Life Slowly Back to Order

There are so many things I would like to commit to paper (or the Interwebs, I suppose), but I am pressed for time yet again.  I will say that as I knock off a few tasks (and finalizing the Fringe accounting was a big one), it gets easier to do other things, including whatever I am supposed to be up to at work.

Last week there were quite a few visits from contractors.  I think Friday we had the most people come in, replacing the furnace and then the water heater, though certainly Monday was close.  Monday morning a couple of guys came by to clean out the ducts.  They hadn't been quite clear on what they needed to do, which included blowing forced air down every vent in the house, even in the upstairs bedrooms, and then running this plastic tube out to their truck.  It definitely felt like a scene out of Brazil!  

More importantly, I didn't realize that the front door would need to be open, and I didn't have time to track down the cats and put them in a cage.  I was definitely freaking out, though ultimately we found Rho hiding in a corner in the study and Toby was hiding in an upstairs closet.  Then there was another moment, where we knew where Toby was but Rho had moved to a different hiding place.  But they both turned up.*

Then there was a lot of back and forth over whether the insurer would sign off on the contents list on Monday.  In the end, we agreed on the items on the list, but I would do my best to get the value updated and back to him in a couple of days (which I still haven't managed to do but it is close), and he agreed to sign off on the removal order.  Then I checked and someone did show up with a truck around 3 pm and cleared off the deck and took the refrigerator out of the basement.  (I was a little worried the refrigerator wasn't on the list, but it is there.)  It's getting a bit easier to accept the loss now that I don't have to look at it.

Also, I had really wanted to throw a BBQ for the Fringe cast, and I had set the date for Tues.  So I was a bit panicked that I would have to push it back yet again if the deck was occupied with all my stuff.  Anyway, it all worked out, and I ran off to get more food and drink and some charcoal at the mall.

The BBQ was pretty fun, though people actually showed up early, and I really wasn't ready.  I may discuss this a bit more down the line.  I have just finished the accounts, and we made $5300 from ticket sales and the costs were almost exactly $4300, not counting the stipend I guaranteed the actors.  Taking that into account, I lost $300, but really this is so much better than the last Fringe outing.  I might even be able to get $50 for the table I bought, bringing the loss to $250, which is almost nothing these days.

I've been making decent progress on the scanning of stuff and re-ripping a bunch of data CDs that were salvaged from the wreckage.  It's a bit much though, and my brain makes it hard to move on to the next thing until these tasks are done.  Still, I am finding some ways to entertain myself in the meantime.

Last weekend was incredibly busy.  On Sat. I took the GO train to Stratford to see Guys and Dolls.  It rained most of the day, but it was a fairly light rain and it didn't really spoil my trip, aside from not seeing Art in the Park.  I did, however, see a swan on the river, which I haven't seen in years. 

I took the bus back, managing to finish Station Eleven on the way.

Sunday was a trip out to Sobey Stadium near York University to see Wang Chung and Howard Jones.  I'll write more about that in a separate post.

I am probably going to see Coyote vs. Acme tonight over at Carlton. Then Sat., I think I am going to bail on the work picnic and go out to Vaughan instead to see The Odyssey in IMAX before it is too late.  Sunday I am off to Niagara-on-the-Lake to see a Shaw play.  Unfortunately, the reviews make it sound like the director just doesn't know what he is doing (or perhaps more accurately kind of resents the prominence Shaw gets at his namesake festival).  I think there's a pretty good chance I will finish up The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi on the way there and back.

I'm a bit torn between seeing Sheep in the Box at Paradise and going to see squeeze out at the venue formerly known as Budweiser Stage.  It's not selling that well and there are lots of tickets for $30 each, though they are uncovered seats and there is a 40% chance of rain.  I think I'll check again over the weekend to decide for sure.

Then next Wed., I am planning a second BBQ (and final one of the season) for work colleagues and former colleagues.  It looks like the weather may cooperate.  Anyway, I am truly late and need to get a bunch of other things done today.

