Bill 45: Ontario Reefer Madness!

Oh Cannabis! The "True North" strong and free! We stand on guard for thee .... or do we? Maybe the only real stand about to take place in Ontario, Canada is once again for somebody or anybody else?! Just not the average pleb like you and me? Go ask the provincial Wynne Liberal government and it's corporate, neo con, big business masters, if you are at all in doubt!

To Wit: On April 20th, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau preempted "420" protests across Canada. You might imagine our surprise when he suddenly announced out of the blue that marijuana would finally be legalized next year! Undaunted, Toronto Ontario's 420 marchers proceeded down Yonge Street with our victory flags held high. A happy, harmless cloud of pot smoke soon engulfed jam packed Dundas Square. As it spread across the downtown core, Toronto's huge lunchtime office and campus crowds soon emptied out into the all ready crowded streets full of pot smokers to spontaneously join in the festive celebrations. Endless lines of tour buses pulled up adding to the joyful bustle and buzz! 

420 Toronto 2016: Sampling the wares at Yonge + Dundas Square!

It was like nothing I have ever quite seen before in "Toronto the Good"! Finally, there seemed to be light at the end of the long, dark reefer madness tunnel of marijuana bummers, burns, ripoffs and despair. Torontonians of all backgrounds, colour, and age were briefly joined together in one big huge sigh of relief and joy! Perhaps our big payoff after years of suffering under the austerity measures of big business, banks and the Harper Conservative government had finally arrived?

Maybe not! Since Trudeau was elected last year on a platform to "legalize it", grass root Cannabis shops and lounges have been sprouting up and prospering all across our city. Toronto is quickly becoming Canada's Cannabis capital, providing a safe, friendly and very comfortable place to live and visit for medical and recreational marijuana users alike. Despite the worldwide economic turmoil, our great city seemed poised like never before to become Canada's #1 Summer Tourist hot spot. Along with it's many other attractions, Toronto is now also rich with plenty of new, small grass root businesses, cheap, friendly reefer and an 79 cent [US] dollar to boot! 

Justin: Ummm ... OK! OK! Smoke 'em if ya got 'em, eh! Like this ....

Pardon us small, inconsequential Canucks if we hope that the decades long, nasty, prohibition against "weed" might finally be over. So to the past excuses from which it was hatched, based upon class, race and political warfare! Steeped in deep prejudice and steered through parliament and courts by our nation's ruthless, self serving big business interests! Together, they still march in step to the beat of their US corporate counterparts, in the long since failed and discredited, so called "War Against Drugs"! [History Lesson] Forgive us if a proper way to regulate quality, remove the criminal element, and better keep it out of the hands of minors seems at hand! [Trudeau] For a brief moment anyway, as April drew to a close, it seemed our ignoble past had finally gone up in smoke! Had the 21st Century finally arrived?

Not if big business has it's way! Alas! The province's pharmacy and tobacco and other corporate interests have also been watching very carefully too. It should come as no surprise that they aren't impressed at all! Hardly! How else to explain that on April 28th Premier Kathleen Wynne's Liberal government suddenly passed the ill advised and nefarious Bill 45: Smoke Free Ontario and E-Cigarette Act 2016? [Read!] 

No matter that Premier Wynne, with thorough legal briefs from the law firm of Bennet Jones, was ready to throw Ontario's doors open for small business marijuana users and operators at the local level! [Legal Brief] Bill 45, once it takes effect on July 1st,  again threatens to again plunge us small folk back into the deep, dark, bottomless hole of corporate greed and naked self interest!

Wynne: No! No pot 4 you! My corporate pals know wot to do!

In case you are in doubt, let's briefly examine some of Bill 45's little known implications for our province's pot consumers + small business owners alike! Under the Wynne Liberal's Strengthening Ontario's Smoking + Vaping Laws [2016] ammendments to the Smoke Free Ontario and E-Cigarette Act [2015]:

Medical Cannabis is lumped together with recreational pot + E-Cigarettes! Medical marijuana patients will no longer be able to safely and comfortably buy and consume their weed and other paraphernalia in our province's mom and pop small biz dispensaries, shops and vapour lounges. Ditto, casual or quiting smokers who prefer the slow but easier and much more health conscious alternative of buying or using an E-cigarette instead of stopping "Cold Turkey". Or of wrecking their teeth on nicotine gums!Or sending their heart beat racing with a notorious nicotine patch!

