Whoa...I Can See The Future

Maybe not, or I wouldn't have bought tickets to see the Jays this weekend.

Great Idea

Even though I live smack dab in the middle of the Centre Of The Universe we still have some beautiful downtown parks.

Today we are featuring lovely Asquith Park, steps from my place. With one young camper eagerly heading towards the main area of the park.

The main part of the park is to the left.

And here we've made it to the main part of the park.

Time for a break.

How about this? Not many parks provide comfy sofas and suede chairs in which to rest.

I think the escalator ladies must come here. Me? ...I think I'll just be heading down to Needle Park. Oh, that's in Calgary.

Agreed.

Beginning Of The End?

Oh sweet mama, what are we coming to?

[FYI; this is a picture of a stopped, non-working escalator.]

I got on this thing and had to walk down. No big deal.

Until about two steps down, there was a long line up. Of women trying to navigate down a stopped escalator. These women, and there were several of them, obviously have never walked down stairs before, let alone a stationary escalator.

Each step for them was a baffling nightmare. Each woman, hunched over, grasping the rubber hand rail, slowly, slowly, descending the metal labyrinth. I had to balance on one foot as I was walking it was so painfully slow.

I wish I'd gotten a picture of this, I certainly had the time.

Now, I'm no Mountain Man Joe (I'm the Urban Cowboy for crying out loud) but these are not the women I want to be stranded with when the power goes. Or the ice storm hits. Or the espresso maker doesn't work.

I fear society is slowly grinding to a halt. One painful step at a time.

Blast From The Past

Got my old phone out the other day (okay, today) and I thought I would do a taste test.

Which picture was taken with the new phone and which one was taken with the old piece of crap?

Hey, the old one is better than I remember. Since it has been sidelined for a year, maybe it has cleaned up its fog-of-life act.

But you know, I like the old boy better than this new technofangled thing I have.

To get the time on the new one, I have to press a button for two seconds to activate it. If there is any light around at all, the glare is too much. I have to move to the shade. And the numbers are about 3 millimeters tall.

The old one? I flipped open the top and there the time was, glowing at me in big type.

If I wanted to dial a number, flipped the top and starting entering numbers. The new boy? Press the two second button to activatre, select the phone menu, select the keypad menu, then start typing.

Sure, I can surf the Internet and get GPS and watch TV and make a latte. Sounds good, but you gotta pay for all that. So I never use that stuff. But they were smart enough to get me to buy it.

Maybe they didn't have to be that smart.....

Oh well, slow news day, I guess.

I Called It

Looks like their marketing strategy of playing hard to get didn't really pan out.

See earlier post about Cash Connectors for bold prediction.

No, Officer, I Haven't. Why Do You Ask?

But It Wasn't Stolen!

Good Time Had

Just completed our annual (19th!) Home Alone weekend with the boys down in the Ottawa Valley.

[Historical note; origin of Home Alone was host's wife would take herself and the kids up to Northern Quebec for a month, subsequently leaving poor host home alone. However, when a good friend is in need, other good friends rush in.]

Due to the deteriorating condition of the author's memory, only a few photos were snapped this year.

Although due to the deteriorating condition of most of the boys, this actually works in your favour.

Here, a couple of the boys got business out of the way early.

The transaction; big, red truck for real, cold beer. Everybody wins.

[Ed. note: until the drive home. See "Northern Perplextions" blog link on the right for this date for more details.]

We all had a lot of fun playing various sporting games throughout the weekend. Golf, ring toss, croquet, etc.

Well, most of us did.

And it's never really Home Alone until the chain saws come out.

So everybody had a great time.

Well, almost everybody......

Okay, okay, when props are due, I prop freely.

For dinner Saturday night, one invited guest, a pilot who flies extensively in the far Canadian north, flew in with fresh Arctic Char, right out of Frobisher Bay. Thanks, Bob.

And Mr. P. rose to the occasion and grilled up the whole meal, painted legs and all. Great job, Calamine Man.

Don't Be Messing With This Ivy

Looks beautiful.

But I've seen trees with smaller trunks than these guys!

Uhhhh....Thanks......

No one came to help.

I gave up after about twenty minutes.

Maybe I'm on someone else's blog.

Apt Nickname

Here Mr. P is....well....keeping the deers away.

Hey, This Looks Familar

I'm pretty sure I have a framed picture of this exact landscape.

Yup, the photog himself confirms it.

Tip Toe Through The.......

....mushrooms?

Boy, the rain is eally working wonders out in the woods up north.

I thought these were flowers until we started eating looking closely at them, man..... Whoa, cool.


You don't see these in Loblaws.

Ricola!

Hello my little friend out here in the woods.

What is your name?

Finally An Answer To An Age Old Question

.....yes they do.

Northern Ontar-iar-iar-io

Spent the weekend up in North Bay, on the lake. On Trout Lake, to be exact. Beautiful.....

About time summer got here.

And what better way to start it off than with good friends and good beer.

But not necessarily in that order.

Okay, in that order.

Beautiful gardens surround the hosts' home.

I guess this is the sliver lining to a summer full of rain.

Now, what other fun could we get up to?

More Fun

Little BBQ down by the beach.

But had to cook your (my) own on a little hand held waffle maker. [Implement in hand of host.]

Amazingly enough, though, there were no instructions on it saying grease the damn thing before loading it up with goodies and thrusting it into the fire.

However, I understand everyone else enjoyed their calzones.

Me? A couple more of those good beers took the sting out of my misfortune.

After dinner, the fire(s) took over.

Moon on fire in the sky. Fire on fire on the ground.

And boat on fire in the water.

Guess the instructions on the fireworks were hard to read, too. Especially the not-near-boat part.

But a great night to blow off a whole box load of those things (thanks, Chris).

Should Have Been An Omen

So after more food (for some) and more beer (for others), we decided on a little three hour tour.

A three hour tour.

Beautiful night out on the water. We drifted silently across the moon dappled lake.

Until time to fire up the mighty 2,600 pound [remember that number] beast and head for home.

Now I guess "click, click, click" could be a good sound if you are playing Russian Roulette.

But not if you are trying to start a boat at two in the morning, far, far from home.

So.......two in the morning; call wife? No.

Call coast guard. Equally no.

Paddle? Guess so. Boat only had one paddle. Host was queried; are you sure there's not a second paddle? No, shut up and paddle.

Quiz; do you know how long it would take to paddle a 2,600 pound boat, across a lake, into a head wind? Neither did we.... Neither did we....

[Next morning, found the second paddle, cleverly hidden under where the first paddle was stored. Host summed it up well; ain't that a pip?]

Good adventure, though.

Road Trip

Now why would we head all the way out to the Redbridge General Store?

Ah ha....

Seems there was more than one person indulging in all those good beers the night before.

Ahhh......

Okay, on to more fun.

So You Can Hit Them

Now We're Talking!

What a beauty, nice big gas guzzler.

What The.....?
Clean %&*#$% Air Car?!

Damn those Californians!

How can Arnold sleep at night?

Irony

As loyal followers of this blog (and you both know who you are) will remember, I posted the results of my lumbar MRI a while back and that I had a herniated disk.

As some of you may also know, Google posts ads on your blog. It must have a smart blog reader application (hey, there's another follower!) as the current ad is for non-surgical solutions for herniated disks.

But the deal I have with Google is that I'm not allowed to click on my own ads! Bummer......