I really like the new design at the Toronto Star’s website. It seems that this was the year for newspapers to redesign their sites. Good on them.
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Tags: design, newspaper, Toronto, toronto-star, website
No, I’m not podcasting myself. That would be quite ridiculous and I don’t think anyone wants to listen to me talk about something unless they’re around me in real life (or do they?).
For me podcasting is all about listening to others’ podcasts. I have quite a few that I listen to on my Nano (1G). Among them are:
- Toronto This Week – Since I take the bus most days now I don’t get a chance to listen to much radio so this keeps me up-to-date on the local CBC shows (Metro Morning, Here & Now and Ontario Today).
- The Best of Ideas – This is one of the best podcasts that I listen to; hour-long documentaries on intellectual subjects such as organic food, religion and philosophy and the culture of sleep.
- The Best of The Current – Anna Maria Tremonti has some really great interviews on topical themes plus The Voice makes an appearance on each podcast.
- The Best of As It Happens – You can’t go wrong with this show. They deliver some hard-hitting interviews and some rather goofy ones too so it’s bound to keep you entertained and informed.
- The Best of DNTO – Definitely Not The Opera is a very fun show (hosted by Sook-Yin Lee) that gives me my pop culture fix for the week.
- The Movie Blog: Audio Edition – I started reading The Movie Blog a few months ago and it gives me my movie news but it’s nice to hear some discussion on movies too and these guys know how to deliver: almost an hour-long talk about movie news of the week plus a mailbag edition most weeks as well. It’s all of the movie news you’d ever want to hear! It’s also one of the most popular podcasts around.
- CBC Radio Editor’s Choice – each day they take their favourite segment and bundle it up in podcast form. Some of the segments are repeated in the other podcasts that I listen to but it gives you a good sampling of what’s available (and great) on CBC radio.
- The Bloggers Hotstove – Canadian politics discussion in podcast form. I recently started downloading these but I haven’t listened to any yet but knowing that James Bow is involved means that it’s bound to be high quality.
- Money Blogger Podcast – a personal finance podcast where Scott interviews different personal finance bloggers about their blog, their philosophy about saving and what they think about the world of personal finance these days. I’ve found some very great personal finance blogs through this podcast. It’s worth it for the links alone.
So that’s what I’ve been listening to and it’s kept me in a fairly good mood traveling back and forth to work. The other day I forgot my iPod at work so I had to go home and back without anything but the people on the bus to entertain me. If you have any podcasts of your own that you listen to or think that I might be interested in, please let me know!
Tags: as-it-happens, blogs, CBC, definitely-not-the-opera, dnto, ideas, ipod, nano, personal-finance, podcasting, radio, Toronto
The rest of the week I have to take the bus into work as my ride has vacation time. Taking the bus to work in the morning is usually not a pleasant chore and now that school is back in session the potential for a truly awful ride is pretty high. Backpacks and the sheer number of kids wanting to take the bus combined with the newer buses that have room for fewer people means that personal space is at a premium.
This morning I think I got to work in the shortest amount of time possible. That is 45 minutes. Only about 30 minutes are spent on the bus, the rest is walking from the house to the bus stop and the bus stop to the office. The only way I was able to achieve that 45 minutes was to catch all of the buses right as they were leaving my stop and the fact that none of them were extraordinarily full. I try not to let it depress me too much. I figure I can listen to most of one album per trip so that makes me happier.
Well as I alluded to yesterday we are in the midst of a heat wave this week here in Toronto. Today or tonight it should break with some welcome relief via thunderstorms. I have my new umbrella with me in case it starts to rain when I’m heading home.
As of Friday I’m on vacation until the 14th. It’s a well-deserved vacation and I’m looking forward to spending some time during the day with Marcy. We’re going to Ohio this weekend to visit my parents and then next weekend we’re planning on going up to Thomas and Christal’s cottage for a couple of days and then the last weekend the plan is to go to Ottawa. I’ve never been and I think I should probably see our capital at some point.
After the vacation is done it will be time for some internal searching to determine my next path. Don’t worry, I’ll let you know what I decide and it’ll most likely be in cryptic sentences.
Tags: cottage, ohio, ottawa, Toronto, Travel, vacation, Weather
The temperature this morning was 30 degrees at 8:30. My glasses fogged up when I went outside. I’m going to try and stay inside as much as possible today because I’m sure the heat and haze and humidity will be quite oppressive today. It’s looking like the temperature will break on Thursday with a nice cool front. Until then we suffer in silence.
We went to the Fossil & Haggis pub this evening for dinner. Rather, we attempted to finish the food that we had ordered but it was too much.
The Fossil (as I will call it) is a really great pub on Morningside at Military Trail. It’s very near to UTS (University of Toronto – Scarborough) and 401. It’s a really huge establishment and for me the big selling point is their truly large list of import beers on draught. I routinely order an 80 Shilling by Caledonian. It be a fine brew.
Anyway so we wanted wings (they have excellent wings) but we were pretty hungry so we ordered a plate of fries and the “snack” size of nachos supreme. I really don’t know who could eat that as a snack but it was a dinner plate enormously filled high with toppings. It was very dense but extremely delicious at the same time – chili, guacamole, salsa, sour cream, lettuce. I would heartily recommend it if you’re ever around that area of town.
We had the nachos brought out first and then the fries and wings. Unfortunately we barely touched the wings and since they out of all the dishes we ordered can survive being reheated we had them wrapped up to take home. Maybe we’ll have them later on tonight for a snack. They’re bound to be tasty; we got the medium flavour and it has a fair amount of spice in it. It’s no Duff’s Famous Wings but they’re still very good. I’m getting hungry again just thinking about them.
Tags: chicken-wings, duff's-famous-wings, Food, fossil-and-haggis, nachos-supreme, restaurants, Toronto
This week while I’m taking the bus both ways and since it’s just me at home until tomorrow, I can afford the time to experiment with the route I take to work. For the past couple of days I decided to take the bus to Warden station, take the subway to Pape and then take the Don Mills bus north to Eglinton. I’ve also been taking the converse trip home. Over 2 trips I’d say that the trip to work has actually been faster than the route where I take 3 buses but the route home has been slower (mainly due to the ongoing construction on the Leaside bridge).
Anyway so I was on the subway this morning. We passed Greenwood and then Donlands. Pape is up next. I move over to the door. The subway pulls into the station and I brace myself against the brakes.
Ding.
The doors stay shut.
Ding.
I expect the doors to open. The people on the platform looking into the subway car expect the doors to open.
A few moments pass.
“Next station: Chester.”
The look of bewilderment on the faces of the people on the platform was amusing. However I was now stuck on a subway that hadn’t opened its doors. Was I destined to ride all the way to Kipling without having a chance to get off of the car?
We arrive at Chester. One ding and the doors open and I get off, go up the stairs, and then go back down the stairs and the other side of the platform (eastbound this time). A subway arrives momentarily and I travel one station east to Pape, the subway doors open this time at Pape (in case it was something special about the station) and I get off.
The rest of the trip was uneventful. Those few moments though were interesting.
Tags: chester, Commuting, It Happened To Me, pape, subway, Toronto, ttc
I left work a little later than usual this evening, around 6:30. If I get interesting rides such as the one today, I may have to make the trip home at that time a little more often (when Marcy’s not in town as I don’t want to stay at work too late while she’s here). Let me describe for you the four incidents on the way home that made the trip so worthwhile.
- I took the Don Mills bus south today to the subway. I didn’t want to deal with the crush of people normally found on the Eglinton East bus and it’s nice that I have an alternative way to get home (besides asking Marcy to pick me up). So we were going down Overlea when this man walked up to the bus. He had on a tank top that looked to have a pattern on the back. He got on the bus and showed his pass but then the driver wanted to talk to him about something. He turned around on the back of his shirt was a few dozen hand-drawn images of a swastika. He got off of the bus at the next stop and walked alongside it so I had a pretty clear view of his shirt and it was definitely a series of swastikas. Sure he may have been practicing Jainism but it’s still a bit shocking to see that symbol in public here in North America. I wonder if the driver told him to get off of the bus or he really did want to go for one stop only. In any case he got off willingly and that was the last we saw of him.
- The second incident happened further along the route when we were on Pape. It was after 6 PM so people were allowed to park their cars on the curb lane. This makes travelling by bus down the street difficult because you have to keep moving from lane to lane. As we were approaching one particular bus stop (I can’t remember the exact side street), I saw up ahead that people had put out their garbage for the collection tomorrow (I guess) and in front of one apartment there were quite a few bags and a couple of mattresses. The bus slowed down as someone had rung the bell and several people were waiting by the rear doors to get off once the bus stopped. It looked for a few moments like the bus would stop before the pile of garbage bags to be considerate to the people exiting at the rear but a few seconds later that turned out not to be the case. The driver slowed and almost stopped but then kept moving until the rear doors were directly in front of the garbage bags. The lady waiting immediately at the door looked outside I thought she was considering exiting there but she quickly changed her mind. One man actually opened the doors but once they opened he realized what kind of situation he would be in if he tried exiting the bus there. I was afraid once the man opened the doors that the doors themselves would get stuck on the garbage bags but fortunately that was not the case. They closed without any trouble and we were on our way.
- The third incident happened on the subway as I was heading east. I had a seat which is rare on the subway for me. We stopped at Main St. station and a guy got on the subway. He walked over to another guy who was seated and said very loudly: “Hey, are you stoned?” I looked over and saw the situation unfolding and found the guy that he was asking the question to. He looked quite startled and I thought we were going to have one of those scenarios where you have someone either talking to themselves or asking odd questions of other people on the subway but then a look of recognition flashed over the guy’s face and they both broke out laughing. They then moved to the back of the subway car to sit together. It definitely isn’t something you see or hear everyday.
- The fourth and final thing was when I was walking towards the bus bay for the last leg of my journey. At Warden Station you have to walk up or down a long flight of stairs to get to the main platform or the bus platform respectively. I started walking down the stairs of my platform and saw a group of people standing on the road part of the platform talking. I didn’t pay them much mind; usually people meander around while they wait for the bus to come (my bus has a lot of different sub-routes so some people may have to wait for quite a while for the right sub-route to come along and there isn’t a whole lot you can do to occupy yourself there). We waited for a few minutes and then the bus pulled up. I got on the bus and sat down. When the people who were on the road earlier got onto the bus I noticed that the man with them was holding a video camera (handheld). The girls he was with had gotten on the bus before him and as they walked to the back of the bus he was filming them. I’m not sure what kind of experience he was filming but as soon as they sat down he stopped. I hope the rest of his day was a little more exciting than getting on a public bus because otherwise that will make for a rather dull home movie unless his plan was to get a video shot of them on every single route in the city. Now that would be something worth watching!
So that was my ride home tonight. Perhaps it wasn’t as exciting as a runaway crane but I found it worthy to write all of these words about it. Maybe tomorrow’s two trips on the public transit system will be even more adventurous.
Tags: Commuting, garbage, It Happened To Me, public-transit, stoned, swastika, Toronto, ttc, video-camera
This story depresses me. A teenage boy is beaten to death. I knew about this yesterday when my landlord mentioned it on the ride in. I thought it was at night or that no one was around to see it.
Nope. People witnessed the beating and didn’t call the police. They thought it was the old “boys will be boys” routine. Sure this neighbourhood isn’t the greatest or the safest (really) but there’s a difference between play fighting and someone getting a serious beating (serious enough to die).
At times I’m disappointed with people. This is one of those times. I can’t really say more than that.
Tags: beating, crime, death, flemingdon-park, Toronto, witness
According to this news story yesterday, we in Toronto spend on average 79 minutes per day commuting to and from work (round trip). That adds up over the course of the year.
We were talking about this at lunch today and for most people at my office, 79 minutes per day is probably quite low. One of our employees drives more than that one way.
I think the more depressing aspect of the story comes when they discuss the discrepancy between driving a car and taking public transit in the city:
The study also revealed that despite the widespread problem of traffic congestion, it is much faster to travel by car than by public transportation. On average, Canadians in cars spent between 51 and 59 minutes on the road, while public transit users endured average travel time of 94 to 106 minutes.
“Above all, the study shows that a sizable gap remains between the two modes from the standpoint of travel times,” wrote Turcotte. “It is therefore not surprising that despite higher fuel costs and increased environmental concerns, most workers continue to use mainly their automobile to get to work.”
94 to 106 minutes. That’s a big difference between 51 to 59 minutes. When I have to take the bus both ways, it takes 120 minutes in total. When I get a ride in the morning, I’m probably looking at between 75-80 minutes which is near the average. But let me tell you, spending 120 minutes for many consecutive days tends to wear on you especially when the weather is inclement (or inClements). I feel badly in a way for saying that though because I believe in public transit in principle. It’s just sometimes the practicalities of taking it everyday can become quite frustrating particularly when I’ve had a not-so-good day at work.
Tags: Commuting, public-transportation, Toronto, ttc, Work
I came. I saw. I golfed. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I was fearing. I had some help learning the swing and managed to hit some balls a fair distance before we started (fair being greater than 10 yards in this case). We were the very last group of the company which meant that we had to wait a lot for the people in front of us to finish. It rained quite heavily on Monday so the course was quite damp and so they woudln’t allow carts on the course. This meant that we had to walk the whole day. In the sun with the humidity of the wet grass, it made for quite the trek. Fortunately the designers of the golf course realized how much of a relief it would be to make the 18th hole a long, uphill hole. That was very kind of them. Remind me to thank them for that bit of design work.
The golfing was pretty fun. We played scramble where you play the best ball of the 4 on each shot. Collectively we shot 1 or 2 over on each hole which wasn’t bad for a group that included 2 people who had never golfed before. I hit a couple of really good shots but most of mine didn’t go very far at all. When I was asked on Monday which hand of clubs I wanted (left or right), I chose left but then when I got them yesterday at the golf club, I realized that left would work but I would really prefer right.
Even though I am left handed (and proud of it), I hit from the right. When I used to play baseball it was the same way – catch and throw like a southpaw but hit from the right. So essentially the clubs that I got were useless and had to lug them around all day while borrowing clubs from the other people on my team.
I applied sunscreen liberally throughout the day but since it was so hot and humid I ended up sweating a fair amount. I think it may have washed away some of the sunscreen because a fair burn on my face. I stupidly did not apply any sunscreen at all to the backs of my legs and since I was wearing shorts they got quite toasted. I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night because my joints were quite sore on top of the sunburn that I got. On top of that, this morning was a 6:30 (more like 6:45) pickup for work so I had to get up even earlier. I’m not feeling terribly tired yet but that will probably come later on this afternoon.
I get to golf next weekend for a bachelor party so this opportunity to practice yesterday will likely lead me to dominate the game when I play next. The Tiger Shark Something will be on the prowl.
Tags: golf, It Happened To Me, Sports, sunburn
Tomorrow we’re having a company outing at the Richmond Hill Golf Club. Meetings during the morning and then a golf tournament of sorts in the afternoon. I’m not really looking forward to the golfing part; I’ve never golfed before and I’m not sure that I’ll have much fun. I’ll certainly give it a try though. Who knows, some fun may come out of it yet. The timing is unfortunate; it’s a busy time for my projects though when I look at things, all of the time is a busy time for my projects. There is no down time to speak of.
For an introduction to the subject of this post, see this site or here.
Tags: company-outing, dorf, golf, projects, richmond-hill-golf-club, scheduling, tim-conway, time
It’s so nice having a day off. I slept in until 10 o’clock this morning because I could. This afternoon we don’t have many plans, we might go see a movie or we might not. That’s the beauty of having a day off. Tomorrow of course is not a day off and I have to go back to work. Hopefully my next day off is before the next federal holiday. In fact I know it will be; I’m taking a day off on Thursday to visit with Ed and Ashley. We might go to the Ontario Science Centre. A center full of science!
I think that’s enough time spent on this machine during my day off.
Tags: holiday, ontario-science-centre, Toronto, vacation
The megabin project here in Toronto is dead. I have to say that the whole project was a big failure; everywhere that I saw the new “improved” garbage bins they were overflowing with garbage and let me tell you – when a garbage bin that is overflowing it doesn’t matter how big or small the ad is on the bin itself, it’s not going to make you think favourably on whatever they’re advertising.
