The little Inn by the wayside

[Tormuse]

@Pager, yeah, I'd say Toronto has a long history of really weak mayoral candidates. I still remember the time, some years back, when we had a homeless mayoral candidate who got himself free publicity by handcuffing himself to a public toilet. The fact that he got the second highest number of votes that year is very telling of the selection we've had.

@Jayenkai, I've seen that footage many times before too. (I'd love to see it from the perspective of the cameraman involved in the collision) It's hard to tell if Ford walked into the cameraman or the cameraman walked into Ford, but judging from the proximity of the wall behind the cameraman, I'd guess it's the former.

As for health-related stuff, setting a goal sounds like a good idea and that sounds like a good goal to have. Have they been giving you exercises to help improve your balance? Back in my massage therapy days, I took a class in remedial exercise and kinesiology and standing on one foot with your eyes closed a couple times a day is supposed to be a big help. (Make sure you have something to hold on to so you don't fall) Maybe start with ten seconds at a time on each foot, one foot at a time, and if you get good at it, move up to 30 seconds at a time? I don't know how good your balance is at present, so I'm not sure if I should suggest any more advanced balance exercises.

[jayenkai]

They're doing extra test to try and figure out exactly what's causing it, whether it's simply an inner-ear thing, or a worse brain based issue. Once that's decided, a collection of exercises will be decided on, which should help ease things.
Lots of exercise/balance suggestions coming in through my twitter-feed, since I mentioned it may "just" be a balance/ear issue. Where were all these ideas a year ago!!? *tsk*
Aw well, nice to know there's lots of people out there who care
Very thankful for all the lovely comments and suggestions that have been coming my way, throughout this whole experience. Brings a tear to the eye just thinking about it all

[Railwaymodeler]

Tormuse, Pager, Mr. Ford sounds a lot like Washington DC Mayor Marion Barry.

[eMTe]

our mayor, Rob Ford, here in Toronto, has recently been involved in a scandal because he was caught on video smoking crack.

Well, I was caught posting while drunk. I was also ALMOST caught suggesting one of the active forum members gay intercourse. I didnt suggest it though, I only hinted at that, so it doesnt count. Still, I wouldnt mind. As much as funny it sounds, people like me will be politicians in upcoming decades. Worse, probably in the next decade they will be considered as conservatists. You better prepare for it.

As much as it may appear weird to you, there are some living people who have already travelled forwards in time and look backwards, where all Canadians, Poles and Finns appear as nothing more than ants in an anthill easy to manipulate by self-claimed higher beings.

Personally, I wouldn't really care what the man does in his spare time as long as he does a good job, but he's a real jerk, so I'd be happy to see him go.

Well, I'm a real jerk doing good job. Confront this puzzle.

[Chroelle]

Hi everyone. Simply wanted to stop by and say Merry X-mas, cause chances are that I wont be in until after the 20...heck lets just assume I wont be back until after new years as well and say Happy New Year as well.

Tanja has been taking a diploma recently which meant 2 months of reading, and now one HECTIC week of writing a paper on inclusion, which is the pop-word of the moment in the social educating world here. That meant I was alone with the kids a lot of the time mentally, because she was sitting upstairs writing, so not only did I have to take care of them, but also keep them quiet and away from her... [irony] FUN!!! [/irony]
Today she is done with the paper and is delivering it to the school, and tonight she has a late night meeting at her workplace. So once more here I go with the kids.
Did have a night off the other night (after tucking them in) and went to see The Hobbit 2 in the new high resolution 3D. Great movie I think, and I dont care if other people feels it is a bit longwinded - HOLY CRAP PEOPLE - DID YOU NOT SIT DOWN AND WATCH ALL THREE SPECIAL EDITIONS OF LOTR? Cause I did! Longwinded...phew...Oh no mr. cinemaman - do you mean that this movie is taking long...I paid so much money to go see it...why is it so long... SOLUTION: Turn around and walk away. There! The movie is over for you before it even began...Happy now? [/passive aggresion]

Anyway....

I hope everyone is doing fine. Or at least keeping their balance.
Hope you get a pleasant season!

[jayenkai]

.. Still haven't seen any of the LOTR movies..

\o/ Merry christmas, everybody!!! \o/

[eMTe]

went to see The Hobbit 2 in the new high resolution 3D.

Does it mean Hobbit 3 will be in 4D?

/giggles nervously

I'm doing fine as always, despite what you may be thinking or viewing. Running (everyday!), working, looking for new gf, going to theaters, mountain-hiking, sometimes drinking too much, reading crime novels, writing poetry, thinking about the future of CWF. Things are in a state of equilibrium as they always were.

[Railwaymodeler]

Santa Claus was on the streetcar today. A newspaper reporter was aboard, got a picture of me and Santa. Might be in tomorrow's newspaper. Went home, Maria and I took Skoda to see Santa. By that time the reporter had left. But Skoda got to see Santa on the streetcar today.

