that I built up my library back in the day of super-cheap shipping (and often tax-free shopping). I could never have done it today...
Even at Eliot's there were only 3 or 4 other customers, and I only bought one book. BMV has better foot-traffic it seems. But I do worry that only a few more years and nearly all the bookstores will be gone. Looking at the map, it seems only 1 of 4 bookstores on Harbord has survived and none of the ones I used to go to on Queen St. West. Those were fun little shops, and that's largely where I built my Canadian collection. I think of the bookstores I used to frequent, it is down to Atticus (which I'll have to visit soon), Seekers and Eliot's. I'll see about She Said Boom and Circus Books (up on Danforth) to see if either can become new favourites. I had nearly forgotten about the Queen Park festival so I went over on that (and it took forever for the streetcar, since two short-turn streetcars came by in the meantime). It turns out that the festival is Sunday only, which is crazy (giving up an entire day and the day when more people are out and about). They are going to regret it, as today it is going to be raining a fair bit. While I expect to head downtown, I don't think I will bother with the festival, given my let-down at Fort York. I guess it is having the high expectations that is really the problem.
So I finally got back and crashed for a bit. I decided at the last minute that I would use the transit pass to go back out to Beach Cinema to see Guardians of the Galaxy before it finally disappeared. Getting there wasn't too bad, and the movie was fun. Though the body count was quite high, and I made the right call in not taking my son. I just missed a streetcar (darn you absurdly long closing credits) and walked down to the next stop. I texted the TTC and it was 35 minutes to the next streetcar, at which point there would be four of them. This was kind of the last straw, so I just walked and walked and walked. I made it to Jones when the streetcar finally showed up. I decided to get on and rode 2 stops to Carlaw. At which point I missed the bus and walked the rest of the way home, just as it started to rain. So not the best end to the day.
We'll see what the rest of the day brings today. I do have to go in to work to get at least some work done, and I want to see if I can carve out enough time to finish Dostoevsky's Demons (I'm just starting the third section) and then to unpack another few boxes downstairs. I guess that would be ok. Ta-ta for now.
Minor update: I put in 5 hours at work, just missing the rain in the morning and a major storm that broke around 8 pm. I mostly did work on the TransLink PNR module and also did some scanning. It turns out that I have come across a bunch of journal entries from 1991 through 1993! What a different frame of mind I was in. I hardly remember anything from those days, particularly some of the heavy literature I was reading back then (Vargas Llosa mostly). Anyway, it looks like the literary festival managed to get almost everything in before the rain. For some reason, I had thought it was more like the Printer's Row Book Fair (and I would have been all over that), but there were very few bookstalls (according to the map). I suspect many of these book stores are just hanging on by a thread, and can't spare even one person to go off to work a stall for a whole day. It is kind of sad. If I had been just a bit more together about it, I might have gone to hear Peter Norman read from his novel Emberton. It's sort of on my list but way down there, so I guess in a way I didn't want to feel guilty about not reading it sooner, which I might have done if I had heard him read.
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