2024.04.17 19.32
100928
three songs
100920
small towns
100919
best dollar stores
100918
KW day two
100917
Waterloo via Galt
100914
Facebook Humbug
100908a
Portraits at Forest Hill
100908
new family member
100907
bears raccoons
100906
frightened, bikes gone
100812
tug of war
100803
monday at centrepoint mall
100802
sunday with my folks
100300
march 2010
091200
december 2009
090800
august 2009
090600
june 2009
090400
april 2009
090300
march 2009
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unmodified old essays and pix
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100917 Waterloo via Galt
0200 | I drove GF to her parent's home so she could spend a week with
her mom for a week off work together. I arrived home around 230am, and didn't
really do much. Wrote to J after a while, suggesting we not rush
to get to Waterloo for 11am (because we would show up, we would wave goodbye to Tomas
and Syndi, and wonder why we rushed so much to do that).
So to relax I was watching a talk on ted.com that
was presented by Douglas Adams, the same guy who wrote The Hitchiker's Guide
to the Galaxy. He got a phone call out of the blue to go on an adventure to
find some rare animals. Rare Lemurs, in particular. This one is (or was) called
the Aie Aie. Now I have read a story that contains this same creature. It was an Angie
Sage book in her Septimus Heap series called Physic. In her story, the Aie-Aie is
a toxic creature that bites you, then you take two weeks or so to get very sick,
then pass away. It was nice to learn about the real Aie Aie. They are small little
guys, very shy, night creatures, with eyes a lot like the actor Marty Feldman (they
kind of look outwards and past you at once). The talk is long, but worth hearing,
as Douglas is funny and captivating; he's no longer alive and this talk captures
his quirks. Visit the wiki reference
and Douglas Adam's Ted.com Talk
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1000 | J waited for me to pack, which isn't much really.
I brought both netbook computers, a shopping bag with old laundry (rather than
taking fresh, I thought it would be best to just wash some there). I brought two
bottles good for freezing water in (I am fond of the the 950ml Gatorade or Powerade
bottles that are harder to find in stores). I was thinking, 'what did I forget', and
packed my daily vitamins and blood pressure meds. I managed forgetting the poster
GF wanted me to leave as a gift. Sigh.
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1030 | Wimpy's for Breakfast! Nothing complicated. Pancake
special for J, bacon-n-egg special for me. Our waitress should have been very
experienced, but we noticed a lot of errors. She brought J french toast, and
another guy got a mistake too, just during our brief 30m visit. It's too bad,
really. I want to like Wimpy's. They're close and make rather plain foods (plain
is good, by the way).
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1100 | 'You look like a special agent,' J says. Oh look, I'm
wearing one of the timers we use at work for keeping our breaks to 15 or 30m. It's just
clipped to my suspender. So we make a stop at my local Stx and they're delighted
to get this back, and indirectly, delighted to see me.
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1130 | On the road again! It's been a while since J and I
just had a chance to talk and drive. We take the 401 to James Snow Pkwy, and
from there, just wander the side streets to look at the fall colours. We noted
which ones were more interesting than others.
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1200 | Eventually we got to a road that looked like Hespeler Rd, but
it wasn't really. I wanted to check it out, as it looked like it was full of commerce.
When I visit on a Sunday, many of these places are closed, so I wanted to see anything
that fill my "Main Street Longing". Hespeler Rd is full of places to spend money, but
it feels more like a suburb than a main street. Lots of bars, lots of fast food,
lots of gasoline and car repair places; every business includes lots of parking.
This isn't really a problem, but it makes it look suburban, not old fashioned.
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1230 | As we drove South along Hespeler Rd, J advises me that
it runs all the way to the lake (coool). I was impressed with how much
commerce was available to me on this street. I'd only seen a few blocks
of it, as the Greyhound turns back and runs into Kitchener, then into
Waterloo after that. Eventually, the suburban look vanished, and I see
many 100-year old buildings. Small ones made of hewn brick, or stone, or
something like that. Perhaps I'll take a picture for you and include it
later on.