Fortunately the city council had some wise thoughts and voted out the bins. Sort of. They won’t be expanding the number of garbage bins in the city but the ones that are currently out there (and there are quite a few) will remain until they decide on what to replace them with. The upside is that you can contact your local city councillor and request them to be removed from your ward. You can go here to find your ward. I’m going to contact my councillor tomorrow.
The sooner we get rid of these unworkable, unusable garbage bins and return to more sensible garbage bins that actually can store garbage (I believe this is the intended purpose of a garbage bin) rather than having them be mainly advertising with a few holes for some garbage.
Tags: brian-ashton, city-council, eucan, garbage-bins, megabin, Toronto
This morning Marcy and I had a really great treat. We had to take her cousin Rachel to the airport for her 6:30 AM flight so once we dropped her off at 5:30 we went downtown and drove through the streets to see what the city is like at that time on a Saturday morning.
The result? Around 6 there are a lot of taxi drivers. Between 6:30 and 7 you start to see maintenance workers starting their day. You also tend to see some younger people whose night hasn’t ended yet. After our breakfast at Mars (this place deserves its own post) we continued driving around until 8 AM when Clafouti opens. They bake their croissants fresh each morning and I can now understand why they go so quickly. Within minutes of its opening the store was packed with people who wanted to get some fresh pastries. We got some traditional butter ones, a raspberry one, a chocolate one and an almond one. They were truly heavenly once we ate them later on in the morning. They used fresh raspberries which was a real treat.
We then drove home via Queen Street. By this time it was about 8:15 or so so you’d start to see security guards walking their beat as well as some of the vendors starting to get their displays ready for the morning. One surprising fact for us was that Chinatown (west) was devoid of activity when we drove through. Saturdays is a huge day there so I figured it would be bustling with delivery trucks and shopkeepers even at 6 but we were wrong.
We discovered that Crepes a Gogo, one of the great crepe places in the city, is expanding into a second store in Yorkville. It’s a much bigger space. We’ll have to try it out once they open. They make a really mean basil, brie and baguette combination. My mouth waters just thinking about it.
When you have to wake up so early (I woke up at 4:15 this morning), it makes the morning/day seem really long. By 10 o’clock I had been up for 6 hours and it felt like I had accomplished an amount that I would feel at 2 PM. Of course waking up so early has its disadvantages; twice today I’ve had to take a nap because the lack of sleep from last night took its toll. Tonight I will try to get a good rest.
Tags: chinatown, city, clafouti, crepes-a-gogo, early-morning, mars, restaurants, sleep, Toronto
Sometimes taking the Warden bus south in the afternoon is a really frustrating affair. For starters the bus is rarely on schedule so you end up with 2 or even 3 buses bunched together when they do finally arrive to my transfer point at Eglinton. This happened today when I waited almost 15 minutes for a bus and then 2 showed up at the same time. I decided to take the second one this time; usually I take the first but what usually happens is the second overtakes the first bus and ends up at the station several minutes earlier. When you have 3 buses to catch to get home these minutes make the difference between getting home at 6 and getting home at 6:20 or later.
Anyway so today I took the second bus but when we got to the Walmart stop (I have a whole other set of pet peeves about that stop) our driver stopped the bus and got out. This is the only route that I’ve seen this happen on and when it does happen it’s always bothers me. The driver going south switches with a driver going north. So you have to wait for the other driver to cross the street which can be difficult on Warden as it is a fairly busy street.
This happens at seemingly random times and not everyday though the time that I take the Warden bus is anywhere from 5:20 to 6:00. I’m not sure if the bus that I’m on going south is going off schedule because it’s later in the day or what. It’s never explained and if I were feeling particularly brave I could just take the bus for a spin myself (theoretically).
This is the end of the rant. You can start paying attention again. It was just something that I had to put down because it’s been in my head since we moved back in the fall.
This morning when I was going on the bus to work I was challenged by the bus driver on the validity of my transfer. He seemed to think that I was not using it appropriately as there was no way I could have a transfer from the 102 Markham Road bus and be able to transfer at Warden and Eglinton onto a westbound Eglinton bus. Maybe he forgot that the bus runs both ways and it’s far more convenient for me to take the bus west to Warden station, take the Warden bus to Eglinton and transfer there than to take the Markham Road bus east and up to Markham Road and then have to face the hellish haul right through the heart of Scarborough along Eglinton which is far busier than little old St. Clair.
I’ve never had this happen before so I was taken a little offguard when he called me back to the front (though the bus was so busy that I couldn’t move very far in anyway). I explained how I got to Warden and Eglinton via the Markham Road bus though he didn’t seem to believe my story. In any case it’s the truth and if the bus driver doesn’t remember all of the combinations of routes that one could take to get to a particular spot, it’s not my fault. I know the transfer states explicitly that in the event of a fare dispute you have to pay the second fare anyway and then go to the TTC office with your complaint and fortunately that did not happen here.
We’ll see if there’s a repeat occurrence tonight when I go home though there’s much less of a chance for debate since the place that I use the transfer intersects the line that I get the transfer from. In any case it’ll be interesting.
Tags: bus-driver, Commuting, Toronto, transfer, ttc
We went to our local Toronto Public Library branch this afternoon because Marcy had some library fines from last year to pay. She’s looking to get some reading material once school is out and if there are outstanding fines they won’t let you borrow any more books.
We went in and gave the lady working the desk our new address information. It turns out that they don’t use the Interac machine sitting next to the computer though it clearly seemed to be on and working. We had to pay by cash instead and between Marcy and me we pulled together the required amount.
This seemed to shock the lady serving us. I’d say she was a librarian but that would be a lie as she was just “helping out this weekend”. Anyway she was shocked because after determining that we were married, she told us that her husband would never help her out in that way. He would be mad at her for even getting such a high fine. In truth the fine wasn’t even that much. You’d spend more at Chapters in an afternoon. She seemed to think that I was some prince for giving up my money to help pay a lowly library fine.
The truth is that it’s our money; we both earned it so to praise me (and indirectly condemning Marcy) in this way she was acting in a very sexist manner. I guess the old “lord of the household” mentality hasn’t really disappeared. It’s disappointing that she felt that she had to talk to us this way but we let it go and walked away. Hopefully she’s not there the next time we go to the branch. She might say that Marcy should be home instead of out in public.
Tags: Books, Cultural Criticism, fines, library, Marriage, Money, Toronto, toronto-public-library, tpl
Man is it ever hot outside today. We went downtown to see the Taste of Little Italy festival and we almost melted into the street. It was a lot of fun being down there though especially as it’s World Cup time and Portugal and Italy (whose fans make up a big stretch of College street between Bathurst and Dufferin) were both playing today so the fans were out in full force. I took my camera along and took a few pictures including some breakdancing shots and a man who decided it was fashionable to wear a suit jacket and shorts. You can make the call on that one once I’ve uploaded them to Flickr.
Fortunately we took the TTC downtown as the day pass is very reasonable ($8.50) and it covers both of our fares. It would have been almost the same price to park plus getting downtown is so much easier on the subway and streetcar than to have to deal with the cars and closed streets in your own car. I wish the streetcars would have been air conditioned though.
We were wondering as we were walking back to the car at Warden station whether it was hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement. How hot does it have to be anyway? My guess would be that the pavement is over 30 degrees Celsius today, maybe even hotter so it would seem reasonable to think that that would be a high enough temperature to do some cooking but alas we didn’t have an egg around to verify the hypothesis. I’ll have to keep that in mind the next time it’s this hot. That will be tomorrow.
As I was finding the link to the Taste of Little Italy festival I noticed that this isn’t the big one. This is Little Italy College Street. The Corso Italia Toronto Fiesta is July 7th to 9th. We have a wedding to go to that weekend but maybe we’ll check out the Sunday events. There’s also talk of perhaps going to Ottawa for their jazz festival during that time. Oh wait, that’s over by then. It runs from June 22nd to July 2nd. For some reason I thought that it ran until after the 9th. My mistake I guess.
I’ve decided that there is no good time to take the 34 Eglinton East bus if you’re heading into or out of Scarborough. I worked until 7 tonight (Marcy had a bridal shower in Peterborough to go to) and when I got on the bus it was still standing-room only. It’s the same situation if I take the bus at 5 PM. I have to play the bus shuffle from when I get on until I get off at Warden.
Going to work in the morning (when I don’t have a ride) is the same situation. It’s always the stretch between Pharmacy and work that give me the most headaches; in the morning Sloane/Bermondsey and Victoria Park are the most troublesome. We’ll see next week if it’s still a problem; as the schools get into the final exam mode most of the high school students don’t need to take the bus when I’m on it so that should hopefully lighten the load in the morning somewhat. In the evening though it’s mainly working people who are on the bus (and people with strollers) so unless there’s a mass layoff I can’t see myself having the bus to myself.
Eglinton is the backbone of the East-West Scarborough transit so it’s no surprise that the line is so busy and if any one bus is late the problem compounds itself so that it’s like being in a sardine can. Unless they can run more buses or move to a transit offering that can handle the increased loads, I think we’re going to be in this situation for a long time. It’s unfortunate that it’s the quickest way for me to get home; it takes 10 minutes to drive but 60 minutes by transit. I’m not really complaining, it could be worse like where we lived before. There it was 105 minutes one way and during the summer was dreadfully hot (the bus route was not privileged enough to get air-conditioned buses).
Tags: 34-eglinton-east, bus, Commuting, eglinton, Toronto, ttc
I posted a couple of weeks ago about The Beerded Chip which is a restaurant in Scarborough that we like to go to. The only problem is that I typed it the way it should be properly spelled – The Bearded Chip as in a chip that has a beard. This of course isn’t the real name of the restaurant. It’s in fact spelled The Beerded Chip as in a chip that has beer. It’s strange that I would spell it incorrectly (or correctly depending on how much of a stickler you would be) because I go by the restaurant at least twice a day and each time I look at the sign (it’s not a terribly exciting ride).
What’s even stranger is that I’ve thought about writing this post for quite a while. Is that sad? I just wanted to set the record straight. All of the people who have found this site through searching for “The Bearded Chip” (and there are surprisingly many) can also search for “The Beerded Chip”. That should lead to an exponential increase in traffic to this site. And that’s what it’s all about.
Tags: puns, restaurants, spelling, the-bearded-chip, the-beerded-chip, Toronto
Don’t forget it’s the Distillery Blues Festival this weekend. Now that I know where the Distillery District is it might be something worth our while to see though this weekend is already pretty busy. If we do head downtown there’s also Woofstock as competition for our attention. What to do?
Tags: blues, distillery-blues-festival, distillery-district, dogs, Music, woofstock
This seems like a really odd way of advertising. It might be ok if the subway car isn’t very full but if it’s jammed full of people then I don’t think many people would want to lean over the people sitting down just to listen to what Pepsi thinks is a cool song. It seems to me that Pepsi has this idealistic view where everyone takes public transit and thus a lot of people see their ad yet it’s not so busy that people can’t absorb the ad (listen to the music in this case). Sadly the reality is anything but; hopefully Pepsi realizes this in the revenue generated by this string of advertising (if that can be measured).
I really loved this list of the Top Ten Reasons to Take Over the CBC Building put out by Tod Maffin. It’s spurned because of the news on Tuesday that the CBC building downtown may have been a target of the terrorist cell arrested last week. Being a CBC kid means that I get a lot of these jokes. I especially liked #2:
Three words: Massive Muppets archive.
and #3:
Hold the right people hostage, and you can enjoy months of around-the-clock Danger Bay re-runs. Can Global give you that kind of service? I didn’t think so.
I think if Marcy were to hold it hostage she’d ask for Black Harbour re-runs instead of Danger Bay but that’s beside the point. I think it’s important to laugh at these kinds of things which is the whole reasoning behind this site (run by Warren Kinsella). I’ll have to keep tuned into the events around that site because I think the rally that they’re planning would be an interesting one to attend.
Tags: black-harbour, CBC, danger-bay, i-am-not-afraid, terrorism, Toronto, warren-kinsella
Marcy and I went out for brunch this morning and boy were we disappointed. We went to The Only Cafe (972 Danforth Avenue). We’d been there before about a month and a half ago and had a fantastic breakfast. I had the waffles and fruit which comes with a lot of fruit (grapes, berries, melon, etc.). This time though was a completely different experience. First of all the service was horrendous; there was one other table filled in the restaurant and we still had to get our own menus and wait for long periods of time for the waitress to check up on us.
Then there’s the food. I ordered the “cowboy breakfast” which is homefries, sausage, eggs and toast (standard breakfast fare). I ordered the eggs to be over-hard and they were anything but. Over-easy is more like it. The toast was pretty dry even with the butter on it. The homefries had far too many herbs on them. Marcy’s breakfast also wasn’t very good. It was baked french toast with chevre and walnuts but then they loaded it with fruit on top. “It’s like eating garlic bread with strawberry jam” is how she put it. It definitely was not what we were hoping for and considering how much we enjoyed the food the first time we were there it’s especially disappointing.
I suppose that that is the true hallmark of a good restaurant for us. A very small few restaurants are worthy of a second visit from us because a lot of them aren’t that great: either they have poor food, poor service or poor value. For those that do pass the first visit test it’s really the second visit that will determine if we will continue to go back there. I think The Only is one of those that passed the first visit but failed on the second visit. The Tulip on Queen @ Coxwell is another example; we went there a couple of weeks ago for lunch and were profoundly disappointed with the service. The food was still pretty good but we couldn’t believe how poorly the wait staff were attending to their tables.
It’s for this reason that there are not many restaurants that we go to regularly because so few pass the second visit test. Fortunately though the ones that we do visit regularly are amazing places and we enjoy going there each and every time.
Tags: critics, Food, restaurants, the-only-cafe, the-tulip, Toronto
Today is the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s “Get Pumped in the Heart of the City” event. People are currently cyucling up and down the DVP though it seems that far fewer people want to brave the trip north considering the number of hills that there are from the bottom to the top. It’s kind of strange to see only cyclists on the highway and no cars; it’s such a busy highway that anytime it looks empty you have to wonder what happened. According to the maps provided on the site the people I see near my window are the ones doing the 50km and 75km distances. That’s a long distance and they’ve been going since 6:45 this morning. Good for them! Hopefully everyone has a good time; so far the weather has held out though it looks like some serious rain might be coming our way shortly.
Tags: bicycle, cycling, dvp, get-pumped, heart-and-stroke-foundation, heart-of-the-city, Toronto
One of my team members that wanted to come into work today called a little while ago and said that due to the bad weather he was involved in a minor accident. I feel kind of responsible because I’m the one who asked him to come in but really things like this happen all of the time so there’s no reason that I should be feeling guilty. Hopefully it really is just a minor accident and there wasn’t too much damage to his car.
Tags: accident, Commuting, guilt, responsibility, Toronto, Weather
Remember this post about a fantastical TTC subway map? There’s a new one going around which can be found here [via]. It’s a pretty amazing-looking map and it’s even broken down into 24 separate phases as if to show how a system like that could be built. It would be pretty incredible if we had such a system but the cost of building it as a subway system would be truly astronomical. After having read Steve Munro’s site for a few months now I’m starting to think that LRT (Light Rail Transit) is the way to go; it’s far less expensive than subways and can be built in a fraction of the time. It can’t carry the same load that subway cars can carry but they can carry more than the bus system. Cities across North America are building such systems very quickly and of course these types of systems are very popular in European cities (keeping Bombardier in business). I’m encouraged that the TTC is looking at introducing LRT lines in and around the city, particularly in the East End where the transit system is terribly inadequate to handle the load. I’m optimistic about the way things are progressing but it’s going to take years to see any new lines in place.
Tags: Commuting, lrt, maps, steve-munro, subway, Toronto, ttc
I’ve decided to come up with a few rules for commuting in the summertime. The rules may not make much sense at times but the fact is that rules based on reality rarely make any sense. That’s what makes life so much fun.
