The Knife

End of June.  End of all the delightful blog entries about delights.  But here's one last one.

 Tonight I held up a butter knife that was on the drying rack.  It hadn't been washed very well.  I turned to Husbandman and said, "Look at this knife."

Husbandman said, "That's not clean.  What jackass around here thinks that's okay?"

Husbandman cracks me up sometimes.  We're having a good time up here in Toronto.

The Murals I Painted

Walked to Kensington Market yesterday, with John and Patricia.  There are many cool murals painted everywhere. I was inspired, so in the afternoon I picked up a few cans of spraypaint and created some street art in the back of our apartment on the wooden fence near where we park our car.  I painted a huge owl, flying over a  table with a bowl of green grapes and a cup of tea.  Our landlady came out to see what I was doing and she was delighted.  She wants me to make another mural on the back wall of the book store before we leave.  Not sure what I'm going to make yet, but I've started on some sketches.

You're probably wondering if I actually painted any murals yesterday. In actual fact, I didn't.  Come to find out, I wasn't feeling so well yesterday, so I decided to stay home, lay on the couch, and watch a movie. Husbandman, John and Patricia drove out to some bluffs near Lake Ontario.

Even though I missed out on the mural painting and the lake trip, my afternoon felt like summer vacation where you don't feel sad about missed opportunities.  Tomorrow's another whole day for noodling about.

The movie was Ben Is Back, about a drug addict and his mom, Julia Roberts. Pretty good. You should see it if you want to.

The Close Call

There's a museum here called The Spadina Museum that we did not pay ten dollars to enter yesterday.  Instead, we walked in their gardens for free. I'd call them pleasant. I might want to go back to that museum though to take the tour.  The museum is all about the house of a rich family who lived in Toronto in the 20s and some have compared their lives to the world of Downton Abbey.  Sounds good.  Count me in.

Our dinner plans with J and P got kind of messed up.  I had read about a great Japanese place nearby, but when we walked in, we were hit by 2 trillion decibels of loudness. People were screaming at the top of their lungs.  No way were we going to eat there.  Of course I had a backup plan, which was Harvest Kitchen, a few blocks away.  Sadly, that place was super busy and we didn't get to sit on the rooftop patio.  We sat out front though, at 2 teeny tables and waited for service.  Finally we got some beverages.  We wished we had a deck of cards to play bridge during our wait.  Husbandman took off toward a corner store and VOILA! returned with cards.  We started playing bridge and got lost in the game. The waiter, a young gent from Russia, forgot all about us and when we finally stopped with our trick making to ask him if we could order, he said, "You want food?  The kitchen closes in 15 minutes!"  That really cheesed me off.  Obviously we came to a restaurant at dinner time to eat food.  Come to find out, there were a bunch of things that they couldn't make in 15 minutes, so we all had to change our orders.  It all ended well because the food was good and we got over our annoyance at the lad and mostly we were feeling collegial and cheerful.  We'll probably go back to Harvest Kitchen because I wanted to try the mushroom pot pie, but I could only have a veggie burger.

The Bridge

I played bridge today at the Toronto Bridge Club.

I was nervous, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. All the north-south partnership people were pleasant,  encouraging me to "Just have fun," and welcoming me to the world of bridge with typically terrific  Torontonian temperament.

My only snag came when I joined Bunny's table.  When my partner Patricia bid 2 clubs, I went on to bid a pass.  Bunny said, "Do you know what that means? You can't pass."

I said, "I do know what it means, but I didn't know that I couldn't pass."  I looked at my cards and tried to figure out what to do.

Bunny intervened.  "2 diamonds waiting.  2 diamonds waiting.  It's the only thing you can do."
I had no idea what "2 diamonds waiting" meant, but I picked up the 2 diamond card from my bidding box and put it on the table.  Luckily, my partner took it from there and I think "we" might have won that round.  I'm not hip to what you do to win or lose a round yet, but the bottom line is, we did okay. I will continue to play bridge in the future.  Everyone can rest easy.

The Leaders

I've pasted this photo all over creation because I was so thrilled to see Justin Trudeau.  Not sure why. I guess he's just my prime minister crush.  I bet he's not detaining children and putting them into cages and lying about everything.  He may be doing other things that aren't great, but he's probably not doing that.

Yesterday we made a donation to RAICES.  I also sent some emails to my congresspeople.  Senator Braun sent back a form letter almost immediately about how we can help the immigrants by building a wall on the border.  Wow.  Thanks, Senator Braun.  For being a big fat idiot. I hope you lose your next election one trillion to zero.

