eensy weensy fruit fly

This morning I found a six legged spider in my bathroom. That's probably what made it easier for me to squash it with a fistful of wadded toilet paper.

For this reason, I can never become a Buddhist.

But, on the upside, I can at least do my own spider killings. This is progress.

I once was ready to abandon my car in the parking lot at work and take the streetcar home because there was a HUMONGOUS spider making a web inside my steering wheel. A co-worker, who wanted a ride to the subway, SWISHED the web then sat down in the passenger seat.

She actually expected me to get in that car with a HUMONGOUS spider now on the loose, god-knows-where, but certainly within seriously, frighteningly, close proximity to my own bodily self. She was not happy while I made her search the car and provide squashed evidence of this interloper's remains.

I still shudder when I think of this.

Then again, perhaps I shouldn't have killed that spider. Afterall, they are the 'good' insects. They prove themselves useful by eating flies and other annoying dastardly flying bugs*. For the past week, I have been wanting to sit out on my balcony with a glass of something and a good book... but that has been darn near impossible what with the hundred thousand gazillion fruit fly like things swarming about. It is a plague, I tell you.
You think I am exaggerating?

Yes, just for you I photographed these deceased creatures from inside my lobby. The others had been swept up already and these guys came to replace them.



*and just where is the spider who spun for this web feast?

Monday AMuse

my Friday nights...

If you are expecting a concise precis and opinion piece about the Presidential Debate, I should let you know that you will not find it here. You'll need to look elsewhere.

While many of your were sat on your sofas watching the debate last night, I was not. You see, I had a date with The Doctor. Who? Yes, he is back. After months of waiting, months and months (this season started in APRIL in the UK, for crissakes!) HE has returned.

Am I alone in this? Any other David Tennant fans?* Dr Who allegiances? Do you need an explanation? What is Dr Who?

Here is a brief (very) synopsis:

• Dr Who, in its various incarnations, is the longest sci fi series on television.
  
• The Doctor has been around for millennia. Dr Who as a series only for my lifetime.


• The Doctor has no known first name.


• The Doctor is a mysterious human-ish alien who uses a TARDIS to time-travel


• the TARDIS (time and relative dimension in space) is a space capsule that is in the shape of a Police Call Box which has a considerably larger interior than exterior.
  
• there have been several Doctors, with David Tennant being the tenth.


• other Doctors included Christopher Eccleston (ninth), Tom Baker (fourth) and Peter Davison (Tristan Farnham from All Creatures Great and Small fame) (fifth)


• the Doctor always has a companion to share his adventures, the current one being comedienne Catherine Tate


• the Doctor has many strange looking adversaries (read monsters), the most well-known are the Daleks

Last week introduced Catherine Tate as Donna (actually introduced in the Christmas special in the UK, which CBC has not deemed important enough to show here. Damn them. Who makes these decisions?) I wasn't sure about this comedienne as a companion, but by now I realize I love Donna. She is a refreshing break from the giddy, awestruck Rose and the mediocre Martha. Donna stands up to the Doctor and there's less adoring glances and more sass. There is more hilarity this time around and the chemistry between The Doctor and Donna should prove to be an intriguing season.

Okay, I'll stop. For now. You can read about The Doctor here and the episodes here. And watch online here. The official website is here.

*I know Crystal Jigsaw and Sagittarian are with me. Check out More Canterbury Tales for her post on David Tennant.

falls on falls

Ah. The guests have left. This means I can have my bed back and the place to myself. And I don't have to do another trip to Niagara.

My friend Malia came down to pick up relatives visiting from Denmark. They were not what we expected. They were older, with some limited mobility (and a zippy wheelchair). But certainly not limited zest. Or laughter. Or opinions. They are now on their way driving to Manitoba for a family event. They left in shock (the Danes) at how long it will take to get there and slightly disappointed that a side trip to Montreal could not be included during their stay here.

But, the only thing they really wanted to see was Niagara Falls.

Doesn't everyone?

By a happy, happy coincidence this week is also the Niagara Wine Festival. So we fortified ourselves with a hearty breakfast and set out. Dropped by a winery or two. Visited an antique shop or two. Drove some back roads. Shopped at some incredibly tacky touristy places in Niagara Falls and some expensive places in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Some of us went up a big ferris wheel thingy to see the birds eye view and came down enthralled with the experience. I was happy for them. The Falls themselves did not disappoint. Neither, it turned out did the Casino! I think they broke even in the end, but not for lack of trying.

Then we went back again (three times!) for more. More wine, more food, more driving around Niagara-on-the-Lake and encountering many, many tourists.

The sun shone brightly every day. The temperature was warm. The flowers were vibrant, the birds sang, the Canada Geese got in our way and the butterflies were abundant.