 

* Interestingly, I was outside late at night last night, checking out the lunar eclipse.  It was cool (and the skies were clear for once!), though I should have gone back a second time but fell asleep instead.  Anyway, I hadn't remembered to close the screen door, so when I opened the door this morning to air the place out, the cats were able to escape to the back yard.  They didn't go particularly far and came back in, but I don't really plan on letting them be outdoor cats, as much as they seem to want that.

Trade War!

I guess it isn't really a surprise, but Canada and the US could not come to terms, even though the Canadian team had already given far too many concessions to the US side.  I know there are conflicting stories, but pretty much everyone believes the Canadian version, which is Howard Lutnick turned up pretty much at the last minute with a new set of demands, including trying to put limits on Canada's trade deals with other trading partners!  This is completely typical of Trump and his lick-spittle lackeys, and mostly is simply his way of trying to humiliate others.  As painful as it is (and it could get painful indeed, including with services, which would impact my job), I think it was the right call.  I so hope the GOP is pounded in the midterms (and of course I hope even more that Trump vanishes from the scene before the midterms from natural or unnatural causes...), but it is a long way off from them.  And truly I don't see any way for the US to get its house in order aside from a civil war that would actually open things up for meaningful reform of the Constitution (no electoral college, no 2nd amendment, major rethinking of the Supreme Court), which won't happen in my lifetime most likely.

I suppose it's just as well that I ran off to Iowa (and then Chicago) a few weeks back for my cousin's funeral, as I really don't think I will travel to the States until after the midterms and maybe not even then.  On the positive side, my step-brother is improving, so I don't think this will be an issue for future travel (as I was fearing for a while).  Still, it is frustrating not to travel to the States.  There are good reasons for me to go down to North Carolina (including an upcoming production of Stoppard's Travesties I might have checked out otherwise), but it is just not on the table for the immediate future. 

Edit (8/28): Trump actually followed through with his threat to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America.  I mean not a single person outside the federal agencies forced to use it and his dwindling idiotic fan base is going to use this, but it is still an embarrassment (I mean really beyond an embarrassment) and it will have a pretty significant impact on costs.  I hope this time around Google Maps tells him to Fuck right off and that they aren't changing it based on his whims.  What a sorry excuse for a human he is, and I honestly don't see how anyone with the federal government can continue to work there and have any respect for themselves.

The New York governor had a good line that instead of spelling HOMES with the Great Lakes, now it was only going to spell SHAME.  And this was a very appropriate cartoon in the Toronto Star that pretty much sums up how everyone feels about this narcissistic credit.

I believe it was in the Guardian that one of the columnists pointed out that Trump was now in the position Machiavelli warned the Prince against the most of being hated but no longer feared.  That's certain where he is now, though no question the other EU and Asian nations need to stand up to Trump as Carney finally did because he is a bully who feeds off dominating others and there is no end to his demands once you give in.  No question is a very ugly mirror for the American people to be contemplating themselves in...
  

Computer workarounds

I have been moaning about how my hard drive keeps losing space, even after I moved at least 3 or 4 GB off it.  It felt like some horrible virus (or another Windows update, even though I have paused those).  I got so desperate, I downloaded something called WinDirStat that digs around and finds what is using up hard drive space.  It turns out that it wasn't Windows for once, but lots and lots of iTunes data, which is frankly ridiculous.  That is one thing that really ought to go away after a restart.  Anyway, I deleted a lot, though I probably will need to make a permanent link to that folder to keep pruning the temp files away going forward.

What I have not been able to resolve is how to get to the Girl Genius website through FireFox.  I kept resetting and clearing the cache, but there is something that it just doesn't like about that website, so I reluctantly have been using Edge just for that purpose, and then closing Edge.  I really ought to be able to figure this out, but haven't so far.  It turns out Disney+ is the exact same thing.  I cannot log in through FireFox, but there are no issues on Edge.  What makes this even more annoying is I have tried for close to a month to get my Roku to load Disney+ but it won't do it at all (even after a factory reset!).  It's probably something my son did.  This is annoying beyond belief (and Roku has probably the worst customer service I've run across yet), so I have given up and will watch the rest of Futurama Seasons 13 and 14 on the desktop in the back room.  But not tonight.

