random act of kindness

ol'e next door had a surprize guest today. as i was waiting for a cab i noticed a fellow pull up in a truck with flowers in hand and ring her bell. he used to live in my house, in the basement apartment and thought he'd surprize her with a random act of kindness because he was in town and thinking about her. of course, ol'e is security aware so she doesn't answer the door unless she knows you're coming. so, i ran inside to call her to let her know to answer the door, a nice surprize was waiting. anyhow, just in case you though toronto was full of cold snobs. you're wrong!

bewitching hours

every night, between 4 and 6am my dreams are hit with a wave of restless, practical, worry-filled dreams. a sort of slow brooding venom. oh, sleep fairies -- please swoop in and kiss these black clouds away.

abandoned tv set

someone left a tv in our yard, next to our over flowing bin and hidden behind the tree. looks like a 30 inch, have no idea if it works or not. likely not.

our place is overflowing with wreckage. the bin delivery has been delayed because the cars are parked on the opposite side of the street until the 1st and the bin folks can't get in to replace it. dec 1st is when the switch happens.

we toured the house today and caught a glimpse of a few wet spots, one in the basement, one on the main floor. fingers crossed it's an easy fix. better for leaks to be exposed now, vs. when there's dry wall and hardwood to fret about.

it's looking like march will be move-in time. fingers crossed. ouija board tv to be broadcast from the tree later tonight. freaky voo-doo.

a gem

my crazy grandmother called today. (crazy as in quirky and endearing, wildly unpredictable, prone to wearing sparky things, leopard print and leather) anyhow she was telling me about a trip she took to Switzerland in 1975. she won the trip for selling a lot of swiss watches (she used to work at Birks in yorkville) and was charmed by the deluxe chocolates they left on her pillow. She stayed 14 days and gained 10lbs. she also loved the sophisticated trains. you could escape to another country in a matter of hours. she is mailing me a map from that trip.

she offered up this gem from my youth. she told a story of when i was a baby and had not even learned how to use a spoon yet, but i insisted on feeding myself, fingers and all. cottage cheese was my meal of choice. apparently my mother would let me loose in my high chair; the cottage cheese suddenly became couture. she offered it up as proof that i have been an independent, feisty type for years. note to self.

backwards and inside out

raked my first 5 bags of leaves at the house on sunday. the orange bags are stacked along the fence, like awards. it was one of those days that felt like a blur. in my mind it was cold out. in reality it was warm. i wore a thick cream sweater and a toque and ended up having to buy a t while i was out, along with work gloves from mark's work warehouse. i am now officially outfitted for home renos. the yellow work gloves are the proof. after the rake-athon, went to shoppers to pick up a prescription. no dice, they hadn't even ordered it yet. then i went to the bank machine at the grocery store. used to be an rbc machine. now it's one of those shady ATM ones. anyhow, i left my card in the machine after i took my cash and had a panick attack when i realized it was missing half an hour later. we went back to the shady atm and it was no where to be found. not in the lost and found, no where.

the other backwards and inside out moment occurred at lunch at swiss chalet. i was about to order the chicken on a kaiser and asked about the sides. what are fresh vegetables? i asked...meaning what kind of fresh vegetables are included and how are they prepared? the waitress replied, they are fresh vegetables. duh. i nearly lost it. there are many kinds of vegetables and many ways to prepare them. anyhow. i guess it's one of those things, i supposed i would turn off my brain too if i was stuck working a sunday afternoon at swiss chalet.

anyhow, i am off to a big party tonight, details to follow tomorrow. hopefully it won't be a backwards and inside out night.

snow

an arctic chill swooped into the city today. bring on the mittens. the funny thing is that my mind is still set in summer if not fall. however, i had a flash forward moment last night when i stepped into the sun room and imagined our new street and the umbrella tree covered in white. we were stumbling thru the darkened house with the hvac guy, beaming the flashlights into the rafters, nooks, and crannies. we found evidence of old wallpaper. there were rooms filled with piles of rubble. when the snow has come and gone, our house will have walls filled in, all the fixings.

silver suitcase

the doorbell rang and a package arrived. a shiny silver suitcase filled with uncle rico time machine-esque gadgets and crazy instructions for the device inside. it's called an ion cleanse. not for the overly analytical or non believing types. the gift brought on spy antics and "give us the micro film, i will never give it up!" banter.