Anyway on the ride home yesterday I came up with rule #1:
Given the choice between an air conditioned bus that may take you a little further away from your destination and a non-air conditioned bus, take the air conditioned bus.
This may seem like an obvious rule. Yesterday I had this choice presented to me – I could take the Bellamy bus (with a/c) and walk a little further once I got off the bus or I could take the Markham Road bus (definitely without a/c) and have to walk a little less. Seeing as the Markham Road bus is most often a very busy bus with people standing the whole way until I get off the bus (and not for lack of choice of seats either). The TTC gives the oldest buses to the Markham Road route for whatever reason and these have the manual air conditioning option – fan yourself or open the window and hope for a breeze. By following this first rule I was able to have a much more comfortable ride home.
Tags: air-conditioning, Commuting, heat, Lessons, rules, Toronto, ttc
The incredible heat has given me quite the headache this afternoon. I’ve had to dip into my supply of Advil Liquigel Migraine Relief. I haven’t had to do that in a while (fortunately). The bus ride home is going to be very uncomfortable but at least I have the coolness of air conditioning waiting for me at home.
Tags: air-conditioning, Commuting, headache, heat, Toronto, ttc, Weather
It’s been over a year now since we first brought Gryffin into our family. I’ve been thinking about him a lot recently. I still miss him a lot and it would have been interesting to see how he would have turned out. Of course had he lived we wouldn’t have had a chance to have Quentin and Eve in our lives and they’ve been a bowful of happiness; I’ve never met such outstanding cats and sometimes it’s hard to believe that we have four of them in our house. Other times of course it’s hard to believe that we only have four of them in our house.
I guess what I’m saying is that even though we love our four cats tremendously there’s still a hole where Gryffin was and I don’t think that hole can be filled no matter how much fun the other cats are. He will always have a place in our hearts.
When I think back on the week before we got Gryffin it’s very interesting how much of our current life and neighbourhood was with us then. The night we first went to the Scarborough Animal Shelter we discovered the wondrous restaurant known as The Bearded Chip. To get there we had to go almost by our house now to get there though we had no way of knowing that at the time. Also back then streets like Progress and Pharmacy seemed so foreign (living in the West End) but now they’re just run-of-the-mill streets that I travel almost every day (Pharmacy, not Progress). I wonder what streets I’ve stumbled upon in the last few months will play a part in our future lives? It’s definitely something to keep in mind.
Tags: bearded-chip, Cats, gryffin, pharmacy, progress, scarborough, streets, Toronto, urban-exploration
You may have heard that the TTC union has pulled a wildcat strike this morning. I’m very fortunate that I get a ride in the morning because looking at the traffic right now (and we’re not into the worst part of rush hour yet) it would take me a long time to get to work otherwise. I’ve had to coordinate with the people on the team whose only way to get in to work is to take public transit. Fortunately ours is a job where it’s possible to work from home because otherwise they might be forced to take a sick day or vacation day despite the fact that it’s not their fault they have no way to get to work. They’ve already given the union a cease and desist order which can lead to fines and/or jail time if enforced so we’ll see if this will lead to the strike ending today or for it to drag on for a longer period of time. We already have a smog alert today and the huge influx of cars that will be on the roads today will make for an especially bad breathing day.
Update (9:15 AM) – The worst part of rush hour has come and the roads are definitely straining to keep up. The traffic lights can’t maintain enough distance between cars which leads to an ever-degrading cycle. The DVP going southbound is almost not moving though northbound is moving fairly briskly. I’m definitely glad that I got picked up when I did because if it were an hour later then it would taken a lot longer to get into work.
Update (10:45 AM) – It looks like we might be able to get the system restarted for the afternoon rush at least according to this article. Seeing as it takes 3 hours to get everything up and running again I remain doubtful that we’ll see anything today but fortunately I should be able to notice buses on the road from my window here. Traffic has calmed down considerably and the highway and Eglinton are moving quite well now. If things don’t get restarted this afternoon though the drive home is going to be very ugly.
Update (1:30 PM) – So apparently my prediction of a non-PM restart seems to be coming true. The union officials didn’t get to the Labour Relations Board until after noon (whether that was on purpose or not is up for debate) so it’s looking extremely unlikely that we’ll have any public transit this afternoon. I’m very lucky in that I have a ride home tonight and a ride into work tomorrow because it’s tough to say if this thing will be resolved today at all; it might drag on to tomorrow. I like the caption on the linked article’s photo – a “congo-line” of commuters. I’m sure they felt the same way walking up Bay Street – “Hey it’s a party, let’s conga to work!”.
Update (3:45 PM) – Now they’re saying that “most TTC service” will resume by 5 PM today. We’ll have “many TTC buses” on the road by then and the Bloor/Danforth subway line should be up and running. I’ll believe it when I see the buses on the road. Even if we do have a lot of buses by then the commuting chaos will have already started. On the DVP it started around noon. I’m leaving in the next 10 minutes or so which should make the roads a little less busy than at 5 but it’s still going to be a slow drive home. Fortunately I don’t have to deal directly with the traffic; this time I’m just a passenger. I just saw a bus driving down Eglinton! I guess the people on those 3 routes (I saw 3) will be fortunate enough to have a ride home.
Update (9:15 PM) – Well getting home wasn’t as bad as I feared though it was incredibly hot outside and the van didn’t have any air conditioning. Fortunately though our house now has central air (more on this later) which I promptly turned on. It’s great having a shaded house because it kept the inside temperature to around 25 degrees but without any wind blowing the air around the humidity really builds so I turned it on. It makes for a much more comfortable evening and sleep. Tomorrow I expect to take the bus home again so we’ll see what the mood is from the public.
Tags: Cars, Commuting, pollution, smog, strike, Toronto, ttc, union, wildcat
Last night during the time between I dropped Marcy off at the Liberty Grand and when I came back at the start of the dancing I had about 3 hours to spend. So I do what I like to do during such occasions; I drive around and discover new parts of town. Last night I had a chance to see The Distillery District (warning Flashiness) and The Don Valley Brick Works. Both were quite remarkable and I will definitely have to go back with my camera and photograph some of the sights.
The area where The Distillery District is located is undergoing a revival and over the next 3 years there will be a massive redevelopment project completed that will bring housing and shops to the lower Donlands. It will certainly transform the whole area. I ended up having a crepe (smoked salmon and dill) and some wonderful tea (pepermint) for dinner and walked around the area looking at the old buildings and poking through some of the dozens of artists’ galleries they have there.
I then went up Bayview from the lake to where the Brick Works are located. I’ve driven by them before but never went in to the park before yesterday. It’s a really neat place; they’ve preserved a lot of the old historical buildings and transformed the quarry and other areas into wetlands and walking trails. They even have a canine park especially for dogs. Looking at the old architecture I was reminded a lot of downtown Kitchener with the old factories that still exist there. I’m a sucker for that kind of thing which is probably why I want to go back with my camera. I have a feeling that the view from the Donor’s Lookout will be fantastic particularly around sunrise or sunset.
The prom was a lot of fun and the dancing was over quite quickly. There was none of the questionable “dancing” this time and that’s probably because it’s a different bunch of students this time around. The venue was really fantastic and if the batteries had not died on the camera last night I would taken some pictures of the lobby, the ballroom and the courtyard because they were all noteworthy. We got home pretty late though and stayed up much longer than we’re used to. We had a nice treat this morning with a brunch at Sisters which is quickly becoming our favourite restaurant in the area.
Tags: architecture, Cameras, corktown, distillery-district, don-valley-brick-works, libery-grand, Pictures, prom, restaurants, sisters-buffet, Toronto
I just bought tickets for Marcy and I to go see Etta James on the 27th of June at the Hummingbird Centre. It should make for a great concert and an early birthday/end of school year present for Marcy. I’m looking forward to it though the “convenience fees” from Ticketmaster aren’t really appreciated. At least I don’t have to win an auction to get my tickets.
Tags: concerts, etta-james, hummingbird-centre, Toronto
The last three days of this week I must make my own way to work and today I discovered how important it is to have little-to-no waiting time in between the three buses that I take to work (and back again). On Wednesday morning I had some delay between all three of the connections and it took me just over an hour for the door-to-door trip.
Yesterday however was one of those ideal rides to work; at least as ideal as riding on public transit can be. The first bus was right there when I got to the bus stop and it was an especially aggressive driver so we got to the subway station quite quickly. There my second bus was already waiting and as soon as I got on we left the station. Once we got to Eglinton the light was in my favour which is the key I use to determine in the morning whether I can stop for a coffee or not. My last bus was waiting for me at the other side of the light and that bus is early enough so that there aren’t many Leaside High School kids on the bus so we sailed to work. Door-to-door this time was only 40 minutes.
This morning it was more like Wednesday than yesterday. I had to wait at each connection point and the worst was with the Eglinton bus. I just missed the previous bus (probably the same one I took yesterday) and I had to wait. Busy routes like Eglinton tend to not be able to follow their schedule as posted so you could have a bus on time and then the next bus is so far behind that the bus after that one is right behind it. Then you have a choice – take the first bus which is probably full and will have to make a lot of stops or do you take the second which might be forced to pick up more people since it’s emptier. I think the right answer is it doesn’t matter because there’s a chance that the first bus will empty and then blow through the rest of the stops (until yours) because it’s so late or the second bus might pass the first bus because each and every stop there is someone on the first bus to get off.
These are the things I think about while I commute to and from work.
It’s wonderful that the spring weather has arrived. I think we were all getting a little sick of winter. It’s especially nice that when I wake up it’s already light outside. I guess that little by little incremental change that I was talking about earlier really does pay off after a few weeks. After Saturday though it’ll be dark again early in the morning but at least the sun will go down later and eventually it’ll be light again when I wake up.
We bought a few gardening things on the weekend including some seeds and some greenhouse-like trays to start growing them in. Hopefully the cats don’t sniff around too much but I think we’re safe for now since it’s just peat. On Monday we took Eve and Pumpkin outside. There was a scary moment involving a raccoon but fortunately no harm was done. I was afraid that Pumpkin might bolt either up a tree or through a fence but I don’t think she even saw the raccoon.
This coming weekend we’ll be cleaning up the backyard to remove all of the brush and such that has accumulated over the winter. That willow tree certainly does like to shed.
There was a girl shot in the leg by her boyfriend right near where I work on Tuesday night. Also there were two people killed near where we used to live. It seems that the spate of shootings continues in this city.
Tags: Cats, daylight-savings-time, raccoons, shootings, spring, spring-cleaning, Toronto
When you wake up at nearly the exact moment your ride arrives to take you to work, you won’t be catching that ride. I think it’s good to remind myself what it’s like to take the bus to work in the morning (I had to do it again today since Leo has the day off). At least it lets me succumb to my temptation. Perhaps I can possibly win with Coffee Time since at Tim Horton’s it’s always “Roll up the rim to lose” for me.
Tags: coffee-time, Commuting, lesson, temptation, tim-hortons
The weather has turned warm again. It’s almost as warm as it was back in January during those blissful “hard winter” weeks. Today it’s raining and tomorrow it’s going to be raining. Saturday? Cloudy and then rain for another two days. That’s the fun of March. The snow gets pelted with rain and disappears and we’re left with a muddy messy swamp-like landscape to trudge through. Usually it’s not even that warm either. The only solace that I can get is that spring is right around the corner and soon the flowers will start blooming (we’re going to Canada Blooms this weekend) and the birds will start meowing and our cats will start chirping to go outside. That is, chirp even more to go outside. Yes I wrote that part about the birds intentionally. I’m definitely looking forward to spring.
Tags: canada-blooms, gardening, rain, Weather
The Toronto Sun must be feeling the pain of subscriber loss because you can now get their “paper” for a measly 50 cents during the week. It’s still $1 outside of the GTA but here in Toronto it only costs 50 cents. That’s pretty cheap for a newspaper but considering how you can still get free papers (Dose, Metro, 24 Hours) I’m not sure how effective it’ll be to stem the tide. 24 Hours in fact is owned by the same group that runs the Sun so you have to wonder if they’ve shot themselves in the foot by offering a free paper. Maybe in another 6 months it’ll be down to 25 cents to purchase the paper.
Tags: 24-hours, dose, metro, newspapers, Toronto, toronto-sun
I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but almost literally a 2-minute walk away from our house we have this view:
I went walking around with the camera tripod I got from my parents for my birthday. It was pretty cold but I figured that my body could use some acclimation to the elements. All around the Bluffs here (Scarborough Bluffs that is – better link here) there are little parklets that give you a fantastic view of the lake (Lake Ontario that is). Most of the parklets have some rather obvious signs. Also a lot of streets in the area must notify the drivers that there is no access to the Bluffs.
I really like these two shots – one and two. They look better at the larger sizes rather than the thumbnail. I think this little area is going to provide me with some fantastic shots in the summer time. I can’t wait.
You can see the rest of the shots from my photowalk in this Flickr set.
Tags: Cameras, lake-ontario, parklets, photos, scarborough, scarborough-bluffs, Toronto
Please disregard what I said earlier this week about winter not being that bad. After tonight I have a new appreciation (or rather a renewed appreciation) for how cold winter can be. Minus twenty-seven with the windchill can indeed test the limits of the body when it’s not used to those conditions. If it weren’t forthose pesky fire codes it wouldn’t have been that bad because then we could have been inside quicker where it was warm. It was a fun time despite the cold though.
Even pumping gas back here in Toronto was almost more than I could handle cold-wise. I’m getting weather soft.
Tags: amanda, cold, gas, Kitchener-Waterloo, party, stampede-corral, Toronto, winter
On Saturday Marcy and I went downtown to meet up with Kristin, Andrew and Lonnie. We had a great (albeit short) time together. We went to Maggie’s Cafe and Catering for a sumptuous brunch. Then we took the streetcar down to the Eaton Centre. It was really nice spending time with them; we haven’t seen Andrew and Kristin since last July on our way out east and we haven’t seen Lonnie since late May of last year I think. It’s been that long. We’re going to have to try and see him more often because living in the same city there’s really no excuse except being busy. We’ll be seeing Andrew and Kristin again this weekend at Amanda’s birthday party. Maybe sometime in March or April we’ll make our way to Montreal again. It’s been too long.
The picture above was taken while we were waiting at Union Station. I took a few more and created a Flickr set.
Tags: amanda, andrew, flickr, friends, kristin, lonnie, maggies-cafe-and-catering, photos, Toronto, union-station
The past couple of days have displayed a really strange character during my trips around town. It looks like the number seven (7) and it has appeared as the first digit of the gas prices at stations near our house. I can’t think that this is a possible placement of such a digit because gas has to be at least 80 cents per litre right? Someone should contact the authorities and mention that there are gas stations selling gasoline (or petroleum distillate if you like) at rock-bottom prices. What is this world coming to if we’re not getting gouged on gasoline prices?
Tags: gas-stations, gasoline, gouging, prices, Toronto
One of the things that you have to be comfortable with when you take public transit is giving up control over how fast you’ll get to your destination and the route that you take to get there. You’re not driving the bus; you can’t really affect how the driver drives so you just have to sit back and try and relax. This can be challenging sometimes.
Today’s trip home was one of those times. The bus was making fairly good progress I thought (since I didn’t have my phone I couldn’t really check the time). Then we got to Bermondsey. The driver stopped the bus, put on the hazard lights, and went into the gas station to use the restroom. There wasn’t much that we could do except wait. And wait. Finally the driver came back and we were on our way. This particular driver tended to drift within our lane which is ok (though not ideal) when you’re driving a car but when you have a whole bus drifting around it tends to feel like you’re really in for some trouble. Fortunately I’m not on that bus for too long.
And to keep you updated on her, she wasn’t on the bus today. I was a little disappointed actually. I was looking forward to her rants-under-her-breath.