I was able to track down a lot of the missing Girl Genius web comics from a bunch of different hard drives, and that is consolidated now.  I even managed to find the Buck Godot e-books I purchased a long time back.  I do have a DVD with the full run of Dragon magazine, and that is a proxy for What's New?  But I really wanted the physical books (and these were completely ruined in the flood, and the pages completely fused together!).  I found a fairly cheap copy of #3 on Amazon, and then a seller with a pretty good deal on a lot of What's New #1 and 2, though this all has to be sent to Chicago (and at some point my wife will kill me...).

Honestly, I am still in a pretty deep funk about the loss of all this stuff, but it's slowly getting a bit better.  On the plus side, I was going to have to go through all that stuff anyway (and most of it is not really all that interesting), so half of the job is already done when I decide to downsize and move to a condo downtown.  But I need to get back to some other tasks now.

Dealing with the Flood

It's been a fairly stressful time, so let me try to put down the main events as I remember them, before I completely forget/suppress this period.

As I said, we didn't get anyone in until Wed. morning.  They put down a bunch of plastic sheets heading down into the basement.  Ironically, most of the time people go straight out the back door, and don't really utilize the sheets on the main floor, though the cats are having a great time trying to get underneath it and generally just messing with it.  They also left some enormous dehumidifiers and driers.

I believe it was Thurs. when I got in the crew to deal with the contents of the basement.  They put all the salvageable stuff out in boxes on the deck, and eventually this was trucked off somewhere (and I probably won't see it for a couple of months).  I have a pretty good idea of which books were saved, as well as the Futurama toys.  I'm not nearly as sure of how much of the quilting material was saved, and whether the half quilt I was working on for my son was saved.  If most of the spare material I needed for the other half was tossed and I can't find matching material (and 5+ years on that is a safe assumption), I probably need to just start all over.  I'd have to cut way back on the work I do on converting music files (and blogging!) and just get back to quilting.  Most projects can be done in a month or two if I just focus.  I think I do owe him a quilt after not delivering for so long!  At least the sewing machine was salvaged, though I do need to sterilize the pedal and power cord.  And I even know where it is, unlike the record player and stereo which got carted off.)

I had really hoped they would be done by 5:45, as I wanted to head over to Carlton to see Sheep in a Box.  In the end, they worked later than that, and I felt I had to keep going, sorting out a few boxes of personal effects and papers and such.  So I missed that movie.  Maybe it's just as well, as it is pretty melancholic, about a family trying to replace a lost son with an android child.

Friday, a new crew came through to deal with the rest of the contents.  This guy was a lot blunter, saying there was no way to salvage the wooden screen or the futon frame.  Sigh.

There aren't too many bright spots, though I suppose because water didn't come through the walls but up from the floor, the paintings down there weren't affected.  They are currently just stacked up in the dining room with some other boxes...  And while I was trying to be pro-active and took things like the records and a small kids' rug from upstairs downstairs where they were ruined, I did bring up the musical instruments (as there was a brief moment when my daughter was thinking of learning them), so those were spared.  But overall, there is a huge loss of personal stuff and mementos, along with lots of junk, which should have been thrown out ages ago.  (I do wish that at some point I moved the Krazy Kat Daily books upstairs to be with the Sunday strips from Fantagraphics.  Oh well...)

I think Thurs/Friday was when we had three separate repairmen looking at the furnace, the water heater, the washer/dryer and a "spare" refrigerator that happens to be down there.  Basically, all of this will have to go, except for the washer/dryer, which were somewhat elevated.

