Category: Life

I actually had a chance to walk around Toronto this afternoon, instead of just between the hotel and the convention center. I was desperate to find some necessities that had not found their way into my luggage, but was unable to find a drug store anywhere. I finally asked a hot dog vendor, and she replied incomprehensibly and pointed me toward a stairway underneath the tall buildings. This led to a maze of passages lined with stores, and I finally found a drug store several blocks along. Almost all the retail in this area seems to be underground.

As I was walking down Front Street to the hotel yesterday, I noticed a woman interviewing a man in front of a camera on the other side of the street. From the back, it didn’t look like she was wearing anything above the waist. After I passed by, I looked quickly over my shoulder. She WASN’T wearing anything above the waist. Even odder, except for similar quick check by other passers-by, no one seemed to pay much attention.

Talking to Canadians, I discovered that a few years ago, it was decided that since it is okay for males to go topless, it should be okay for females to go topless.

Cathedral tower in Santa Fe, New Mexico, seen through the trees.

I will be posting to this weblog very infrequently for the next ten days. Do not, therefore, assume that I have fallen off a horse, or that any dire news from Colorado has anything to do with me. Although I may make a few posts during this time, regular posting will resume on September 3.

This morning I spent two hours in the courtyard while Jack put down more pavers. In addition to helping him, I pulled weeds and fantasized about one of “these weed burners.”:http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=41603 Although the rocks and barrier cloth probably kept some weeds from growing, it wasn’t the sort of hundred per cent solution for which I was hoping. I am not sure I would have the nerve to use the weed burner myself, though I could probably carry around the tank while Jack used it. I rather got behind on the pulling up weeds during the hot spell, but I think the situation is under control again.

In World New York, Grant Barrett writes:

This is what I encountered during my walk from 35th Street and Madison in Manhattan to Eckford and Nassau Streets in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

You can find almost anything on the WWW. Yesterday, I was reading someone’s weblog and they mentioned the Commodore 64. This was not our first computer, but our second, after a VIC-20. We used it several years, before getting an XT, and passing the C-64, along with its software, to Jack’s youngest brother.
Continue reading You can find anything …

The past few times I have cleaned house, or attempted to, I have wondered whether I am getting too fussy. The vacuum cleaner just didn’t seem to be picking stuff up like it should. Surely it had worked better in the past. I changed the bag, and the suction from the hose (which can be removed and used independently) seemed to be working just fine. I turned it over and attempted to clean out the intake, which did not seem to be fouled. I noticed a lock, and removed the bottom plate. A belt fell out. The rubber band that makes the beater turn had broken. Today’s quest will be to find the belt. Jack says that he had run into the problem once before.

It is impossible to get up hair when the beater doesn’t work. And the two dogs shed a lot of hair.

A Boston Globe discusses current literatures about our relationship with dogs. Are human beings the ecological niche that dogs have evolved to exploit?

I’ve played one game of golf in my life. Many years ago, a friend who played golf wanted to take Jack to the ritzy, public golf course on Palos Verde. She didn’t want them to be put with another couple to make a foursome, so I got drafted. I thought I did fairly well for someone who had never held a driver before, and had only played putt-putt golf a few times. But it didn’t go down on my list of things I was desperate to try again.
Continue reading A nice walk ruined