When Death Catches You Off Guard

From December 2015 @ Tom and Florianne's.

Death has been revolving around my life more and more in recent days. As I wrote about previously, the sudden (to me) death of CBC radio personality, Stuart McLean, happened on Wednesday. On Thursday, a young lady who attended the Knox Youth Dinner on Tuesday evenings was murdered in her apartment on Dawes Road. And Friday was the first anniversary of our friend Tom Chan's passing.

Now, I didn't know Stuart McLean personally. Nor did I know the lady, Michelle Riley, who attended Knox. I only saw her in passing as we walked the halls. That was about it.

Tom was a friend from hockey. We saw each other on a weekly basis through winter. After some time he reached out to me and invited me over to his and Florianne's place for get togethers. I will always appreciate his kindness and hospitality. He was truly a great guy.

The thing about these deaths, and many others, is they happened unexpectedly. One day the person is here, the next day they are gone. It's especially difficult for their loved ones. Though, in some cases, they may have had an inkling something was wrong (if the person was elderly or sick).

But, to their cursory friends, sometimes death comes as a shock. That can be really hard. Especially if you never got the chance to personally say, good-bye. To express your gratitude for their friendship, to hold their hand and tell them you care for them and that you'll miss them. That's the heartbreaking part in stories like this.

Good-bye, my friend.

Stuart McLean Passes Away

CBC radio just reported one of their longtime radio personalities, Stuart McLean, has passed away. In December 2016 he suspended his long-running radio show The Vinyl Café to focus on his treatment for melanoma which he was diagnosed with in late 2015. Today, he lost that battle.

I had listened to his show, The Vinyl Café, soon after I started making deliveries back in 2011. His stories about Dave and Morley and their friends and family brought a smile to my face week after week. Without fail, I would tune in every Thursday at 1:00 to listen to some songs and a couple of stories he'd tell about some crazy misadventure in Dave's life.

McLean told stories about Dave's life growing up in Big Narrows, Cape Breton with his mother, Margaret, and sister, Annie; his adventures on the road with different bands; and his record store, The Vinyl Café. He told stories about Dave's family - his wife Morely and their children Stephanie and Sam and their pets Arthur the dog and Galway the cat.

There were stories about Dave's friend Kenny and his restaurant Wong's Scottish Meat Pies; and his neighbours Bert and Mary Turlington, Jim Scoffield, Carl Lowbeer and Eugene Conte. Each week the characters were more and more flushed out. And, each week, I was more and more invested in them and their lives.

McLean's stories were pure Canadiana... a wonderful escape from the drudgery of everyday life. I'll miss that as well as his unique style of storytelling and his one-of-a-kind voice. It's a sad day for Canada, a sad day for Canadians.

Pond Hockey at Lance's Farm

My friend Lance organized a 3-on-3 pond hockey game at his farm near Orangeville on Saturday. Originally it had been planned for two weeks earlier, but the temperatures that week were too warm. Even though the pond is only 5-feet deep, it wasn't worth taking the chance of falling through.

After driving an hour and a half, I arrived at Lance's place ten or fifteen minutes after the scheduled meeting time of noon. Two guys, Ian and Andrew, were already there.

The pond, still partially covered with snow, needed to be cleared so we grabbed shovels went out back. Lance had a snowblower which he used to clear the deeper stuff. By 2:30 p.m. we had a large portion of the 100'x150' pond ready to go. Now, where was everyone else?

According to the Facebook event page, 12 people had confirmed they were coming. Though two or three of them were only coming for dinner afterwards. It seemed the 3-on-3 game wasn't going to materialize.

Ian, Andrew and I passed pucks around for an hour or so while waiting for Lance to don his goalie equipment and, as we learned later, put the turkey in the oven. Lance's dog, Marshall, would chase the pucks as we played "keep away". Occasionally he would corral one after which he would take off to chew on it.

When Lance finally came out we took shots on him for awhile before retiring to get ready for the evening.

One thing we had to do was get some firewood ready for a bonfire. Lance already had a bunch of wood cut and ready to go. But he still wanted to cut down a few dead trees around the property to burn.

He had borrowed three gas-powered chainsaws from some of his neighbours. We couldn't get any of them to work though. Ian got one to start, but the chain was too lose and it flew off while it was running. We got another one to start, but it only ran for 10-15 seconds before conking out.

We ended up cutting down one small tree with a dull axe. After struggling with that for around 15-20 minutes we had had enough. One tree was all the extra wood we were getting.

By early evening another one of Lance's friends, a fellow farmer, Jerry, had shown up. Later on a couple others, Ariel and Gavi, came by.

In anticipation of Lance's cornucopia of food, we prepared our palates with beer and chips. He had prepared Caesar salad, turkey, steak, lamb, sausage, broccoli with cheese and mashed potatoes for everyone. All made from scratch.

