Downtown in the 6ix

   We've moved. Again. We finished our stay by the lake in the west of Toronto a week ago, spent a couple of days at Jen's and now we're in the heart of the city in the middle of everything.

  For those of you who know downtown Toronto, we're in a condo building midway between the Dome and the Ex, next to Fort York. To our right, we're at eye level with the Gardiner Expressway and to our left is the old Tip Top Tailors. Not much of a view from our balcony but we're a short walk to lots of interesting stuff. Not too shabby.

  That's us on the left.

  Our current home is small and contains the necessities, although this is the first place without a toaster. Coffee comes from an espresso machine. Y'know... all the grinding and infusing and brewing to get an ounce of mud. A decent amount of coffee in the morning requires brewing six shots. Yep. We're awake.

  The young couple we're sitting for are very nice and I'm sure they spend a lot of their income at the local eating and drinking establishments so who needs cooking paraphernalia? I'm not sure I'd be that different if I lived around here.

  It's noisy here in the city. Traffic sounds drift in twenty-four hours a day. Sirens wail, commuter trains rumble, streetcar wheels squeal around corners. These are familiar noises I remember from growing up in the city but we've lived in Newmarket for thirty-five years and the difference is a little shocking. Of course, it's a trade-off. Newmarket's quiet... and boring. Life is noisy.

  This week's animal is a cute little cat named Belles. She's a bit shy but she likes to play and seems ok with entertaining us with her acrobatics. It's always nice sitting for a cat as we don't have to rush home for feedings and walks, etc. It allows us to do some exploring and, even though I've lived in the Toronto area for most of my life, there's lot around here that's new to me.

  Our first few days here have been spent with me running up to Bradford to continue with David's basement project. It's not a bad commute since I'm going against the grain. The ninety minute city-bound drive is only forty-five minutes going north. Maybe the sextuple espresso has something to do with that.

  Much progress has been made with all the old stuff having been finally torn out, new framing complete and plumbers in today to rough-in the bathroom. Since I can't work while they're jackhammering the floor Penny and I decided to do some exploring and we picked the perfect day for it, 22C and sunny which, for the end of October in Toronto, is... not too shabby.

  We're a ten minute walk to the new Stackt Market which is a series of shipping containers turned into boutiques, restaurants and bars with event spaces for bands. It looks like fun and we'll likely head down there this evening. We also headed to The Well for lunch, a new spot for international take-away eats that's received terrific reviews since it opened this past spring. I counted outlets for dishes from at least a dozen countries. No KFC, McDonalds, Taco Bell, etc. Real food. We even have a Japadog, which is a thing in Vancouver. If you were reading this blog last summer you'll now about my corn dog affliction. The Japanese version interests me.

  Our stroll took us north on Spadina Avenue through some gentrification and into the old Chinatown.

  This area, until the 1950's, was home to most of Toronto's Jewish community and has a lot of significance for my family history. Both my parents grew up near here. My mother worked at the Labor Lyceum as a bookkeeper when she met my father in 1948.

  They would have been married seventy-five years last week. My grandfather on my mother's side was the business manager for the garment workers' union and was instrumental in organizing it in the 1920's, shortly after he and my grandmother arrived from Poland.

  It's a fascinating area where the new mixes with the old. So many of the buildings have been repurposed for both commercial and residential use. It's a nice walk if you haven't spent much time down here. And for those of you upset with grocery prices, head down to one of the Chinese markets where you'll see prices the major supermarkets haven't seen in years, like a pint of strawberries for a dollar. If I lived down here I know where I'd be shopping!

  Of course, like all the walks we take in places familiar and unfamiliar, there's always a surprise in store. Here's an old friend of Toronto baseball fans, soon to be blocked out by a new condo building going up next door.

  We're only here a short time, back to Jen's on Tuesday for a short stay, before heading back to the city for a seven week stay which will take us to New Years. After that... who knows? Someplace warm, we hope.

Cheers!

The Hard Part Begins

   So here we are in the Big Smoke. We returned from Kelowna early Tuesday morning and headed to our next house sit where we'll be until Thursday. This time we're in a picturesque neighbourhood in the west end of Toronto right by Lake Ontario.

  It's what Penny and I call a "pokey" house. It's small and fairly crowded and not very well equipped. It's owned by a woman who doesn't live here and currently occupied by her divorced boyfriend and his dog while she lives in an apartment downtown. Don't ask. He's away in Vegas for ten days so we have the dog.