Tags: bus-drivers, Commuting, drifting, It Happened To Me, restroom-breaks, Toronto, ttc
I was mistaken yesterday when I talked about the TTC fares going up by 10 cents. Well, I was only partially wrong actually. It seems that the price of tokens and tickets will go up by 10 cents but the cash fare will go up by 25 cents (Toronto Star story). Also the price of the Metropass, unaffected by last year’s hike, will be going up by 1 dollar. For me this is going to be an extra $2 per month in commuting costs assuming that I continue to get a ride in the mornings. It’s not an unreasonable amount to increase the fares by. The only condition that I make (as if I have the power to impose these conditions!) is that the service continue to improve. With sprawl continuing unabated (well almost) the last thing that I want to see is our transit system to deteriorate to the point of obsolescence. I don’t want to feel like the system is unusable and yet I have no other option but to use it. That won’t be a good situation for anyone in Toronto.
Tags: bus-tickets, Commuting, fares, metropass, ten-cents, Toronto, ttc, twenty-five-cents
Last year it was ten whole cents. It looks like this year will be more of the same:
The Toronto Transit Commission is expected to raise fares by 10 cents at a special budget meeting Wednesday. The fare hike would come in response to a $16.5-million shortfall as the commission grapples with rising transit costs. It would increase the cost of tokens to $2.10, while the cash fare would go up to $2.60. The price of a monthly pass, currently $98.75, is expected to remain unchanged. There had been suggestions that the TTC could raise fares by as much as 20 cents, but commission chair Howard Moscoe said that such a large increase was unlikely. The TTC has already rejected proposals to cut routes or increase crowding in order to save money.
I like the current fare prices because it’s an even amount. It’s easy to accumulate if you happen to not have a bus ticket – $2 and 2 quarters. Now I’ll need a little more when I don’t have a bus ticket. Of course I could always ensure that I have a bus ticket with me but sometimes I’m forgetful.
Edit (2:47 PM): BlogTO has a good idea for concrete, visible improvements in service in return for this fare hike.
Tags: bus-tickets, Commuting, fares, ten-cents, Toronto, ttc
Do you remember my trip companion from last week? Well yesterday made two Mondays in a row that we shared our trip home.
Let me tell you – she’s one angry, impatient lady. I stood near her on the bus and each stop we went to she muttered under the breath urging the bus to hurry up. Then when we were waiting at Warden station she was swearing and cursing and carrying on about how late she was and how that bus had better hurry up. This was also under her breath. When we got off the bus she practically ran towards the movie rental store to return her movies (I believe The Legend of Zorro was one of them) while I walked down the street towards home.
She has the same attitude towards commuting that I had when I was 16. I was so impatient whenever other people got on or off of the bus; I too would mutter under my breath cursing each and every person who delayed my arrival. It’s like that when you’re used to driving and you have to rely on the bus driver to get you to your destination. I haven’t seen her other days so maybe on Mondays she has to commute to wherever she’s going.
We’ll see if we get a third strike next Monday.
Tags: Commuting, companion, impatience, It Happened To Me, legend-of-zorro, monday, Movies, Toronto, ttc
Well to contrast with yesterday’s positive subway story, here’s one from this morning that isn’t so positive:
A section of the Yonge subway line was temporarily shut down Tuesday morning after eight TTC workers were overcome by fumes at the Eglinton station.
In place of trains, the Toronto Transit Commission began the morning rush hour with buses running in place of the subway between York Mills and Bloor. Bus service was cancelled out of the Eglinton station, which was completely closed as fire crews investigated the source of the fumes. Full service resumed shortly before 8 a.m. The workers were doing maintenance work when they fell ill. All eight were taken to hospital.
Hopefully those workers are ok. That is one hazardous job cleaning those subway tunnels; the ventilation is hardly ideal.
Also I think that having to take a shuttle bus instead of the subway would be particularly cramped. I would imagine that it would be worse than the normal bus routes but it’s only temporary.
This is a great story [via]:
A woman is recovering in hospital after giving birth on a downtown subway platform during rush hour this morning.
The woman was riding the Yonge subway southbound towards Wellesley Station with her husband and two children when she began to give birth.
She exited the subway at Wellesley and gave birth on the platform with the help of passersby who also called 911.
The mother and baby were taken by ambulance to St. Michael’s Hospital. Both are doing fine.
At least Wellesley isn’t too far from the hospital.
Tags: Commuting, hospital, pregnancy, subway, Toronto, ttc, wellesley
I can’t see out of the window. It’s going to be a none-too-fun commute home. I hope Marcy got home ok.
We’re going to try and go to this (mentioned yesterday). Perhaps we’ll see you there. I brought my camera with me to work so there might even be pictures to speak of at a later date.
Update (10:25 PM) – I did something better with my time tonight. I went out for dinner with my wife and walked around downtown. That’s better than Peacebuilding anyday.
Tags: axworthy, camera, ignatieff, lloyd-axworthy, michael-ignatieff, peacebuilding, Pictures, Politics, rebel-sell, Toronto, u-of-t
Just what is Peacebuilding?
WHAT: Public Conversation with Michael Ignatieff and Lloyd Axworthy
DATES: Friday February 3rd, 2006
LOCATION: Great Hall of Hart House, University of Toronto, St. George Campus
TIME: 7:00pm – 9:30pm
This might be something to check out. Marcy gave me Axworthy’s book for my birthday. It looks like an interesting read.
Tags: axworthy, ignatieff, lloyd-axworthy, michael-ignatieff, peacebuilding, Politics, rebel-sell, Toronto, u-of-t
Via Spacing Wire, I was alerted to this guerilla ticketing effort that will be taking place downtown on Friday.
Attack #12 is a sprint operation based on Attack #10, which took place in Montreal in September 2005 and where nearly 350 “patrollers” recruited by ATSA issued some 10,000 statements of offence. These statements target oversize vehicles and the excessive fuel consumption asociated with them, excessive engine idling, remote engine starters and poorly maintained vehicles.
Individually numbered between 10,001 and 11,200 and in triplicate, these statements of offence will be:
- Handed out to all offending vehicles by our patroller citizens on Feb. 3rd between 5 and 7 p.m.
- Displayed at YYZ Artist’s Outlet as an interactive exhibit between 7 and 9 p.m.
- Presented to a politician responsible for the sustainable development of the Toronto community.
As an anti-fan of SUVs I like this effort but being aware of the realities of the city I don’t think the ticketed offenders will even notice or care that they have a fake ticket on their car. It’s encouraging to see projects such as these however if only to raise the public conscience a marginal amount.
Tags: atsa, attack-12, spacing-wire, suvs, Toronto
I saw this on the 69 Stations blog (a neat project):
Today I fiddled with the Google Maps API, and came up with this. Some fine day, I’ll merge it with this project, to the great annoyance of several people who might otherwise have found it useful.
I took a look at the page and it’s pretty neat though it shows just how small our subway system is. It doesn’t cover much of the city at all yet it carries a significant population each day to and from work/school/events. What I’m really looking forward to is getting the TTC/GO/other transit agencies involved in building a Toronto version of Google Transit.
Tags: 69-stations, Commuting, google, google-maps, google-transit, Toronto, ttc
I find it odd when there are people on the series of buses that make up my commute that tag along the entire way. It’s not like I just take one bus or even a bus and then a subway. I take three separate buses to get home. It’s hardly a common path. So I was taken aback slightly when a woman took all three of my buses tonight. On top of that she got off of my final bus at the same stop. She even goes to the same movie rental place as us. It was weird.
Tags: Commuting, It Happened To Me, Toronto, ttc
Who needs an iPod or MP3 player when you can just ride the bus in Toronto? There you can get a multitude of radio stations that you can clearly hear without too much trouble. If your ears have the ability to filter out other devices then you could potentially listen to one radio station from the guy sitting at the back of the bus? I use the word “radio station” loosely here to mean personal radio station in that the person is broadcasting what they are listening to for the entire bus to hear. I really enjoy your hip hop or your John Tesh or your pop. Really I do. I wish they could broadcast it on the bus’ PA system so that we could be a moving dance club like some of those alcohol commercials I’ve seen on tv.
Commuting by bus is fun!
Tags: broadcast, Commuting, ipod, mp3, Music, radio-station, Toronto, ttc
I read in the Globe and Mail on Saturday (the actual paper!) a story about how this winter has been so mild. It’s supposed to be above 0 Celsius all week with rain most days.
Not that many people are complaining. Given high oil prices, the weather has pleasantly surprised a lot of homeowners.
So what exactly is going on?
Laymen may be tempted to attribute the phenomenon to global warming, but if climate change was as rapid as all that, Canadians would be planting citrus groves in five years and living in deserts within a few generations. “This may be a dry run, a dress rehearsal, of what winters might be like in the future,” Mr. Phillips said. “But we can’t say that this is the beginning of the permanent change.”
In recent years, other warm spurts have been attributed to El-Nino-style weather patterns, which result from changes in ocean temperatures. “But this is not El Nino, this is neutral,” Mr. Phillips said. “The water out in the Pacific is near-normal temperatures.”
Rather, the climatologist blames “a total absence of cold air” for the relative warmth. His explanation may seem a no-brainer, but the details are elaborate.
A polar vortex that usually resides around Hudson’s Bay this time of year has decided to linger in Northern Europe instead. That’s good news for people in Canada and bad news for people in Russia, who are freezing. “It’s like a Sumo wrestler: You just can’t kick it out,” Mr. Phillips said.
Usually, the vortex lingers somewhere for a while and then moves around of its own accord, its shifts causing other fluctuations of warm and cold air masses. Yet this year, “day after day, week after week, month after month now, this cold pole is just not coming over to this part of the world,” Mr. Phillips said.
The vortex’s failure to move has allowed warmer air to come into Canada — and stay.
No one can forecast the entirety of the winter, but little is expected to change in the next few days. But “I know one thing,” Mr. Phillips said. “Next January is not going to be nearly as warm as this January.”
I like how they scoff at the “laymen” suggestion that it’s all due to global warming. I’m sure a lot of people muse that that is the reason.
In any case this polar vortex staying over Europe has produced some terrible results there. I’m also afraid of what the agricultural impact of this warm winter will be this spring when the farmers start planting their crops. They need snow to keep the ground capable of supporting crops. Sure it’s nice not to have to bundle up and trudge through the snow but winter plays an important part in our environment. I’d hate for us to face disaster because we were able to enjoy a warm winter.
Tags: agriculture, canada, farming, globe-and-mail, laymen, polar-vortex, vortex, Weather, winter
This weekend is the Lunar New Year which means that it’ll be the year 4704 in the Chinese calendar. There’s a big celebration (largest Lunar New Year festival in Canada apparently) at the Exhibition Centre this weekend. Tickets are $10 or $8.50 if you buy them online. It would be interesting to go.
Tags: 4704, lunar, new-year, Toronto, year-of-the-dog
I just read this story and also this one (linked from the first) and I have to say that in my experience overcrowding has became a major problem and part of the reason why 15 minutes of my day (30 if I have to take the bus in the morning) are spent in utter discomfort because the 34 Eglinton bus is too crowded. If there’s a slight deviance from the schedule it exacerbates the problem tremendously. I’ve been on buses that have (or at least seem to have) far more than 52 people. We’ve had to go past several stops because there was no way anyone else could get on.
I’ve also had the feeling that the newer buses (the universal access ones) don’t seem to have as much room as the older ones. This is particularly true in the very back of the bus. If you have people standing in the “balcony section” (as I’ve heard some drivers refer to it as) then anyone wanting to get off the bus has very little room to maneuver at all since the aisle is so narrow. I guess that’s the tradeoff to allowing disabled passengers to be able to ride on the TTC and I totally support that move. The entire system should be accessible. I just know that the day-to-day realities of that system can be painful.
I really wish that there some funding magic that could be worked out that would alleviate these situations but I fear that that is probably not too realistic. Also my transit tax credit won’t do any good for the system and it’s really the system that I care about more than the cost that I have to swallow to use the system. Put money into the system and we’ll all reap the benefits. Push the money into the hands of the individual riders and the system suffers as a result. It’s too bad most politicians don’t realize this.
Edit: This CBC article says that the TTC will not be purposely allowing overcrowding. It features a humourous quotation from Howard Moscoe:
“Tell your listeners to pack away their plans to buy extra deodorant,” Moscoe said. “They don’t have to go on a diet to get on the subway system.”
At least there’s some humour here. He admits that it’s meant to send a message to the new government. Hopefully they listen.
Tags: CBC, Commuting, overcrowding, Toronto, ttc
I couldn’t help but laugh at this entry on BlogTO (Wrong Way on a One-Way Track):
I have an addiction to reading the Missed Connections on Craigslist. Some stories are actually quite touching, some creepy (to the extent of restraining order), some are awful pick-up lines and others fake and sarcastic.
This posting today made me laugh out loud:
Dundas DWA 11:30 am – m4w – 30
Reply to: pers-127816898@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-01-23, 3:56PM ESTYou were the hot, but really rude TTC worker opening and closing the doors on the southbound train this morning. I was the guy wearing overalls that missed the train and ended up giving you the finger as you left the station.
I was so mad at you that I ended up voting NDP.
Lunch?Brilliant! Completely brilliant.
(And, by the way, yes, I referenced Soul Asylum in the title)
That’s a funny posting. I’ve never looked at the Missed Connections group before and if the RSS feed for the group had more details I might consider subscribing because there are some interesting posts in there. As it does not I probably don’t have time to read it. I’ll bookmark it though.
It’s not something I’m particularly proud of but I actually own two (2!) Soul Asylum albums. These were back in my heady Columbia House days and I forgot to send back the card and wound up with these two albums: Grave Dancer’s Union and Let Your Dim Light Shine. At least I think I still have them. It’s entirely possible that I managed to “lose” them over the years. I’ll have to check when I get home tonight.
Tags: craigslist, soul-asylum, Toronto
BlogTO | Karla: Worst. Movie. Ever.
It heartens me to read the audience response to this film. It’s definitely not a movie that I will be seeing and I’m glad that it’s a poorly-made film that will hopefully go direct-to-video as soon as the initial hype is over with. This is one film that I hope the Long Tail is quite short. I’m looking forward to that book.
As if to remind me of how lucky I am that I have a ride in the morning it seems the Fates conspired to teach me a lesson. All was going really well travel-wise; I left before 7:20 and caught the 7:29 bus (it was surprisingly on time). At Warden I ran and caught the 68 bus @ 7:44 with no time to spare. The bus was virtually empty so I got to Eglinton in a couple of minutes. I got a coffee and was at the bus stop by 7:50.
Then I had to wait. And wait. Ten minutes I waited. This is a long time on a busy route because the bus is supposed to come every ten minutes or less. Finally the bus came and it was packed. On top of that the bus driver was rather surly and demanded that everyone be behind the white line. She wouldn’t move the bus until everyone was behind there. Because the bus was late there were more people at each stop. There was a bus behind us but it was also late and was thus packed as well (it passed us at one of the stops). At Wynford things were very uncomfortable because I had to be near the doors (I get off the bus two stops later) but Wynford is a popular stop for business people and I had to contort myself to let these people off the bus. Not exactly a pleasant experience let me tell you.
The reason I didn’t get a ride this morning is because Leo is a deputy returning officer in today’s election. Tomorrow is back to normal.
I had a rather odd encounter with a man in the elevator on Sunday night. We had just come back from shopping in Buffalo (good deals!) and we got in on the bottom floor. On the next floor an older couple came into the elevator. The man comes right beside me and pinches my stomach.
“It’s growing,” he says.
Confused, I ask him to repeat himself. He does and pats his own stomach (which is by no means small). “It’s growing,” he says.
“You’re eating too much food,” he continues. I just smiled and hoped that the elevator ride wouldn’t be too long. This guy is weirding me out.
Two police officers get on the elevator at the lobby. You might think this would be a rare occurrence but I assure you that in our neighbourhood the cops are quite common as unfortunate as that may be. These police officers are quite large. At least 6′4″ and well-built.
The old man tries to puff up behind them and says “I’m the same size as them!” The cops said nothing.
I’m not sure what his wife thought of all of this. Perhaps she’s just as strange but only privately.
It was one of the strangest elevator rides I’ve taken.
Tags: apartment, elevator, It Happened To Me, odd-man
Gas prices today?