The only thing to disappoint were the fall colours.
Where are you? Perhaps Malia can search them out during the loooong drive North of Superior.

I want to have that much energy when I am in my 70's.
God Bless.

Monday AMuse

who shot the clock

I woke up feeling rather groggy and stuffed up about an hour ago. Looked at the clock and gasped - 10:50 AM! How did that happen? I went to bed shortly after 9 PM. I slept for more than 3 hours.

I usually work 7 nights a week. Yes, every night. Though Sundays I only have one paper to deliver and it takes less than an hour for me to get up, drive to pick up the papers, deliver them, crawl back into bed with some juice and the comics. Then I'm awake for another 2-3 hours. Sigh.

Last night a friend covered my route so that I would do his a few times . I'll get two nights off a month in exchange for covering his for one Sunday a month. I have 65 papers, he has 295. It's a lop-sided exhange, but since, I'm awake ... well you know. I'm going to really look forward to my uninterrupted nights of sleep.

Outside the still drawn blinds it is grey and overcast. I have showered, made some tea and toast. I turned on the computer.

Clock on computer says 7:43.

Gasp! I have spent the last hour thinking it was mid-morning, and now I realize morning has barely begun.

This just feels so wrong.

Waiting for the sun to break through the gloom. Watching The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. I've never seen this movie but am always up for some Jimmy Stewart.

What else does one do at 8:30 on a Sunday morning?

Now, this just feels so right.

It's going to be a long day.

a classical night

I have my car radio finely tuned to 18 presets. I like to have a variety and all options available at the touch of a finger. I can change stations without looking at my dashboard and usually get the one I'm looking for on the first try.

Mostly, I have CBC Radio 1 and 2, JazzFM, and Wave (new jazz), plus a country station, three 'top forty' stations (are they still called 'top forty'?), two oldies, an classic rock (70's and 80's) (more current than the other oldies, which is mostly 50's and 60's), one classical station, two university stations for the alternative music you never hear anywhere else, NPR from New York (reception varies), another US station I forget about, until the weather comes on... and AM640 for the "traffic and weather on the ones". And another one I obviously don't listen to as I cannot think of it and I'm not going down to the car to check.

It wasn't until I was back home that I realized I had heard absolutely no music while staying at EM's in England. When we were in the house, the 'wireless' was only on twice and both times to talk radio, while EM did her baking for the market. In the car, the radio wasn't on, but then we were chatting up a storm and didn't need the extra noise. When I commented on that during a lull in the conversation, EM did put the radio on and I got my FIRST listen to 'The Archers'!* I have been going to the UK for the better part of 35 years, and I have never heard this apocryphal radio serial. But not once was there music around. It probably would have been the same as what we hear here, but thinking about it's absence is strange to me.

I need to have the radio on when I am working. I like the lift certain songs give. Classical music is lovely if you are curled up reading, or daydreaming, but it is usually too somnolent to keep me running at my job. Jazz is good sometimes early in the morning. I wait in breathless anticipation for Alan Jackson to croon over the airwaves so the country station gets lots of hits. I have been known to occasionally belt out "It's Five O'clock, Somewhere" or "Life in a Northern Town". Sometimes I listen to CBC Overnight where there is an assortment of half hour "news and information broadcasts from around the globe". BBC, Radio Sweden, Radio Australia are my favourites, but also Radio Poland, and one from Czech Republic. That sometimes slows me down though, as I sit in the car while listening to a particularly amusing or intriguing interview...picking the right moment to run up to the house with my rolled newspaper in hand to toss and run back before missing any morsel of the conversation. This sometimes results in missed steps. I have had a few scrapes.

Last night, while anticipating a foul temper, I was afraid of it being exacerbated by finding every song I heard annoying. I discover that all three newspapers I deliver would have an extra section (and you know they are going to be filled to overflowing with glossy flyers that want to fall out). I found that I was, in fact, in a very good humour. No coffee passed my lips. I fortified myself with a large bottle of some orange, mango and cranberry concoction and a carrot muffin. For some reason, the classical station was appealing. I found a picnic table by the lake and decided to do most of my inserting there. It was quiet. Warm, with no hint of a wind. The sky was clear with lots of stars visible. The lake was glistening and smelled as fresh as Lake Ontario can smell.

A strangely, happy night.


* I have now found out one can listen to it over the internet. How many years do I have to get caught up???

In an effort to regain a semi normal sleep pattern, I have decided to forego coffee.

It has been 78 hours.*

There may be periods of irritability.


that's 78 hours since my last cup of coffee, not sleep.


If you are visiting from the black box, drop a line in my comments box and say hello. I'll likely still be awake.

fun stuff

I have decided that my wee black cat on my sidebar needs a name. She is now Maisie.

