Platform 327

As those of you who have been following my Tweets already know, I made a trip to Port Credit on Friday night to visit my high school’s annual alumni pub night.

Turns out all those bad Hollywood comedies about high school reunions are bullshit. For one thing, I only saw two people there I knew: my friend Tania, pretty much the only person I met in high school that I ever kept in touch with anyway, and the guy she dated through most of that time. Seeing as it has been 20 years since my graduation, I expected to see quite a few of the ‘89 grads. Turns out the bulk of the alumni that showed up were from the ’50s and ’60s with a few folks there who looked like they graduated high school when Port Credit was still part of Upper Canada.

The price of admission was worth it for the chance to walk around the building again, though. I was amazed at how much of it I had completely forgotten. I spent a good chunk of my formative years in that school, and damned if I could remember where the hell a bathroom was. Once I got wandering around, however, things started to come back. Found old lockers, old classrooms. Oh, and we discovered that Tania could still fit inside a locker. But things had changed just enough to give it a weird, alternate-universe sort of feeling. I half expected to see some of my old teachers walking around with goatees and gold lamé sashes.

So while the high school reunion thing wasn’t exactly a life changing experience that resulted in “revelations” or “closure” of any kind, I’m glad I went. If nothing else, wandering the halls reminded me of a few things that may crop up in my creative writing class later.

Afterwards, I joined Tania and her beau for a late-night coffee to chill out and catch up. The night became later after missing the GO train I wanted to take. I really have to remember to set my watch alarm to the transit schedules or something.

I know I promised to post a real blog entry when I got that whole comment issue fixed, and I haven’t done it. Between working full-time at the current job that’s winding down in January, doing extra transcription work from home so the wind-down of the current job doesn’t hurt so much, and taking two creative writing courses, the last thing I want to do when I get some free time is more typing. My apologies for the lack of content.

However, in the spirit of broken promises, here’s a picture from my trip to Ottawa a couple of weeks ago.

The rest of them can be found here. It was a fun time. Even though it was only 3 days, it was my first vacation in a very, very long time. It was good to get out of Toronto for a little while. Perhaps next year I’ll get out of Toronto for good, depending on how things turn out on the job front.

But that’s another story…

Went on a trip to the White Rock Ostrich Farm this weekend with Wendi and my parents. We fed some ostriches, and then we went home and ate some of their cousins. If you haven’t tried ostrich steak yet, you’re missing out. We also ate some fresh Ontario corn that we picked up at a roadside stand. Yum-yum.

Seems like that’s all I post on this blog anymore. And that’s fine with me. Less typing means more time before the carpal tunnel syndrome paralyzes my wrists.

First, here’s one from today:

I hadn’t done a Discovery Walk in a while, so today I jetted up to Lawrence subway station and took the Northern Ravines and Gardens walk. Pics are on Flickr.

And in other photo news, someone has published some of my photos! A local realtor had his site redone using some of my pics. Rather than post links again (because I’m lazy and also because I want to drive traffic to my other site), check out the pics here.

Oh, and in non photo-related news, I’ve signed up for a couple of creative writing courses at George Brown College that get started in a couple of weeks. I’ve done little more than write other people’s words for years (when I’m not cranking out lousy NaNoWriMo novels), and the creative juices need a bit of a squeeze to get flowing again. I want to keep writing, but I’m very, very tired of the crap I’ve been writing for the last few years. I’d be very happy to never conduct another interview again. I didn’t get into writing because I like talking to people.

To make a long story short, when I was a kid I had surgery on my feet that left some pretty weird scars. One problem with them is the fact that to this day, sand can get into them and cause a whole lot of trouble. I haven’t been able to walk barefoot on a beach since I was about 14 years old.

This year, thanks to Vibram FiveFingers, I walked on a beach for the first time in over 2 decades. They’re silly looking things, but they’re incredibly comfortable once you get used to them. It’s like walking barefoot while still being protected.

I know it’s not a big deal to anyone else, but it is to me. And this is my blog. And those weird little shoes have made my summer a little bit more fun.

The summer so far has been pretty darn fun all around. I think between cycling, golf, and hiking, I’ve been outdoors more this summer than I have in the last two summers combined. I’m actually getting accustomed to the heat. And there’s still half a summer left!

Sometimes you just need a few hours to yourself, and it does just as much good as a week off. I know I had a week off, but during that week I was just trying too hard.