On the delightful side, I read a great article about Elizabeth Warren in the NYT today.  She was a champion debater in high school.  Come to find out, I also was part of Speech and Debate in high school.  Unlike Elizabeth Warren, I wasn't good at debate. I was more into the speech part of Speech and Debate. I would be thrilled to see Elizabeth walking around my neighborhood. I'm not crushing on her yet, but I think I'm starting to fall.

The Falls

Niagara Falls gets a solid 5 on the Fist to 5 scale.  We didn't go in the Maid of the Mist boat, but we did walk along the Canadian side, taking pictures, drinking coffee and reveling in the glory and grandeur of the falls.  We wondered why there's a statue of Nikola Tesla nearby.  We should have known all along that Tesla's ideas about alternating current were used to power up electricity on both sides of the falls.

After our visit to the falls we went to a pleasant little town, Niagara on the Lake. We had lunch outside. Cheese, wine.  The works.

The Field Trip to the Aquarium

We decided to meet at the aquarium on Friday afternoon, after Husbandman's conference finished up. If I were going to be in this city for a week or less, I'd probably skip the aquarium, but I'm going to be here nearly all summer, so why not zip down there on the metro and check out the sea life for a few hours?  Hands down a delightful afternoon.  We saw this sawfish in The Dangerous Lagoon.  Check out its rostrum.

The Pens

As you know, I'm reading Ross Gay's The Book of Delights.  One of his essays tells about how much he loves nicknames, so now I refer to him as The RossMan when I'm writing in my journal.

He also likes Le Pen pens.  I'm a copycatter, so I went to my local art supply store which is, delightfully, a mere 2 blocks from my apartment and picked out two Le Pens, blue and green, for purchase.

As I selected my pens, I lingered to listen to two women choosing colored pencils. They would write marks with two pencils, talk at length about each mark, and then decide which pencil they wanted.  Then they would pick up two more and repeat the whole process. It's so great to have time to fool around with folderol.

I'm not a massive fan of the Le Pen yet, but I think I'll buy a few more before I make a final decision.  They come in a lot of great colors and they might grow on me and I also like copying The Rossman.

I bought some stickers of woodland animals as well. I ripped two of the stickers when I was opening the package this morning, the rabbit and the oak leaf.  So that was a drag, but what are you going to do?  Next time I buy stickers, which will probably be soon, I'll be more mindful when opening the package.  That's about all I can do to remedy the situation. Live and learn.

From Collaboration to Compulsion

For the past few days, I've been working on revising a paper about a project in Thirdland that happened a few years ago.  Mitzker, Zawan and I are working on this paper and we really want to finish it this summer.

The first draft is written and the paper needs some serious revisions. I think it's going alright. It's nice to have this quiet place to work. Today Mitzker and I had an international conference to discuss some changes we'd each made to the first few pages.

Even though we're having problems with dropbox and zoom, we are working through these and the work chat got me pumped up to continue with revising.  It's pleasant to collaborate with pals.

On a somewhat related note, I saw rats zipping along the sidewalks up here yesterday.  One in the morning. One in the evening.  I mean come on. Two rats in one day? Our friend D, who was walking with us last night, also saw the second rat. D commented, "One of the scariest things I've ever seen is a rat fighting with a cat."

Now, sad to say, I can't seem to stop thinking about rat cat combat.  I've even watched a video or two about cats and rats fighting.  There's something compelling about the whole thing.

The Roti?

I had a big plan today to go to the vegetarian restaurant on the corner to order some take out for lunch. It looks like a great place, and I've been wanting to try it.  Vegetarian restaurants are few and far between, let's face it. In the end I switched gears after mulling over the plan and all it would involve. The restaurant is small and usually fairly empty.  Was I really in the mood to talk with people I don't know?  What if there were awkward moments as I waited for my order?  What did I really know about the place in the long run?

I probably made too big a deal out of the whole enterprise, what with blogging about it and all.  If I truly wanted roti with textured vegetable protein or calaloo with dumplings, I could have pushed through my mulling and gathered up my moxie.

In the end, I decided to stay home and have a toasted cheese sandwich.  It was delightful and the veggie place will still be there tomorrow.  Also, Husbandman maybe will pick up a roti for me on his way home some time.  

So, in short.  you don't have to make a big deal out of stuff.  Just do what you want to do and move on.

