A Photo Worth Sharing

A short story...

I had the pleasure of being bumped up on my flight (thank you British Airways) and I am sitting in their fancy airport lounge. Next to me is my Uncle Frank. I was scrolling through my photos of Dani (my laptop, yes, she has a name). And as I was looking through my photos, I found this....

 

Meet Guinness, who is my Uncle’s dog.

I was house-sitting for my Aunt and Uncle for a week in April when I was at my lowest point with mono. I was truly feeling like death. Nothing was funny, except how one dog could possibly sprawl out to cover an entire sofa. It was the elegantly crossed front paws that really struck me (there are many words to describe Guinness and anyone who has met him will tell you ‘elegant’ is not one of them).

So I took a photo and completely forgot about until now.

Everyone's Favourite Girdle

So I’ve realized part of the problem with my lack-of-blogging. I have too many distractions in my regular life. Stick me in an airport with a 45 minute delay and I promptly start blogging.

So really, I just need to visit airports more often. Problem solved.

Anyway, I’m catching up on some of the things I’ve been meaning to post. This is from October. I had intended to take some photos of one interesting piece from some of the exhibits at work and write a post about them. I’m partially doing this because I work in a department of one, so there really isn’t anyone else to show off my handiwork to. Also, generally if I’m done my job well most museum visitors will not notice how I’ve prepared a piece, which is the point- people come to museums to look at the pretty objects not the mounts they are displayed on. I’m also a big nerd who gets excited about conservation, so any excuse to share is good in my book.

This is from the show ‘Natural Resources’ and it’s how to make a heavy and fragile rain cape float. This rain cape from Japan, to be exact....

It’s mainly a back piece that is held by a strap that the wearer holds as he bends over and walks wearing what is generally a ceremonial piece. My problem is that my mannequin can’t hold anything with that degree of accuracy. Or bend over at all. My solution? Meet what I called the ‘man girdle’.

 

 

I sewed a large rectangle of cotton fabric around the mannequin’s waist area, with four straps sewn to it to keep it from shifting which were securely tied around his naughty bits. I then sewed a loop to the girdle which hooked around the strap of the rain cape to hold it in place. This made sure that nothing would shift but was also invisible when the kimono was wrapped over it.

 

Perfect. The cape may have lost some bits from unwanted visitor touching, but it didn't shift during the exhibit.

You Can't Do That

Let's try this again.

I know I'm prone to blog relapses, with long spans of inactivity. Let's see how long this stretch lasts.

This weekend I'm over the border in the area of Buffalo, NY. Last time I was here I noticed something interesting...

Generally, when you ask the average person for differences between Canadians and Americans, one of the answers you will get is Canadian are more polite. No one can really prove if that's true, but one thing I can tell you is Canadian signs are nicer then the signage I see here.

In a parking lot back home, you might see a sign that says something 'Parking Only for Patrons' or '3 Hour Parking Limit'. Here:

I saw this sign in a grocery store parking lot. I'm afraid to blink too much for fear of retribution:

And evidently teenagers are running wild and crazy in the malls. Walden Galleria has the following rules and don't you dare try to slip them a fake i.d. They have that covered:

Finally, my hotel has made sure to clearly label anything just in case you use it in an inappropriate way. This is in the pool:

Although yesterday I say a kid drag a ball from the workout room into the pool. I'm sure that's not allowed, perhaps it needs a sign?

Glen Park in Williamsville, NY

So it happened again.

I vowed to fully update you and then my life when to pieces again.  On the positive side, I’m now employed as the Acting Conservator at the Textile Museum of Canada. I volunteered at the museum for five years, so I’m very pleased I can finally work there and get paid for my efforts. On the negative side, my Grandma died the same day I started at the museum. Having the two events occur at the same time propelled me to a stress level I would not recommend to anyone.

So let’s have another try at those posts I have notes for but have never gotten around to writing.

Every Victoria Day long weekend in May, my parents and I hop in the car and spend the weekend just over the US border in the Buffalo area. Our prime motivation is shopping for things that aren’t easy to find in Canada or are much cheaper to buy in the States, like books and amazing US craft beer. It has become a tradition that one dinner is spent here:

This is the Original Pancake House in Williamsville, NY located roughly near the intersection of Main St. and S. Cayuga Rd. This restaurant is a local chain serving excellent pancakes, waffles, and other breakfast-based delights. It is not the most exciting restaurant you’ve ever been to and typically the dinner crowd is senior citizens, but there’s no way I would skip a chance to eat their blueberry (or banana) pancakes.

This year we arrived a little early for dinner, so we went for a walk down Main St. This gave me a chance to take a photo of the sign that hangs outside the nearby liquor store that I have been admiring for a number of years (but my photo is from a distance because the door was being guarded by a very grumpy looking clerk):

On our meander we found Glen Park, which is located next to Elliot Creek:

As we followed the path we found a number of old mills next to the park in various stages of dilapidation. The first mill in Williamsville was built in 1811 and mills provided the economic backbone for the area throughout the 19^th century. In their current state you can only see a glimmer of their former power:  

We only made it so far into the park because it was overrun with a wedding party and prom-ready teenagers taking photos. The scene looked something like this:

The land also used to house nightclubs from the 1940’s-1970’s which, over the years, had such diverse acts as Sly and the Family Stone to the Three Stooges. After fires in 1968 and 1973 gutted most of the buildings, the land was converted to Glen Park. It is used as parkland and various temporary summer events, such as an amusement park and a music festival.