freaky friday

it all began around 8:30am. i was trying to get somewhere, went to the wrong building. on the way in, i saw this crazy homeless man in a grey trench coat and red scarf. i went downstairs, this doesn't look right. maybe they redecorated. went back upstairs and onto the street. the crazy man said to me "can i help you? can i help you? can i help you?" spooky, surreal. so i ran back in the building, tried again. looked on the door, oh, they don't open until 9. thought i'd kill time at the starbucks on the corner. on my way there, i passed left over spagetti spilled out on the street, assorted clothes and a long piss stain on the side walk. the window at starbucks was all done up with christmas cheer and it's early enough in the season that it made me feel happy, not cynical and overwhelmed. ran into someone i knew who offered to buy me a coffee, i looked around for a place to sit and there he was again. "do you want this?" he asked and held out a napkin. he was making small talk about remembrance day with anyone who would listen but in general his entire vibe was twilight zone. anyhow, 9am rolled around and i ran back to the building only to realize i did in fact have the wrong office and i ventured up the street to find the right one. which was open at 8, and would have meant no crazy guy, coffee etc. had i just gone there in the first place. my mind was a blur in the rush of unproductive and oddly unsettling events. i jumped in a cab and headed for home.

blue light special

woke up at 4am and decided to have a glass of water. as i downed the glass, a strange blue light blinked at me. seemed to be coming from the tap itself. was it a sign? i must have imagined it. just as i was about to turn around again, it flashed again. freaky voo doo. maybe there was a prankster in our alleyway beaming spy cams into the place. turns out that light goes off when the filter needs to be changed. perfectly logical. and here i was thinking aliens were sending me a message.

happy new year

snapshot: romantic dinner by flashlight on a makeshift table, in front of the vintage fireplace surrounded by the bare bones of our house. we wandered around and marveled at the new structural beams holding our house up high. when you see the place this undone you really feel the magnitude of the project. this is a big job.

this week has been a bit of a wake up call on many fronts. i went to a workshop on business development on monday and learned a few things.

apparently, there are two types of people in this world, those that stay in bed and those that get out there and put their oars in the water and row. (sounds ridiculous now but it will make sense when you read the next part)

everyday you have to make a choice about whether you want to live above the line or below it.

O - Ownership
A - Action.
R - Responsibility
____________________________________

B - Blame
E - Excuses
D - Deny

it's new year's eve a little early. time to pick up those oars and row, baby.

proof of work: lean green t

made this t one for turtle boy, age 2. actual t size: age 3-4.

leaves like gold

the umbrella tree out front of our new house has dark leaves. almost black. all the trees on the street have been turning golden shades of autumn bliss for weeks but our tree remained steadfast. we thought we had a mutant on our hands. as i turned the corner up the walk on sunday, i galloped with glee. our tree finally came around and shined a golden smile. a smattering of gold, carmel and pumpkin leaves splashed across the lawn and from above. skipping thru and kicking up leaves, celebration ensued. one wing in heaven is definately done up in this shade.

neighbours: the drama continues

after the mad camera incident, the drama continued. gretchen and thom made things difficult for the workers by making it clear that not one drop of dirt was to fall onto their property as the work continued. this meant the workers had to go to extra lengths to accommodate, making the whole process more arduous and time consuming. every time the workers were even close to a tree on the other side or the property line, gretchen exploded out from her log cabin to yell at the workers. hassle city.

in the meantime, the garage on dN's parents lot went up as planned. this caused a new source of anxiety. under the cover of darkness, gretchen and thom hired their own team of workers to build a 10ft high fence behind the garage. (the average fence height is 6 or 7ft) i guess they thought they would sneak it in. dN's mum happened to be onsite early that day and noticed the commotion of foreign workers tromping across her lot, dirt flung on side. apparently the same rules don't apply.

dN's mum decided to investigate. she spoke with gretchen and thom's construction manager and told them this was the first she'd heard about a fence and had not authorized their workers to come onto her property to do the work. she said that ordinarily it would have been no problem, but that gretchen and thom gave them such a hard time when they were doing construction recently that it didn't seem fair not to impose the same restrictions.

outraged, the construction manager confronted thom, saying "what are you doing?" he demanded payment immediately for work done and ordered his workers off the job until further notice. he was mad because he didn't want to be sued. usually neighbours need an agreement before work on shared property can begin. he told thom that if he was to build the fence they wanted, without going on the other property he would have to move the fence two feet in and remove a half dozen trees in the process.

now, gretchen and thom were in the mood for compromise. they called for a meeting. dN's dad took to referring to the fence as "your Berlin Wall". he even mentioned adding another storey above the garage next year. dN's mum said ideally she would like to plant trees instead of a fence between the two houses.

who knows what will happen next? stay tuned...

bin #3

nov 1, the day after fairies and spider men tromped thru the neighbourhood in search of loot, bin #3 arrived. i waited on the stoop for 45 minutes, watching the golden leaves from across the street swoop to the grass below. i probably looked like a bizarre remnant of halloween sitting on the porch dressed in black, with my rock and roll hat pulled low, like a kid from the hood. anyhow, the bin was going to be late so i left a cheque in the mailbox in a borrowed envelope. it was a slow 45 minutes, nothing to read, no one to talk to, nothing to do but wait and listen, watch. inside the wires and boards hung like skeletons in a haunted house. a murky cloud of dust erupting from the place as workers smashed. most of the electricity has been turned off. looking into the sky from the porch, i tried to muster the power to see into the future. imagining the place one year from now. signs point to good.