134.9 cents/Litre
I guess an increase of ten cents per day becomes less and less significant as the current prices increase. I mean ten cents on 125 isn’t as big a deal as ten cents on 80. I saw on the Toronto gas price site that the highest price around the city was in the Jane and Finch area. Coincidentally that’s probably one of the areas that can least afford the high prices. It’s interesting how that happens.
Tags: Cars, gas, gas-prices, Toronto
Gas prices this morning?
125.8 cents/Litre
Last night when we came home from the movie theatre (seeing this fantastic movie) it was under a dollar. Jumping almost 30 cents overnight to gouge morning commuters seems most unfair. This article talks about profiteering. The thing is that each time they bring up the issue of collusion or profiteering or gouging they can never prove that the companies work together. I can’t imagine what the price of gas is going to be tomorrow ahead of the long weekend.
Tags: Cars, gas, gas-prices, profiteering, the-constant-gardener, Toronto
What were the gas prices this morning on our way to work?
119.4 cents/Litre
We can all thank Katrina for this as well as the non-gouging, non-colluding oil companies.
I can’t imagine what the prices are like elsewhere in the country. Toronto is usually one of the cheaper Eastern cities in Canada.
Tags: Cars, gas, gas-prices, hurricane, hurricane-katrina, katrina, Toronto
Following Joey’s lead, I heartily endorse this movie.
Let me tell you a funny story about how we saw the movie on Friday. Friday was the day of the big storm (more later) and we wanted to go see a movie. We first tried the Colossus up at Highway 7 and the 400 but when we got there the lights were out and the employees were ushering the cars away. Strangely enough it was the only part of the plaza that seemed to have lost its power. We went to Yorkdale instead.
It was the late show (10:20) which we rarely seem to be able to stay up for. It was about 9:50 and there were few seats left for the showing. We figured that with the lines around us that we wouldn’t be able to get tickets and even if we did then we would be sitting up at the very front and we’ve had enough of those viewing this summer to last us for quite a while. We bought tickets to Red Eye instead.
We went into the theatre and picked our seats and then I went out and got us a drink. When I came back into the “restricted” area I looked at the theatre designations and noticed that we weren’t seated in the theatre for Red Eye but instead we were in the theatre showing The 40-year-old Virgin. We snuck into the movie without anyone being the wiser. How crafty and sneaky of us! Actually it was completely unintended but it was well worth the risk.
Now I’ve seen funny movies before and I’ve even seen some funny ones this summer (bingo). But after seeing this movie I’d have to say that there’s no funnier movie right now than this one. I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard or for that long. I’m still laughing at it. I’d gladly see this movie again which is a rare statement for me to make in this day and age. There are too many good jokes to mention here and every scene has something worthwhile in it. I’ve always liked Steve Carell from his Daily Show days and now he has a real chance to shine in a starring role. It’s been interesting watching Jon Stewart’s take on the whole thing because he seems as happy as a father who’s seeing his son succeed in life. Truly heartwarming.
In short you should see this movie if only for the David Caruso references.
Tags: david-caruso, Movies, red-eye, reviews, steve-carell, the-40-year-old-virgin, the-daily-show, Toronto, yorkdale
Today we sign our lease! Marcy and I found an absolutely wonderful house for rent in the very south end of Scarborough near the Bluffs. Three bedrooms, newly-done kitchen and bathroom, a huge living room and dining room and more backyard space than I think I’ve ever had and you’ve got yourself an amazing deal. The landlord (though he doesn’t like to be called that) lives around the corner and is more concerned that we’re good people than generating revenue. We turned on all of our charm when we met with him last week because when we first arrived at the house it was open but the guy (Leo) wasn’t there. I poked my head in and told Marcy that she had to see this place because it was really incredible. It even has a red door which has been one of Marcy’s wishes for some time. After looking around the house we knew that if it was offered at a reasonable price then we would be willing to take it. Fortunately a reasonable price it definitely is and we have our place to live in past October. Hooray! I’m pretty excited about this because we’ll both be a lot closer to work (I estimate 30 minutes by transit for me) living in a house (that’ll be so great) in a nice neighbourhood.
From now until then though we have a whole lot of packing to do. This time around we’re getting professional movers for the furniture because we’ve accumulated several more pieces and it’s the furniture that’ll wear you out. Boxes of books and such I can handle but bookcases and the like are no longer my domain in the moving sphere.
I’m going to take my camera with me tonight so that we can post some pictures of our new home.
The rumour is that there are geese on a lot of the major highways in the city today. And by on the highway I literally mean on the highway. The OPP must have the quite the headache on their hands.
I’ve noticed that driving to work on a Friday morning during late spring/summer has been noticeably better than similar days during the fall and winter. I’m not sure why it is; maybe people start their workday later on Fridays or maybe they start the weekend earlier by taking Friday off. I’m not really sure. Driving home in the summer usually isn’t so nice.
Tags: Commuting, observations, Toronto
Well I was disappointed with the headlines in today’s newspapers around the city. I was expecting people to proclaim yesterday’s accident to be a National Tragedy. Sadly this wasn’t the case though I did get to see a picture of the Civic that caused the whole mess. The driver is being charged with reckless driving. Her car is a wreck.
In other news today’s truck accident is brought to you by a lovely truck driver in Hamilton carrying empty vodka bottles (what is it with liquor this week?). It rolled over on the Linc near the 403 spilling and breaking glass all over the road. I’m sure that will be a blast to clean up.
There was an accident on the 401 today. Well I guess there are accidents there everyday but today a beer truck overturned spilling beer all over the 401 eastbound express lanes. Oh and the accident happened right where we get on the highway everyday. I woke up around 6:30 and heard a lot of sirens which is not unusual but they were rather distant-sounding and it seemed like they were on the highway. I checked the traffic cameras and saw a big backup. We left and tried to get around the accident via Wilson but that too was extremely slow and in the end I drove Marcy to Ajax and then came back again. Surprisingly enough the drive back to Toronto wasn’t as bad as I had feared; I took Kingston Road instead and it was not too congested. It’s definitely my Preferred Route when driving back from Ajax in the morning. I might be able to leave earlier than I had planned tonight (because I expected to be in later).
Update: Here are some pictures of the crash. I’d like to see a picture of that Civic. Luckily the driver is in good condition.
I work just off of Don Mills road south of Eglinton and there’s a side street that you’re not supposed to turn left onto during rush hour but you know the drill – everyone does anyway. It frustrates me as a pedestrian because trying to cross the street there can be a challenge and if you have cars turning it disrupts the flow of traffic. It’s even worse as a driver because these cars need to get through and so they’ll push their way through your lanes of traffic until they get to their destination. I’ve said on numerous occasions that what they need is a police officer there everyday enforcing the rules – the city would get a lot of revenue and it might teach people to obey the signs.
Today I got my wish. There were two police officers pulling in people quicker than they were turning. It was quite the sight. I chortled in the shuttle van even. I bet those people will think twice of turning left there again.
Each time I have to sprint for the subway I seem to lose the pen in my pocket. This happened the last time as well but this time it was a company pen. Not worth a lot but I liked it. It had a nice feel to it. At least I didn’t lose my phone or my notebook. That would be far worse than simply losing a pen.
While we were shopping on Yonge Street on Sunday we were in this stationery store and there was a guy there looking for pens. He said “I don’t want a pen that will be fashionable in 20 years say but I do want one that will still be fashionable in 5 years.” I could just feel the clerk’s eyes roll.
CBC Toronto – Truck rollover closes Highway 400 ramps
Let me tell you – this would not be a good day to travel west on the 401 around the 400. It was backed up for quite a ways though to be fair going east was pretty slow for a stretch too but that was only to accomodate the rubber neckers. I saw the truck and it was in pretty bad shape. I can’t believe that it had taken them that long to get the truck right side up again. The one irritating part of the whole thing was that when we got in the car the news was on and they mentioned that a ramp on the 400 was closed but didn’t bother to mention which one. Of course as soon as we got on the 401 we knew which ramp was closed. That ramp from the 400 to the 401 can be pretty tricky to navigate so if you’re trying to drive a diesel-laden tanker truck make sure that you obey the speed limit and heed the warning signs. There’s some free advice.
I’ve never been more happy to take public transit as I was this morning. I’m so glad they reached a deal last night. Assuming it gets ratified by the union on Thursday we should have regular transit for the forseeable future (3 years I’m assuming). Hooray!
TheStar.com – TTC to be on strike Monday: Union
Let the headaches begin.
Here’s the latest on the TTC labour negotiations (from my inbox):
FOR RELEASE 10:45 A.M. Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Transit workers set deadline. Strike on Monday morning if no acceptable offer by Friday noon from the TTC.
RICHMOND HILL – The following statement was made this morning at 10:30 a.m. by Bob Kinnear, President of the Transit workers Union – ATU 113, to a press conference at the Sheraton Parkway Hotel in Richmond Hill:
Thank you all for coming this morning. I have an important announcement that will be of great interest to the people of Toronto and the GTA.
Let me take this opportunity to thank the thousands of people who have visited our new website, www.WeMoveToronto.ca.
Many visitors have left comments that are very supportive of our members. Many have written on the importance of public transit and why it deserves more public support. Some of them, on the other hand, have made critical comments that I would not exactly call supportive. But we welcome all comments, positive or negative, and we are doing our best to answer everyone.
Let me also pay tribute to some people who deserve a lot more recognition than they get – our 3,800 members in the Maintenance Department of the TTC. They do amazing work and much of the safety and efficiency of the system rests on their shoulders.
Did you know, for example, that a bus in Toronto is in service about twice as long as the exact same bus would be in large cities in the United States? That’s due to the great skill of our members in Maintenance. They save riders and taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year. You can learn a lot more about our members at We Move Toronto.ca and you can also enter our contest to win a free Monthly Metropass.
We’re awarding one every day. The big question today is this: Even if you win, will you be able to use the Metropass?
Last Thursday, the last day of our three-year collective agreement, I gave our union’s commitment that we would give the bargaining process more time. I pledged that we would continue providing full TTC service up to and including today, even though we were not legally obliged to do so.
We have met that commitment. We have lived up to our word. We have done everything we could to resolve some difficult issues. We wanted to arrive at a settlement that we could recommend to our members as fair and equitable.
Unfortunately, I regret that we have not done so. I respect the people who are on the other side of the bargaining table; I want to make that clear. However my impression is that they simply do not want a settlement as much as we do. Or at least they don’t seem to want a settlement that both sides can move forward with, that both parties believe is fair. Progress has been too slow. They have been dragging their heels on issues that they absolutely know are key to a settlement.
Their strategy of delay, defer and ignore no longer serves any useful purpose. The people of Toronto want to see this settled, and so does the Transit Workers Union.
We have therefore made a decision, which we hope will achieve that goal.
We will continue to negotiate with the TTC for another 49 hours. We will go around the clock if necessary. We invite the Minister of Labour to sit down with both parties if it helps. We want to reach an agreement without withdrawing our services.
Here is what that 49 hours means. We will accept from the TTC a proposal for a new contract up to noon Friday, April 8. If no offer is forthcoming, or if an offer made by that time does not adequately address our important issues, we will be on strike as of the first shift this coming Monday, April 11.
What we hope is that an offer is made by that time that we can recommend to our members. If that happens, will then hold a ratification vote next Wednesday and count it immediately. In the meantime, service would remain uninterrupted.
I need to emphasize that 12:00 p.m. Friday is our first and only deadline. Some in the media have left the impression on the public that today was our settlement or strike deadline.
That is not true. I stated last Thursday that we would reassess the situation today and advise you accordingly.
But let there be no confusion here. Friday is the deadline. If the T.T.C. fails to come through with an acceptable offer by noon, we will cease negotiations until at least Monday and we will be off the job until we have an offer that is ratified by our members by secret ballot.
We have chosen Friday afternoon as the deadline because that would give people and businesses more time to prepare and make alternate arrangements. But again, this is not what we want.
Less than an hour ago I spoke with Mayor Miller and advised him of what I have just told you. I can tell you that it was a friendly and useful conversation. But it is not for me to tell you what he said to me. I have great respect for the Mayor and he can speak for himself.
I also spoke with Howard Hampton, Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party. I called him because of the key role he played in the quick settlement of our two-day work stoppage six years ago. We sincerely hope – as does he – that his intervention will not be necessary this year.
I am also communicating directly with our members. Right now, phone calls are being made to all 8,400 members of Local 113, telling them of this decision. Since most of them are at work right now, they will likely get my message on their voice mail when they get home tonight after their 12-1/2 hour shifts. In my message, I ask them to continue to provide good service to the travelling public until Monday morning, and hopefully beyond, without interruption.
So Monday morning we could be in a real mess. Here’s hoping that the next 4x hours are productive for all involved.
The subway I took this morning was plastered with We Move Toronto advertisements. I wonder what the commission thinks of these ads as they’re essentially trying to sway the public in favour of the transit union in the ongoing labour negotiations. I like the ads though – they feature regular workers telling a story about how they contribute to a better life in Toronto through their job. I haven’t heard much on the progress of the labour talks but everyone’s saying that the two sides are still speaking positively about the situation so that’s a good sign. I don’t want to have to consider what I’d do if they went on strike. It would be very difficult to get to work.
CBC Toronto – No strike Friday for TTC drivers
Hooray! Now if we can guarantee (I can spell it too Phil!) that they won’t go on strike for the longer term that will be a great accomplishment. I guess I won’t be working from home tomorrow.
An accident just happened outside the office on Eglinton and the DVP. Some tractor trailer was turning left (west) onto Eglinton and it seems like another car tried to turn alongside it and was wedged underneath the truck. Traffic going west was backed up for miles (as far as I could see). The buses just left everyone off and had them walk ahead past the blockage because they weren’t going anywhere for a while. The DVP exit was backed up to the highway lanes but it reached a certain point where everybody would just head east instead of just waiting for the accident to clear.
It seems the police have got things under control again – they moved the two vehicles involved to the side of the road so at least we have traffic moving again. The DVP northbound has been slow all morning. Usually it’s the southbound lanes that give problems.
As I was leaving the car this morning at the Leslie subway station I considered taking the umbrella with me. I knew that it was supposed to rain today (100% chance apparently) but I decided against it. I have a feeling that that is something I may regret this afternoon when I walk to the bus stop.
Well the potential TTC strike could be effective 12:01 AM on Friday morning. So will there be one? I heard today that the talks between the two sides is “progressing” but that could also mean “progressing towards failure” as well as “progressing towards a deal”. It’s hard to say. I noticed on the bus last Wednesday (maybe?) that the transit union has its own website now called We Move Toronto. They have some interesting facts on there:
Four out of five people in Toronto use the TTC at least once a year. Two out of three use it once a month. Hundred of thousands rely on it every day. Our public transit system holds Toronto together.
Four out of five is pretty significant. They also have a contest where they’re giving away a Metropass (which is priced too high for me) each day until April. I signed up – you’re encouraged to send a letter to the premier asking for more transit funding. I think the transit system is underfunded so I’m ok with that.
I really do hope that they get this labour contract resolved before Friday. I think I’ll be working from home if they do go on strike because with only one car between Marcy and me we are very dependent on the TTC to make the commute work for both of us (as best as it could be done).
There’s nothing like a nice run (ok sprint) in the morning to catch your subway. It gets the blood moving! On the Sheppard line though since the subways only come every 5-6 minutes it can mean a big difference in the time you actually get to work (well the time I get to work).
This brings me to another point and I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while. I think the most stressful part of my day is when we get into the Don Mills subway station. It’s a major transfer point for the east end of the city and there are a lot of people getting on and getting off the subway and buses there. You can just feel the stress levels of the people around them as they try valiantly to get to wherever they’re going. It’s the quintessential definition of “rat race”. We’re herded up stairs, down a corridor and up more stairs until we reach the cheese.
Living in Toronto is so much more hectic than living in Kitchener-Waterloo.
Today is the last day I can expect the buses to be quiet. Last week and today was the time allotted for March Break at the Toronto District School Board. The buses/subway cars have been rather nice without all of the students. I’ve been able to sit comfortably and the crush of people trying to get on and off at certain stops has been virtually nonexistant. That’s not to say that the TTC has been empty; it’s far from it. But it makes think what the summer will be like in the morning at least.