Update Part One- Say Hello to Dorothy!

Serious updating is required.

Things have been....hmm... crazy? Beyond crazy? I’m not really too sure what to label it at this point. Not long after my last blog update my Grandpa died and I sort of lost an entire month of my life in the aftermath. As my family has been finding out, the hardest part about losing a loved one isn’t the grief or their lack of presence but all the paperwork and bureaucracy that follows. Also complicating matters in my Grandma’s own declining health, so the family has also been making an effort to keep an eye on her as well (which means every so often I take a bus pretty much all the way to the other side of Mississauga to visit her on a weekday). I’ve also had a couple of job interviews but nothing has panned out to employment so far.

To put it simply, I’ve been pretty busy for someone who is unemployed!

But it hasn’t been all work and gloom, and some of the more enjoyable moments I have been snapping photos and taking notes with the intention of blogging about it whenever I finally have some free time. This, apparently, has taken until mid June. I wasn’t trying for a hockey theme but it appears that I have one.

My friend Barry from Halifax was in town awhile ago, so I got to play tourist for a day. We wandered around downtown Toronto for a bit and ended up at the Hockey Hall of Fame. I of course took photos of the old jerseys, because they are hand knit sweaters and I’m kind of a crazy knitting lady (something I’m sure no one has noticed):

The museum consists of a number of areas. We found ourselves very entertained in the section devoted to international hockey. Who knew that Mongolia and Angola are sanctioned by the IIHF? And some of the jerseys were amusing...

The most spectacular area of the museum is the Great Hall, which is where all of the current NHL trophies live including the Stanley Cup (which you can pay to have your picture taken with). The building was originally a Bank of Montreal branch and much of the decor from the bank has been left, including the vault. This building is stunning both inside....

and out...

It is also the section of the Hall of Fame that is haunted by a ghost named ‘Dorothy’. Back in 1953, when the building was still a bank, a 19 year old bank clerk named Dorothea Mae Elliot committed suicide at work after her love affair with a married co-worker soured. The Toronto Star has a good article on her life:

 http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/nhl/article/718662--hockey-hall-of-fame-ghost-revealed-at-last

While it’s a beautiful place to haunt, let’s hope Dorothy is a hockey fan. And if you ever find yourself at the intersection of Front and Yonge St. feel free to say hello to her.

City Hall

I should explain that the photos used in this post were taken a few weeks ago, before winter weather disappeared (or what passed for winter weather in Southern Ontario this year, which was rather wimpy for Canadian standards) and was replaced with seriously mild weather. While it is overcast and chilly today, it’s not cold enough to do this:

I’m skating on the outdoor rink outside Mississauga city hall (which features satellite radio playing 80’s music over the P.A. system):

The rink is a fountain during the rest of the year and until a few years ago was significantly smaller. However, a few years ago city council recognized that the area outside of city hall was kind of a dead-zone and rebuilt it to be more use to the community. The result is Celebration Square:

It is significantly more user friendly. It has a big permanent stage, instead of the small one that was periodically erected for events. The road between the square and city hall has been closed, which means you don’t have to worry about getting run over by traffic when going from one side to the other. Which could be a problem if you’re busy looking at the unusual style of city hall, or Mississauga Civic Centre to use its formal name (which I wasn’t aware of until I started doing research for this blog post):

It was opened in 1987 and is, according to Wikipedia, is a fine example of post-modern architecture in Canada. But what exactly is it supposed to look like, you might ask?

It’s based on a barn. Yep. Not making this up.

The area that is now known as the city of Mississauga was once a number of small farming villages. Until about ten or fifteen years ago, it was not uncommon to see the odd farmhouse on the outskirts of town. Now it’s all been replaces with development, which is why Mississauga is often cited when talking out urban sprawl in Canada (usually as an example of what not to do, since it's mainly low density single dwelling homes). What exactly the city is going to do now that it’s out of farmland to develop is anyone’s guess, but I have a feeling that it will define the city in the post-Hazel McCallion era (our mayor since 1978 who has said she will retire once this term is up). But I’m getting way off-course. Mississauga’s city hall is designed to look like a barn. Now you know.

Kentucky Fried... Hospital?

It’s about time I upheld my promise of continuing the blog.

The idea for this post came about because of the family drama that has been keeping me ‘occupied’ since I came back. Both my Grandparents in Mississauga have been in and out of hospital recently, four hospital stays between them so far, so I’ve been to Trillium Mississauga a number of times the past two months. The building is a built as series of large square-ish wings have been added on through the decades, which you can see for yourself:

There are two entrances on the face of the building that faces the main road. One is for the emergency department and the other is this:

Did you catch the name? Look a bit closer:

Colonel Sanders? As in Kentucky Fried Chicken’s man in the white suit? Yep. After selling off his stake in the KFC franchises in the States, Sanders moved to Mississauga in the mid 1960’s to keep an eye on his Canadian franchises. He liked it enough that he continued to live here for part of the year until his death in 1980 (although he actually died in Louisville and is buried in Kentucky).

Sanders used his wealth to start up charitable organizations, which made a substantial donation that allowed the hospital to build the Family Care Centre. It opened in the fall of 2000 to look after the healthcare needs of children, teenagers, and expectant parents. 

So, the sales of generally unhealthy fried food to the masses helped build part of a hospital. I can't really decide if that's ironic or really socially responsible. Perhaps a bit of both.