The rainstorm

    A couple of weeks ago Toronto had a huge rainstorm, the same night I'd made a commitment to attend a nicetomeet.com dinner at the Keg on the Esplanade!  My streetcar got stuck, but I was just happy to have a dry place to wait.  Eventually, after the rain let up, I walked to the subway.  I was 40 minutes late, but they didn't hold it against me.

    Last week was another such event at Joey near King station.  Like Moxie's, it was too loud for me.  Oh well, they may as well err on the side of variety.  I just hope they don't choose that sort of place all the time...

    I'm now reading Ken Dryden's The Class for my book club.  The hockey athlete-politician interviewed almost all the people in his old Etobicoke high-school class.  It isn't an easy read for me, because I keep comparing my own life to these big achievers!  My next book will be Justin Pollard's Alfred the Great:  The Man who Made England, for my monthly History Meetup event.  Nobody comes to these events, but enjoy choosing the books and writing the topic descriptions so much that I don't care. (Rather eccentric of me.)

    Next week I'm discussing Canada in the early 20th century at the History Salon.  I plan to eventually talk about China and the USA...

    A couple of months ago I had a backlog of over a thousand unopened emails, but I finally reduced them to almost none.

    It's time for me to quit those computer games.  I might as well do it now, but they're pretty addictive.

    Recently my dreams have included variations on familiar themes.  I've often dreamed of visiting England again, but in my latest dream I lost interest and wanted to return right away! Some of my dreams have been set in a university library that was also a supermarket:  in the latest one I felt indifferent to food and books and everything, and only my anger about welfare "reform" aroused my passion.  And I've had a whole lot of dreams of visiting my old home in Sackville, N.B.  But now I've dreamed of visiting the street it was on in the 1950s, years before I was born and before it was built! (In this dream there was a music school nearby.)

Social life

    I've joined nicetomeet.com , a group that eats dinner each week at a different place. (They only reveal the place a day before, giving a sense of mystery!) Last week we ate at Constantine's, this week at Moxie's, which was too loud.  At Moxie's I was seated with five women, so I sung that Beach Boys line "Two girls for every boy..." I ate vindaloo and clam chowder, and shared my mega-dessert with the ladies. (Last week I also went to a stitch.com dinner at a Thai restaurant.)

    I've had to quit on the evening walks and book talk, at least for now.  I'm concentrating on the Saturday afternoon snacking events.

    Last week I met Maria and Sergey for the first time in ages, at the nearby What a Bagel! (They just got back from hiking the Santiago trails in Spain.) I'm hoping they'll join me for my History Salon on Sundays.  Last Sunday I discussed Canada before Confederation, and this Sunday I'll start on the post-Confederation period.

    I've started the Wild West City computer game, where I've taken the name Aloysius Pinkerton.  I've also started Global City, where I took the name Sid Vicious and named the city Eppy Center.  And I've started from scratch with Empire City:  this time I think I can develop the city more efficiently! (All three of these games are pretty similar, to tell the truth, except they're in different time periods.)

    We recently watched Rome and now we're watching Deadwood.  What a great cast!  I'd seen both shows years ago, but forgot how good they were.

    When I read a novel whose chapters don't have titles, I've got into the habit of supplying my own chapter titles!  I did it with The Librarianist, and Joanne got me to print out a copy for when we discussed it.  I accidentally printed three copies. (I hate wasting paper.)

    For next month's History Meetup, I'm reading Diana Preston's Paradise in Chains, about the Bounty mutiny and the founding of Australia's first penal colony, which happened around the same time.  It's an enjoyable page-turner!  With this book each chapter already has a title, but I'm writing a list of the time and place setting for each one.

The shooting

    Last month there was a fatal shooting at the Salsa on St. Clair Festival just a few blocks from where I live, causing mass panic.  But I slept through the whole thing! (That's the story of my life.)

    Our rebuilt air-conditioning system got rid of the vent to my room, so the only connection is the door.  A few weeks ago the forest fire smoke reached Toronto (I could smell it!) so I had to close my windows anyway.  It was then that I realized I could improve my room's AC connection by setting up the fan near my door!