No vaping or smoking cannabis will be allowed anywhere that tobacco is publicly banned! Both pot entrepreneurs and medical patients alike, along with the new crowds of recreational marijuana users come 2017, will once again be forced back into hiding! Their combustibles subject to arrest and seizure! How ironic! There isn't any clear medical proof that second hand vapour is dangerous like tobacco! [Medical] [Smoke] But medical users will be forced back into hiding! Vapour lounges and clubs won't any longer be allowed. Nor a medical stroll in the park either! Matter of fact, if you live in Ontario Public Housing, it will even be illegal to toke at home too! Thank you, Kathleen! Must be good news indeed for the criminal elements lurking in the dark forbidden places where they so easily find their prey!

Toronto Indie Pot Biz Threatened!

No Retailing of Vapourizers Allowed! Vaping unlike smoking does not release toxins into ones lungs or the air that others must breathe -but no matter! [Vapour] [Lungs] Medicated edibles? They remain an alternative, but they might very well not be agreeable to many users! Medical patients in particular, will again be forced into seeking unhealthy alternatives for their condition instead of being able to safely vape their weed!

No Retail Display of Other Goods Allowed Either! Merchants won't be able to display, answer questions, nor allow consumers to test the different strains and strengths of weed like they would any other product. Ditto the sampling of edibles, vapourizers or any other paraphernalia. Also included are the horticultural "grow your own" supplies otherwise allowed by law for medical marijuana patients!

No more safe, comfortable Cannabis Lounges Are Allowed! If the new law isn't challenged, big business can move in later to grab the entertainment and retail trade for themselves. Watch for the big tobacco companies to take over the E-Cigarette trade! Watch the LCBO and Shoppers Drug take over marijuana marketing and sales for themselves instead. Let's face it, it's too much of a cash cow! They don't want the very small time entrepreneurs and users who suffered under our oppressive and exploitive marijuana laws to now finally prosper and flourish instead. As for marijuana's naturopathic uses? Without doubt, the huge pharmaceutical companies will want to protect their huge monopoly on profits from that too!

420 Protester expresses her opinion on Bill 45 to Wynne! 

As a medical marijuana patient, I enjoy my weed! It's a safe alternative to Oxycontin and the other horrible chemical prescription drugs that I have been prescribed since my workplace injury teaching Special Ed. [School Daze] I don't drink booze either. Blech! So whatever happens, I will continue in my own merry way to toke at home in Toronto and the countryside with my own tunes, recreational activities, family and friends. 

Let me be frank [or David]; like many old school political activists, my days of going out on the town to party, protest and riot on the spur of the moment are now often infrequent at best. However, by and large, my experience with our local marijuana scene has been that most indie marijuana users and sellers, both medical and recreational, are politically null and void today. Still, it is they who will now need to arise and carry the torch across the finish line with Kathleen Wynne standing in the way!

Tourism Toronto sez: "Do lunch here!"

Fortunately, the CFBA [Cannabis Friendly Business Association] is helping organize the good fight across Ontario to hopefully give it some political direction. They are currently involved in providing PDF info flyer's, cards, letters and petitions explaining all that is at stake in much more detail @ [Here!] [There!] Please help! They've got some good stuff! For example, as their "Petition to Premier of Ontario Kathleen Wynne to have the Ontario Liberals reconsider having medical marijuana in the Smoke-Free Ontario Act" states:

We the undersigned agree that if the Ontario Liberals include medical marijuana in the amendments to the Smoke-Free Ontario Act ... they would be infringing on the basic human rights of the approximately 30,000 medical users ...

Denying the patients the ability to utilize their medication when and where needed purely based on the type of medication is preposterous. One wouldn't question someone taking an asthma inhaler in public, why outlaw another medication by amending the Act?

If this change is allowed to happen a person could be charged for medicating anywhere but in their own home. In addition it would make vapour lounges, businesses that have operated efficiently with little to no community complaint some for over a decade, illegal and would force their owners out of their livelihoods.

These establishments operate in the same respect as bars do, with the major difference being that patrons supply their own marijuana/extracts versus acquiring alcohol at the establishment, where adult patrons enter with knowledge of potential health risks involved with partaking. With scientific evidence proving that both tobacco and alcohol are significantly more harmful than marijuana, we the undersigned wonder what is the basis for this addition to the Act?