Dinner was great. It was nice meeting all his friends. They're quite a varied group. Except for Jerry (who was 62) the rest of the guys were in their 20's. A bit younger than people I normally hang out with, but that was fine.

It was good getting together to enjoy Lance's hospitality. If we do it again hopefully we'll get a few more skaters.

Toronto Light Festival

Like I did back in December, after my boarding home visit on Sunday, I dropped by the Distillery District to shoot some photos. But, instead of the Christmas Market, the Toronto Light Festival was on. Organizers brought together a number of artists who made light installations which were situated both inside and out around the site.

Like the my previous visit, I brought my tripod along. It makes it much easier to get low light shots. Also, like last time, it was cold. Perhaps even colder this time. Throughout the five hours I was there I had to make a number of forays indoors to keep from getting frostbite on my hands. Of course I'm exaggerating, but it was darn cold.

Since it was a Sunday evening, and it was cold, it wasn't as busy as it could have been. The Christmas Market was far busier. Still there were a fair number of people there. I don't mind the crowds. It makes my photos more interesting even though I often have to wait longer to get the ideal shot.

Anyway, the festival goes from sundown to either 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. depending on the day. It started on January 27th and will run until March 12th.

The Eagle Has Landed

Bald Eagle at High Park.

I was listening to CBC Radio 1 last week. They were interviewing a fellow who had seen a bald eagle at High Park not long ago. My friend, Justin, read something in the Metro paper online saying the same thing. He suggested we grab our friend Gabe to go look for it Saturday.

They picked me up near my place at 12:30 in the afternoon and we drove down. Incredibly it was Justin's first time there ever.

We parked at the café and headed down to the pond. Though people had been skating on it as recently as week or two ago, it had been quite warm the past few days. Ice still covered the water, but it was thin. Signs warned people not to go out on it.

We first headed southward along the eastern bank. At the bottom we made a U-turn and returned the same way. Along the way we saw chickadees, sparrows, mallard ducks and a downy woodpecker, but no eagles. After an hour and a half we gave up and retreated to the Grenadier Café to grab a bite.

After we ate Gabe suggested we head over to the "zoo". I have to say, it's more like a petting zoo with llamas, sheep and bison. Even the infamous capybaras were in hiding because of the chilly temperatures. Expecting to see nothing of interest, Justin left his camera in the car.

It was only as we were about to leave that we saw a group of people standing at the top of the hill by the zoo staring skyward. Up in a tall pine tree was the bald eagle we were so eagerly searching for. Gabe and I started taking pictures right away while Justin ran back to his car to grab his camera.

The bird was in no hurry to leave so we were all able to shoot to our hearts content. Such luck. If we hadn't decided to have something to eat and also go to the zoo, we would have missed the very thing we made the trek down to see.

There Goes the Neighbourhood

Times are a'changin' in my old neighbourhood. One after another, the old neighbours are moving out. Usually it starts with the passing of either the husband, wife or both and the remaining family members decide to sell.

In recent times it's been the Abbey's house at number 8. First Mr. Abbey passed away then a few years later, Mrs. Abbey. Their kids sold the place and the new owner knocked off the upper half floor and converted it to a full second storey.

The Smythe's in 14 just moved out too. The new owner demolished the existing bungalow is building a 2-storey home there. It's still under construction.

A few years ago the Smith's children sold their place. Their parents had passed away over a decade earlier I believe. The eldest son had been living there on his own. The new owners renovated inside, but kept the original structure. After living there for only a few years it's on the market again.

And now, our long-time neighbours to the east, the Reeves, at 12, are moving out. Mr. Reeve passed away around five years ago or so if I remember correctly. Mrs. Reeve had been living there on her own since. But, this fall, she moved a bit east to live near her son and his family.

They just put their home up for sale this week for $1.1 million. My mother said a lot of people have come by to see it. Demand is super-high for single detached homes in Toronto right now. I'm sure they'll get above asking. My mom is hoping whoever buys it won't tear it down and build a monster home like so many of the others.

Since I left home so many of my childhood neighbours have left - the Grunwalds at 18, the Jacobs at 17, the Reutens at 21, the Owens at 20, the Bowies at 19, I forget the names of the people at 15, Mr. Smith at 2, the Johns at 5.

My mom is friendly with whoever else moves in. But there are less and less people around my parents' age.

Hanging up the Skates

I guess it had to happen sometime. Still, as far as I'm concerned, it's a sad day. My mum has hung up her ice skates for good.

After skating for many, many years shefell last season and broke her wrist. She was in a cast for around a month and a half. And after she got it off it took quite awhile before the swelling went down and flexibility returned. Not wanting to take any more chances she decided that was it.

She's still active. Both my parents go swimming three or four times a week. And they go for walks around the neighbourhood too. But it's too bad there's one less activity in her life that she used to enjoy doing.