Sat. I went swimming and then biked over to Factory Theatre to see Soft Squishy Things, which was an odd piece where a person, bored out of her mind, either on a space station or pretending to be on one but in her basement, recreated lots of scenes from sci fi movies, like Star Wars, Blade Runner, The Fifth Element and so on.  I believe that she ended by throwing a party for herself with some "robot" friends, which is a scene from Silent Running.  (Again, I'm still a bit annoyed that the Paradise's screening of Silent Running conflicted with something else, perhaps Fringe-related, but I'll watch it one of these days.)  Then I biked back to work and did the first of many rounds of scanning.

Sunday I went to the gym, then eventually made it over to Carlton to watch an anime film (Your Name).  I will say that they have really messed up Carlton yet again for some streetcar repairs.  The street is fenced off, and the bike racks aren't even open!  This is definitely going to make it harder to get there, and this construction is likely to drag on through December.  Sigh.  I went back to work and did more scanning.

I don't think there was a lot going on on Monday, though I did get the report back that the dry wall was relatively recently installed and didn't have asbestos in it.  This was a huge relief, as the entire process would have been pushed off by several weeks if they needed to do asbestos abatement first.  This meant that we could schedule some work on Tues.  After work wrapped, I ran over to BMV at Yonge-Dundas to see if any of the Motter titles were in stock, particularly Condemned, but they weren't.  Then I dropped a few more things off at work, then biked up to Bloor to check out the bigger comics section at the BMV there.  Sadly, I only had 10 minutes to look around, but I didn't see them there in the limited time I had to look around, so when I got home I ordered Condemned.  Then I went over to Robarts and did some research.

Tues. we had the workers come over and start ripping out the carpet and the bottom of the dry wall.  It didn't help my mood that we had no water from 10 to 4:15 because of other city work on repairing a nearby fire hydrant.  I guess the only positive is that I was finally able to view my water meter, which stopped working, so I will try to get that meter reading uploaded fairly soon.

I asked them not to send any workers on Wed., and I went in to work (pretty much the only time all week), and after work, I went to the Rex to see Allison Au.  She decided to bring on a vocalist into her group, and truthfully, I didn't care much for this, and left at the break.  I went back to work and scanned some photos, most of which did not survive the water well at all.  I think the photos in the photo albums generally will come out better, but there are just so many left to be scanned!

The workers are back today and should wrap up the first stage of the demo.  It isn't clear if this crew or a different crew is going to clear out the deck, though they promised it would be gone by the weekend.  I certainly hope so, as I plan on having the post-Fringe BBQ next Tues!  I may need to call and find out what is going on.  I think I will also try to go swimming tonight.

Sat. I head over to Stratford to see Guys and Dolls.  I'm going to see about taking the train over, and the bus back.  I need to get a lot of Station Eleven read, as we are talking about it at Book Club next Wed.!

Sun. I am toying with the idea of seeing The Odyssey up in Vaughan, as the Scotiabank IMAX (which would have been very convenient for me) has switched over to the new Spiderman movie, and the Odyssey in IMAX is only up in Vaughan or over in Square One in Mississauga, which is even harder for me to get to...  Anyway, then I need to make my way back down to York University and meet my wife, as we are going to a concert (Howard Jones and Wang Chung and some other 80s bands).  So it will be an extremely long day.

So things are a long way from going back to normal, but I can at least slip out of the house from time to time to do a few fun things. 

Edit: Well, I was going to go swimming, but around 7:30 pm another work crew showed up to cart away all the debris from the first work crew, and I had to stick around.  I think this weekend will be a total write-off as far as the gym goes. 

 

Life Turned Upside Down (Basement Flood)