[Tormuse]

Hi all!

I don't know if any of you get news about this sort of thing, but Toronto (and other parts of southern Ontario) was just hit by one of the worst storms it has ever seen. A few pictures can be found here. Everything is encased in ice that's about a half-inch thick and hundreds of thousands of people are without power and may remain without power up to three days. (Some Christmas present, eh?) Fortunately for me, I seem to be in an area that escaped any blackouts, (though the lights flickered a little for a while) so I'm doing okay. (And so is my pet snake)

I took a few pictures with my crappy phone camera; here's my favourite one:

[Tormuse]

Double posting to say Merry Christmas, everyone!

[jayenkai]

Merry Christmas one and all.

We got a new kitten over Xmas, but it's constant battling with our previous cat meant that Xmas was pretty much spent trying to separate the two.
New kitten was attacking old cat, but old cat wasn't fighting back, meaning it just got worse, and worse, and worse..
After just a few days, we figured we'd given the two enough time together, and inevitably sent the new kitten packing, back to his previous owner.

A shame.
We've never had to "give up" a pet, before, and it's left us all in a weird state.
It was nice having a friendly cat for a change, though! He might've constantly battled with the other cat, but when left alone, he snuggled up comfortably on my knee. Something that old cat doesn't do. .. She seems to hate people, and contact!!

Any other time of year, we probably would've persevered a little longer, but seeing our old cat being essentially bullied over Xmas wasn't a very nice experience.
.. Don't think we'll be trying that again, any time soon!!

[jayenkai]

Happy New Year, everybody!

\o/ yeay \o/

[Tormuse]

Happy New Year, everyone!

Something RWM may appreciate: Unlike other years, this New Year's eve, the Toronto Transit Commission remained functioning at full capacity overnight and available for free to accommodate people getting home after drunken festivities. I don't know how much it cost them to do this, but I thought it was a pretty awesome idea.

[jayenkai]

Wow, that's pretty awesome! Closest we got was our local taxi firm vowing not to do their usual "New Year : Double Fare!" rubbish.

[Maz]

Happy rest of the year to everyone =]

[Railwaymodeler]

CTA in Chicago offers rides for a penny. One of the beer companies sponsors this and makes up the difference in fares.

Kenosha Transit has an electric streetcar line, most of the cars are PCC types (early 1950s production) bought from Toronto Transit Commission. They are painted in historic liveries from around the USA, except for one in a fresh coat of TTC colors.

Not my picture, every time they have the TTC car out I am without my camera:

kt pcc ttc.jpg

It even has the TTC logo. One car is from SEPTA, Philidelphia. It is still in SEPTA colors too. One of the cars is painted for Chicago Surface Lines (Predecessor to CTA), in the "Green Hornet" colors.

This is the CSL car. Picture IS mine, but taken with my cheapie camera. It was raining out, the lens bezel on it works better for light rain:

kt pcc csl.JPG

[jayenkai]

... Hang on a minute...



"Curly's World of Freeware - Freeware"!!!?!?

[Zyx]

Congratulations, it has finally been noticed. For your FYI, for this achievement, we've deposited £100 pounds into your account that you're free to take out of any nearby ATM machine assuming you remember your PIN number. Maybe get yourself a new LCD display? Or a phone that supports the GPS system?

You're also cordially invited to a party to commemorate this event. RSVP please. ASAP as possible. You can respond by filling the accompanied form and returning it in PDF format.

Brought to you by the Department of Redundancy department.

Paul Walker 1973-2013. RIP in peace.

[Pater Alf]

When I look at our most downloaded games, it probably means Curly's World of f*** Freeware...

Edit: What the hell, we auto-censor curse words...

[Railwaymodeler]

Been a bit slow here recently. Maria and I have been busy. We spend most of the day at a nearby hobby shop. A friend of ours, Bob, used to have a hobby shop in Waukegan. He moved his shop to Kenosha a couple years ago. We are maybe 3 blocks away from him. I spend the day working on projects with him, Maria helps out wherever she can, she's spent the past few days driving around town putting up fliers for the shop. Skoda sits and watches the trains on one of the display layouts.

It's a nice way to live after a decade of sheer hell. Riding streetcars and working at a hobby shop. We're thinking of taking another road trip in February. We haven't done any major road trips since Skoda was born.

This coming summer we're planning a trip to Kentucky, to see our friend (And former coworker of Maria) who retired down there. He lives in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, eastern part of Kentucky. Some here might remember we spent a couple weeks down there this past summer. Maria's former boss, bane of my life, and lawsuit loser, who is also a boy scout troop leader, was on the bus with us that time. We rode a boy scout bus heading that way. This next time we go, it will be in her car. We are thinking of taking a detour through Iowa and Missouri just to avoid Illinois altogether, though a ferryboat could take us across Lake Michigan too.'

Skoda is a handful lately. Where these kids get their energy from, I'll never know. But I wish they could extract it, bottle it, and sell it to us adults.