  It's easy to tell a single man lives here. There's no food to speak of in the fridge, no real cooking equipment, the oven barely works, etc. We're making do with it as we're not here long but it only took two hours for this place to supplant the house in Mobile as the worst one we've stayed in over the past year and a half. At least the dog is cool.

  Scout is a border collie mix who will chase balls endlessly, as they do. His ears are up in this picture because he thinks a ball is coming his way. Happy guy. The house backs onto a waterfront park that connects to Toronto's Waterfront Trail so lots of places to walk here.

  The views are beautiful and it's a fairly interesting area so it's a nice spot to land if you ignore the house. We're about forty-five minutes to Newmarket so it's not crazy far. It's about the same to Bradford, which leads me to the "hard part" in the title. As I've mentioned previously, we're here this fall because I'm helping David build out his basement living space. In order to do that there's demolition to do first and, since David hasn't had time to do any of it, I recruited my favourite breaker of things, Jen, to help.

  There are no "before" pictures to show so imagine there's this big room where a woodstove used to sit. If you're familiar with woodstoves you'll know they need to be surrounded by fireproof wall and floor materials. The previous owners decided, for reasons unknown, that "fireproof" meant "bombproof". Also, for reasons unknown, they decided the stove should be elevated eighteen inches above the basement's concrete floor. At this point it's important to know our suspicion this guy (it's a guy because a woman would ask how to do it properly so would not end up with such a monstrosity) was in construction as he had access to a raft of building materials.

  He started by building a clay brick wall, six feet down each of the corner walls, floor to ceiling. Then he placed concrete blocks, laid flat, over a six-by-six foot quarter-circle in the corner. Atop this he poured two and a half inches of concrete. On top of that he laid two layers of the same clay brick. To finish it off he took more of the clay brick, laid on end, and built an apron around the front face of this agglomeration to try and make it pretty. If you're doing the math that's about three cubic yards of brick and concrete just to have a fireproof spot for the wood stove. Extreme overkill? Given all he needed to do was tile about a hundred square feet of wall and floor, I think maybe yes.

  Remember David Letterman's "stupid pet tricks"? My late friend, John, who ran the building inspection department in a large suburb of Toronto, constantly came across stupid homeowner tricks and told me about them over a beer. I would ask why they did the stupid thing (because I needed to know) and he would say with a sad smile, "Why is hard." Well, the thing in David's basement was a stupid homeowner trick. Why was hard.

  So, after pulling down the drywalled ceiling so I can do some re-wiring next week, Jen and I went to work demolishing the equivalent of a small house's worth of foundation material. For those of you in the studio audience who wonder why we go to the gym... (make sure you turn up the sound for the whole effect)

  Jackhammer, sledge hammer, crowbar and broken fingernails were all employed in the task but, together, we beat the bastard. This is a small sample of the debris field.

  We could have used this as a first responder training centre. David already has a collie so we could ask Daisy if Jimmy was in the well. Look it up if you just got that "what the hell is he talking about" look on your face. Completely exhausted we left David and his friend Luke to clean up the mess.

  They did a great job and now it's on to removing the raised floor and a couple of walls this week before I start building. I'm feeling like it might be time to buy the economy size bottle of Advil...

  After Thursday we'll be back at Jen's for a bit then back downtown to a condo in the heart of Toronto's waterfront area before we head off to a house in Toronto's east end where we'll be until the end of the year. The plan is to have David's basement completed by December so Penny and I can head off to sunnier climes for the winter. That's the plan... we'll see how it goes.

  Stay tuned as I'll keep you all posted on the renovation as we turn this sow's ear into a silk purse.

Cheers!

Kelowna

   If you read the title you'll know where we've been the past week and a bit. Yes, beautiful Kelowna, BC. We've been staying in a house on top of a hill beside Okanagan Lake with two dogs and a cat. It's a pretty spot and it's the perfect time of year to be here. The weather's been great and the summer crowds are gone.

  Our trip west was interesting, to say the least. We had an early flight from Toronto that never got off the ground, literally. When we pushed back from the gate a sound issued from beneath our seats that was reminiscent of when the differential on my 1972 Triumph TR6 blew up, spewing gears all over the road. After a half hour the pilot informed us the splurfengang was moofing and we were going back to the gate so we could get on a different plane.