Maisie, as you can see, is also trying to play with my new widget, the black box. Ha, but it is just out of her reach. You have control of the cursor so go ahead and play if you dare. Someone described it as like being on a magic carpet ride. I'd like to give them credit, but I have no idea where I saw that while I was being whisked off to various blogs through the magic of randomness. The coolest and most addictive widget to hit the internet was created by the Stray of Chasing Sheep, for Caroline of In Search of Adam – as a marketing tool for Caroline’s new book Black Boxes. So, learn about Black Boxes and how to get your own by clicking on about black boxes. That's easy. Then when you are ready to play, move your cursor thingy over to 'decide' and click, then make your choice and see where you end up. You may discover a new bloggy friend.

So, an extra special WELCOME if you came here via the black box. Please say hello, cheers, or anything nice you can think of, in the comments. I'm friendly and will definitely return the cheer.

For the rest of us who do not live in the US, but will still be affected by the upcoming election, and who already have had many, many discussions over who we think should win, well now we have a chance to make absolutely no difference at all with a vote. Go to If The World Could Vote where you will be able to cast a ballot for either Obama or McCain. The site uses your IP address to determine which country you are in and only one ballot can be used per computer. The results are mapped out with the results shown on a world map and a bar graph for each candidate in each country.

mix and match and moving

My tidying up went rather well yesterday. I'm now ready for autumn. Bring it on! My duvet has been aired and is on the bed. The flannel sheets are on the top of the linen pile. The cushion covers have been changed from bright to moody. The fall wreath is on the door - the one with yellow and reddish brown berries. And the closet has been reorganized so I can neatly stash stuff in it. It is no longer a space of a confused multitude of things. And I found out that the bottom drawer of the sideboard was ... almost empty. How that happened, I do not know. But there was a humidifier and a file box in front of the drawer... Yes, I am that lazy. I hadn't bothered to move them out of the way for a long time.

I actually have a lot of storage space where I am living. A double closet in both the bedroom and the living room, plus a coat closet and a linen cupboard. And 15 kitchen cupboards. It is also the newest built place I've lived in, having been built around 1964. I think this is an important point. Robin had asked how it was possible for an apartment to not have closets. I started to think, maybe I had misremembered. Is it possible? None at all? But no, it was true. I spent the rest of the night at work thinking about all the places I have lived.

I grew up in a 1950 era bungalow and have since lived in high-rises, low-rises, attics and basements. I've lived in one room in a house with another family, boarded and shared kitchens and bathrooms and even stayed in an intentional community. I lived in a dorm for 6 months in Holland and out of suitcase for 6 months in Australia and NZ.

All in all I add it up to 14 addresses.

In some of these, it didn't matter about the storage as I was young and didn't have much stuff. But, it does boggle the mind to look at older homes and their layout. The tiny bedroom closets. Some have no hall closet at all. So if you are living in a main floor flat of a house, chances are there may not be any closet built in. My favourite flat was in a walkup of an Edwardian building (1912). It had the smallest kitchen (you could turn on the tap, stir a pot on the stove and open the fridge door by simply turning around). It had only enough counter space for a small drying rack. The table in the corner was used for prep and eating. And holding the toaster and coffee maker with an extension cord to the only outlet in the dining room on the other side of the wall. The two bedrooms had only corner closets! Where did people put their winter coats, never mind their other clothes? I put up hooks. Another flat I lived in was the main floor of a small semi-detached 1930's house. The washroom was in the unfinished basement, which served as the only closet. That kitchen was huge (I had a rocking chair in it, plus a table that sat 6) but it had only 2 kitchen cupboards over the sink. The strangest flat I had was a room with a toilet and sink. The shared kitchen was in the hall and there was a full bathroom (also shared) on a landing to another flat. But, it was in an architecturally arresting 18thC five-story walkup in Amsterdam.

When I was growing up in the 60's I remember the excitement of the new gadgets that entered our house, most of them requiring electricity. By then, the war was long past and people were able to buy more new and 'useful' things. A lot of it was kitchen aids for the housewife to enjoy her work. This is where the new need for extra storage became a necessity. The need for more electrical outlets was also a necessity but mostly, I think that meant having one in every room. Storage containers (Tupperware, anyone?) became ubiquitous. Electric appliances proliferated (can openers, knives, frying pans, waffle irons, Osterizers, kettles) and all were much larger than their previous manual cousins. The bane of my kitchen is the crockpot. I love it, but it does take up so much space. Now there is the microwave, which requires it's own set of cookware.
Luckily, I don't bake so I don't have one of those nifty retro mixers - I would love to have one as an accent for the look alone if they weren't so expensive and useless to me.
But I'd probably have to move to find room for it.
And I've done enough of that.






How about you? What kinds of accommodation have you found yourself living in? What quirky features have you learned to live with?

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