Please note that the CFBA are also currently attempting to raise the necessary funds for their lobbying and legal expenses and fees. One of their first tasks is to seek a court injunction for the protection of medical marijuana patients. It's the patients basic constitutional rights that are most immediately and obviously at stake as a result of the Wynne governments ill conceived Neo Lib exercise in Corporate butt kissing! 

As Canuck as ....

CFBA plans also include a municipal campaign for the fair and proper licensing of the provinces cannabis shops and lounges to resist the corporate takeover of our provinces all ready existing small business marijuana community. They also plan to lobby the financial sector to remove the "Anti Cannabis Clause" in their merchant underwriting process.

Enough is enough! My Ontario does not include Bill 45 and the Wynne government's corporate marijuana agenda! Let's share these links and get involved in whatever ways we can! We've come so close! Yet we are still so far away! Let's fight for a truly legal, local grass roots business and consumer weed community all of our own. Stop the BS now, before it's too late!

In solidarity!

David C

Pax + Solidarity with all my good budz!

MORE LINKS

Spliff Magazine: Toronto Pot News y Views @ Online!

Toronto Now Magazine's 420 "Weed Issue" is @ Now

Article on Bill 45 and Your Vaping Rights in Ontario @ IdealVapes

Media Awareness Project: Latest Pot News Links from Across Canada @ Archive

Harper: Canadian Reefer Madness with Lots of Entertaining Links @ Blog!

Bob Marley + The Wailer Reviews! Part 1 @ Here Part 2 @ Here! Part 3 @ Here! Part 4 @ There!

Hi! Hi! Hi! My Visit to Bob Marley's Home in Jamaica @ Smile Jamaica!

Stoned: On The Beach in Jamaica @ Special Report!

Reefer Madness [1937]: The Original Movie! @ Youtube

Reefer Madness [2005]: The Showtime Remake @ Youtube

Sweet Marijuana [1934] Excerpt @ Youtube

Cheech y Chong's Dave's Not Here [Animated Short] @ Youtube

COMMENTS:

Toronto: January Thaw!

Talking about the weather is not usually a topic that interests me. Nor would I bother to give it more than passing notice in my blogs. It's often what boring people talk about, a safe social discourse for folks who really have nothing else to say. To be kind, it can oil the social mechanism to break the ice, as a conversation starter but in and of itself is an often pointless discussion. I am not one to let the topic drag on myself.

However, this winter has been quite remarkable here in Toronto. A lot of other North American places too I am sure. We just had a polar vortex sweep south across eastern Canada and the United States. To say it was a deep freeze is too kind. In Toronto alone, the temperature, with the wind chill factored in reached minus 40 degrees celsuis one day last week. Remarkable. Almost unheard of. The other days weren't much better.

A nice thing about retirement, which I have quite come to enjoy, is that when the weather isn't nice, I don't go outside. All week the weatherman warned not to unless you had too. I didn't. It's hard to believe I went almost a week without going outside.

A pet retirement project of mine, one I have long looked forward to, is reorganizing our home. Every closet, drawer, my endless collections of music and books, also the many artifacts and artwork from our many travels. Then there's clothes that don't fit. I lost about 25 pounds right away after I retired; my union paunch so to speak, from too many long meetings, late hours and junk food eaten on the run. My weight does vary, so I want to keep two sets of clothes, fat and skinny. Just the best of them mind you. In addition there are boxes and boxes of paper, files, and binders from school and office, a teaching careers worth, that I can finally dispose of once and for all!

For the last 5 years at least we have lived in a state of organized chaos at home. Never dirty or too messy mind you, just not well organized. I'm always looking for things. Misplacing them. The cold winter has certainly proved accommodating that way, and I am well on the road to accomplishing my goal.

So after a week of this, all spent indoors, I decided that with the sudden thaw, as of Saturday morning, I would go out for a nice long walk downtown Toronto. I like to do that. It's good exercise. Mostly I just check out the music and book stores. Have coffee looking out a cafe window, also find somewhere to go for dinner. Just alone by myself, enjoying my solitude while Janet went out with her girlfriends, doing their thing.