We had a fair bit of water in the basement once before after a heavy, heavy rain.  But it didn't really have the same impact.  That time around it still required bringing the huge dehumidifiers and driers, but the damage seemed largely confined to the furnace room, and in the end we didn't even have to change the carpet.  Clearly this should have been a warning of sorts, but what I ended up doing is changing insurance (because TD completely stiffed us on the water damage coverage) and ultimately pulling all of my money out of TD after generally being dis-satisfied with them, mostly related to the insurance business but for other reasons as well.  Maybe if they had covered some of the costs (which were mostly just labour), they would also have required us to put in a sump pump to keep our insurance premiums from rising.  Now I have no idea if a sump pump would have made enough of a difference, but our neighbour has one and didn't have any significant flooding.  I remember thinking at the time that I should have the basement windows treated as that seemed to be part of the problem, but the contractor at the time said the window well treatments were ok, but that I really needed to reroute the rainfall from the gutters, as part of it went straight down the side of the house and connected with some city-owned drain that might cause flooding at some other point, and we did that.  But no one at the time said we really needed a sump pump.  (I'm not even sure if they asked about it when I switched to the new insurance company.)

At any rate, last weekend, it was supposed to storm (and many people thought the Taste of the Danforth would be wiped out at least for one day), but it really didn't.  Instead, the East End was hit very, very hard with intense showers for about 15-20 minutes.  And it didn't even rain downtown, which just seems incredible.  So if the rain had been spaced out a bit more or ideally just bypassed my neck of the woods entirely, then this entire mess could have been avoided.  I'm pretty sure that the construction for the Ontario Line nearby, which often shakes the house all the way to the foundation isn't helping matters either.

I had briefly toyed with the idea of going to see Sheep in a Box at Carlton after work, but stayed a bit late instead and then came home.  My wife had been trying to call me but somehow I didn't get the message.  (This became a bit of a running theme of the evening.)  She said that there had been a lot of flooding and that the basement smelled terrible, which indicated that the worst had happened and that the drains that backed up were combined water/sewer pipes or something.

I was able to catch someone at our new insurance company just before they signed off for the evening (and I also checked to make sure that we had a water damages rider and that we were up to date on the insurance!).  Unfortunately, the email back from them didn't actually tell me who the contractor assigned to the case was, and this contractor apparently tried to call but the voice mail didn't actually go through.  This was incredibly unfortunate as the contractor had been around the corner on Egan (which is even lower than our street and was hit just as hard by flooding).  

There really wasn't all that much to be done in the evening.  I looked around a bit and pretty much everything in the bedroom downstairs had been impacted.  It was particularly annoying in that I had tried to clear up some space upstairs by taking a crate of LPs downstairs, only a few weeks prior to this, and they all were soaked beyond salvage.  I didn't see it but there had been water 4-6 inches deep pretty much everywhere downstairs, but it had retreated by the evening, though it definitely didn't smell great.  It seems likely that it came through the furnace room, as that seemed to have the highest watermarks and the floor was still quite damp, though the carpet everywhere was quite squishy (and disgusting when one stopped to think about it).

The next morning was spent trying to get the claims adjuster on the phone.  I finally got through to her and then got the contractor's number.  By the time I got through to him, he said he didn't have any crews available and that I should have contacted him yesterday evening when he was nearby.  He said he could send a crew Wed. morning.  I was pretty furious and asked the insurance company to reassign me to someone who could come by on Tues., but she said that seemed unlikely given the large number of flooding claims that they were dealing with, so I had to call back the contractor and eat humble pie and get an appointment for first thing Wed. morning.

I took most of the day to go through and see what could immediately be salvaged and what I wanted to try to salvage (or at least scan) even if it had clearly been soaked in the disgusting water.  One small consolation is that the many CDs downstairs had all been ripped before I took them downstairs, with the exception of two box sets (including a Tafelmusik one) that really seem to have come through relatively unscathed.  I do need to disinfect those box sets a few more times.  So many of the CDs seemed to be above the water, though I did hang onto 5 or so that were signed, and I guess I'll just scan the covers and dispose of them.  The LPs are pretty much a total write-off, though there were more (5 or so) which I hadn't recorded, and then Andrew Hill's Nefertiti, which I had recorded but there was a terrible electrical hum throughout, so it clearly has to be done again.  

I spread a lot of stuff out on the deck to dry out, which I am sure is not really the approved technique...

I can't remember, but I don't think I was particularly careful about wearing gloves on that first day, but I got much better as the week went on.  

