Canada Day

Canada Day is July 1st.  I live 30 minutes drive from Ottawa, where the Queen was making an appearance.   Instead of going to that, I went to Brockville, to Peter's house, and a bunch of us sat on the deck overlooking the St. Lawrence at sunset, as the street below filled up with cars parked all over the place, including the middle of the street, and the seaway filled with the lights of boats of all kinds, all around the fireworks barge that was floating not far from us.  Two blocks down, a Kiss cover band called Destroyer was playing.  I amused myself my naming the muffled, distant, reverberant songs and by telling everyone they'd be playing "Rock 'N Roll All Night" at 10, as this was when the fireworks were to start (What other song might a Kiss tribute band end with?)  Teenagers were everywhere, the lights of their cell phones shining in the dusk as they texted each other about important things ("im in joshs truck with josh n steve n destiny isnt hear yet WTF LOL", "im still in joshs truck n the fkn fireworx hvnt strted yet they want me to do both of them in the back of teh king cab should i :( ")

There was also an Elton John cover band, Finger 11, and Emily Osment (apparently from Hanna Montana).  When we were sitting out waiting for the fireworks, though, it was Destroyer that was providing the soundtrack for the sun to set, with note-by-note accurate Paul Stanley squealing and so on.  Destroyer played "Rock 'N Roll All Night" and the fireworks began as we ate tea cakes and sugared fruit sprinkled with champagne.  Steve had his iPhone, so he could tell us when the large, Great Lakes bound ocean-going vessels would plow through, needing the smaller boats to move.  The timing was perfect, in that the last big ship went through before the fireworks began, and and the next two came through once they were over.  This meant a myriad little sailboats didn't need to panic during the fireworks and try to tack toward the U.S. or Canada shorelines in a hurry.

After the huge traffic-on-a-one-way-street mess unsnarled itself, I drove back home.  This morning, I was at the computer wondering who to get to help me lift the Leslie speaker cabinet up the stairs, and the smell of Bob from downstairs having a cigarette on the fire escape under my window wafted in.  Cigarette smoking has a price.  Bob agreed to give me a hand and the cabinet is now where a chest of drawers was, and the chest of drawers is headed out into the street with a "Free" sign on it.

Looking at apartment-style dishwashers on kijiji.  Having one will both fix the "dirty dishes in the sink that are scary to wash if you leave them for a few days" problem, and will also give me a place to put a couple of small appliances (a rice steamer and crockpot should fit on top of the dishwasher), thereby freeing up counter space.  Fighting valiantly (mostly with my VISA) to keep from sliding into a slough of inactive despondency, which is a problem whenever I get more than a couple of days off any job, I have contacted a Ford dealer about a safety recall on my van (hoping they will fix an electrical problem they've reported, and that it will make my speedometer work again) and ordered a new bearing for my Leslie rotating speaker cabinet (and early summer hobby item.)