The fog was thick as soup on my drive west along Sheppard Avenue to park at the subway station. Amazing! The snow was quickly evaporating, and the fog swirls around my car made it hard to see more than one or two car lengths ahead the whole way. I parked in the near empty subway lot, now a huge lake if only a few centimetres deep. Taking the University Line south I got off at Osgoode Station, near Toronto City Hall. Any remaining snow had turned to slush. Skaters circled the sloshing wet rink under the dark skyscrapers overhead, the upper floors disappearing into the mist. Everything was dark, even dirty, stripped of colour, growth, and the snow. Just very plain and desolate. A Skyscraper Provincial Park of sorts lost in the still, quiet, spooky fog. I walked over to Yonge St, then north to Bloor Station. Hard packed ice strips lined some sidewalks still, but otherwise no, the blizzard, the snow, everything was now melted. Gone. Taking the subway west to Bathurst Street I came above ground to find more of the same.

It was so moody and ethereal. I thought I'd take photos of whatever grabbed my eye on my cellphone camera. That is what I am sharing with you here today on my blog. The January thaw is perhaps just a respite, a reprieve, God only knows what the crazy weather will bring next. Anyway, I hope you all had a chance this weekend to just get out, and walk around a bit if nothing else, taking it all in and enjoying the break in the weather in its own offbeat way.

It's not good to ever be too busy to just stop and look at the world around. Nope. I don't think so.

Cheers!

David C

Ye TSU Olde Stone Cottage Pub

Thursday:

I awoke an hour early this morning, lying in the dark, thinking of all the things I needed to do today, school, union, home. I nodded off again til the alarm went off. It was still dark. After breakfast Janet and I kissed good bye and went our separate ways to work. Driving along Sheppard and up the backstreets to JCM, I'm listening to some Blue Note jazz, "Jean Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa" on the car stereo. Funky in it's own way but still won't they ever end, these seemingly endless winter days?

Yes they will. Today is a moment in time. It's mid February and we are off to the annual TSU Teachers Pub at the Olde Stone Cottage in Scarborough. I admit, I got lost. I was born in Toronto. I've lived in Toronto all my life, but in the west end. When I cross Yonge Street, anywhere north or south of the crosstown highway 401, I might as well be on Mars.

No matter. The pub is hopping when I arrive. The waitress is bringing out huge plates of wings, and fries. I get my drink. There's our TSU east end crowd. Our teacher pubs are a pretty good way to end a school day, begin another school night, and try to beat the winter blahs. Only tomorrow is a PD day. This is the long Family Day weekend in Ontario. Without students it's all but a four day weekend, as far as teaching goes. That's very timely. Second semester classes are up and running. Marks are in. It's real busy now but March break isn't too far off, just far enough, for a good excuse to toss back a drink or two with my teacher colleagues and friends.

Once again our Social Committee is hosting a simply great member event. We sign in and get our two complimentary drink tickets. I toss my trench coat and hat over a chair and get down to some much needed good times free of care. There's Angie who's teaching Math with us at McGuigan now. Helene and Raphael our Beginning Teacher chair and staff rep arrive from St. Mikes. Antonella's here from Fraser. There's lots of teachers from our east end schools; Pope John Paul 2, Blessed Mother Theresa, Fraser; Neil, St. Pats, and Newman; the teacher canon of Catholic saints. Everyone's sitting back and stretching out as the sun sets and another long winter night settles upon us.

I am pleasantly surprised how many of you recognised me from this blog. Joe from Chaminade says he's read me, seen my picture and knew me right away. I am honoured. Ottavio and I discuss the political scene. Craig and the Johnson crowd wave hello. Craig put in many long hours for Beginning Teachers. Hey, here's a volleyball tip for anybody who's reading. Yes it's almost time again. Yes, the date had to be rolled back to book the PJ2 gym for a Friday night. April 20th sounds right, if I were to tell you about it here. Please keep practicing and wait for the official announcement.

Our executive show up. President Jansen answers member questions by the bar. Second Vice President Bruno and I find Counsellor Szollosy meeting and greeting folks by the pool tables, and sit down for some teacher union talk, jokes and good cheer. Answer some member inquiries. Frank knows his Bill 168 Teacher Health and Safety act very well. Counsellor Martelli takes care of our member's questions in the main bar as everyone enjoys the evening. Perhaps there's a hint of detente in the cozy bar as our post Christmas exec clicks into gear to wrap up the tasks at hand, and consider what is to be done, to further help our members. The planning begins for next year.