  It's important to note this plane had just come from the hangar -- I'm assuming it was there for maintenance. I guess someone forgot to tighten the flimflaggen or maybe the plane had a sign on it saying "Don't take this one". I'm guessing the half-filled coffee cup and monkey wrench lying on the floor in front of the plane wasn't a big enough clue to deter anyone. In any case it was broken.

  Our next plane was scheduled to leave ninety minutes later and it almost did. We boarded while they were rushing to load food carts from catering. I guess they didn't get finished as we sat there for an hour until they were done. Bottom line, we arrived four hours later than expected.

  This didn't really bother us since the homeowners informed us they weren't leaving until five o'clock. Of course, if they'd have told us that earlier, rather than their original estimate of noon, we'd have booked a later flight and saved ourselves the ridiculously early morning drive to the airport. As it turns out our late arrival gave us the perfect excuse for not spending the six hours with them our planned arrival time and their updated departure would have entailed. Instead, we spent an interminable ninety minutes making small talk with them, half of which was drowned out by their nine year-old's piano practice.

  But, back to the airport. As I said, we arrived late so I went off to get the rental car while Penny waited for baggage to arrive from the nether regions of the terminal. The nice man at the counter who, because we were late, didn't have the car we were supposed to get asked if I minded driving an SUV. With visions of some smallish thing like a RAV4 or Bronco I agreed and headed off back to the luggage carousel with giant key fobs in hand.

  After a short wait our bags appeared and we prepared to head off in search of our vehicle when a voice cried out "Penny!" from behind us. Actually the voice cried out twice as Penny  ignored it the first time, figuring no one in Kelowna would be looking for her. Surprise! It turns out my cousin Paul had arrived at the same time and was heading off to see his brother and nieces in the Kelowna area. Small world, as they say.

  Anyway, off to the parking lot we trudged, only to find our little SUV was the size of one of those dump trucks you see hauling tons of rocks out of strip mines. It was big enough to put two Hondas inside. It should have had one of those "This vehicle makes wide right turns" signs on the back. My friend Bill would have been right at home in it though as it was the same size as his Secret Service Suburban. Black too. Anyway, it was a Ford so I'm sure it was bigger... because they are. It's the kind of vehicle you need to park at the far end of the lot because you can't fit it into a regular parking space without knocking the door mirrors off of the neighbouring vehicles. We only had it for the day so we climbed aboard and prepared to roll over any cars that got in our way.

  When we arrived at the house we met our three charges, a six year-old Siberian Husky named Willow,

... a one year-old Welsh Corgi named Buffy,

... and a three year-old Bengal named Fezzik.

  I asked the cat if he wanted a peanut. He looked at me like I wanted to start a land war in Asia. If you don't get this look up "Fezzik" in Google.

  The animals are cute, friendly and entertaining. Buffy and Fezzik chase each other around the house and wrestle, barks and hisses echoing through the atrium-like living room.

  Willow's a sweetheart who just wants to lie in the sun and look charming. They're all pretty cool and Willow has ascended my list of favourite dogs, currently number two with a bullet, as they say.

  We're on top of a ridge that overlooks canyons and forests on one side and Okanagan Lake on the other. During last year's wildfires, which were concentrated in West Kelowna across the lake, enough embers blew across to start fires very close to our neighbourhood resulting in an evacuation. You can see evidence of it all around us.

  There are numerous old logging roads around us that have been converted to hiking trails. They're very scenic walks and the dogs love being out on them with us.

  At this point I should mention the reason we came across the country for a house sit. If you weren't following along before I'll reintroduce our friends from Yellowknife, Bryan (above) and Sheila.

  We try to meet up with them during our travels whenever possible as the NWT is a bit off the beaten path. Last September we stopped at their Calgary condo for a few days and this time they made the trek southwest to meet up with us here. We spent a lot of our time with them this week hanging out at the house eating, drinking, playing games and catching up.

  Like us, Bryan and Sheila are frequent travelers and they rarely celebrate their wedding anniversary at home so coming to Kelowna for their thirteenth seemed a natural. I mean, we flew four thousand kilometres for their wedding so it's only fitting they had to come twenty-five hundred kilometres to celebrate their anniversary with us, right? On Tuesday night we headed off to the Old Vines restaurant at Quails' Gate Winery for dinner.

