Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture of the five of us because we’re kind of dumb, but here’s a couple that show everyone from Carrie’s Flickr set of the trip (because I didn’t bring our camera along!):

(Lushes.) The top picture is from Future Bakery, and the bottom from the Victory Cafe. It was a pleasant surprise to me how easy it was to find places to flop on a patio that were kid-friendly, and with the heat and all the walking we did a lot of flopping.

It was a fun weekend on the face of it, but it was also great because this is the first time the five of us have all been together. Candice and I met Carrie for the first time at Trevor and Jenny’s wedding back last September. What happened next is complicated, but Carrie and I learned we had had an old mutual crush on each other, helped each other through some hard times in the month or so after that wedding (Carrie was a big help in my decision to withdraw from the MBA, for instance), ended up pretty close, and we had been struggling since to try to find the best way to remain a part of each other’s lives in a way that made our families feel safe and respected (and through a lot of change on Candice’s and my part, with me leaving school and us moving to Toronto!).

That hasn’t been easy, but this weekend things clicked. Misunderstandings cleared up; Jason and I finally met and got along well (and we learned we share an awful sense of humour, to the point where we were often racing to make the same bad pun first); Amie took to me so well that Candice and Carrie were calling me her boyfriend; and the whole thing was just comfortable. It felt like family, which was sort of a goal that Carrie and I had talked about months ago but which I sometimes thought was impossible.

What better way to finish off than this:

(And for those keeping track, now you know #23.)

On Father’s Day we drove back to Belleville to go out to dinner with my father, the first long drive we’ve done in the caar since my trips back and forth to Ottawa while Candice was still living there and me here. About halfway home: grindy noise! It came and went but performance, temperature and so on didn’t seem affected, and I noticed a wobbly pulley, so I figured it’d get us back to Toronto fine (and it did) and then I could take it in.

A couple days later, I had a new A/C compressor, and the wobbly pulley (and the serpentine belt) replaced too. And parts are not cheap for this old Swede.

Combine that with how often we drive — I filled up the tank for that trip, and before that the previous fill-up was March 25 — and the crazy cost of car insurance living in downtown TO, and the conclusion jumps out at you: We really don’t need a car here.

I take the TTC or my bike to work every day. Candice walks a few blocks to work. Grocery stores are even closer. Whenever we head downtown or to the Annex or Queen West we just take the TTC or walk. Hell, we don’t even have parking — the car is on the street all the time. And for the odd errand that does require a car, we can just use Zipcar or Autoshare in town and a regular car rental for road trips, and come in way, way under what we’re paying to have a car sit on the street, even though the car’s fully paid for.

I was car-free in Montreal from 1994 to 2001, but then as soon as I moved to Ottawa I bought the Saab, partly because Ottawa (and the neighbourhood I was living in) was pretty car-heavy, and partly because I had the disposable income and an excuse. But for someone who’s read car mags since childhood, I didn’t find car ownership all that fun. Too much maintaining and not enough spirited driving, maybe? Or maybe too sensible a car, or maybe too sensible a place to drive.

(The same thing happened with the motorcycle, I think. I’m not sure why, specifically.)

So the car’s going for sale later this year. Not sure when yet. Not looking forward to the process one bit, either! But I’ll be back to car-free soon, and I’m pretty happy with that, and especially happy living somewhere where I can, and not be too inconvenienced or treated like a freak for relying on transit.

I can’t participate in the opening pancake breakfast at Nathan Phillips Square because I commute the other way. Instead, I’m going to bike to work tomorrow morning even though they’re calling for thunderstorms in the afternoon, and either leave the bike there overnight or pick it up later in the evening.

Thursday’s a staff meeting at FreshBooks which is followed by a (decidedly un-bike-related) rock climbing excursion at Joe Rockhead’s. I’ve never climbed before but I’ve been meaning to for a long time (and it’s on my severely out-of-date 101 in 1001 list). But Thursday night brings back the bike content with a Bike Month screening of Pee-Wee Herman’s Big Adventure, with live action featuring various local personalities. Think Pee-Wee meets Rocky Horror. I should drag some FreshBooks people along.

Friday’s the last Friday of the month, which means Toronto’s monthly Critical Mass ride. I figure Bike Month is as good a time as ever for my first Mass. I know there’s a lot of opinions out there on Mass and I haven’t entirely formed mine yet, but I figure I ought to participate before I do. I know there’s been some issues with Mass in Toronto in the past but I’ve also heard that it’s cleaned up a bit (although I’ve also heard that a detour through the Eaton Centre is not unheard of).

Right after that is the first Toronto Criterium in the St. Lawrence Market area. The senior divisions’ race starts at 7:30 and lasts an hour and a half plus three laps. Crits are a blast to watch — especially compared to road races — because they’re laps, which means you get to see the peloton more than once, and because they’re short, which means they’re fast and aggressive.

And that’s just this week! I haven’t dug deeply into the rest of the month’s schedule, although dobbs on MetaFilter mentioned recently that the 2008 Cycle Messenger World Championships are being held in Toronto mid-June, so I’ll probably catch some of that too (and maybe catch up with dobbs there, for that matter).

(The Tour de Dufflet sure is tempting, though. And I need to remember to register for the Community Bicycle Network’s repair classes. But I might pass on the World Naked Bike Ride on the 14th.)