In pretty much all cases books on the second shelf were ok.  The books on the bottom shelf near the washer/dryer were all toast.  Interestingly, the damage was fairly limited in the books on the bookcase in the bedroom.  If it had only been water, there would have been no issue.  I decided that I would replace a couple of the Gorey Amphigorey books, but the ones that are really rare (including a bunch of Krazy Kat daily strips and a signed copy of Rushdie's Step Across This Line), I would hang onto after drying them out.  Maybe this is a bad decision I will regret later.  I suspect in the long run, I will scan the Krazy Kat books and part with them, deferring the final decision for a while.  But I have so much scanning of photos and a handful of ultra rare comics to do in the meantime.

 

I'll just post a couple more photos of the progress of emptying out the basement (and even ripping out much of the dry wall), and then I really need to head out.

And this is the back deck, completely full of all our ruined stuff going off to the dump.  Sigh.

Moderately Productive Weekend

Sat. I actually got to the gym by 11 or so.  I put in a pretty thorough workout, with even 15 minutes of cardio worked in.  (I restarted All That Monk Business and quickly remembered that I thought Buddy Monk, one of the central characters is an out-and-out jerk, making it somewhat painful to keep reading, but I don't have that much longer to go...)  I then brought the groceries home, getting everything except for tuna, which I forgot.

It was supposed to storm pretty hard, but wrap up by 7 or so, so I decided to risk biking to work, dropping my yogurt and frozen fruit off for the following week, as well as leaving the bike in a nearby underground garage.  Then I hopped on the streetcar to hit 401 Richmond.  Gagne was pretty much the same as the last time, but there was a new exhibit at Red Head Gallery with six artists and their take on modern abstraction.  I then caught the Spadina streetcar up to Bloor.  I decided to stop in at BMV first and actually managed to sell off a couple of books and two of the CDs I had picked up (for very cheap!) in Chicago, so that was a bonus.  It was about 3:15 by the time I got to Bathhurst station, and I was torn between just heading over to Hot Docs and seeing if I could just make it to Bau-Xi and back in time.  (Summertime was playing there at 4.)  

In the end, I went over to Bau-Xi, and made a super quick run through the gallery.  I thought the upstairs exhibition was more interesting with a few photos from Michael Woolf's Transparent City series, so I guess it was worth risking it.  

The transit gods were basically in my favour, with the exception of just missing an express bus on the way back.  I had almost 15 minutes left when I was back on Bloor and Bathhurst, so I stopped into Dollarama, though the lines seemed crazy long.  Then there was a pretty long line for tickets for Summertime, but there was a guy looking to sell an extra ticket, and I paid him $10 (in cash which I had from BMV - sweet).  I didn't love the film.  I did find it took some chances, making it clear that Hepburn's character not only has sex outside of marriage, but that her beau is already married, though separated and estranged from his wife.  So that was risky.  But the film hinges so much on coarse stereotypes of Americans and American morality that I found it painful to watch.  Granted the entire film was shot on location in Venice, and the scenery was often incredible, though also painful in reminding me that I will likely not make it back to Italy.

Anyway, I probably should have gone straight to dinner, but I decided to see if I could pick up some items from the hold shelf at Robarts.  Of course, I got there at 6:08, and the library closes at 6 on the weekend.  It was particularly annoying that two nearby cafes also were closed, despite one saying that it was open until 7!  So I hustled down to Queen and ate at Ginger.  I was extremely upset to find that I had misplaced my debit card, probably losing it either at Dollarama or Hot Docs.  While I was waiting on the food, I logged into my bank and put a temporary hold on the card.  As upsetting as this was, probably losing a debit card is less disruptive than a credit card, where all the auto-pay settings would have to be updated.

I made it to The Hole over at TIFF with 10 minutes to spare.  I had forgotten a lot about this movie, including how crazy it is for this district, which seems under quarantine and practically emptied out, to have a fully stocked mini-grocery store run out of a storage unit of some sort.  (This actually reminded me a bit of some of the stores in Seattle's Pike Place or indeed this Asian mall in Burnaby, BC.)  Only a single customer ever came by, and yet the stock looked like it was constantly being refreshed.  Weird.  I also forgot how little action or dialogue occurs in the movie.  I'm not sorry I saw it again, but I doubt I would make it through a third viewing.