Here we are in Galt, and this town really does have a wonderful
old style main street! We see it only in glances, as J wants to take
me to the fall fair and the outlet mall.
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1300 | There are signs saying we should go to Dickson
Park for the Fall Fair. Yay! I love fall fairs. These signs were just a tease.
The fair was at the park Last Weekend. Oh well.
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1330 | This town has an huge Outlet Mall. The first store is
a very large Antique Market, with just two cashiers, but booths from perhaps
a hundred vendors. J and I would keep commenting on things we used to own,
and had become antiques now. I guess Antiques help show us we are getting old.
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1400 | Only a few months ago, I bought a lovely pair
of leather slip-on shoes. They had this wonderful grip sole, and wearing
them was comfortable, like working all day in a pair of soft slippers. Well,
perhaps last week, both shoes split along the sole, so that even a small
puddle would be drunk into the shoes. We had rain for a few days since the
soles split, so working stopped being fun. Getting new shoes was a priority
for this particular visit.
J knows how cheap I am. I was looking for another $20 pair of shoes. The
stores I went into had them, but not in my size. But eventually, we got into
a Tootsies outlet, and the lady was just so accomodating. She showed me some
Brooks, and these were black in colour, had velcro ties, and were all very wide,
so people didn't have to order them as large as they would with other shoes they
sold. Too bad they were $60 a pair. I didn't hesitate. They felt right. I got them
just a half size larger, as I like to have the Caterpillar CAT insoles protecting
my heels as I walk. (I'm wearing them now, as I write this to you)
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1430 | As we wander this "mall" we are blown away by the
sheer size of it. Was it three large buildings? I don't know what occupied this
place before they made it the outlet mall. J had a brilliant idea: they should
rent space to two or three different restaurants which offer alcohol. Patios,
cooked meat smell, and the happy tinkling of glassware would change this from
a ghost town at night, to a shoppers dream by day, and a Distillery District by
night. It's very nice now, but some kind of music, food and drink would put Galt
and this particular centre on the map.
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1500 | J has received a message or a phone call or something,
saying we should get our asses to the house. The dogs need to get more outside
time than they used to get, and so we stop being tourists, and rush to house sit.
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1530 | The dogs remember us; the cats remember us. We bring
our stuff in, and take care of the animals as we have contracted. Actually J did
everything.
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2000 | We have both eaten, we have both had naps, and have
both been online in one way or another. J wants to see all of the people who wander
around outside, so we go. And me? I'm eager to see if they have anything on sale
at Central Market or Zehrs.
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2030 | Lots of kids out tonight, but not as many as there would
be if we still had summer temperatures. But we arrive at Central Mkt to find nothing
really on sale, no thrift cheese, no thrift meat. Oh, they have entire pork legs for 99c
a pound which is good, but it's just J and I together this weekend, so I let it pass.
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2130 | More kids are wandering around. The transit buses are
all full to capacity with standees. I coax J to take us to Zehr's. I hoping to find
something on sale. Zehr's never has thrift. I'm out of luck though. Zehr's has
a completely renovated store. Big spacious aisles, and a very new look. They have
rearranged their dairy, frozen and produce sections so you can hardly recognize
the place. But nothing here at the store says "Buy me, I'm on sale!", so I didn't
buy anything. Gawd knows I wanted to, but there just wasn't compelling reason.
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2030 | So we get home. J puts his stuff in the freezer, and I
find something to make so there is room for his things in there. I found some
chicken nuggets which needed using up. They were good made into a soup with rice,
peas and a bit of mayo on my dish in the end.
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2430 | So here I am. I've got a nice sturdy chair in my room. I'm
using J's old room downstairs, and a lovely single foam mattress on the floor. He's
upstairs, probably on the sofa in front of the TV, but if the animals have made to
much racket, he's sleeping somewhere else.
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