It still was raining Sun. morning but much more lightly (kind of what I expected Sat. to turn into, though it mostly stormed yesterday), so I biked off to the R.C. Harris Water Filtration Plant, which is this massive structure in the Beaches. I'm not sure this particular building is featured in Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion, but other key infrastructure like the viaducts that Harris had the foresight to convince the city to build are in there. I really ought to try to reread this book, maybe in the fall/winter.
It's harder than one might imagine to photograph water in the holding tanks...
Then I went down the hill to the pumping station.
While I get a kick out of this, it really was the same as on my first tour, and I probably won't need to go back a third time.
Per usual, I was running a bit late but biked over to Jimmie Simpson to go swimming. I got there at 12:30, and figured I could rescue the rest of the day. However, apparently only an hour or so before, they had some huge HVAC malfunction and they decided it was not safe to let people swim. So that was super disappointing. I'll have to call in the late afternoon and see if the issue is fixed, or perhaps I will just swim at Matty Eckler. I'm pretty sure they have evening lane swimming at Matty Eckler tonight.
On the way back, I saw an enormous tree that had fallen across the road and completely blocked off Logan. No idea how long it will take them to clear this.
Then I started taking care of a few housekeeping items, like registering for a conference. It's in the fall, but the early bird rates expire soon. (I probably could have held off on this.) I also got my time sheet in, which is always stressful, and got a small change in the script to the director. Then I looked at the clock and it was already 3, and I was probably going to be late to get to Paradise to see Adaptation. I think at some point it just got so difficult to get anyone to go and use the free ticket I had (I asked at least 10 people) that I lost interest and some part of me decided not to go. I actually think had I managed to get the swimming in, I would have made it to the movie, even though they are completely unrelated things.
Anyway, I changed my plans around and went in to the office and did a bit more scanning of pages from the Hirut show and read quite a bit of poetry, as that is due back at Robarts pretty soon, and I can't renew those books. I decided that I didn't warn to be late for Warm Reads, so I set out to grab dinner at 5:45. I went to Dough Box around the corner. I guess they were really backed up but didn't tell me that. After waiting 15-20 minutes and getting more and more anxious, I could see that they still hadn't even started my order, so I asked for my money back. They gave me cash (which means that they kept the tip, which was totally unearned!). On the plus side, I got one of these new toonies with the CN Tower on it, which is pretty cool.
I still was running behind schedule, so instead of taking the streetcar, I went up to Line 2, took that to Ossington, then caught the bus south to College. I did make it just in time. I didn't read any parts, but I did chat with quite a few people, including the director. It was a pretty good time, even though the day certainly would have been a bit better if I had managed to follow my original plans. Gotta run now...
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