CBC Toronto – TTC looks at bike racks for buses
I’ve seen this in the news this week. I guess it’s a good idea and it makes sense to give cyclists that flexibility but I wonder how it effects regular passengers? Will the time for each stop increase if you have to wait for a cyclist to put/take off their bike from the rack? If the bus hits another vehicle is the TTC liable for the damage to the bikes? I don’t use any of the routes in the pilot program but assuming that it’s a successful pilot (and it probably will be) I’ll be seeing bike racks on my buses soon enough. I think that’s enough TTC stories for the morning.
CBC Toronto – Run more transit on Don Mills: report
I like this report though I admit I’ve only read the summary in this article. I will have to read the rest at a later date. When Marcy goes to school in the morning I take the bus down Don Mills and even with the special commuter lane it’s still pretty slow getting form Sheppard down to Eglinton. Having a GO station makes sense as well because there isn’t one between Oriole (Leslie/401) and Union on that particular branch. The north and eastern sections of the city are becoming more and more dense – that is obvious to anyone who takes the bus or subway to those parts and they need to start acting on these plans or else the system will become so overburdened that it’s not practical to use anymore.
CBC Toronto – Transit workers set strike date
So the strike date is set for March 31st. That could be very bad news for commuters in general and me in particular. If they do end up striking then it will make for an awful drive for either Marcy or me. They seem confident that they’ll reach an agreement though so that’s a good sign and the TTC workers can’t stay off the job for too long without the city falling apart. There are just too many people that depend on the TTC to get around.
When you take the bus there’s something you have to learn to accept. That one thing is that your shoulders will be uncomfortable and cramped. Some people treat the “shoulder war” as a matter of personal pride – can I sit comfortably? If yes then I win and you lose.
If you’re sitting at the back of the bus, one person sitting in an expanded way can ruin the bus ride for the rest of the people sitting beside them (even up to several seats away). And believe me, sitting straddling two seats isn’t that comfortable. I have a feeling that these seats weren’t even that comfortable or sized appropriately when they were designed back in the day. (60’s? 70’s? I don’t know.) I can assure you though that today with packed buses consistently it doesn’t always make for an enjoyable ride.
Thank goodness that the fares are low. Oh wait they’re not. Thank goodness that the service reaches all corners of the city. Oh wait it doesn’t.
I like being facetious sometimes.
The tractors are back. They’re going north on the DVP now. I still wish I had a camera though I’m not sure how good of a picture I could get from the window. I wonder if they have enough gas.
CBC Toronto – Farmers’ protest to hit Queen’s Park
I wish I had my camera right now because there are about 200 tractors going down the DVP on their way to Queen’s Park. It’s an odd sight. The police have blocked off the onramps. I’m sure people are pretty frustrated. My coworker was the last one to get on the DVP before they shut it down. Lucky him!
A few minutes later now the cars have returned. I was wondering what the traffic sign said during the protest: “DVP moving very slow – farmer protest” maybe?
Hopefully this will be the last update on The Catch (I really need a category for this). The ads on the bus today had changed from yesterday. Now they have a “pill” bottle that says “Virgin Mobile” and underneath it says “No Catch”. In smaller font at the top it says “maximize your mobility”. To the left side of the bottle it says “Great rates / No hidden fees / No contracts”. Hooray that The Cure is here I suppose.
The thing that puzzles me is that Virgin Mobile’s entry into the cellphone market here in Canada is really a joint venture between Virgin and Bell Canada. I guess they can’t say too many negative things against Bell in their advertising. It seems counterintuitive to me but maybe that’s why I don’t have a business or marketing degree.
The Catch is done and fried.
Well Virgin Mobile Canada launches today (it’s a joint venture between Virgin and Bell Canada) and if you wanted proof that “The Catch” ads on the TTC were ads for Virgin Mobile just go to their site. Front page – “The Cure for The Catch is here!” Finally – maybe now we can see those dumb ads on the subway and bus disappear or be replaced with better ones for Virgin Mobile. I can’t imagine they’ll stop advertising their new service so soon but I do hope that they change the tone of the ads.
I was thinking more about The Catch today on the bus (I had to stand for most of the way and it helped pass the time).
It seems so obvious to me now but The Catch in the advertisements means “the catch” when you sign up for a new service or get a good deal on something. “What’s the catch?” you might say and this is what they’re referring to – that cellphone providers seem to have these amazing deals for service yet there’s always a catch that makes you pay more than you had thought you would be.
It makes sense I suppose but I wonder if Virgin Mobile will be able to completely avoid The Catch themselves. It’s pretty contagious.
Recycling levy not fair, landlord says
This landlord says that it’s not fair to charge the buildings (specifically their owners) a levy to help offset the cost of transporting the huge amount of garbage that the buildings produce (see yesterday’s post for more information). The quotation in the article is rather silly:
“We do our part getting our tenants to bring down their recycling. We bring it out to the curb. We follow all their rules,” he said.
Rodrigues says the new levy could cost his company more than $40,000 a year.
Well for one thing the rules can change and if Michigan decides to increase the cost of dumping our trash there (as they’re proposing right now) then the city needs to make sure that we’re only sending what is absolutely necessary in those garbage trucks. I think having the Green Bins in apartment buildings would be a nice start but you still have the logistical problem of moving those bins around and storing the massive amounts of waste until the trucks come and pick them up.
Second of all it’s not like the property management company needs to eat up the levy themselves. As was discussed in yesterday’s post they could pass it onto the apartment tenants lumped in with the rent increase that they can use each year. There’s no way that this would cost this guy $40,000 a year (which means he has over 2600 apartments under his control) because I think he would be smart enough to pass some of the cost (if not all of the cost) onto his tenants. Landlording (as it’s wont to be called) can be an extremely profitable business and if it means this guy (or any other property management enterprise) won’t see as big a rise in profits this year at the cost of reducing the amount of trash sent to the dump then I still support it; maybe I support it even stronger if I knew that landlords would complain about it.
We’ll see if this story goes anywhere. I doubt the landlords have much sympathy with the public but if they frame it that they’re punishing regular tenants then it might get some more protest.
Council looks at garbage fee for apartments
Even if it means that I’d potentially pay more in rent I think this is a good idea. I never realized just how much garbage apartment buildings in Toronto put out until we moved here. In Kitchener it was always at the back of the building but here we have garbage trucks pull into the driveway every day almost and clean out the garbage. Let me tell you – there’s a lot of it between the two buildings. I like to think that we recycle plenty but I’ve seen some of the garbage that other tenants throw out and it contains quite a bit of recylcable material. The only reason I know this is because the people on our floor seem to have an innate inability to actually push their garbage down the garbage chute. Now granted the chute’s door is a little stiff and you have to push it with a little bit of force (say, 10 Newtons) but it’s not a ridiculous amount. Often times I open the garbage chute room’s door and find either a) garbage bugs just sitting on the floor waiting for some magical person to put it where it’s supposed to go (and believe me, I’m not a magical person) or b) I open the chute door and find piles of bags that people didn’t want to push down.
That was an aside to the point in question – that people need to be encouraged to recycle. It would be nice if we could just put our “blue box” in the hallway and someone would come around to collect it but that’s far from practical. I can’t think of a better solution than having the massive blue bins in the main garbage area on the main floor. It’s rather inconvenient if you live on the 28th floor because it woudl be a hassle to go down and up just for recycling. It’s much easier just to throw everything down the chute and be done with it.
I’ve seen ads for this site on the bus recently but they’re very ambiguous. They say things like “Over 11.5 million Canadians have the Catch and everyday you come in contact with someone who has it.” No other information besides that except for the URL above. It hasn’t made that much of an impression on me though each time I see the ad I want to visit the URL just to see what it is but I forget about it by the time I get to a computer. This morning I checked it out.
They have some kind of “Self-Examination” to “diagnose” you. It asks four questions:
- Have you noticed any unsightly irritations that won’t go away? (rarely/sometimes/always)
- Do you experience unusual discomfort every 3-4 weeks? (rarely/sometimes/always)
- Have you noticed any growths that increase at irregular rates? (rarely/sometimes/always)
- Have you ever felt paralyzed by a relationship? (rarely/sometimes/always)
If you can find the connection between these questions then you’re a smarter person than me. After you answer they give you a “diagnosis”. For example:
MILD CASE OF THE CATCH
Thanks for taking the Catch Self-Examination. Based on your responses, you appear to have a mild case of the Catch. While your suffering might be bearable now, it’s bound to get worse. Much worse.
Fortunately for you, a cure for the Catch will be arriving soon. Enter your email below for access to play in our lab and to get a prescription of the cure as soon as it’s available.
GET YOUR PRESCRIPTION!
You must be 13 or over to give us your email address.
So – yeah. That’s kind of interesting. Looking at the whois information for the domain I see that it’s registered to an advertising company.
Domain curethecatch.ca
Registrant Name Lowe Roche Advertising Inc.
Registrar Can Reg (Infinet Communications Group)
Renewal Date 2005/07/20
Date approved 2004/07/20
Last changed 2005/02/08
Description
According to this discussion forum thread it’s a viral ad campaign for Virgin Mobile which is coming to Canada sometime this year.
Most people probably think “the Catch” is a synonym for “the Clap“. That’s not something I’d want my ad campaign to be associated with. A certain subset of my friends might think that “the Catch” reminds them of “the Clem”. That’s far worse than Gonorrhea let me tell you!
For many reasons I like to commute using public transit. Sure there’s the lack of mobility as a negative factor and you have to be willing to shrink your personal space circle (a problem I have at times) but the bus and/or subway is a fascinating place to people watch. That’s just not something you can do driving your car; you just don’t have the extended period of time looking at a bunch of people that you have on a bus (assume “and/or subway” tacked onto every reference to bus from here on in).
Anyway last Friday had another interesting character on the 34 – Eglinton bus heading home. Halfway to the subway station (where I transfer) this man got on the bus. He had short-cut hair that was gelled in a wavy pattern. He wore RayBan sunglasses that haven’t been popular since the mid-90’s. He had a short mustache that was curled in a nice curlicue on each side (waxed of course). He wore a heavy black jacket that looked like PVC. On the jacket he had a variety of buttons but the most prominent one was a huge Bombardier “button” that looked more like it was stolen from a Seadoo or a Lear Jet. He wore black jeans and black running shoes.
If that wasn’t strange-looking enough he had these “winter” gloves that were very long and had chainmail on them. I guess he was expecting to get lanced or something while travelling on the bus.
All-in-all one of the more amusing fellows I’ve seen on the bus.
Either the city or the people who own the building I work in have gotten wise to the parking scam available on this street. There’s a parking-pass enabled (but not really) lot and then there was ample parking on the street. People parked there if they didn’t want to walk too far in the parking lot (which gets full quickly) or if they didn’t have a pass (like the people who are gym members). I’ve parked there many a time when I had the Accord because I didn’t have a parking pass for it.
Yesterday I was walking to the bus stop and noticed that there weren’t any cars parking on the other side of the street (where parking was previously allowed). Also there were parking meters all along the near side of the street. I guess the city wanted to cash in on this street for whatever reason though parking is free after 6 PM. I didn’t have a chance to look at what the hourly cost is. I’ll try and do that tonight on the way home.
CBC Toronto – Province toughens fines for crosswalk offences
I approve of this. Too often you have cars that crowd you when you’re trying to cross the street and I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to work downtown and try to walk around during business hours (or during club hours for that matter). Fining may not be enough but it’s a start. Three demerit points can add up to a lot of headaches.
In January there was a bad storm and after that I formulated a plan in case Marcy couldn’t drive me to the subway station. Technically I can take the TTC all the way from my house to work.
Today I put that plan into action. I call it Plan B. There was a significant amount of snow dropped on us last night and the roads were not too pleasant-looking when we got up this morning. We decided that Marcy would drive all the way to work and I would take the bus. Fortunately the bus stops right outside of our building and comes fairly often (every 10 or so minutes in the morning). I got on the bus heading south where I could hook up with the Bloor-Danforth subway line. The ride on the bus was a bit treacherous at times as the curb lane wasn’t plowed very well and the bus was sliding quite noticeably. But we got to the subway station in about 30 minutes which isn’t too bad considering the weather conditions.
The subway ride was fairly uneventful. It wasn’t even as busy as I was expecting. I got off at Pape Station and that’s where it became interesting. I went up the stairs and found approximately 200 people waiting for the Don Mills bus north (25D). There were some pseudo-lines set up to wait for the bus but when you have that many people at the same bus stop chaos tends to rule. I waited for about 5-10 minutes and then all of a sudden 6 Don Mills buses appeared. It was like watching clowns come out of a clown car at the turning lane. One more… and another… and another… and another! I got on one of these buses and vaguely knowing the route I guessed at how long it would take to get to the Science Center where my bus stop would be. I sat at the back row (the “cool kids” row). It was very packed – people standing from front to back. I was lucky to have a seat but knew that it would be a challenge to get out again once my stop came.
It seemed like the whole Don Mills route was backed up because at each stop we came to (and those that we blew by because we were too full) there were a lot of people, even at the small bus stops people were crowded waiting. The scarier part was when we were on Overlea. It was hardly plowed at all and we were sliding all over the place. Sometimes it felt like we wouldn’t be able to move out of the rut and considering how much the bus weighs that’s a scary feeling. We got onto Don Mills road and I made my way closer to the door. Fortunately there’s a school there so a lot of the kids who were on the bus got off. I saw one kid wearing a thin short-sleeved shirt and no jacket. That seemed the smartest thing to do today. Don Mills was very slow and I ended up getting out a stop early because a) I could get to where the shuttle meets me quicker than the bus was travelling and b) the two girls beside me were having an extremely inane conversation and it was driving me nuts.
So I got off and walked one block to the shuttle. The sidewalk wasn’t plowed at all and if you had a bad ankle this wasn’t some place you wanted to be walking. There was a lot of snow on the roads too and people were having a very hard time getting around. I’m glad I took the shuttle because the sidewalks in this subdivision are even worse than on Don Mills though the road itself wasn’t something I would want to drive on either.
Total travel time for Plan B? One hour and forty-five minutes. Not bad considering the distance I needed to travel to get here but probably not worth it as an everyday alternative. Although it may be more feasible with clear conditions. Perhaps I’ll try it someday when the weather is supposed to be nice. I would estimate that the return trip would take about an hour and a half but that’s just a guess.
I carried flowers into work this morning.
As I mentioned previously we stayed in a hotel last night. The hot water in our building was being “improved” and so we decided to stay closer to our work. We stayed at the Radisson Toronto East Hotel. It was pretty nice though the sounds of the 401 were very noticeable from our room. We had a bit more time to get ready this morning and we actually had a more normal breakfast. That was nice.
I took the Victoria Park bus south and Marcy had a much shorter drive (I hope). Now the Victoria Park bus (#24) is one route away from the one I usually take (Don Mills #25). But let me tell you – there’s a world of difference between the people who take the two buses. The people on the bus this morning seemed very angry and surly and wouldn’t really accomodate you if you wanted to actually get off the bus. I had to practically force my way through this one guy who was standing right in front of the door. Fun times had by all I’m sure. I got to work at approximately the same time I usually do but it took far less time over all.
Anyway, so for Valentine’s Day I got a whole bunch of lovely things from Marcy (aka My Love). She got me a lovely card, some heavenly chocolates from Laura Secord, two tickets to Rain: The Beatles Experience in 10 days and some beautiful flowers. Since they wouldn’t last too long in the car all day until we got home tonight I took them with me to work.
I bet that most people who saw me carrying those flowers would think that I was giving them to someone else and not that I was the recipient of said flowers. I like my flowers – they brighten up my desk and remind me of Marcy during the day.
We had a lovely evening last night at the hotel. We went out to a pub for dinner and some really amazing wings. We were a little hesitant at first because on the first drive-by the pub was advertising Budweiser and Labatt’s Blue in the window. There aren’t many English/Irish pubs that will make those their featured window beers. We were pleasantly surprised though so we’ll be going back again for wings soon. We also watched Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason in the room which was pretty funny. The price point wasn’t too terrible – $12.64 including tax which is right in-between renting and going out to see a movie in the theatre. Seeing as it’s a fairly recent movie it’s a decent price.