The Starbursts

Today I attended a talk at the Husbandman Conference, given by our good friend Koby.  He arrived from Israel a few days ago.  Koby invited me to his talk, so I decided to go. Why the heck not?  I'm always up for learning something new.

Koby's presentation was the best math conference talk I've ever attended. It was called "Caustics, Impressionism and Starbursts."  Koby wove together ophthalmology, art, astronomy and many  math equations that I honestly found quite challenging.

Here's my take away.  When people look at the stars, we don't all see them the same way.  Why is this true?  Aberrations of the retina?  Probably.  I'm not super sure.  But I do know that Franciscus Donders got the ball rolling with this mystery in the mid 1800s.

Thank you, Koby, for a most delightful start to my day.  I HEART MATH.

The Metro

Great news.  Right across the street from our apartment is a metro station.  Yesterday I bought a metro pass.  We took the metro downtown to have dinner with some good friends from Israel.  I'm not going to lie, I love the subway.

Time for the sad news.  Back home in Indiana, a blustery storm was abrewin' last week and a big tree fell on our roof.  Luckily, we've got friends who have ascertained that there's no damage to our house from the tree.  And also luckily, we know a gentleman who takes care of these kinds of problems and we think he is going to take some action soon to clean up our property because we called him and he said he would take the fallen tree away.

So if you're driving by and see the tree, please know that we do know about it and it might be taken care of soon.  We hope. And please cross your fingers.

The Birthday?

I made an international phone call to my dad for Father's Day. BTW, FYI I learned from the NYT crossword puzzle that Father's Day didn't become official until 1966.

I told my dad that Husbandman and I are planning a trip to see Niagara Falls next week.

He answered, "That'll be nice.  If anyone tells you to get into a barrel, don't do it."

I asked him how he's feeling and he said, "I'm not doing well, but I can't get anyone to take my ailments seriously.  I tell your brother about my issues and he just says, 'You're 90.  What do you expect?'"

During the call, Dad said, "It's nice of you to call on my birthday."

I told him, "It's not your birthday.  It's Father's Day."

"What?  It's not my birthday?"  My dad knows it's not his birthday, but he just likes to get everyone riled up.

He's always been a character.

It's delightful to be able to wish him a Happy Father's Day.  Dad's one of the good guys.

The Relief

I wrote this little story in a coffee shop yesterday.  I was supposed to be working on revising this paper I'm writing with Mitzker and Zawan, but instead I just wrote a little story and added some comic strip panels.  I won't share the panels, but here's the tale, which is about a sense of delight most of us have experienced at one time or another.  It's told in the second person point of view.

* * *

You walk into the coffee shop ready to work.  You sit down with your latte and set up your table with your article and favorite pens, the Uniballs.  You notice suddenly that you are paralyzed from the waist down.  You wait a few minutes, surreptitiously poking your thighs and calves.  You're too distressed to get anything done with the article and you're unable to get up to leave.  You have no phone or computer because you came here to work without the distractions of social media for a change.  You're going to have to ask someone for help.  All the tables nearby are empty.  Should you scream out to the barista who appears to be staring out the window, her back to you?  You hear her singing along with Skylark, the Hoagy Carmichael classic, that's blasting from the speakers and it seems rude to interrupt.  Your feet are now awkwardly akimbo.  You can't stay here forever.  What's your next move?  Close to full on panic, you scream out politely, but loudly.  "Excuse me!  EXCUSE ME! I'm sorry to bother you!" Just as everyone, including the barista, turns toward you, you feel your legs again.  Your feet are numb, but tingly.  You're too relieved to be embarrassed.  You yell out cheerfully, "Never mind!"  Everyone in the place glares at you, obviously annoyed.  The barista's disdainful glower evaporates mid air as you pack up your stuff. You seriously don't care at all about her and there are plenty of coffee shops in the area. You hightail it out of there, a spring in your step.  You didn't get any work done, but a walk around the block sounds like just the ticket right now. Tomorrow's another day. 

The North

Geez Louise, I was kicked off of my blog FOR SEVERAL HOURS today because of being in a new country.  That freaked me out because I've been so delighted to finally get some time to blog and to catch up with the June blogging challenge.  Have no fears, my friends, I do indeed intend to catch up now that I've been given access to my own intellectual property. If I have to blog two or three times each day, I will.  That's all there is to it.

So far, our summer spot is fabulous.  We live in a beautiful apartment on a busy street in a busy neighborhood in a busy city.  Yesterday we visited the Royal Ontario Museum.  The dinosaurs were phenomenal.  On the downside, there were quite a few field trips happening.  Sadly, I was unimpressed with the field trip supervision I witnessed.  But, being off the clock, I tried to focus on the exhibits at hand and cut people some slack.  Who knows what others are going through?

