Some little person got quite creative with their sidewalk chalk. Spelling your name and jumping on your favourite colour sound like fun. Not sure what the Dino Stomp is.

Well, not really my backyard. My backyard is basically this deck. But if you extended this picture out to the right you’d see the side of my house. This is the backyard of the house adjacent to mine. As you can tell, it’s seen better days. It’s been abandoned for the last ten years, after the previous owner, a lady who lived there alone until the age of 93, moved on. The guy (or group) who bought it seem to have no idea what to do with it. So it just falls apart.

I’m sure it will be torn down eventually, which is a shame because back in the day this was a really funky, stylish house. That backyard was such a peaceful little oasis in the city. On the left of the picture is the indoor swimming pool. And glass walls were everywhere, because the family who built the place were the owners of a local window company. Now most of the windows have been smashed by kids and boarded up.

Oh well, at least it’s quiet. And makes for a nice, moody picture. (You can click on the pic to make it bigger.)

Got some windows in. And some doors. Roofs done, and one is already shingled. I guess they’re on schedule. Here’s a pic from a few weeks ago. I’ll probably do a post with all of them together whenever they’re finished.

Do not adjust your monitor. There were no filters used on this picture I took at 11 am while out for a walk on an otherwise sunny day. This is what the sky looks like. In fact, I think it’s even oranger now.

There are wildfires now raging through northern Ontario and apparently Toronto has the worst air quality in the world today, which I find kind of hard to believe but somebody professional-sounding said it.

These conditions are supposed to last through tomorrow. Then the worst of the smoke will have been sent to our good neighbours to the south.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a Binstagrammed post. Almost two years. But I was walking through the blissfully deserted university campus last week and saw all these troopers lined up behind the University Centre building and couldn’t resist taking their picture.

Then, right after I put my phone away, I was walking past and I heard thumping noises coming from inside a couple of them. It actually scared the heck out of me. It sounded like somebody was locked in there! Then squirrels came popping out. It’s not that the lids weren’t fastened, but several of the bins had holes chewed right through them. It’s amazing what animals will do to get to the good stuff. And green bins, for organic waste, definitely have the good stuff.

So I was looking to buy a postcard recently. My first stop was the Dollar Store, where you can usually pick up a lot of cheap cards. Alas, there was no rack for postcards. So I asked the woman working there, who I would have put in her early 30s, if they had any postcards. She looked at me blankly. I asked again and she shook her head, not saying anything, apparently in some confusion. Then she said that they sold envelopes for cards. I told her that postcards don’t go in envelopes. This seemed to confuse her even more and I don’t think she knew what I was talking about. But I chatted with her for a while anyway and left without thinking any more of it.

My next stop was a drug store that also has a post office desk in it. I asked the woman running the place (another thirty-something) if they had any postcards. She didn’t understand me so I repeated “Postcards?” I got another blank look. I honestly thought I wasn’t speaking clearly enough, as I do tend to mumble a bit. So I leaned in closer and said “Post. Cards.” She leaned back away from me (I can be a bit intimidating) with a look of nervous confusion on her face. “I don’t know what you mean,” she said. I said “Postcards. They’re like pictures . . . that you mail.” She still looked at me with a total lack of understanding. She honestly had no idea what I was talking about.

I realize people don’t mail postcards that much anymore, but still this was a bit surprising. Two youngish people who didn’t have a clue what a postcard was? The times they are a-changing.

Ugh. This is going to be a monster. The whole neighbourhood is full of styish mid-century modern bungalows and this thing is going to be three stories. Eventually all the bungalows on the street are going to be pulled down (one side of the street has already been bought up) and these big townhouse-style residences will be everywhere.

The houses behind me are coming along quite quickly now. They were out yesterday working in the rain even. These pics are from last week and you can tell they’re not wasting any time. The first picture is even an action shot as they’re pouring stone into the foundation.

And here are a couple of pics from the end of work yesterday.

And from the other side.

They weren’t messing around this week! Here are some daily snaps taken from the other side of the project from the previous updates (see here and here).

Tuesday.

Wednesday.

Thursday.

Friday.

And here’s what things looked like after work on Friday from the other side of the street. (You can click on the pics to make them bigger.)

I pass this bit of signage every time I walk downtown. It’s been up in the same window for years and seems to express some firmly held beliefs. Beliefs about what, I’m not sure.

So, starting from the top left and working clockwise:

(1) OK, it is a Stephen King quote. I looked it up, though the exact line reads “Any game looks straight if everyone is being cheated at once.” It comes from his novel The Long Walk, which he wrote under his Richard Bachman pseudonym. I haven’t read the book or seen the recent movie.

(2) “That old serpent” is a reference to Satan from the Book of Revelation. I don’t know what the connection to NASA is though. The T-minus is countdown to apocalypse?

(3) Your guess is as good as mine. Is that a cross or a swastika? There’s a Star of David in the middle of what seem to be an arrangement of binaries (wet and dry, material and spiritual) as well as some alchemical symbols thrown in for good measure.

(4) Some sketchy etymology. The word “scientific” comes from Latin and has the meaning of pertaining to knowledge (in Latin scientia). The suffix -fic doesn’t denote fiction but comes from the Latin facere, to make or to do.

I get the impression, taking all of this together, that the person behind the window doesn’t trust science (represented by NASA), or perhaps any kind of received knowledge or wisdom, seeing it as a crooked game. True gnosis only comes through some kind of mystical revelation.

Anyway, there’s also a letter posted on another window that goes into a bit of explanation that I might post a picture of later. I couldn’t make much sense out of it either.

You can click on the pic to make it bigger. Just try not to read too much into the reflection of the handsome fellow in the window.