So yes I carried flowers to work today and have them sitting proudly on my desk. I’ve even received some nice comments about them!
Marcy and I have started looking for a new place to live even though we likely won’t be able to move until early fall unless we’re able to break our lease. I spent some time looking at various sites this afternoon and decided that there are some very affordable places available in the areas we want to live. We might even be able to get a house to rent. Oh man that would be nice. I can dream about that day. Right now I think that the Toronto Craigslist has the best listings. Toronto Rentals and ViewIt aren’t bad either. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for any opportunities that strike our fancy as the year progresses. Anything will be better than our current place. The latest development – they’re shutting off the hot water in floors 1-14 from Monday at 9 AM until Tuesday at 5 PM. How great! I booked a hotel for us on Monday night (Valentine’s Day too – how good is their timing) that is closer to our work so we’ll see how much better it will be driving in on Tuesday.
Last night we were driving home from dinner (finally a good Winterlicious meal!) and the radio was tuned to CHFI, a “soft-rock” station here in Toronto. I was surprised to hear Zero 7’s “Home” come on. It was the last place I would have expected to hear them but yet it was played. I haven’t heard the song in a while so I was confused when I thought that I recognized it (the radio was down low). I had no idea that a station that I had dismissed so decisively was so “with it” and “hip”. I wonder if they’ll play the Thievery Corporation next. Or maybe the Gotan Project. One can hope!
Famous Players is dropping the price of admission at their theatres by $4 in the Toronto area. That’s a huge decrease – from $13.95 to $9.95. That might make it slightly more affordable to go see a movie there now. We don’t go out to see a lot of movies anymore primarily because they’re so expensive and we can rent them for so much cheaper. I’m still not sure this will persuade me to go to a Famous Players over an AMC for example but it’s a step in the right direction.
Boy is it cold outside and if there’s one thing Canadians like to do when it’s this cold is comment on how cold it is. I think it’s a pride thing.
As soon as I stepped out of the car my jeans practically froze and my legs were quickly numb. The one good thing about the cold is the squeaky snow. I love squeaky snow. It almost makes the cold worthwhile (ok not really). Fortunately I didn’t have to wait very long for the subway to arrive and my bus was prompt and had the heater on full-blast.
Once I got off the bus I was facing the prospect of walking 5-10 minutes to the office. Fortunately though I happened to notice that the shuttle van was sitting there. I’ve seen it near the building a number of times but wasn’t sure if I was allowed to take it or what it did. Since there was no one else there I decided to open the door and ask. I am allowed to take it and it runs for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening so I can take it to the bus stop tonight if I want. It might be a wise decision given the current temperatures (both real – minus 22 – and virtual – minus 28). At least tomorrow it’s supposed to warm up and then we’ll get snow. Hooray for winter finally being here!
I love the look of these buttons [via]:
TTC Buttons
The tilework in the TTC subway stations is a bit bizarre in some cases but it’s unique and appealing at the same time. I like how each station is different and in some way it lets you know where you are without having to read the sign (if you take the subway often enough). I’m not sure that I can justify the expense but they certainly do tempt me.
Last week (Thursday specifically) I was at work a bit later than I have been and someone noticed something spectacular at the window. We all rushed over.
A minivan was on fire on the Don Valley Parkway. It was already dark out so the flames were showing up extremely well. It was kind of scary watching this vehicle burn and melt before my eyes. Fortunately there wasn’t anyone in it when things started deteriorating quickly. I was surprised how long it took the fire trucks to get there – at least 5 minutes after we started watching. By that point the whole front compartment had exploded a couple of times and all that was left of that part was the frame.
I was also surprised that people travelling southbound (opposite direction where the car on fire was located) were still willing to travel in the lane closest to the car. Here you have a car on fire with a possibility of explosion at any minute and you’re still driving (slowly) less than 10 feet away from it. It was incredible.
Eventually the fire trucks came and they quickly (and I mean quickly!) extinguished the fire. There’s a pretty obvious scorch mark on the pavement but I guess there wasn’t any structural damage to the highway. It was a pretty surreal experience. Imagine if I had been on the ground and that had been my car.
I was reading this Boing Boing post yesterday and realized that the delicacy they’re describing is something that I first discovered a couple of months ago. We went to Iqbal Kebab & Sweet Centre for lunch and after the main course Remi suggested getting paan. I’d never had it before but he seemed pretty enthusiastic about it so I gave it a try. I have to say it was one of the most delicious and refreshing things I’ve ever eaten. It helped with the digestion of the meal and freshened my breath. The next time I see them offered in a restaurant I’ll definitely spend the money to get one. They’re highly recommended!
If we had a perfectly complete underground transportation here in Toronto then it would make my life so much better.
Unfortunately we don’t have such a system here. Days like today make it rather uncomfortable to be a pedestrian. We have freezing rain this morning and that makes the roads slippery. However since cars are continually driving on the roads the rain doesn’t have a chance to freeze. Sidewalks are another matter. They’re skating rinks. People were slipping and sliding all over the place once they got off the bus. The drainage system on the roads is blocked so you end up with huge pools of water at major intersections (like the one near my office).
I was lucky that I didn’t take the bus 30 minutes later than I did because apparently (from what one of the co-op students tells me) there is a car on Don Mills that is stopped in the centre lane and refuses to move his car. Naturally this would cause quite the traffic delay.
The freezing rain is supposed to stop later this morning and then it’s going to rain for the rest of the day. January 12th and we’re getting rain. It’ll be 10 and 12 degrees tomorrow and Friday respectively. That’s crazy. Following the cycle, the weekend is going to be cold again and then likely we’ll see another warm period. I certainly don’t remember winters like this when I was younger (old man comments to yourselves please). It’s hard to argue that the weather systems are changing if only subtly. However a short-term subtle change can easily add up to a long-term major change.
Some things have surprised me about our new apartment building. Other things have disappointed me.
One of the things that surprised me is the parking lot ramp. We have underground parking and there’s a very steep ramp down into it. When we first saw the building I was worried what that ramp would be like in the winter time. This couldn’t be tested until we first had snow. The day I stayed home a couple of weeks ago I discovered that the ramps were heated and therefore didn’t accumulate any snow or ice. This is a very good thing. Really, it makes sense that it’s designed this way because I can’t imagine how much of a pain it would be to try and go up and down an icy ramp.
The laundry facilities in this building are far better than the old building. They have a lot of washing machines and even more dryers (the other building had 8 of each). One key difference is that the dryers actually dry our clothes (what a concept!). Plus you can add 10 minutes of drying time at a time which is good when your towels are still a little damp but you don’t want to have a whole other hour of dryer time.
It’s not all milk and honey around the building though. There’s the security problem I mentioned on Friday. There isn’t much visitor parking out front. The stairwways are a little creepy.
Now we have to worry if our heat in the apartment will work or not. Yesterday morning the power to the whole building went out which on a day when you have -35C windchill is not a positive development. Marcy called Toronto Hydro and they didn’t even know about the problem. They fixed the problem but the apartment was still very cold. Fortunately during my last school term I had purchased a space heater. It wasn’t of much use to us then because the wiring in our house was so poor that we couldn’t have the heater running without blowing the breakers in the entire house. The heater was quite useful yesterday and last night though. It seems that the radiators in the apartment are on low or not on at all because I couldn’t feel much heat coming from them. The space heater is useful but only in one place at a time – it’s not like that one heater can heat our big apartment. We moved it into the bedroom last night and kept the door closed to trap the heat. It worked quite well but the rest of the apartment was pretty cold this morning. If the heat doesn’t come back on we’re going to have to press our superintendent and/or building manager to act quickly. I’m sure there are other people in the building with the same problem; I know that a family on our floor had to have their heaters repaired yesterday (they have horrendous luck with their apartment) and they can’t be the only ones. Having no heat in the winter time is a scary proposition.
I heard about this story on the news this morning. That’s very close to our apartment. The grocery store we go to is at that intersection. It kind of makes you think that random violence could happen anywhere at any time to anyone. Is it possible to avoid? No but it is possible to counter your fear. Society is not always pleasant but it’s not all that dangerous either. It’s sad that the price of life can be so high for some.
A few weeks back we went to the Royal Winter Fair here in Toronto and I took my camera with me. I took a whole bunch of pictures but this one stands out.
Sweetcheeks
Crowd appreciation is the determining factor in this contest according to the poster. Fortunately we missed it.
Remember how I mentioned last week that we watch Breakfast Television in the mornings for their traffic reports? Well it’s a good thing because this morning we had it on (Marcy had to leave early to pick up her guest speaker that never ended showing up) and at around 6:45 they showed a shot of the 401 eastbound in the collector lanes. A van/pickup truck had gone through the guardrail at Don Mills road and had fallen onto the 401 collector lanes. It’s kind of scary that that can happen so easily but the roads were very icy this morning particularly on ramps and bridges (those signs don’t lie!). The vehicle was extremely lucky that it didn’t land on another car and I can imagine people’s fright as they’re driving through that area and they see a car go over the bridge. It must have looked like something out of a movie.
Fortunately as a result of this accident, my drive was relatively light (there were no injuries in the above accident). Don Mills was closed from Sheppard down to the 401 and so the volume of traffic usually barreling down that street in the morning was noticeably absent. York Mills was slow from Yonge to Leslie; I stopped at the Yonge/York Mills subway stop to see if Marcy’s friend was there and didn’t want to get back on the 401 given the mess described above.
Edit: According to this Toronto Star story (who knows how long that link will live), the driver was driving a pesticide truck and since it crashed onto its passenger side, the driver was not injured. He has something to be thankful for today that’s for sure.
I’ve officially seen my first snow of the year. It’s wet snow but definitely snow. It’s all downhill from here. Driving home is going to be a joy.
My previous post linked to a page talking about the QEW. I’ve spent the last little while navigating the rest of that site and discovered that it’s a really full and thorough resource on Ontario’s highway system. I ‘m interested in this kind of thing so I’m appreciative of having it around.
They have a section for old highway photos and this one made me laugh:
401 and Leslie
That’s a picture of the 401 looking east at the Leslie Street exit. I doubt that there’s any time of day or night where the highway is that empty. I wonder if someday we’ll look at the pictures of the highway in the east and west that is currently surrounded by farms and have the same thought. The growth of the Ontario megalopolis continues unabated. Well except for the proposed Greenbelt.
I have a surplus of posts popping around in my head.
Whenever I listen to the traffic reports (which is often now that I’m commuting everyday), I wonder what someone new to the city/province/country would think listening to these reports. Acronyms and designations abound in each and every report.
QEW?
DVP?
The Allen?
Across the top?
Normal buildup?
It would take some time to decipher exactly what these all meant. I pity anyone visiting the city for a short while not knowing their way around and relying on the traffic reports to help navigate the streets. Of course I pity anyone who has to drive anywhere in the city during rush hour (aka every hour). With today’s heavy rain and tomorrow’s likely snow, it’s not going to be pretty.
Anyway, I guess once you get a handle on all of the terminology for traffic around the GTA it’s pretty easy to digest the traffic reports. It’s just something I think about. I like to muse on different things (as you may have surmised already).
Over the day it has become increasingly foggy outside. The traffic going north on the DVP has not increased (or decreased for that matter) in speed all day. It’s been slow. Over the weekend they rearranged the construction lanes on the 401 near Yonge Street which makes the whole transfer from northbound to westbound that much more frustrating. I think it’s a day for taking York Mills/Wilson home.
The current #3 story on the CBC News site?
Sex OK during Grey Cup week: Argos coach
Seriously! Go read the article for yourself.
Argos head coach Mike (Pinball) Clemons sent the press gallery into hysterics at Wednesday’s news conference with his response to the seemingly annual question of whether his players would be allowed to have sex in the days leading up to Sunday’s CFL championship game against the B.C. Lions (CBC, 4 p.m. ET).
While most coaches usually brush off the question, Clemons, renowned for his jovial personality, chuckled and offered his view on the subject.
“Personally speaking, this game is of such great magnitude that far be it from me to interrupt what may be a player’s normal course of action for readying himself for a game,” he said, as those in attendance laughed.
“If it has worked thus far, please indulge.
“If it has not benefited you to this point, please abstain.”
A humourous sound bite from a humourous coach (also a former player of the team).
We’re thinking of going to this tonight.
Pearls have intrigued humans for thousands of years. These mysterious and beautiful objects have a rich cultural history – they have adorned religious and secular art, been the cause of conquests, encouraged exploration, fuelled businesses and industries, and have long been associated with royalty. They are symbols of purity, virtue, glamour and wealth.
Pearls are among the most coveted of all gemstones. Unlike other gems, they are the products of living animals. Their biology, microstructure, and chemistry are as interesting as the jewels they become and their ornamental uses.
The exhibition Pearls: A Natural History will trace the natural and cultural history of pearls around the world, telling the story of how they are formed – in nature and by humans, how they are harvested, and the ways they are used and worn. The story of these natural treasures embraces the worlds of science, art, literature, history, and jewellery.
The exhibit opened at the American Museum of Natural History (New York) to stellar reviews. The ROM will be the only Canadian venue. The exhibit features more than 600 spectacular objects, including nearly a half a million individual pearls, drawn from major museums and private collections from around the world. Highlighted are lustrous 50-million-year-old fossil pearls, a replica of a 14.5-pound pearl, the largest ever harvested, and of course, fabulous jewellery and fashions that have adorned the likes of Queen Victoria and Marie Antoinette, and celebrities such as Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe.
This multi-faceted exhibition is sure to interest everyone – from museum visitor to gem connoisseur to biologist.
I’m not sure if we’ll actually get around to going to the museum tonight (Fridays are their free nights) but we’ll definitely get there before the exhibit finishes in January. By the time Friday rolls around we’re both so tired that the desire to go out is usually outweighed by the desire to relax and sleep.
Today was a government holiday and federal corporations (like banks) also were closed. Since these institutions did not open today there were fewer workers who needed to travel to their place of employment. This had a significant impact on the level of congestion on the highways this morning. That is, it was very light. I got on the Don Valley Parkway and didn’t have to stop and wait for a place to open in the far right lane. Rather the traffic was moving quickly enough that I could merge in a normal fashion. This is highly unusual and did not go unnoticed (obviously considering the post about it). I’m sure some people would want more government holidays like today but considering what today is I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m confident that tomorrow will be a return to the normal routine.
Should I get tickets for this concert?
16-NOV-04 SUFJAN STEVENS LEE’S 19+ $14.00
I admit it’s very tempting. Sufjan Stevens is one of my recent (in the last year) favourite artists (see this praise post). I’ll think it over.
As I mentioned previously, I have a great view onto the Don Valley Parkway from my desk. Seeing the traffic down there move slowly is nothing new but when it’s absolutely stopped I take notice. This happened today around lunchtime.
The backup extended from my office up past Lawrence. Cars were not moving at all and there was a big lineup getting off of the highway at Eglinton. Your basic horrendous traffic jam. I went over to the window and looked at the traffic. There were people turning onto the on-ramp and travelling the wrong way to wait at the stoplight. This was so crazy and dangerous to do. There were people coming up the onramp in the hopes of getting onto the highway only to find that there was a long string of cars waiting to travel in the opposite direction. It’s the lemming mentality and for many of the cars wanting to get onto the highway the majority won and they turned around.
This happened for about 10-15 minutes before a police car showed up. People were still trying to do the dangerous illegal thing. I couldn’t help but watch these idiots risk their lives to get off the highway. Eventually the police car made its way through the mess and stopped this business.
Looking around a couple of news sites in the area, I couldn’t find any mention of why the traffic was backed up (probably a non-story). Instead I tried looking at the traffic cameras. Nothing was apparent. Then I tried looking at the CBC Toronto website and noticed that they have a traffic site as well. What a neat site! It gives you the different highways (401, QEW, 403, 404, DVP) in a Flash-like interface and then for each highway they give you a Javascript rollover of each camera along the route. Very handy. I’m going to be using this often I think.