Post-and-ring photo at top by flickr user urbanmkr.

feet elev.

miles

Unfortunate, especially since there are no showers at work. I might end up taking the bus up the steep part with the bike on the bus’s bike rack some days, or just figuring something out to clean up and change at work anyhow. I feel kind of silly because shorts and a T-shirt are fine at FreshBooks, but I don’t really like wearing shorts day-to-day, even in summer.

I do want to get something to carry stuff on the bike instead of my back, though. Even though I’ve got a nearly-new Timbuk2 messenger bag, I’d like to avoid the damp back that comes from cordura-on-cotton. Current plan is to pick up a CETMA 5-rail front rack:

They’re handmade by Lane Cagay in Eugene, OR of cromoly tubing, with a weight limit of over 40 lbs (although the racks can handle a lot more, that’s when steering starts to get a bit wonky, apparently — and here’s why the front). On a lark I checked Craigslist yesterday and it turns out there’s someone with an unused 5-rail for sale just a few blocks north of here, so that’s awfully serendipitous. I figure even if I don’t ride to work daily, just doing all my errands at this end of town on the bike will be a plus compared to walking or bussing it everywhere.

I’ll post photos once I’ve got the rack!

]]> https://www.lafferty.ca/2008/04/28/nice-rack/feed/ 2 https://www.lafferty.ca/2008/04/28/model-citizen/ Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:12:54 +0000 http://www.lafferty.ca/?p=913 Candice and I reacted to the TTC strike this weekend by going for a “little walk down College” that ended up at Kensington Market, where I found a little shop called Model Citizen. Owner Julian Finkel sells hand-screenprinted T-shirts as well as screenprinted and appliqued waistcoasts, sportcoats, ties, and hats for men, and a few lines for women from other Toronto and Montreal designers. It’s a great little shop and Julian was great to talk to and I left with this shirt!

(Not the greatest picture but it’ll have to do.) The pink parts are bleached, and then the black is screenprinted over. I likes it. I’m kind of picky about t-shirts; Threadless isn’t really my thing, Urban Outfitters rips off too many independents, and after that I don’t really know where to look other than Etsy (which has some awesome shirts, but can be a bit inconvenient). Julian’s are a little pricy at around $40, but by the time you get a $25-30 shirt on etsy and ship it to Canada…

You can sign up for their newsletter here. It requires a postal code, which makes me wonder if it might be limited to Toronto locals, but I’m not sure.

It streams in Windows Media Player format, which is unfortunate, but it’s still a lot of music for free.

(Also, I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.5 recently. Please let me know if you notice anything unusual.)

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Half a kilometer down Dupont is a Sobeys. The selection is a little narrow there for me, but it’s 24h, and Candice thinks it’s neat to shop at a Sobeys again — it’s a Maritime chain. Another half-kilometer that way is a Loblaws, which is smaller than the Superstore we shopped at in Ottawa but still has all the President’s Choice brands we’re used to.

A half-kilometer in the other direction gets us a Price Chopper, which we haven’t tried yet. I’m not in any huge hurry to try it, since it’s a really low-price-oriented store and it’s in the Dufferin Galleria, which is a really creepy “dirty mall” that hasn’t been renovated (or had its low, arched, stucco ceilings cleaned) since the late 70s or so. I’m sure it’s fine, it just doesn’t seem to offer anything that the Sobey’s or Loblaws wouldn’t.

Then tonight we went to No Frills in the Dufferin Mall. The Dufferin Mall used to be a dirty mall but renovated in the last few years and is now a nice, clean little mall (and has an H&M, yay!), even if it is anchored by a Wal-Mart. But I’m pleased with No Frills. It’s not less, uh, frilly than any other grocery store, except for having to bag your own groceries (in your own bags, please, or 5c/bag for theirs).

But the selection there is interesting — not only does it have the usual national brands and the Loblaws-specific brands like President’s Choice, it also has a lot of brands and foods that I’d expect to have to go to an ethnic grocery store for. The Mexican section has sauces practically labeled only in Spanish; the frozen section has the kind of dim sum I’d have had to go to Kowloon Market for in Ottawa; even the beans shelves have a lot more Goya and other “second-tier” brands than just Libby’s and Unico — which is a plus, since brands like Goya have a lot more variety.

Now part of me wants to just chalk this down to being in a more diverse city, but none of the other grocery stores around here are like that! So yay for an easy place to find difficult-to-find ingredients at good prices.

And finally, a little ways down Christie from the Loblaws is Fiesta Farms, which I’m really excited about — the one time I walked by it it was so late at night that they were closed, but I saw banners on the outside promoting local food. Turns out it’s Toronto’s largest independent grocery store and it’s partnered with Local Food Plus, an organization which promotes and certifies local producers.

So we can join the local food movement at an independent grocery store that’s a fifteen minute walk away!

The movers show up at 9 and I imagine they’ll be out of here by noon. By 3pm or so we’ll have drugged the cats and we’ll be heading down the 416 to the 401 and on to the Big Smoke. By this time tomorrow we’ll have unpacked the stuff that’s coming in the car and be having our first dinner at home in Toronto together.

I’m really excited about Toronto and I think we’re going to find it a better fit than Ottawa, but it’s still a weird feeling to leave.