    Tianjie quit as organizer of the History Salon, so I took over.  I'm now leading a series about the history of Canada! (The first event was about New France, and the second will be about British North America after 1763.)  I'm also doing evening walks with the Over 60 Meetup and stitch.com every other Wednesday, starting at Davisville and Broadview subway stations.  And I'm trying to get a book talk group off the ground.

    Last week my book club discussed the spy biography Agent Sonya, and next month will be The Librarianist.  I'm reading A Short History of Pakistan for next week's History Meetup.

    I got a new credit card, but couldn't activate it over the phone. (Some trouble about the security code not being recognized...) So I activated it by going to Chapters-Indigo at the Manulife Centre and buying a copy of Marjane Satrapi's graphic memoir Persepolis from a pile of books recommended by Heather Reisman. (I saw the animated movie version.)

    For some reason my link to the Empire City game no longer works.  Oh well, I'd got past Level 120 and was already thinking of quitting.  I've also quit Steam City, where I reached Level 40.  And I reached Level 500 on Candy Crush Saga, then found out there are over 2000 levels, so I've quit that game too.  Now I've started Wild West City instead.

Where were you when the snow fell?

    On Sunday, January 25, Toronto had a record snowfall.  It was waist deep but very light, so shovelling a pathway was surprisingly easy.  Just as well that the Sunday afternoon history salon wasn't on that week, otherwise I might have tried to go to it just in case it wasn't cancelled!

    My book club met a week late to talk about Educated. (Tara Westover's family was like the Waltons on acid!) Next month we're reading Martha Beck's Beyond Anxiety.

    A couple of weeks ago Debbie and I saw the Alan Bennett-Nicholas Hytner choir movie The Choral.  It wasn't bad--it reminded me of my own experience in choruses--but it did include one shameless cliche:  an MIA soldier thought to be dead returns without calling ahead, causing his girlfriend to faint!

    Last week John P. and I saw Amanda Seyfried in The Testament of Ann Lee, about the woman who founded the Shakers. (I rewatched Ken Burns' fascinating PBS documentary about the sect.) It's a beautiful, stylish hagiography.

    Moira and I are rewatching The Wire.  It's a great show that never loses its freshness; if anything, I understand it better and better with repeat viewings!

    Yesterday was my 64th birthday.  I bought a big strawberry shortcake at Loblaw's and we ate felafels from the corner shop.

    I'm now reading Cleopatra:  Last Queen of Egypt for next week's History Meetup.  I've passed Level 100 in Empire City and Level 4100 in Candy Crush Saga!

    The latest issue of Harper's is really interesting!  There are articles on America's gambling problem, London as seen by the Situationists, the issue of Presidential pardons, and the legacy of the War on Drugs in the Philippines.

The heat is on!

    John finished installing the heat pumps, and a few days ago our new heat system started working, in time for Christmas!  I have to leave my door open most of the time so the heat will get in my room, which is hard to get used to.  I keep waiting for someone to say "Were you born on a raft?"

    Last week I led the book club discussion on Kidnapped.  We had a cookie exchange and I brought gingerbread which I'd baked.  But it was a bit of a disaster:  it stuck to the bottom of the pan and fell to pieces!  But the others didn't seem to mind.  Next month we'll discuss Educated, Tara Westover's memoir of going from a homeschooled upbringing by survivalist parents to a Ph.D. at Cambridge.

    Next month my history discussion will be about Ethiopia, so I'll be reading a book of Ethiopian history by Saheed A. Adejumobi. (I finished that book on the Republic of China in time to return it on the day it was due!)

    Stephen printed a booklet of some of the memoir group's pieces and I bought two copies. (I contributed pieces on my Toronto home, cartoons, the autism spectrum and bereavement.)

    I'm optimistic about my Meetup for people over 60.  I've straightened out my stripe.com account and I'm starting to attract people from stitch.net .  I intend to get the reading out loud group going in the new year--some people have expressed interest.  

    I'm approaching Level 4000 in Candy Crush Saga and Level 100 in Empire City!