It's pub night but of course there's lots of teacher talk and questions, a lot of speculation on the upcoming contract talks and the Drummond Report pior to the Ontario March budget. Come spring and the provincial political scene will be heating up too with Harris like whiffs of education cuts to come, especially if Tim Hudak's Conservatives can sway public opinion their way. But tonight the conversation is light, less serious.

February is the shortest month, yet it can seem to drag on forever. Come March the winter freeze will start to lift. From there the days will quickly speed up with the summer vacation approaching fast. There are classes, marks, TSU committees, the Annual General Meetings and a unit election to wrap up first. All this and more, but I don't want to wish my life away, daydreaming about summer too much, as tempting as that can be.

As I leave to warm up my car, Ms. Oakley shouts out the directions home. Thanks Theresa! I turn on the stereo, and pull out on the street for a quick trip across the top of the city back home in the west end. It's just been a generally all around nice day, despite everything that the deep of winter brings. As the lights of the Olde Stone Cottage disappear in my rear view mirror, I can't help but sigh and admit to myself that winter or not, life is pretty good.

For more stories about Yonge St. Toronto see my July Blog Archive below...

Welcome to 2012!

Yup! Here we are. I have been up to a whole lot of nothing and quite enjoying it. School doesn't go back til next Monday because we went right up to the 23rd this year, and are entitled to two weeks off. I like it. It was rushed before Christmas but now all the hoopla is over, most everybody else has gone to work and I got our home to myself.

I slept in until about 9am. Paid off a few bills online. Headed out to pick up some Japanese cds I had ordered. They make great quality cds, and classic/ prog rock is still very popular there. Everything is exacting down to the mini-lp sleeves, the inserts, and the mastering is usually quite excellent. Clear. Good sound stage. Not too much bass like a lot of our own domestic releases these days. Boomba-boomba-boomba etc. Not to my liking.

So there I was downtown Toronto at Bathurst and Bloor St West around lunch. It was freezing cold, but sunny, no snow on the ground. I was dressed up warmly, still it is kind of dreary. Life has pretty much returned to normal, with most folk back at work today. I walked around a bit. Visited BMV, probably my favourite local bookstore. Lots of remainders and the like, very reasonably priced. I bought two books, literary studies about the writings of Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. The Beat writers. I always loved the beats. I think with Burroughs it was his dry sardonic wit, with Kerouac his stream of consciousness, Rimbaud type thing.

Actually, at 18 I hitch hiked across Canada to British Columbia. I had my backpack, bundled up with a wok, pup tent, change of clothes and a sleeping bag. Plus a copy of Kerouac's "On the Road", in my back pocket which I read for the first time while I lived my own road trip. Quite an adventure. My girlfriend and I stood on the on-ramp to the 400 with our thumbs stuck out, hitching one ride after another right across Canada. The government of the day had traveller camps set up across the country for young backpackers such as ourselves, or we would sleep in the forest by the roadside. Maybe in the backseat of  a car on a long stretch if it was raining. Often folk invited us into their house, or let me pitch my pup tent in their backyards. I can't say I ever suffered for the want of anything. Caught a ride in a limo into Vancouver, very cool. Made our way over to Vancouver island, hiked through the rain forest and pitched the tent on Long Beach, just outside the town of Tofino. Lived there awhile. There was a whole city of tents in the forest and along the beach, where we'd have communal bonfires and cook up whatever we had to share and eat. It was different being young then. I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone anymore, but there was a time....

Anyway, ever since then I've read a lot of the beat writers. I kept my own journal, starting on my trips. I tried to imitate their style at first, with my own stories to tell. I don't know if the influence shows in my blog writing today. Maybe, maybe not. I think I've pretty much got my own writing voice now, but I still love reading that stuff.

During the early afternoon Janet called me up on my cellphone. Her boss had sent everyone home early because the office was dead. I waited for her at the Second Cup Cafe, north east side of Yonge and College while she went shopping at Winners. I like to sit in a comfy window seat and people watch there. The patrons are friendly. It's just all around nice place to stop for a bit. Janet met up with me for coffee and a muffin. We caught the southbound subway on the Yonge Line to Union Station where it turns north on the University and Spadina Lines and dropped us off back at our cars further north at Yorkdale and Wilson Stations. Came home for leftovers, sitting on the couch watching the evening news together. 