  The food was terrific as were the wines and the scenery. It was a special evening and we're already looking forward to our next visit with them when they come to Toronto at the end of December.

  By Thursday they were on their way home leaving Penny and I on our own for the rest of our stay. Not ones to let an opportunity for some exploring go to waste we set about making plans for the remaining four days in the Okanagan.

  Our first stop was Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery. Yes. More drinking. What choice did we have? We sampled some of their best grog including absinthe and, yes, absinthe makes the heart grow fonder. Sorry. Their main outlet and distillery is in Vernon and, since Paul had invited us up there for Friday, decided to put off any purchases until then.

  Friday morning we headed north up the Okanagan Valley on a very scenic drive along many charming lakes until we reached Vernon.

  We met up with Paul and our first stop took us to Planet Bee, a great place to stop if you're interested in honey. We bought a couple of different varieties and sampled some mead which they make using their honey. Well, this is no ordinary mead... as if mead were in any way ordinary. Pretty spectacular stuff so we bought some to take home. No idea if it will make it home and we might just end up drinking it all here, in this home.

  With honey done and dusted we headed off to meet Paul's nieces, Rachel and Arielle, for lunch downtown. Now, since Paul is my cousin that makes Rachel and Arielle my cousins too! New family. Cool! Now let me attempt to correctly define the relationships. Paul's grandmother on his father's side was my grandmother's (on my mother's side) sister. That makes him my second cousin. So far so good. As far as I can tell Rachel and Arielle are second cousins once removed. I mentioned to Paul he could also be a second cousin once removed if he left by the exit door. He stayed so he remains my second cousin, not removed. Did I mention it's cool discovering new family? We'll have to come back. There may be more family hiding out here.

  We bid the ladies adieu and headed off to the main outlet of the distillery, drank ourselves into a moderate stupor tasting all the different offerings, bought a few then walked some of it off on the Vernon Rail Trail.

  Our final weekend here started with a wander around the local Farmers' Market and I have to say it's a very impressive one at that. The assortment of fresh, local produce and interesting things to eat was a welcome change from the tired offerings and kitschy crafts we've seen at most North American markets. I'm not including markets we've seen outside N.A. as nothing we've seen on this continent can compare to them.

  Sunday morning, as we were preparing to leave for an afternoon of cycling on the Myra Canyon rail trail, Fezzik decided to show us his displeasure at not letting him outside.

  Scratch two houseplants. The homeowners call the cat "Little Shit" because of stuff like this. "What did that Little Shit do now?", seems to be a popular refrain here. He's a very smart cat so I have to respect that. For instance, he's figured out how to get the robot vac to start.

  Alas, he is such a little shit. When we leave we won't miss him very much. On the other hand I'd gladly take Willow home with me. Buffy, not so much.

  Anyway, after Penny cleaned up the mess we headed off for a beautiful afternoon of cycling. The Myra Canyon rail trail, a twelve kilometre (twenty-four return) stretch of the old Kettle Valley Railroad line, spans trestles and tunnels while it winds through the Myra Canyon. Since there was only one e-bike available I arranged for Penny to take it and I assumed the harder job of actually self-propelling myself along the route. It's a rail line so it's pretty level so not the worst thing in the world.

  It's a beautiful ride and I heartily recommend it to anyone who comes out this way during the spring and fall. It gets really hot in the summer so maybe not such a good idea then.

  The trail includes eighteen trestles like these above and two tunnels.

  Since it's been cool the past few nights the fall colours are on full display which made it a very vibrant scene.

  Also, we were up about four thousand feet above Kelowna so some spectacular views of the city, Okanagan Lake and the surrounding hills were available.

  Tomorrow we board the red eye flight back to T.O. and on to our next sit across the street from Lake Ontario in Toronto's Long Branch neighbourhood. We'll be charged with caring for another border collie named Scout so much ball-throwing and trail walking will ensue. I'll be starting work on son David's basement so much of the dog care will fall to Penny. I'm sure it won't be a chore in such a beautiful location.

  I'll miss Kelowna as it's a terrific spot amongst the mountains. There's skiing all around us in the winter and great hiking when the snow is gone. With wineries, microbreweries and distilleries there's always something interesting with which to wet your whistle and a cosmopolitan restaurant vibe as well.

  I won't miss Fezzik.