The Extraction Crew News

At about 7:45 this morning, this nice group of people smiled and posed for a photo just before heading out to climb 1776 stairs in support of the United Way. Of these six, only two - me and the woman at the far left of the shot - had ever climbed before. Despite my being a veteran of two previous climbs - in 2009 and 2011 - my promise to my team was that I would take longer to climb than any of them. 

I kept my promise.  

In the photo I'm wearing the shirt I got after my very first time up the tower, with a climb time recorded on the back of 33 minutes, 26 seconds. As climb times go, it's a few minutes longer than average. Talented climbers can do the whole 144 flights in less than half of that. My former boss used to boast that he'd once done the climb in fourteen minutes. 

He doesn't do that now.

My climb time in 2011 was slower than in 2009. That t-shirt says 36 minutes and 37 seconds. 

The t-shirt from today says 33 minutes, 32 seconds.

If this inspiring story of human endurance and fussy time keeping makes you think you'd like to support the efforts of my team, you can still make a donation. Just click here. 

Oh, right. The post title. Who is the Extraction Crew? They're the group of paramedics who identified themselves on the landing of the 26th level as they radioed to another crew that two climbers had gone far enough and needed help getting out of the tower.

Good to know the Extraction Crew is on the job. Maybe I don't need to retire right away after all.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Renovations

Around thirty years ago, Bruce's parents built a house in a suburb on the outskirts of Waterloo, Ontario.

Over the years, the house got to be too big and too much work, so they sold it and moved into an apartment in Kitchener.

The guy who bought the house likes to renovate and resell properties. He saw a lot of potential in Bruce's parents' place.

This is what it looked like on March 21, 2009, when Bruce and I got married there:

You can see in the picture most of the living room / dining room. The den is off to the left in the picture. You can see the colonial-style light fixtures over the dining room table and in the hall behind Bruce. 

The house was a two bedroom bungalow with a big, bright kitchen and a den with a fireplace. Two good-sized bedrooms were down the hall. The house also had a huge, unfinished basement with every bit as much square footage below stairs as on the main floor.

It looks a little different now. 

The original kitchen has been divided into a laundry room ...

... and a small home office with a window that used to sit over the sink in the kitchen.

The new kitchen is built in what was once the den. The reno guys added a door opening out to the back yard and closed in the fireplace. The kitchen counter is about where Bruce's aunt and uncle are sitting - on his right - in the photo above of our wedding.

The back yard has been transformed with a large multi-tier deck...

... the huge fir tees have had their bottom branches trimmed. Black mulch fills the space where bunnies used to hide.

What was once the hall closet has been closed in from the side that used to be on the right when you walked in the front door, and is now part of the ensuite in the master bedroom, which used to be the guest bedroom.

The old master bedroom, former ensuite, former guest bathroom and part of the old den have transmogrified into two bedrooms with a shared "Jack and Jill" bathroom. No, really, that's what the renovation guy called it.

The whole basement used to look like this:

Now most of it looks like this:

The former two bedroom, two bathroom bungalow now has three baths and four bedrooms, but, when you walk through the front door, there's no place to put your coat.

Thanks for reading! Stayed tuned for a special Sunday post-CN-tower-climb edition of This Week's Picture!

Karen

Turtles and Cats

On a pretty Sunday morning in September, Bruce and I walked around in the Don River Valley until we found the Brickworks (hint: the most direct route on foot is NOT by way of the footbridge that crosses the river by Riverdale Park, which puts you on the wrong side of the river).

The Brickworks has everything you would want in a public space.

It's green.   

That little bob in the water in the middle of the shot is a turtle.
Even harder to see than the turtle are the many, many small fish in the water.

It's historic. Below, mounted on the outside wall of one of the old buildings, is a photo of the Toronto skyline, Maddeningly, the date the photo was taken is not shown. However, it is dated by the writing style of the picture caption, which says: "The sky-soaring pen of building construction dips its trowel-like nib in the bottomless well of Don Valley Products and records in enduring masonry their claim to the ever-changing skyline of this Canadian Manhattan." They just don't write them like that any more. 



The presence of the brickworks also proves that there's some things that will always be true - such as, when you build something in a river valley, there will be floods.

Here's the Brickworks after Hurricane Hazel:

Here's the Brickworks after the July 8, 2013 flood.

Photo credit: YoungeStreet

Something else we saw that same day revealed another perennial truth: cats will ensure humans see to their needs. 

These happy cats - with soft beds and clean dishes full of food and water, have made themselves at home on the steps of derelict houses slated for demolition on Glen Road. 

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CN Tower Climb Update

I wish to extend my thanks to my readers who have made a pledge to my fundraising campaign that will culminate in probably the longest climb time ever in the history of the CN Tower. I'm also glad to know who's reading my blog! Thanks!

The big day is October 20. There's still time to donate. Here's a link to my site.

Thanks for reading. Have a great week! 

Karen

Strange Coincidences

It is not just famous athletes who retire, return, retire and return again.

In the footsteps of greats like Magic Johnson and Rocky Balboa, I have also returned to the sport of gritting my teeth, grabbing the rail and hauling myself up 1776 stairs to raise money for the United Way.

As has been so much the case these past few months, this turn of events is all the fault of my former boss. He has climbed the CN tower so many times they have a chair in the lobby with his name on it. Because I now do what he used to, evidently that extends to CN Tower climbs. I hope it stops there.