    I've ordered new pajamas online, and I'm about to order new winter boots. (My old ones are leaky and the soles got so wet that whenever I use them they leave my socks wet too.) I'd have ordered them already, but I'm a bit of a procrastinator these days.

Netflix

    We've been watching some interesting series on Netflix.  There's Death by Lightning, about U.S. Gilded Age president John Garfield and the lunatic who assassinated him.  We've started watching a new version of Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard. (Those Italians have some great faces!)

    And there's an adaptation of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez' "magical realist" novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.  I was prepared for disappointment because I loved the book so much, but it's actually a worthy adaptation, visually imaginative and well-cast.  It's just the first half of the book, so I imagine they'll do the second half next year or so.

    Meetup restored the members of my 60+ group, so I've started doing the Saturday lunches again.  I tried to start a walking event on Wednesday afternoons, but it's too cold for that. (I'll try it again in the spring.)

    I went to another stitch.com lunch at Dimpfelmeier's Bakery in Etobicoke.  On the way out there the subway was closed west of Jane Station, so I had to take a shuttle bus and was half an hour late.  But it could have been worse--on the way back it was closed west of Ossington Station so I had an even longer shuttle bus ride!

    Read Clare Chambers' Small Pleasures for my book club, and we had an interesting discussion.  It's about a lady reporter in 1950s London investigating claims of a virgin birth, but it proved better than I expected.  Next month we'll discuss Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped and I'll lead the discussion! (I read it when I was 11...) My History Meetup will be discussing Chiang Kai-Shek, so I'm reading Xavier Paules' The Republic of China: 1912 to 1949.

    John P. and I saw Blue Moon at the Varsity few weeks ago, with Ethan Hawke in rare form as Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart.  The other week we saw Guillermo del Toro's version of Frankenstein at the Scotiabank.  It's vivid but gets a bit too talky in the second half: the overly articulate creature is a flaw that goes back to the book... (This week my historical movie watch party is showing Ken Russell's Gothic about how the story got written.) Next Tuesday we'll be seeing Nuremberg.

    Our new heat pumps aren't installed yet, and it snowed last night.  But I can make do with my electric heater for a while longer!

I goofed

    Last month I connected my meetup.com account with stripe.com to create a system where all members of my two Meetup groups would automatically contribute annual dues of $5 or $10 to pay my Meetup fees.  Unfortunately, I botched the stripe.com connection to my bank account--couldn't satisfy the ID requirement--and all but about 30 of the members in my Seniors Meetup got removed automatically!  I've messaged Meetup and asked them to restore them. (I tried to use my residency card for the ID, but it got rejected as unclear, so I'll have to wait till my new passport arrives next month.)

    John's rebuilding our furnace and adding heat pumps and stuff so for a couple of weeks we'll have no heat except from electric heaters.  At least the cold weather hasn't arrived yet!

    On Saturday I had lunch (spaghetti) at Terroni's with a stitch.com group.  But I had a hard time finding the place--I was looking for the street address, which wasn't posted out front--and was half an hour late.  Afterward I passed by Toronto's No Kings protest near the U.S. embassy. (There was an evangelist with a megaphone nearby!)

    Finished reading Ann Patchett's novel The Dutch House for my book club.  It's a great book, with an unconventional narrative approach that resembles a first-draft memoir before it's been edited...  I gave the book to Moira, and she likes it too. (Now I'm reading Lindsey Hughes' biography of Peter the Great for my History Meetup.)

    Yesterday John P. and I were going to visit the Royal Ontario Museum and see the exhibit of Flemish artifacts.  But he told me to meet him "under the dome" at the entrance, and I somehow thought he meant the dome that used to be the McLaughlin Planetarium! (I haven't been thinking straight lately.) Oh well, we'll go on Friday.

    Today I went to Bay Street Video to rent A Royal Affair for my Friday night watch party, but they only had it in incompatible Blu-Ray format!  So I rented Lawrence Kasdan's 1985 western Silverado instead, which I've never seen. (Back at the time I was put off by its ad line "Get ready for the ride of your life":  I don't care for these oversell lines that presume my inattentiveness.)

    I've started watching a PBS documentary series about Lincoln and his wife.  It's quite good.