I dropped by work afterwards.  I didn't get a whole lot done, but I did get my time sheet submitted, which is one major stressor every week. 

As far as I can tell, it might have rained a small amount during the movie, but nothing like what they expected, so the people that risked it were able to have a pretty decent time at Taste of the Danforth or Dusk Dances, and the grass should have been fine for Dusk Dances on Sunday.

Sunday started off with my daughter telling me that she was ready for me to swap out the curtains in her room, so I did that.  Then I grabbed a few more things at the grocery store, I went swimming (and the pool was almost empty, so that was great), and I stopped by Robarts to pick up those DVDs and books.  I was hoping to hear back from Hot Docs.  I thought I could probably take the Danforth back until Chester or so, but in fact, the Taste of the Danforth stretched all the way from Broadview to Jones, so I had to divert.

I got home and saw I had a message from Hot Docs that indeed they had found my debit card, which was an enormous relief.  They were going to be open until 7:30, so I could pick it up on the way over to the Warm Reads thing.  I got a bit more reading in (only 70 pages left in The Odyssey!), then headed out just after 6, again having to divert around the Taste.

I didn't see as many people as I had hoped at the Warm Reads thing, though one of the actors from my Fringe play was there, as well as the director.  I didn't quite get my piece ready for submission, though I think I'll have it ready today.  I also wasn't picked for the Writer's Challenge.  So I definitely wondered if it was worth showing up, though it is good to keep up my connections, I suppose.  I didn't care much for the kick-off piece, but the others were interesting or quite good, and the last piece ("Come Together" by Dave Healey) was just hilarious.  So the evening ended on a high note, and then I had to bike home.

Dusk Dances 2016

Just a very quick note on this year's Dusk Dances in Withrow Park.  I enjoyed it quite a bit, maybe even more than last year. 

It starts off with a guy coming out of the audience and drinking some coffee and then starting to juggle.

 

The next dance was a Colombian-inspired dance with some really striking moves.

 

The third piece was a dance piece combined with ASL.  Interestingly, this was swapped out with a different piece also about deafness, though this was a piece based around an audiology test by an artist losing his hearing.  I didn't see this one.

The final piece is an Indian-inspired dance piece.

I actually went back a second time last night, though I left after the coffee/juggling piece, as my back is hurting a fair bit (and I didn't go swimming afterwards either, unfortunately).

Tonight is likely the last night to see and enjoy the piece.  It's looking like it will rain pretty heavily Friday and Saturday night, and then Sunday, the grass will likely still be pretty wet.  This is probably going to impact the Taste of Danforth as well.*

That's about it for now, though I thought I would celebrate that after many attempts, it looks like I have managed to grow milkweed in my front yard (to draw more monarch butterflies to the neighbourhood).  Let's see if it survives and comes back next year.  

Interestingly, some Queen Anne's Lace has taken root outside the fence, so I will see if I can replant it somewhere inside my yard where it will get at least some sun.

I've got to run now, but probably more later (assuming I'm not too tired from dropping by the Rex, which is the current plan). 

* I've never been a huge fan of Taste of the Danforth, as they don't seem to be able to run it without totally disrupting the 72 bus, which will probably mess me up this weekend.  I definitely wasn't happy that on Tuesday (many days before the start of the Taste) they had covered up almost all the bike racks on Danforth until the Taste was over (almost making me late for Dusk Dances).  They certainly don't do that for the car parking, as the drivers would lose their minds.  Again, the fucking double standards and the extreme deference to drivers in this city, even in Old Toronto, makes me want to scream!  And more seriously to think more and more seriously about moving to one of the bike havens in Europe, maybe Copenhagen.  It won't actually be good enough for cyclists here in my lifetime...