July 31, 2005
Holiday Grilling
It must be all those memories of shoveling snow...
When I moved to Toronto from New York it was in the summer, and I remember noting a few differences about life in warm weather right away. First off there was an additional long holiday weekend celebrated with the first weekend in August. And second... the weather was truly savored. Sitting on restaurant patios was greatly enjoyed. By comparison, my recent outdoor dining in New York back then was more likely to include soot as a condiment.
Now I have adapted to my new home and relish the all too brief summer. We have spent lots of time this season at home, entertaining by the pool in the warm sun. The neighbors packed up and headed out west for an extended camping trip, so for the most part we have been bathed in silence.
This holiday weekend we did more of the same, and also spent a lovely afternoon enjoying a South African inspired BBQ brunch on a terrace downtown.
We all know how fast winter will return.
July 27, 2005
Happy Motoring!
Last Friday morning was quite typical to start. It was the end of the work week and the day before my birthday, so I was pretty upbeat and relaxed when I left home in the morning for my drive downtown to work.
Between our house and the expressway downtown there is a connecting road that has a number of garages for tire repair, and as I drove past one I noticed an older model Jeep or Jimmy coming towards me out of one of the tire repair shops. As it got closer I saw the gate on the back where the spare is mounted swing out... and the tire that should have been secured flew off the truck and bounced onto the road, flying up into the air.
It was headed straight for the driver's side windshield. Quickly. Like, shit your pants quickly. I suddenly felt like I was in the middle of an action movie trailer.
There was no time to check to see if anyone was driving in the lane next to me... and the only way I was going to avoid being hit was to swerve right, and fast. My car dug into the turn and the tire whooshed by the window inches from my head. The lane next to me was clear... luckily.
As I looked back through the rear view mirror I watched the tire bounce over the railroad tracks and forced one car off the road completely. The driver of the car that lost the tire kept on driving... I wonder when he or she was going to notice the lack of spare tire.
At the next traffic light a few hundred yards further along the same road, my heart was still racing; fueled by more "close call" adrenaline than I really needed.
July 18, 2005
Hot Birthday Forecast
Who knew that summer in Toronto could be just like it is in Morocco? Actually it is probably worse, since we have smog in addition to endlessly sweltering heat.
I know you can't just assume that a hot summer indicates the arrival of global warming, but the number and nature of the hurricanes we have seen in the Gulf of Mexico already should set off alarms. Didn't hurricane season really start kicking in later in the summer months before?
Time marches on...and if we are determined to kill ourselves off by making the planet inhospitable to our own species... well, we deserve it then.
As for me, I have yet another birthday at the end of the week and I am glad to report I can still climb stairs and not pee myself. Alert the media!
July 12, 2005
Zoom In
Our neighbor told me that I destroyed her "golden raspberries" a couple of years ago... but here is proof that she didn't know what she was growing even when I supposedly killed them.
On another topic, do you think that a dog swim theme based park could possibly fly as a commercial venture?
Of course... simply posing is enough for lots of species.
July 8, 2005
Memories to Go
My parents came up to Toronto for a visit a couple of weeks ago. They brought two large boxes that contained books and various things from my last apartment in Boston. For the last 15 years or so these boxes sat in the back of my parents garage collecting dust; and when my Dad brought the subject up on the phone, I almost told him just to toss them. What could they possibly contain other than ancient, musty books that I would never want to read again?
We dragged them through the front door when my parents arrived, but it was more than a week after that when Mark and I finally managed to sort through the contents. At first it was just as I expected... a smattering of old and odd reference and textbooks.
But as we started to rifle through them, things started to fall out from between pages and covers. First it was three photos of me from high school, followed by love letters and baby pictures of my one and only girlfriend from the time. Further down in one box were menus from my pastry chef days in Boston. After that was a now dead lover's journal from the late 70's, describing the start of our relationship in wrenching detail.
At the bottom of one box lay some hotel pans from catering gigs... and, somewhat mysteriously, a badly tarnished silver sommelier's tasting cup. I had forgotten most of these things even existed... but then the memories began to flood back, especially when reading the furtive love letters from so long ago.
And I remember this shirt... however unremarkable that might seem. It was the 70's for crying out loud! I wore it for years. It was quite bittersweet to revisit all these tickets to the past.
What can we learn from this? Don't throw out your babyhood with the boxed dishwater... that's what.
July 6, 2005
Poolish
What is going on? It is early summer and yet I feel trapped as if locked inside during a three day blizzard.
It looks like teams of shrinks are needed to fix my problems... or perhaps I need to call Tom Cruise and he can hook me up to whatever machines they use in his cult.