Blast from the past

  I was thinking about my massive pumpkin plants this year. 

 

Banana for size! 

🍌  for scale! It's growing like stink. July 31st vs, Aug. 3, and then Aug. 5th. 

 

Blast from the past

I remember planting pumpkins in the late 70s when we lived in Toronto. It was wild. We went to the cottage for a couple of weeks, came back and the lawn was covered in pumpkin plants. They grew right across the back yard. I began thinking about that yard. I couldn't get to my other veggies at the back of the yard. 

This was our first family house↓ in Toronto, with my first husband. We lived in the basement of a triplex for the first few years. Then bought our teeny house. Caitlin was born in 1979 while we lived in Toronto. I'm trying to remember, but I think we paid about $80,000 for it. It's a bit fuzzy in my brain! We sold it, then bought another for $130,000 in Ottawa my when my first husband was transferred there in 1981. 

I vividly recall that we shared a wall, as the neighbours were doing renovations at the time, and I could hear them talking sometimes. The property is 18' wide x 144'.

Our first home, 1978,
the left side of the semi-detached,
172 Coleman Ave., Toronto 

This was all lawn. Between our back yards was a chain link fence. Our dog used to hop the fence to visit Uncle Janet and Doug who lived next door, in the white house. He was tied up, and that didn't go well one day. Yes, Caitlin called her Uncle Janet! Caitlin didn't have an aunt, and thought everyone was an Uncle!

How cute was that?!

My parents visited and helped my first husband replace the galvanized steel plumbing with copper pipes, and redo all the old knob and tube wiring. Those were the days! 

Uncle Janet's house next door (172A) sold for $750,000 in 2019. 

Lot Dimensions: 18.00 x 144.00'.

Left side of the semi-detached was ours,
the other (white) is 172A

I love Toronto homes, with lane access. The lane beside our house demarcated the city of Toronto from East York.

This is from another house listing just across the street. (#113 Coleman Ave.) It sold for $1million in 2019. This is the size of the yard. If you look online you can see the fabulous renovations they did to this place. They added a third storey, and made it quite open. 

I posted it here to show you what they did, just for fun.

The lot dimensions are 18 x 144'. Standard for the street.

Acrylic fingernails – seriously!

My penultimate trip to Toronto, I went to Nails on Yonge. Most of the staff (if not all) were from  Cambodia, I think. I forget. They were having lots of fun, and they were efficient.

It was a good time for my nails, they were nice and long. They applied the base clear coat, then two coats of polish, and a finishing clear coat. They lasted a long time.

after

Before

I was in Toronto, again, for a meeting in October. What the heck. I was alone and had lots of time.

They were too short to look any good in October, and they first glued a small extension on. (I swear it was crazy glue!) Then the woman applied a liquid, dipped into the acrylic powder, applied to the nail.  It took an hour and a half. I had my black dress, with reds, golds and yellows, and chose a red base, with a yellow/gold glitter on top. They looked fabulous. My client, who encouraged me to have it done, was most excited! I had to have something excellent to show her. She has glaucoma, and cannot see all that well.

This was a Thursday night, just before Thanksgiving. The thing about the nail stores is they are run by folks who don't speak the clearest English. Their accents were very heavy and I found it hard to communicate with my young lady. Plus, they wear masks, to prevent the inhalation of their work. The place was full, there was lots of laughter, and  it was quite busy. I found it hard to ask questions, which I should have.  I know what I was thinking... just for fun. 

You can see the before and after. 

I was unsure of the process, but now I know! They looked and felt wonderful. For a week. Quite long for me, it was rather difficult typing on the computer after a week. I did some research.

The problem with acrylic nails is they have to be sanded or filed off, after soaking them for 30 minutes to get off the 4 coats of nail polish! They were too long, by this point, and so I clipped them with the toe nail clippers. The snap is harsh. What a dumb thing to do for someone who is active outside.

Lesson learned!


Finally, I pried them all off. I reapplied polish, to give them some strength. I chose a soft pink. Then, spray painting something, I added some silver to them. They don't look so bad now! They are quite weak, however, and uneven. The nails are growing, about halfway down the nail bed, now.

I had no idea. I will never do this again. Lesson learned. They drove me nuts, and it's not a long drive!

Toronto: there I was for a meeting

I had to drive to Toronto for a meeting. I grew up in inner city Toronto. It is still home, despite the changes since 1981 when we moved to Ottawa!!!

 The drive was pretty easy on the way there. I took highway #7, meeting my friend in Havelock for coffee. I drove at the speed limit, which wasn't what the rest of the world wanted to do! I was passed by trucks hauling things. I pulled over several times for photos and for a stretch. My dashcam photos were amazing, as I weeded through them.



Traffic was so slow in Toronto. It was a lovely day, and I had the window open. Sadly, I still have a really awful startle reflex, and the honking, street cars, the sudden noises were hard to manage! I saw an Uber road mapping car!


This intersection is amazing.  Dundas and Yonge. Traffic and pedestrians each have a light cycle north then south. Next, all traffic stops and people can cross diagonally, every which way!


I knew I was in a big city hotel. I didn't dare order room service breakfast. It was $22.


Ryerson Student Centre - I graduated from Ryerson in 1981. It has grown and changed! They keep phoning and asking for money... I went to Ryerson, uOttawa and U of T for my Master's. They all contact me for money I don't have to spare.


The Trump burger was funny. I walked around downtown, and found a nails place that wasn't totally busy. It was so much fun. Dinner was beet linguine with shrimp! Yum. Lots of Asian restaurants around the hotel. So many choices.

(I watched a movie in my room, too!)


It was fun being a big girl, in the big city (population 6 million), at an important meeting! One of the sandwiches: cranberry bread with goat cheese!

Citizen's Panel

ODPRN - have four units, plus the  Ontario Drug Policy Research Network - Citizen's Panel

*Rapid Response Unit

• *Core Academic Unit

*Formulary Modernization Unit
*Knowledge Translation Unit

The ODPRN Core Academic Unit (CAU) meeting went well. Lots of amazing scientists, students and researchers, all working to establish bet practices in Ontario healthcare, and the best bang for our bucks.

It gives me hope for the future. There were three of us that attended the CAU retreat representing the Citizen's Panel: Lorraine and Dave, our chair elect.

Our #CitizensPanel representatives speak about the needs of patients & citizens in our research https://t.co/SpsDvCtqys #patientengagement pic.twitter.com/LGpWO2sBPO

— ODPRN (@ODPRN_Research) October 7, 2016

Then it was 40km/hour up the Don Valley Parking lot. [92% of all road deaths are preventable]
It was still faster than driving along city streets, with crazy pedestrians and squeegee kids! It's a long way to break free of my huge city. There are many commuters.


It was awful on the way home. I left at 2:45, arrived home at 8:30. It should have been a 4-hour drive.  Traffic was bumper slow.



I had to stop as I needed a break. I stopped at the Norwood LCBO, Kaladar for gas, and Perth for a subway sandwich for dinner, which I ate at home.

I showed my route to my daughter (we have EnRoute), and she spotted a quarry where she did some work as an undergrad. This was the slowest part of the journey along a side road. This post is a major note-to-self, don 't use highway #407!

Some of the group stayed... since they must live in the city.

The @ODPRN_Research team is working hard in the 9th. #Jays pic.twitter.com/acIAR8Za58

— David Juurlink (@DavidJuurlink) October 7, 2016