Kind of lazy I know. Today's activities were a real time waster but it just feels so good not to be hurried or busy with this or that all the time. I think I am really going to enjoy this week off!

William S. Burroughs, Allan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac: Dig the beat!!!

Hooray for the Beats!!!

Back To Toronto!

Here I am back in Toronto from my Mexican trip, sitting on the balcony with my morning coffee. It's an overcast day. I brought all my house plants out for some sun and rain when I got back. It's pleasant. I'm surrounded with greenery, looking out at the city, feeling relaxed and very happy with our trip.

I didn't go outside for the first three days back. Nope. I stayed in my man-cave, the music room, listening to my stereo, reading, napping, kind of in free fall. All that vacationing tired me out! Whew! Life is tough and then you die! My niece Katrina finally convinced me that it's nice out and I shouldn't miss it. She's not working this summer either. In the fall she goes to teacher college. I think it is a good idea, as long as she can pay the bills, she should rest up and enjoy herself, the school year ahead can often be very stressful and draining come summer. Practice now! I always like to take the summer off. Time is worth more to me than money. We only live once. She's saying she`s not working to protest stress and wrinkles to ward off any static. I love the cause. Go grrrrl go! Would be nice to be twenty something again eh?

So I walked about downtown Toronto. I was born here, and a Yonge Street walk is just one of those very Torontonian things I still do. As teens we`d always go on Friday or Saturday to Sam the Record Man`s store; Beatle albums were always on sale for $4. There were a lot of really great clubs and local bands back in the sixties and seventies; Ronnie Hawkins and the Band at the Hawks Nest, jazz at the Colonial, Carole Pope at the Chimney, Triumph at the Piccadilly Tube, to name but a few.We`d party, or sometimes just walk around checking out the action and well known characters on the street, never bothering anybody.

Yonge St. has always had it`s ``Toronto the Bad`` side to it with the massage parlours, porn shops, strip clubs and hookers, but that was pretty much shut down long ago. Later it was a punk rock hang out. The Viletones would play Yonge Station while the big bad bouncers would sell the kids bad drugs at the door, and then beat them up and kick them back out onto the sidewalk once they got stoned. The Dog would spit out the words and chew on glass as the band blasted away at their three chord hit `Screaming Fist`. 

My style was more the Talking Heads, the Ramones and the Dead Boys at the New Yorker, a tawdry old movie house that`s now been converted into the Panasonic Theatre. Toronto Punk and New Wave were always first and foremost about the music and fashion. I think so. Yonge St was pretty much just an ugly version of the Queen St West scene where I lived at the time. We had the new wave bands like the Diodes and Dishes at the Ontario College of Art, and the Talking Heads at the Horseshoe Tavern if I remember correctly. There were umpteen local bands playing at the Beverely Hotel, the Shock Theatre and the Crash and Burn Club, or we`d go dancing all night at the Twilight Zone. It was always a very local scene mostly centred around Queen St West Soho.

Did you know Toronto was one of the big three Punk and New Wave Rock epicentres during the mid to late seventies, along with New York,and London. There was a very good book written about it recently `Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond` by Liz Worth on Ralph Alfonzo`s Bongo Beat Press. It`s a good and very insightful read, but I ramble....

So now here I was post twentieth century, quite middle aged and respectable, just sitting at a window seat in the Second Cup Cafe at Yonge and College, with my coffee and iPhone, people watching. I walked about for a few hours. I won`t belabour this, I`ve done at least one Yonge St blog before. Suffice to say it was hot and sunny. Nice but not as nice as Mexico mind you. I think it`s the humidity from the lake which makes Toronto feel like a sauna during the dog days of summer. The Mayan Riviera had a great Caribbean breeze, not like here.

I bought a bunch of seconds and reminder art books at BMV on Bloor St. West just north of the University of Toronto. This store is amazing! Very cheap and incredibly diverse and well stocked with everything from books to CD`s and DVD`s in the basement. I could spend hours in there. Anyway, I found a stack of books about album cover art from the 1950`s to the 90`s, with info and full colour plates. I collect music and was a disc jockey and radio program director when I was at U of T. It`s been my hobby as long as I can remember, and I have a pretty decent collection of six thousand or so CD`s and box sets, maybe a thousand original LP albums, boxes of old 45`s and cassette tapes etc.

