What Chew Lookin' At Willis?

Yikes!

Woke up to this this morning as I looked out my bedroom wondow.

They just put up a huge honking crane for the huge honking, 37 story condo going up next door.

It was literally over my head this morning as I was on my balcony.

right across the sreet, brushing our building.

Darn guy was reading the paper along with me.

Well, no more walking around in the buff for a couple of years.

Which is what us retired guys really like to do, too.

As if I needed another reason to hate those big behemoths...

Dumbest Business Idea Ever

Oh yeah, huge market, going after all those curly haired Japanese.......

Their earlier idea was "Inuit Ice Delivery".

And a sort of related segue, our company firmly believed that Air Canada's motto was

"We're not happy
Til you're not happy."

I Need To Make a Withdrawal, Please

Or "So that's where where it's been all these years...."

Making The Best Of A Bad Situation....

Yeah. She's Waiting For You To Call...

What loser believes this crap anyway?

I might be waiting home on a Saturday night for a call.

But not her.

And by the way, she's not waiting. When I called, someone else answered.

You don't get your money back or anything.

Wasting Away Again.....

It's uncanny how accurate those Jimmy Buffett lyrics are, even after all these years.

Went to see Jimmy in concert Saturday with a couple of friends.

Okay, with 64 friends. All of a similar ilk.

Fantastic day.

Cheeseburger in Paradise party for the 64 in matching Hawaiian shirts in friends' back yard (thanks a bunch B & J), limo ride to the concert, then a couple of hours of grooving to Jimmy tunes meeting people all around us.

And the shirts have an additional advantage over and above just making you look extremely cool.


When one fellow - who will remain nameless - toddled back from the bar with a couple of adult beverages in hand, he apparently had trouble re-locating his group. I thought the group had moved. I mean, he thought the group had moved.

Another concert goer took one look at his shirt, pointed and said "You guys are over there." Perfect!

The only other event occurred when we were at the back of the lawn section and one of the fellows lost his sunglasses. I won't tell you which fellow, but those with even minimal investigative skills will be able to tell.

They fell back over the fencing, so he had to crawl underneath to retrieve them.

Which is when security came by and thought he was trying to sneak in to the concert. But some smooth talking by another of the guys eventually calmed the troubled waters....

This was a "red" security guy. There were also "blue", and as it turned out later, quite a few "yellow" security guys as well.

Now if you've never been to a Jimmy Buffett concert (which is more like an outdoor cocktail party) - and the pre-game festivities leading up to it - you better hurry, because the ugly rumour circulating is that Jimmy may be hanging up his flip flops soon.

Say it ain't so, Jimmy!

Regardless, his music will survive for a long time.

Even if some of the above concert goers don't.....

Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

Out for another stroll (is that all retied guys do?) in an older neighbourhood.

This elegant apartment building was built in the early 1900's. Much grander than the concrete and glass boxes that they now throw up.

Considerable attention to detail.

Here is the bottom of a bay window.

Perhaps the "angels" are sending a prayer for the occupants.

Or, perhaps they are praying that they'll actually be able to continue to hold up that heavy block of stone.

Except for the glass door, this looks like it could be from some ancient village in Italy.

But no, this is just Avenue Rd, south of St Clair.

And speaking of south of St. Clair, although it is hard to see, this is actually at the bottom of a steep hill.

The top of the hill being the former shoreline of Lake Iroquois.

Lake Iroquois was formed ~10,000 years ago and was essentially an enlargement of the present Lake Ontario.

It formed because the St. Lawrence River downstream from the lake was blocked by the ice sheet near the present Thousand Islands.

The level of the lake was approximately 100 ft above the present level of Lake Ontario.

When it melted, the run-off created all the ravines that run through Toronto.

The same ravines that keep retired guys off the main streets and away from hard working citizens.

Do You See What I See?

Foresight.

Just after the turn of the century - the 19th century - when they were building the Prince Edward Viaduct, the designer, R.C. Harris, had the foresight to add (actually to demand) a lower level to accommodate a not-even-dreamed-about potential subway.

Many, many opposed it, saying "Too expensive. Not needed."

When the subway finally opened mid century, this addition saved millions of dollars in subway construction costs.

[You can see the subway chugging along beneath the upper road surface.]

Today's Toronto politicians are saying the same thing about the Eglinton and Sheppard subway projects. They want to build light rail transit down the centre of these streets.

The lure? They're cheaper and can get more of them for our buck. They claim the current mayor's support of subways is shortsighted and he has no vision of future transit.

Huh? Can you imagine if these councillor's were in power when the original subway decisions were being made? "Too expensive. Foolhardy."

Can you imagine if the subway had been rejected and we still has streetcars running up and down Yonge St today? And all along Bloor?

Subways are expensive - but they are the only way to go.

Thus ends this morning's rant. Back to your cereal......

Demo By Neglect Part II - Not So Fast...

I thought this building was as good as a goner when I took these shots back in March.

It used to be a seedy "budget" hotel.

Now it's just seedy.

So based on past experience, I could guess what was next; "Time to tear 'er down!"

Then in the paper I see some fool has decided to save it and make a boutique hotel.

And I guess when I called it a "budget" hotel, I was being kind.

Apparently, Fodors or Tripadvisor rated it the dirtiest hotel in Canada.

Not necessarily the way to which you want to be referred.

Some reviews:

"Bay Street Motel is HORRID!" - ibegin.com
"After we saw the room we went down to get our money back." - ibegin.com
"Only Arnott would love this building." - sotrue.com

Well, if this turn out not to be some scam, it may be not too shabby...

Although this artist's rendering looks like all they've added is a coat of paint.

And a really cheap coat at that.

In fact, this looks worse than it does now. I guess they're going for the distressed look...

I Seeeeee You.....

The Gay Pride Parade took over the streets of Toronto yesterday.

And although many think them flamboyant and "out there", I found them hiding.

Hiding down a winding street. All very quiet.

Okay, I guess this was the staging area for the start of the parade.

But kind of neat to see them all huddled away before they burst on to the streets of Toronto.

And burst they did.

This float contained many scantily clad people, all singing and gyrating.

Now that doesn't really distinguish it at all from any of the other many, many floats.

Except the band were all wearing Rob Ford masks - and not in tribute to the mayor or Toronto, either.

This float, as far as I could make out from their sign, is comprised of gay Thai's.

Uhhh...also dancing and gyrating.

I call this pic "Gays guys watching gay Thai's."

You call it what you like.

I have no idea who/what these people represent.

But as you can see, they were also dancing and gyrating. I was sensing a theme....

And as I watched, I also thought that this parade is becoming more and more like Caribana. And not because of the dancing and gyrating either.

In the half an hour I watched, none of the floats moved at all. Everything was at a stand still.

The only thing that moved (apart from every guy's jingly bits) was an NDP float that passed the two floats I was watching.

How do you pass in a parade?...

And before things even started, I had a mini-parade pass by my window!

Which is how I found their secret hiding place....

Hey! How did these guys get in here?

Snuck in right at the end of the parade.

Of course, it's hard to see here, but none of their pants had fronts. So I guess they fit right in.

And who says gays are all neat and tidy.

Not the Toronto Sanitation Department! Bringing up the rear (settle down...)

Anyway, they had great weather for it and nobody lost an eye.

Unless somebody got too close to those gyrating jingly bits.....