The Sojourners

Husbandman's out mowing the lawn. We're all packed up and on the morrow we're heading to Toronto for much of the summer.  Husbandman will work with some colleagues for most of our time up north, but during one of the weeks we're there, he'll be attending a week long conference held in HIS honor.  This fall, Husbandman turns 60, so his beautiful career is going to be celebrated with former students and friendly colleagues from around the world coming to share their work and enjoy some collegiality.  I think this is a most delightful thing.  I'm proud to be acquainted with Husbandman.  Knowing him has been win-win for me at pretty much every turn. We're heading out on another adventure together.  I'll keep you posted.  

The Call

#1 Son called us this afternoon.  It's always delightful when he does that.  I told him as much, but I added, "It's not like we're pining away for your phone calls.  We have a fairly delightful life up here in B-town.  Still, it's always great to hear from you."

We are doing well today on the day that I've aptly labeled ATTACKING THE PACKING!

The only snag we're experiencing is Husbandman's desire to keep a bunch of old foodstuffs in our cabinets.  I'm trying to declutter and clear out, but Husbandman keeps insisting that he's going to use these various foodstuffs one of these days.  "We've had this box of _____________ (enter any esoteric brand name in the blank) for 3 years and you've never even opened it.  Let's just get rid of it."  Husbandman's having none of it and honestly, there's been some tension here on High Street.  I told him pointblank that any other husband would be grateful for the decluttering services I'm providing. He didn't offer much in way of response, but put some boxes back on the shelves. Perhaps he's pondering changing his attitude. Who can say?

To wrap up, let's get back to the delights of June.  The packing's going well, #1 Son's doing well, and the kitchen cabinets look pretty good.

The Casts

I've listened to 3 podcasts that I've found both troubling and delightful this week.  I will share their names here, using a bulleted list:

• The Shrink Next Door
• Dirty John
• White Lies

These podcasts have helped me through the pre-trip packing and organizing.  Not yet done, but getting there. 

Though I've diligently worked on getting ready for the sojourn, I've also taken some delightful side excursions this week.  Case in point. This photograph is of a Mississippi Kite that was painted by John James Audubon.  I visited the Lilly Library yesterday, which made for a pleasant field trip for me, myself and I. 

The Coffee Shop Kid

I'm eavesdropping at the coffee shop.  This kid just came in with his mom and the kid is delighting me with his crazy banter.  "Hi! Should we order some chicken farts?  Sorry, I just like saying that.  Look at that feather!  It's a peacock feather.  Pea and Cock.  Cockadoodle Doo. Mommy, take a picture of me.  I want pie.  Look Mommy, there's a cactus.  There's a cactus, Mommy there's a cactus over there."

"Yeah, I see it," said the mom.  She's not that into the kid's schtick.  I could see that this kid could wear you out big time and, truth be told, I hope he shapes up a little bit before he gets to Thirdland.

 I get like this kid sometimes.  Just blathering random comments for no reason. Not just 5 minutes ago, I wrote in my notebook, "What if I drank this entire bottle of Cholula Sauce that's on this table?  I don't see any rules about the Cholula Sauce anywhere, so why wouldn't I?"  I didn't know what else to write, so I just fell into nonsense.  That's probably what's going on with this guy.  He doesn't know what else to say, so he's just rolling with his stream of consciousness.  I wonder if the mom would say something like, "Hey, let's talk about rabbits," if he would gain coherence.

In short, this kid and I were destined to meet up for a short time today.  I'm heading home and he is staying behind, bugging his mom about how much syrup he can put on his pancake.  "Now I need a fork! Oh come on! Don't eat my pancake, Mom!  Grownups don't eat pancakes! I'm growling now.  I'm called The Growler.  So how is your breakfast everyone?"

He's obviously super high maintenance, but I think he has his head on straight. Seems to know what he wants out of life.  Carry on, Coffee Shop Kid.

The Bath of Birds

My sister Joy and I email each other nearly every day.  It's a delight to wake up in the morning to her words.  Yesterday we wrote about our mutual disregard for rats.  Joy and I are big animal lovers, but the rat is a creature we both abhor, for various reasons.  Our rat chat led me to write a poem today about rats.  It's based on some true events that occurred here on High Street when we went on sabbatical and #1 Son lived in our home for a year.  Come to find out, #1's ideas about how homes should look and feel differed from our ideas on this same topic.  Maybe things have changed with #1 Son, maybe not.  But it's all water under the bridge.  At any rate, here's a mean poem I wrote about rats.  With apologies to rat fans.