The only problem was I had to trudge home on the subway to my car at Yorkdale Mall carrying this very heavy stack of hard cover books but folk were nice and made way for me, even opening doors and so on. ``Toronto the Good!`` Once home I stayed up late listening to tunes and pouring over my new books matching the cover art with my albums and CD`s until the wee hours.

Long and short of it is I finally got back outside! It had felt so good just to stay home and do nothing after all my adventures in Mexico. Janet and I have been putting a lot into fixing up our condo so it is just the way we like it. 1200 square feet, an ideal place for empty nesters with good security, nice neighbours, a good location. All of our favourite things are here and we are slowly but surely getting it set up just so for when we retire. The irony is that far too often during the year it is like a pit stop between all the things we have to do. I really like just being here and enjoying it, and that`s exactly what I have been doing. Feels great! Now I`m going outside again too. Well done, eh!

I`m trying to set up my Cuba trip to Santiago de Cuba but my Cuban teacher friends are off to Habana and I`ve been there enough for now. Also most of my Cuban Schools Project work is in Santiago, so outside of having a very good time in Habana, which I without doubt would have, it kind of defeats my purpose unless we can co-ordinate our schedules which I am trying to do now. Communications with the Cuban Schools is dicey at best but I am plugging away at it, with no doubt a great story post to follow once I get that rolling, details forthcoming.

My sister Mary Ann is coming to visit from Sudbury for the weekend. We were going to go see the tall ships down at the harbour front but there are no tall ships at the harbour front, so much for that! We`ve got a bunch of other stuff to do too. I can`t quite recall what but Janet is my social director, she`ll know what we`re doing and where we go. Should be fun!

I could go for groceries but it`s lunch and I am sill in my pyjamas. Anyway I hate pushing around the cart with people bumping into me, and then lining up forever at the check-out counter. That`s not to mention having to bring my own grocery bags to help the environment and so on, and then carrying it all upstairs in a buggy cart to our condo. Blech! I think I`ll tidy up the place and we can eat at restaurants while she is here. There`s enough food and drinks in the fridge to get by. Sounds like a plan. ;-)

Bye for now!

A Yonge Street Walk In Toronto + So On

Another fine morning out here on my balcony. I have my coffee, juice, cereal, and I am picking at some grapes thinking about what else I have to do to get ready for our Mexico trip. Yesterday I went downtown to Yorkville to get my hair cut real short for the summer, plus I figure it will be extra hot down there and I will be in the water a lot. I've gone to Wayne, the same hair stylist for years.

We got talking about Iphones. We're both recent converts. Next thing you know we've got them out, and are trying to show each other how to do this and that on them, the hair cut all but forgotten. I never noticed before but they have four tiny speakers on them, and one is louder than the others, which are very low. We  tried to figure out why as Wayne got back to cutting my hair. It creates a stereo effect, is that what Apple is after? It reminded Wayne of those pocket transistors we used to listen to in the sixties, with the fake stereo sound. Is one speaker louder than the others to create a slight sense of depth? Then why would Apple, being so high tech and all, not just put in four good speakers with right and left channels? It remains a mystery!

Hair cut finished I took a walk down Yonge Street, all the way from Bloor to Dundas Square. It was busy  but not so busy as last time, lots of tourists, predominantly Asian it would seem, clicking pictures of everything I see every time I've gone downtown Yonge Street all my life. I got a chuckle out of that, thinking I will be doing the same in Mexico. "Oh look at that! And That!" etc. Click. Click. Click. I suppose the interest is all relative to being from somewhere else so it's looks quite different and unique. Not that it isn't, but let's face it, if you see something all the time it becomes pretty routine, and after awhile you might not even notice anymore.

I've always enjoyed my walks shuffling down Yonge Street Toronto. The hustle and bustle, the cheesy looking shops and the big box brand name stores. All the way down to the Eaton Centre, where the pedestrian traffic is four way now, on the green light, kind of neat. Dundas Square was quite busy, and the fountains were on. All the seats were taken, folks were even stretched out relaxing in the sun on the concert stage and street barriers, which was okay, I was into walking.

