Autumn Musings

  I'm writing today because I feel I should. I don't have anything in particular to talk about but I get this itch that must be scratched.

  It's November in the city. Not warm. Not cold. Windy and cool with that dampness that gets inside you and makes you want hot soup or strong drink. November. It's like March without hope. Dreary. Edgar Allen Poe dreary. I half expect a raven to show up at the window and screech, "Nevermore!"

  We never planned to be spending this time of year here. It's not warm. There's no beach or drinks with umbrellas in our hands but circumstances dictate we stay until January, so here we are. It could be worse. We could be in Winnipeg.

  This past weekend saw us take our roadshow to the east end of Toronto. We're in a cozy wartime house in East York with a friendly but somewhat dumb cockapoo named Charlie.

  He's a bit weird. I've never met a dog that would stare at me. If I stare back at him his gaze remains fixed on me. I'm the alpha. He's supposed to avert his eyes if I stare at him. Doesn't he know the rules?

  He does know about food. If we venture across the kitchen threshold it's like an alarm goes off. Within seconds he's at our feet hoping something hits the floor. I mean, all dogs are optimists but this guy would be on the cover of Moochers Illustrated. If you listen to him whine when we're eating you'd think he never gets enough to eat but, as you can see, he certainly looks well-fed. I'm thinking of just feeding him an enormous bowl of food to see if he'll stop bugging us once it's gone.

  Also, Charlie's food aggressive. If he has something in his mouth don't even think of retrieving it. You have to trade him a dog treat to get what's in his mouth. I almost lost a hand when I tried to take a candy wrapper from him. "Nevermore", quoth Charlie.

  One other thing. Airtags. Since we're not Apple folk we don't use such devices so no experience with them until our last sit. The owners had one on the key ring. Every now and then it would chirp. The first few times I heard it I had no idea it was emanating from the key ring. I'd hear this sound and wander around trying to figure out where it was coming from, only to have it follow me. I'm sure I'm on a YouTube video entitled "Old Man Chasing Airtag in His Pocket". Probably got a million views by now. Lots of laughs. Anyway, Charlie has one on his collar. Not a fan.

  Charlie aside, we're in a nice old neighbourhood with schools and shops and old women who sweep their sidewalks and old men who rake leaves in the wind so they'll have something to do tomorrow. We haven't ventured down to Danforth where I'm sure there are cool cafes and such where we can sit outside, drink espresso and smoke a Gitane. Zut alors! We'll wait for a warmer day to check it out.

  This sit will last until the end of December so it qualifies as our longest. It's nice. We get to unpack, buy groceries that will last more than a week and make ourselves at home. The homeowners were nice enough to equip the kitchen with all the things we need, which is a significant improvement after places with missing and/or non-working appliances, etc. I may bake some bread while we're here.

  For those of you keeping track of David's basement we just finished prepping for drywall, which starts tomorrow. Demolition, framing, rough-in plumbing and electrical all done. Now I can relax. Oh, did I mention Jen and James are moving house at the beginning of December and renovations are scheduled to begin immediately upon their taking possession? And that's why we're not going anywhere until January. To paraphrase Lebron James, I'm not quite ready to take my talents to South Beach.

  Speaking of basketball, I'm in a fantasy hockey league. For those of you who don't know what that is, imagine yourself as a manager of an NHL hockey team. You get to pick your team from the pool of all NHL players. Your team gets points for goals, assists and all the other statistical thingies associated with the sport. Every week you compete against another manager's team as you will your players to collect more points than the other guys'.

  Until I started this thing I would watch the Leafs religiously, rarely missing a game, win or lose, hoping against hope that this would be the year the Stanley Cup came home. Now? Meh. I only have one Leaf on my roster and he doesn't generate many points. I'm more interested in some guy on the Las Vegas team, for God's sake. Hockey in Las Vegas? The world is broken.

  On that note, I was going to write about last week's U.S. election but what can I say? So I won't. I will say that we live in strange times. Not biblically strange, although I suspect 666 is tattooed under Donald Trump's orange hair helmet. Strange in terms of unfamiliar. Like you got off at the wrong subway stop on your way home from work. These days I feel like Florida is that train station, where up is down and nothing is as it should be. Its epicenter is Mar A Lago, the demon's lair where his acolytes come to kiss his ring.

  We've been diligently searching for a warm landing spot where we can escape winter after New Years. No luck so far and we fear we'll end up in the good ol' US of A once again. We were hoping for something more tropical, more exotic but as time ticks away we become more open-minded about our destination. If we end up in Florida I feel like we'll get a front row seat in the Twilight Zone. If nothing else it'll be warm. And interesting.

  So we take comfort in what we know. Family, friends, home, good food and drink. We take shelter in the familiar and wait out the storm. The forecast calls for things to get worse before they get better.

  Like November.

  Go Leafs Go.