You've haunted my 

sister

 and you've

chewed through 

our basket of 

cozy blankets

left for wintry tv watching

Oh hated vermin

run to the darkest part 

of the basement

and feast on the poison 

we've hidden there

We see you 

stagger out

your throat 

on fire

as you drag

your body into

the bath of birds

You lay there 

refusing to move

and

refusing to die

Leave our clutter be

we will not 

share

we will not 

tell you again

we will not

let you in

The Wilding

Yesterday, I walked on a boardwalk trail, over swampy terrain. I went to this trail in search of the prothonotary warbler.  I had my camera and a water bottle and the weather was fine.  I followed the trail's curve to the right when I saw a boy, maybe ten or eleven years old, up ahead about 40 feet away.  He was on his knees reaching into the water. I wondered what he was staring at and hurried my pace, but stopped frozen in my tracks when his arm zipped into the water and pulled a snake out by its tail.  It wasn't a huge snake, maybe 4 feet long. The snake just hung from his hand in a straight line and then the boy swung him over his shoulders like a beach towel and kept walking.  It took me awhile to catch my breath.  I started walking after him, wondering if I should intervene in some way, but the snake, which I recognized as a non venomous northern water snake, stayed perched atop the boy's shoulders of its own free will, looking as if it were enjoying the ride, checking out the view, repeatedly sticking out its forked tongue in a jovial fashion.

I lost track of the boy and his pal after a while because I sat down on a bench, hoping for a warbler sighting.  I never saw the prothonotary warbler, but the afternoon was delightful all the same.

June 3: The Old Woods

Northern Water Snake.  Non-venemous.

We took a short walk in Latimer Woods yesterday.  This little preserve is near the mall and I've seen a sign for it next to a fence whenever I exit the Macy's parking lot but I've never wandered into the woods. Husbandman told me he has never, not even one time, noticed the sign for Latimer Woods, once again proving that I'm way more observant than he is. Case in point.

The hard part came when we tried to find an entrance to Latimer Woods.  After circling about, we  had to ask the internet how to enter the woods.  The Reddit people came up with a response and we headed into an apartment complex and eventually found the trail past the pool and behind a multi-car garage structure.  People, maybe let's work on signage for this public preserve. 

The good news is that Latimer Woods is an old growth forest, which means it contains "150 to 200 year old trees!!!!"  The trees didn't disappoint.  I took several photos and felt a delightful sense of natural history walking around in there.  Shout out to Clarence and Lizzie Latimer for protecting these trees, and to your children for handing over this eden to the citizens of our great town.

As I've previously mentioned, Husbandman and I are considering donating our property to our local land trust.  Out back right now are several deer, some hyper chipmunks and quite a few cardinals flitting about. We want future generations to enjoy the idyllic scenery of South High Street.

June 2: The Independent Film Review

I lost out on blogging my delights yesterday because my computer has MALWARE on it and it's in the shop.  RATS! 

Other than the computer situation and a recent waste of time at the movies, summer vacation continues to be delightful.  Case in point, I recently saw a red headed woodpecker, which is one of my all time favorite birds.

As I mentioned previously, I wasted time at the movies.  We saw a film called Suburban Birds with good friends Nancer and Kev.  It was not good.  Husbandman and I will now review this hideous film.

Leeway:  Husbandman, please describe the plot of Suburban Birds.
Husbandman:  Two generations of characters meander through a suburban setting of construction sites and high rises for no apparent purpose except to torture the audience.
LW:  I agree that the film was pure torture.  Plus I got a cramp in my leg that was getting on my last nerve.  I found the ending extremely confusing.
Husbandman:  Yeah.  The whole movie was confusing.  Nothing led anywhere.  It was about 50 very slow vignettes that didn't connect with each other.
LW:  Was there anything you liked about it?
Husbandman:  I thought some of the child actors were pretty good.
LW:  I agree with that, but I'm still wondering what happened to Fatty?
Husbandman:  Well, yeah.  We all are. We all worry about Fatty.
LW:  Fist of 5?
Husbandman:  I'll give it a one.
LW:  I'll give it a zero.  There was nothing delightful about it and plus my leg was hurting almost the entire time. Even if you feel like seeing it, I advise against it.