I still need to figure out what number to call at the CBC when I see a traffic problem. Two times now I’ve had the opportunity to report troubles but didn’t have the number on me.
Snow is coming. Winter is coming. Ugly drives are coming. This morning when we woke up there were reports of snow in Barrie and other areas north of the city. People were calling into the radio saying that there were really poor road conditions to the east and north of the city. I saw cars on the highway today that had snow on their hoods.
It’s coming. I just hope I’m ready for it.
Remember how I called the city about the traffic light in front of our apartment building? I just got a call back from Troy with the city. He got word about my complaint so he went out to the light and investigated. He found out that yes it was not working properly. He told me that they’ve fixed it temporarily but they’re going to get the city’s contractors out there soon to replace the sensor. My first interaction with the big city and it’s a successful one! I’m so pleased.
Technically I don’t believe vehicle collisions are “accidents” per se but that’s the common term so I’ll use that.
There was an accident right in front of our building this morning. We have a traffic light coming out of the parking lot but it (should) only trigger when there’s a car waiting to use the light. More on this later.
I got out of the shower (around 6:50) and was in the bedroom when I heard the squealing of tires and then the sound of metal on metal colliding. I looked out the window and sure enough an accident had occurred. One car had been trying to turn left from the parking lot and had run into a car turning right. This happens all the time – we have a protected green from the parking lot and the people opposite us always turn right because they think that the bigger street is stopped so why not go?
Anyway so the accident happened and Marcy considered calling the police but I saw a bus stop and figured that they could call them quicker than we could. Sure enough there was a cop quickly on the scene followed by an ambulance, another cop and two fire trucks. I did see smoke coming from the one car so it’s better to be safe than sorry. The accident did wreak havoc on the traffic headed for the 401 though and eventually they were redirected down a side street by the police because it was too slow trying to squeeze by the accident.
Now the problem for us in the apartment building is that lately the traffic light has not triggered for us allowing us to turn left or go straight. People have had to wait until the opposite side has cleared and then go against the red. This is not only illegal but highly dangerous – yesterday a van went straight through the red thinking he was ok when in fact the major street had just received their green and cars were starting to enter the intersection. He was lucky he wasn’t t-boned.
This traffic light not working combined with the accident right at the intersection created quite the mess for people trying to get out of our parking lot. I’d see lines of 7 cars or more waiting for 10 minutes at a time. Eventually one guy got the police to help out and that definitely improved things. Something has to be done about the light though because we can’t continue like this. I called the traffic phone number for the city this morning and they said they’d investigate and contact me if they needed to. Hopefully they discover what’s wrong.
Thankfully the accident was cleared by the time I left for work (7:30). I hope the traffic department calls me. I don’t want to go against the red anymore.
Another slow drive today and it’s all because of the rain. It was raining pretty hard when we left at 7 but fortunately there were no delays driving to Ajax. We got there under 30 minutes which is a really great time. Heading back into the city wasn’t so great though. It seems that we were very fortunate because as I was driving past the Kingston Road exit on the 401 going east an accident had just occurred. A car had hit another car and had spun around facing the other direction. It was partially blocking the left hand lane which naturally causes traffic to slow down. On top of that you had the drivers for the two vehicles running back and forth across the three lanes of traffic which tends to make drivers uneasy. People travelling west (me among them) were slowing down to look. Of course they were; that’s what drivers do when there’s an accident. Once we got past that it was smooth sailing. Smooth sailing for maybe 2 km until the regular buildup caught up with our flow. From Morningside until I got off the DVP it was dreadfully slow. I don’t know why the weather has such an effect on people but it does. I’m sure once we get the first snowfall it’ll be quicker to walk to work than to drive. Ah well, so long as road rage doesn’t set in during my drives to/from home I figure that society is a safer place.
I’d really like to see this concert:
Sat Oct 30:NYC Rope A Dope Afrobeat Funk & Groove
‘ANTIBALAS’ 2 Sets @10:30 & 12:15. $15.00 Adv @Hs-Rt-Ss. $18.00 @Door.
Antibalas is a pretty amazing group. I have two of their albums (Liberation Afro Beat, Vol. 1 and Talkatif) but I don’t have their latest effort – Who Is This America? They’re a very political afrobeat/funk group that is supposed to be awesome in a live setting. I heard them mention the two concerts at The Horseshoe (tonight and tomorrow night) on Metro Morning during the drive in. They played a little Antibalas and it got me grooving.
I would go to the concert except for one thing – they’re playing 2 sets and the first one doesn’t start until 10:30. Sad as it may sound to you, that’s when I usually go to bed during the week. Last weekend we managed to stay up until near midnight but that was only because we slept in on Saturday morning. I’m not sure I’d have the energy to stay out that late no matter how good the band might be. Ah well, I can always listen to their albums.
Well contrary to the ugly drive from yesterday today’s extended drive was almost blissful. Ok maybe I wouldn’t go that far but it was definitely better. No accidents on the major routes and we got to Ajax in a breezy 30 minutes. I figured on the way back into the city that the 401 westbound would be slow (since it is every single day) so you can imagine my surprise when I read this on one of the overhead signs:
401 Express and Collector moving well beyond Morningside
That was just incredible. Usually it’s down to a dead stop just past Morningside until you get to the DVP (about 15 kilometres). This didn’t happen today. We didn’t even slow down until I got off the highway. As I was driving through the habitual slowdown area, all I could think was that this was a great drive but then at the same time I was thinking that I shouldn’t think that in case I would jinx my good fortune. It’s kind of like when you’re pitching a no-hitter or bowling a perfect game (both of which I’ve accomplished several times in my illustrious careers) – you don’t want to mention what’s going on because you’re just not sure how long it will last.
Today’s drive into work was terrible. We didn’t have a chance to listen to the traffic reports until we got in the car but it wouldn’t have done us much good.
There was a collision in the eastbound 401 in the express lanes. One right-hand lane was blocked. In the collector lanes one left-hand lane was blocked with emergency vehicles. This was all at Avenue Road.
Basically as soon as we got on the 401 it was slow. We put up with it for not even one exit – we got off at Keele and drove down to Lawrence. Lawrence was a pretty good choice up until Avenue Road which of course is undergoing some serious construction work right now. One lane on Lawrence at Avenue was blocked so naturally the traffic was very slow there. The accident on the 401 wasn’t until after Avenue Road so we stuck it out on Lawrence until Yonge Street (arguably the world’s longest street). Up Yonge until the 401 and we were at a dead stop. People were taking their sweet time with the light at the 401 though apart from a guy driving an expensive Mercedes not knowing how to use a 5- (or 6-) speed transmission we were back on the highway.
Traffic was fairly smooth though a pickup truck in front of us was going too slowly for the passing lane. I got Marcy to school just before 8:30 – total drive time to Ajax was 1 hour and 20 minutes. I then stopped at Tim Horton’s for a coffee (and bathroom break) and ventured back towards the city. Naturally the 401 going west was fairly slow given that it’s the morning rush hour. I exited at Victoria Park because I knew that the Don Valley Parkway (which I talked about yesterday) would be slow. It’s always slow. Unfortunately they had one lane closed on Victoria Park because they had to pour concrete to form a new curb. Great!
Anyway I got to work at around 9:30. Total drive time = 2 hours, 20 minutes. Even getting here at 9:30 I was still the first developer in the office by at least 30 minutes. It’s great that way. Both of us were on time for work though Marcy just barely so. Unfortunately accidents on the roadway are going to be a normal part of our commuting life. So long as they don’t become daily events we’re good.
If I’m on the 15th floor of a building and when I look down onto the Don Valley Parkway and your car’s headlights are almost blinding me then I think you have a problem with the light alignment. You might want to check that out.
The link above is a pretty humourous read. I can understand why road rage can be a problem and I’ve only been commuting in the city for 3 weeks now. I’m putting in my order for a private helicopter soon.
Edit: I didn’t realize that the city of Toronto had its own set of traffic cameras on the roads. I was aware of the provincial ones (they’re very useful at times) but the RESCU ones cover areas not in the provincial basket.
So Marcy and I are getting more and more settled into our new lives here in Toronto. Almost all of the boxes that we moved have been unpacked and the remainder are being stored in the spare bedroom (man it’s great to have one of those). We’ve already picked out our paint for the entire apartment and are looking forward to decorating together. It will make a huge difference. We’re also looking at new leather furniture for the living room as it seems that all of the furniture stores in the area are having these crazy promotional deals (buy 3 pieces, get a big-screen tv). We’re thinking of going with a 4-piece black leather-split set from Leon’s because we think it’s the best value for the dollar and gives us plenty of space to sit in the new living room. We’ll probably give our existing couch (after the addition of a new slip cover). We won’t need a third couch after buying this new furniture.
Work has been extremely exciting so far so that’s definitely a positive sign. There are many differences between this job and my previous one but I won’t mention anything here. The job is very interesting, the people are great and things are really moving quickly sales-wise. We have an offsite meeting tomorrow. I’m not sure exactly what that entails but it sounds interesting!
Marcy and I are going to have to purchase a car quite soon. Her car is having some troubles and it’s not worth risking her driving an hour per day and getting stuck on the 401. Today we commuted together and after work we’re going to look at some used cars in this area. We’re looking at a 2000-2002 Honda Accord and fortunately for us there are plenty to choose from in the area.
Yesterday we went to clothes shopping and I bought a whole whack of new things to wear. Pants, shirts, shoes, even a belt! It’s very exciting. The new shoes I love – they’re slip-on leathers that looks nice and feel great. I’m wearing them today.
I have lots of photos to upload this week so stay tuned to the gallery! Now that I have consistent Internet access at home (and I can connect to the server from work), there should be more frequent updates in this space.
So tonight is my last night living in my apartment here in Kitchener. I’m hoping that once we move I’ll be able to sleep better because this whole week I’ve felt very anxious about the move. Most of the apartment is packed up and tonight we’ll finish up the rest. I’m not sure what percentage of our boxes we’ll be able to take tomorrow but I’ll be commuting back and forth next week anyway and I can pick up some boxes on the way back to Toronto. I fully anticipate being quite sore tomorrow night but at least we’ll be able to relax somewhat afterwards. I’m looking forward to being in the new place.
Darren mentions the Smart Car coming to Canada.
This reminded me that Marcy and I saw one of these cars while driving to Whitby on Sunday night. I’ve seen these cars before, most recently when I was in England last year:
Smart Car
They certainly are tiny cars. Anyway the one we saw on the 401 was very peppy – it was travelling quite rapidly. I was quite impressed. I still think it’s too small for our needs but it’s nice to see cars on the road that have great fuel economy (85/65 mpg highway/city).
Somewhat related to my previous post about anonymous anger would be this one about the traffic between here and Toronto Friday night.
I was driving to Whitby to pick up Marcy so we could go to Belleville for Marcy’s mom’s birthday. I left around 5 with both cats in the car. I drove down Charles Street – the secret way to get to Highway 8 – and when I was in sight of the highway I noticed that there were a lot of brake lights visible. I looked on the flyover and the trucks were basically stopped. I decided to take the secret way (there are a lot of secret ways here in Kitchener) around near Fairview Mall and picked up the highway there but it was no better. It was insanely slow. We were travelling no more than 10 kph and even then there were absolute idiots who didn’t seem to comprehend (or maybe they did too well) the idea that you don’t use the shoulder as your personal racetrack. This only slows down the rest of us.
We finally got to the 401 (according to Andrew, Marcy’s brother, the “mainstream of Canada”) and I was looking for the accident or reason for this incredible slowdown. I couldn’t find any. It was just volume. Now I’ve seen traffic in the area fairly bad before but rarely do I see it bad going out of the city. Kitchener-Waterloo is about 300,000 people and most people commute out of the city. At least that’s my impression. I could have the commuting profile absolutely wrong. It felt like the entire city was leaving for the weekend.
Anyway so the traffic didn’t really clear up as the 401 progressed towards Toronto. As soon as I got on the highway I knew that I’d want to take the 407 because the radio said that there was a slowdown near the airport and the 407 would (presumably) bypass that trouble. Naturally it took me quite a while to even get to the 407. Traffic in the left lane was dreadfully slow and people were constantly braking.
Aside: why is it that people seem to think that the only way they can control their speed is by braking or accelerating? You know if you just take your foot off of the gas pedal your car will slow down as well. It’s quite miraculous how physics works that way. Brake lights make people panic and if you’re constantly braking/accelerating then you’re bound to just slow down traffic behind you.
While I was slowly making my way towards Toronto the radio announced that there was an accident going west (the opposite direction that I was going) on the 407 near Highway 27. I figured it wouldn’t cause much of a problem since I was going the other way. Oh how wrong I was. I got on the 407 and almost immediately the traffic slowed. Now I may remind you that the 407 is a toll (electronic) highway. I have an instinctive feeling that if I’m paying for something then I should get better service. I know this isn’t necessarily true and I’m a firm believer in open-source and I’m not paying anything (monetarily) to get that software but when it comes to roads I just have that impression. I know that the Ohio Turnpike is a magnificent road and it’s because of the tolls that it’s so smooth. The 407 is smooth too (except where there’s contruction), it just wasn’t very fast on Friday. People were slowing down for – what else? – to look at the accident on the other side. Yet another thing that frustrates me. Don’t people have anything better to do than slow down their car and gawk at something horrific?
I eventually got to Whitby in 2.5 hours. That’s longer than the longest amount of time it’s taken me since Marcy moved there. To top it all off I had the cats in the car and Pumpkin is not a good cat for car rides or rather she’s not very good if she can’t sit in your lap during the car ride. Marcy usually has Pumpkin sit in her lap and she’s ok when she’s there but she’s a real yowler in the carrier if she can’t come out. She was honestly driving me crazy and I got so mad at her which probably didn’t help the situation.
The saving grace of this whole trip is that I got to see Marcy at the end of it. I ran up the stairs to her house. That’s how I excited I was to see her. Eleven more days and we’ll be at our new place. Three weeks I’ll be at my new job. I can’t wait.
“In September” by Hayden is one of my favourite songs and today is September first. That means that the year of 2004 is two-thirds done already. Man that’s pretty crazy to think about. But you know what? I’ve accomplished a lot already this year though even still the year seems like a gigantic blur when I look back on it. I’m sure the final 4 months of the year will be just as action-packed for Marcy and I what with moving, the starting of new jobs, holidays, etc. September is going to be one busy month; I know that for certain. Today I have to put my 60 days notice on the apartment in writing and hand it to the building manager. Tonight Marcy and I are driving to Toronto to give in the rest of the paperwork (it turns out they’re only open until 7 o’clock – boo). On top of that I have to continue to push towards our release date here at work of October 1st. Busy busy bees we will be.
It’s amusing (to me primarily) how people that you used to be close with can come back into your life and potentially offer you a great opportunity.
“Toronto in 31 days”
Side effects
February 9, 2006 in Commuting and Toronto by matt | 2 comments
Steve Munro weighs in on the fare hike the TTC will implement on April 1st. I just discovered his blog yesterday through Transit Toronto and James Bow (cross-posted).
He makes some very good points and I’d like to share my favourite bits here. It summaries in a more succinct and accurate way some of the thoughts I have expressed here before.
Check.
Check.
Check.
I love that line – “Passengers are an annoying side-effect of having a transit system.” That’s really true. Some of the best rides I’ve had commuting on the TTC have been the ones where a) it wasn’t crowded and b) we didn’t have to stop a lot. That usually only happens when I take the less-frequent and less-packed Bellamy route home. The opposite end of the spectrum is the Eglinton East bus route which as I’ve said many times on here can be very uncomfortable and usually is my least favourite time everyday. If I could have my own bus to myself, some days I think that would be ideal but then the transit advocate in me comes back and realizes how foolish that really is. Taking public transit can be ugly as a wart but it gets us where we need to be on most days and that’s the least we can expect of it. Sure there are problems with the system and there are many things that I’d like to see improved. That’s why I write about my experiences commuting. I want to add my voice to the public discourse on this subject. I just hope that somebody out there is listening to our concerns.
Tags: comments, fares, Toronto, ttc