I got my bike readjusted last week, and today I took it out to the Toronto Islands. Unlike last time, the weather was perfect. I went exploring by myself this time, following some of the side streets and back trails on the Islands that I had never been on before, discovering quiet corners, fabled beaches, and some new views of the city skyline. Very relaxing, definitely worth the $6.50 for the ferry ride. I highly recommend the trip.

Well, today is the last official day of my vacation. I finally managed to get some cycling in. Picked up my bike from the shop this afternoon, fresh from its tune-up. Also got higher handlebars installed so that riding is no longer a pain in the back and… other regions.

The weather wasn’t looking too hot, so I figured I would just take a quick spin with the bike and see how it felt. Then I decided that since the weather seemed to be holding out, I’d take a jaunt down the southern end of the Don Valley Trail. The clouds broke, and I found myself cycling along the waterfront and past the Toronto Nautical Festival. I actually set foot on the Bluenose II: A Part of our Canadian Heritage. Go, me!

Before my cycling trip, I made another visit to the driving range. Seems I haven’t retained much from my first lesson. But hey, Rome, as they say, wasn’t built in a day. Well, you know, unless you play Age of Empires or something.

Another update from my week off. Feeling a bit better today, but the lungs are still full of goo. I still kept my promise to myself that I would spend time outside every day. Today I spent the whole afternoon in High Park. I thought I was going for a quiet stroll, but it turned out that every kid in the school district had the same idea. The noise was insane. But I did manage to find some peace along a few of the park’s nature trails, and the Grenadier Restaurant was relatively quiet when I was there for lunch. And I was just finishing up at the zoo before hordes of noisy kids showed up. Always nice to dodge a bullet.

Tomorrow I take my bike in to get tuned up in the morning, and there’s a little golf planned for the evening. I get to put into practice what I learned at the range.

Just got back from my first golf lesson at the Beach Fairway driving range. After only one lesson, I am a much improved golfer. Considering how much I sucked before the lesson, that’s not saying a hell of a lot, granted. But we’ll see how it translates on the course this Thursday.

So far, though, it was the only thing I’ve done on my list of things to do on my week off. The cough is hanging on, and the weather has been crap. Getting some cleaning done around the house, but that’s hardly a “vacation.” Blah. Hopefully the lungs will clear and I can get some other activities in before my time off ends. If I’m not up for any long bike rides, maybe I’ll just hit the range again. It’s still early in the summer; plenty of time to squeeze bike rides, hikes and canoe trips in on the weekends.

Oh, there was one other piece of news from the weekend. Wendi and her dragon boat team, the Sheridan Aces, won a silver medal at the Mississauga Dragon Boat Festival. That now makes 2 bronze and 2 silver. Next year, it’s gold all the way!

This update was actually supposed to be about all the neat stuff I did this week. Instead, I’m sick again. 2 weeks after getting off a gout attack and a 3-week flu, I’m sick again. I hate this year.

I did manage to get a little bit of fun in before being struck down again. Last Friday, I took my first long bike ride of the season: from work at Yonge and Bloor down to the waterfront, over to High Park and back home. It was a great ride, but I learned that if I’m going to take long bike rides during rush hour, it might be a good idea to get a filter mask. I had a really bad taste in my mouth when I got home.

The weekend was spent with Wendi in Oakville, walking through the ritzy downtown section.

On Monday, I took a ride with James around the Toronto Islands. That was also fun, made more so by the fact that we got caught in a major downpour. We got soaked to the bone, but luckily it was a warm day with warm rain. It was cool standing on the pier and watching the lightning hit the lake. And after the rain, the lake was covered in mist, giving the Toronto skyline a somewhat-less-ugly quality.

Tuesday found me at the Beach Fairway driving range. I knocked a couple of baskets down the range, and signed up for golf lessons that start this coming Tuesday. Should be fun… if I’m not still sick.

Wednesday is when everything started going to hell. By Thursday I was so sick that I got sent home by my boss, and today ain’t much better. That killed a golf game and another planned bike ride. It’s really frustrating.

What’s even more frustrating is the fact that I’ve got a week of vacation time coming up. Once again, just before vacation, I get sick. Last time I had vacation days booked and had things planned, I had a gout outbreak. Guess that’s what I get for planning to enjoy myself.

On the plus side, I am the 319,081,782nd richest person in the world, according to the Global Rich List. Not bad out of 6.7 billion.