This will be my third time and, I solemnly swear, my last. When I climbed the tower in 2011, I raised $2,500 to provide services to people who really need our help. That's my fundraising target for this year, too. Here's the link to my site. Thanks for your support!

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Everyone remembers "Gus," the xylaria polymorpha growing in my back yard. Here's a picture of another Gus, the Boston terrier pup who has just moved in with a colleague of mine. He gets walked twice a day by a person who doubles as a wedding photographer and who sees a strong resemblance.

Thanks for reading!  Have a great week!

Karen

MIA

Last weekend - actually, last Monday - was my 56th birthday. I celebrated as I usually do. I invited friends over for a nice meal and I didn't do my blog.

Sarah, pictured here sleeping in the warm spot on the couch created and just vacated by my sister, was the oldest (in dog years), quietest guest at my birthday party.

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It's been a busy week. As of Monday the 23rd, I have a new boss. He comes across as quite accomplished. He has a nice sense of humour but he doesn't fool around. Every one of the many, many briefings we have all had to do to get him up to speed were all "Just the facts. What do I need to know? Is there anything that has to happen now?" 

After the last boss (who was a bit wound up) and the interim, substitute boss (who was very relaxed) the new guy presents a completely different mix of calm and stern. It's keeping us on our toes.

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On Friday the 19th, I visited my family doctor for my annual check up. I told her about the funny things that were going on in my right eye that had started just the day before. She didn't seem too concerned but, because I asked, she said she'd make arrangements for me to see an opthamologist.  

I had just returned to work after my doctor's appointment when a giant (at least it seemed giant) black gash appeared in my vision in my right eye. 

I Googled the symptom immediately, read the words "detached retina" on the screen and got on the phone to my doctor to see if that opthamologist appointment couldn't be moved up.

The clinic's phone was set to voicemail. No one was answering.

I googled "eye clinic Toronto." Google told me St. Michael's hospital had an eye clinic with a reassuringly long list of doctors with competent-sounding names. I called the clinic and explained my dilemma. The nice person on the other end of the line advised that I either physically go to my clinic or walk into emergency at St. Mike's.

I chose the latter.

In the space of just under three hours, I was admitted - asked if I was taking any prescription medication during five different intake interviews with five different people - and given an eye examination that I just have to tell you about.

At St. Mike's, when they really want to know what's going on in your eye, they drop some local anesthetic on your eyeball, lay you back flat on a high tech chair and then dig around your eye with a gizmo that I think I can accurately describe as an ice cream scoop attached to a flashlight.

This was an unpleasant experience. But, because my only right eye was at stake, I tried hard not to move, tried even harder not to yell and, during the last few seconds of the test, tried hard not to bite the nice young doctor who was really only trying to help.

So, the good news is that my retina did not detach that day, but I am at some risk that it may still. So I get to go back in a few weeks, won't have to go through emergency to get there, but I imagine I'll still have to answer the question "are you taking any prescription medication" a few more times.

Fun fact: just about everyone who's intake interview I overheard while I was hanging around in emergency started their long lists of prescription medications with "Lipitor."

Thanks for reading! Have a great week!

Karen  

Small Accomplishments

The agave flower spike in the Allan Gardens no longer draws crowds, but it's still busy. I have speculated in this blog about the fate of the blossoms fallen from the stalk, thinking (and said thinking based on a cursory review of the very reliable Internet) they were the clones of the mother plant. I still don't know anything about agaves, but I'm prepared to say my earlier speculation wasn't right. Take a look at what the spike is up to now. There are bulbils growing where the flowers were once. 

This is Chester. In theory he belongs to our neighbours Grant and Bob. In fact, we all belong to him. Chester - or Pester as we call him - has enlisted the entire condo complex in his bid to become the world's most patted cat. He's 90% of the way to target. 

This is a sign along the TransCanada trail, close to the Kinsol Trestle.

I wonder why they thought they needed a "no trespassing" sign.

Finally, this is what the property immediately south of ours looked like last week. I ratted them out to the Municipal Licensing and Standards inspector.

This is what it looks like now.

Thanks for reading! Have a great week!

Karen

Further Signs of Aging

This week I attended the 50th birthday party of a well-known, hard-working advocate for many causes including the environment, social justice and women's rights.

You can imagine that there were quite a lot of other people there with me.

And I knew a lot of these folks from my previous life in the non-government sector and work as an environmental lawyer. Some of them, it has been so long, while I knew their faces, I had no access whatsoever to a name or what had been the circumstances of our acquaintance.

So I smiled at everyone, chatted up the ones whose names I did recall and remarked secretly to myself about how old everyone looked.

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A young woman stopped me on Bay Street on Tuesday morning as I was on my way to work. She looked to be in her late teens early twenties and wore a large back pack. As she tentatively began her request, my brain restlessly presented possible options of what she might want: directions to the bus station, the time ... maybe loose change. 

She handed me her iphone.

"Would you take my picture?" And then she told me how she wanted the picture taken. She wanted to pose a distance from the camera, with the buildings along Bay Street looming large in the background. 

"I'll look sad," she said, "to show I'm sorry to be leaving."

So I did as directed, and took a few extra shots of her walking away. I told what I'd done as I handed her back her $400 cell phone. She said thanks.

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A friend recently on vacation saw the scene in the photo below and thought of me right away.

Thanks for reading! Have a great week!

Karen