Funny how huge crowds, like last Saturday are a complete turn off for me. If it's for a parade, at an amusement park, a shopping mall and so on, I get anxiety attacks for sure. But I can belly upfront stage at any huge rock concert and have become quite adept at doing so over the years. I've been in protests, demonstrations and riots and no problem. I've often spoken to large crowds at political rallies, both here in Canada and in Cuba, at TSU union meets, and in classrooms full of students over the course of my teaching career. It's never been a problem. I even enjoy it.

I was the radio program director during my student years at Erindale College, University of Toronto. I use to be a disc jockey at dances and so on. Never bothered me. I worked the Canadian National Exhibition every year as a student, thrived on the mobs, but wouldn't go there now as a visitor, no way. Doesn't even interest me; the carnival rides, the pavilions. I'll go if Janet drags me in, or there is a concert, but it's just straight in and out.

When my son was little, I even had to wait outside Santa Claus Village in Huntsville. All those frigging Santas, elves, kids, baby carriages. The stinky reindeer pooping everywhere. Wall to wall people. Nope. Not for me. Canada's Wonderland along Highway 400? The huge blue smurf guys, the screaming kids, the long line-ups for the rides. Nope. If there is a traffic jam I will drive way around it, even if it would be quicker just to bide my time and ride through, bumper to bumper. Highway 401? Rarely if ever! I've been stuck in traffic jams for hours, snaking along, then at a standstill, then moving a few feet again. Only to eventually arrive at the scene of the carnage to see smashed cars and glass. An ambulance, maybe a mangled body or two. Everybody slowing down again to rubber neck. Total horror show. Nope! It's not for me!

Give me something to do in a crowd and I'm in fine form, can even get really into it. Otherwise no.

Anyways, I walked about the Eaton Centre a bit killing time before I met Janet who went to get her nails done after work. There was a huge window display of a mannequin in a Canada shirt and tourist shorts, with matching Canada suitcases and all. White and bright red. I don't see the appeal. It looked so loud and gaudy! Might frighten little children or draw the attention of the Taliban or what not, I don't know. I do remember at one time when we travelled abroad I would wear a small Canada flag or pin attached to my jacket or backpack or whatever. Folks did seem nicer. Getting dressed up as Mr. Canada in a Canadian flag with matching Canadian flag accessories is all totally beyond me. Still, there it was in a window display, screaming out, "Come in! Buy this!"

I took a picture with my iPhone. Also a picture of the mannequins in the "Old Navy" store. All decked up in these cheapo cheapo clothes with these dumb, absent grins on their face, surrounding a happy little terrier dog statue with it's tail stuck up in the air. Maybe I should post the photos here? I do have foreign readers . Maybe I should do a Welcome to Toronto Canada's Kitsch slide show, eh? Ha.

I do love Toronto. Truly it is the city the rest of Canada loves to hate. Of course it probably helps that I was born here. If I explain places and things in our city in greater detail with full names and the like, that's because everybody who reads these posts isn't from here like most readers. They don't necessarily know what I am talking about. This week there's been readers from the US, Russia, Australia, Germany,the UK, Bulgaria, Argentina, India and so on. If you aren't from there, a special hello! But I digress...

I met Janet outside the "World's Biggest Bookstore". That's the name of the place anyway. We went to Chinatown, the outer edge, along Dundas between Bay and Yonge to the Spadina Garden restaurant. One of my favourites. Heaping sloppy plates of spicy chicken with peanut sauce, succulent beef with black bean sauce. They seem to specialize in their sauces. Maybe not gourmet fare, but you see a lot of Asian and movie people there, so I'd suspect they are onto something.

Afterwards we caught the subway to our cars and drove home. I listened to a live Robert Fripp concert disc I bought for a bit in my man cave, then went to bed at a decent hour with Janet. She finishes work today for a few weeks, and I think it ticks her off to no end that I get to just slop around pretty much doing as I please. That and a whole lot of nothing.

Sorry if these postings drag a bit, meander here and there, digress, as does my whole life and state of mind these days. I feel great, but the postings should be a lot more interesting when we head out on our trips. Soon enough. I've got our in-laws to house sit, they can just enjoy staying here and being in Toronto, a holiday for them, while we are away

The airplane can be packed tight, that's fine, but the crowded airport gives me a big anxiety attack, the whole time, until I feel the jet wheels lift up off the runway, then I am okay. Can hardly wait. But enough for now.....