neighbours

went up north last friday to drop off some of the plumbing fixtures etc at dN's parents cottage until they are ready to be installed. his parents are retired and living in their cottage while their new home is being built near by. the new place is a kit home, kind of amazing that in a matter of a few months the whole thing will be complete. the builders brought the home to the lot, pre built in three pieces. anyhow, next door to their new place, gretchen and thom have had a log cabin home. for years they have looked onto the lot next door, covered in lovely swaying trees. gretchen and thom are also retired. they are political types, he is the president of the neighbourhood committee. at first it was all smiles, nicey, nicey. but slowly, their alter egos surfaced.

they kept pushing to see the plans and pushing to have a say where dN's parents placed their house on the lot.
neighbours dropped by and mentioned that gretchen and thom were bad mouthing the new house around the hood. annoying but somewhat understandable since obviously any house is going to lose out when compared against a lot full of trees. it's an odd social phenomenon though. not only the bad mouthing but the reporting of bad mouthing back to the offended. then the drama began. everyday, thom pulled out a camera, stood firmly planted on his lot, without a word to anyone and an air of hostility, and started taking photos of all the workers and the house going up. their own paparazzi. why would he take photos of a house he loathed? it began to make the workers uneasy. at first, he was ignored and tolerated but finally, dN's mum confronted him. asked him why he was taking photos and to please stop. supposedly he was making a photo album as a gift. a nice foil but pretty unlikely given the bad mouthing and growing angst between the two sides. give the gift of stalking this year, fill your neighbour's hearts with paranoia and venom. push them to threaten to call the cops! yes, a lovely spirit of giving.

aside, somewhat related: our own german friend next door has been observed smoking out his window and butting out into a tiny gold pot sitting on the roof of the bay window. all we see is an extended arm out the window depositing ash into his pot of gold.

a theory

amid all the racing antics of drivers last night, we came upon a theory. we were talking about a radio show on salt that was on air recently and remarking how amazing it is that our blood has the same make-up, same levels of salt as the ocean years ago. it's like we are fingerprints of an ancient time. so we got to thinking, if we are all made of star stuff, maybe soul mates come from the same cosmic matter and there is a magnetism in the universe that wants to unite all the broken pieces. so our lives are guided by this hidden magnetic pull that forces us to collide again and reunite. just a theory. did i mention it's 6:30 am? you heard it first here.

the mind, she races

it is just before 5am and my mind is racing again. i wish there was a gigantic off switch that could turn the racing practical flood into zen-like blankness. even yoga had limited effectiveness this week. sounds like someone is taking a shower upstairs so i am not the only early riser this friday morn, i wonder if it's the aftermath of the full moon. jumpstarting our collective souls into restlessness. by the 31st we'll be full on zombies.

last night we checked out taps and bathtubs in the home design hub of town. we met this quirky lady m who wink winked at us when she found out dN was an architect, saying she'd give us a 20% discount on some of the architectural designer taps we were looking at, if he registered with them as a professional. obviously they want to encourage people in the industry to recommend their wares to clients. the streets were alive with quasi-race car drivers, speeding ahead at lightning speed, ignoring decorum and swerving with abandon. on our way out, we ran into sweet ol'e from next door and we had a chat. when we asked how halloween was in the neighbourhood, if lots of kids come by, she said -- no, would you let your kids out with all the kooks out there? apparently they parade up the street in costume and then head to the school for a safe shell out of treats and halloween fun. no tricks only treats.

flashback: bolinas, fall 2004

one week spent in a tiny portugese fisherman's cottage on fern avenue in bolinas, CA. there was a calendar of tides left by the front door and nooks and crannies filled with nature books. the clawfoot tub overlooked the garden. we discovered manka's, a deluxe former hunting lodge with incredible food, simple beds. there was a smattering of pumpkins up the walk, and dribbles of poetry beside each table, an illuminated globe, vintage chess set and fur throw next to the roaring fire. starry eyed flounder blinked up at us. bolinas is the kind of place that keeps to itself, adamantly. we explored the curves of the coastline, laughing at oddities like a gas station with operating hours that excluded those between 9-5.

is it a full moon?

noticed an increased level of crank-ola in dealings with co-workers, neighbours, and the like over the last two days. is it a full moon?

another bin: gasp!

went to the house this morning as the first bin was carted away and the second, (extra volume) bin was delivered. even fewer branches were snipped as it shuffled into place this time. Definitely makes you hold your breath while the event is going down. had a moment bonding with the structural guy demolishing our kitchen upstairs. he mentioned that he met thelma recently. of course! did she mention she used to live there? you're kidding. that woman gets around.

the structural beam in the basement was removed and temporary walls are in place until the new beam is installed. the place has a general cloud of dust lingering at all times. the back room is filling up with all the trim dN has salvaged. we'll have a big job stripping and refinishing but it will be beautiful.