Lesley became a Canadian citizen on Thursday, March 12, 2009, almost seven years since we married and she first applied for permanent residence status. Among the dignitaries at the ceremony were our local municipal councillor, Councillor Sandra Bussin (as well as four other councillors) and some guy with a gold chain, which was remarkable because only 60 people became citizens that day. Mayor Miller pointed out that every year some 90 thousand people become citizens who have taken up residence in Toronto, so assuming there is one such ceremony every working day and suppose there are 250 working days a year (50 weeks per year times 5 days per week) that suggests that Mayor Miller could attend only one sixth of all the ceremonies (60 times 250 is 15 thousand).
If the mayor is attending 250 citizenship ceremonies a year I'd say that is a HUGE waste of my property tax dollars, except... well some of my more meticulous readers might recall that in my previous post I mentioned that I am saving up for that dreadful day when the city realises they should charge me back property taxes for almost a year now and counting. My property is a brand new build, and as such has not yet been assessed by the highly disorganized and wonderfully random Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC).
The property has not been assessed for a number of reasons. According to one person at MPAC, my house does not exist! Someone else at MPAC believed me when I told them I live here, they just had not seen the records from the city yet. The city, thank goodness is still collecting my garbage, sewage and supplying water. So anyway the point is, while I still get to vote... at least I got to vote in the last Federal Election, I really should not complain about the city yet, since I do not pay anything for municipal services. (But we all know, one day MPAC is going to figure out I don't sleep in a hovel at the side of the road and that day I am gonna get one really big, to be paid within 30 working days, property tax bill.)
Anyway Mayor Miller made what I thought was a touching speech to the 60 new citizens, as well as their families (in a way I am rather glad my dad did not come to the ceremony, he hates David Miller and would likely start yelling obscenities). After the ceremony Lesley tried to get me to complain to the mayor about some of the things I have complained about in this blog. I did not feel right about that though, for one thing I did not have any remarks prepared, I was and can be shy, and more importantly, it just seemed wrong to be bitching to the mayor at a time when he is, rightfully, celebrating one of the great things about this country, that people from anywhere, who live any which way how, can become Canadian and even be mayor! (Mayor Miller is an immigrant, born in California, raised in England and moved to Canada. In a similar vein, our first Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald was born in Scotland.)
After the ceremony I did write the mayor an email, which I reprint here:
My wife became a citizen today at City Hall and I would like to thank you for your touching story about coming to Canada. As a fourth generation Torontonian the most momentous move I ever made was from Cedarville to Cabbage Town. I would also like to thank you for restoring much of the pride I had in my home. After Mayor Lastman made a remark about his fears of going to Africa my Chinese father-in-law had quite a chuckle.
While I am writing I would like to bring your attention to something that does concern me and that is the state of the roads in Toronto. I care a great deal about the environment and so have decided to bike to work, from my home at Woodbine and Queen to my office at Bay and Richmond. I have now been biking for almost a year, right through the rain, snow, and some pretty appalling driving habits on Queen Street.
Now I realise as mayor there is nothing you can do to reform the taxis or stop the rain, but if you have ten minutes one day I would ask you to take a walk from City Hall along the south side of Queen Street East. If you could please take a look at Queen Street east bound on the right hand lane just west of Church Street, now imagine trying to ride a bike, particularly a road bike, along that section of road. The left lane is not an option, street car tracks are a fast way to the emergency room across the street. Riding a bike on a sidewalk is as dangerous for pedestrians as it is for a cyclist. Finally, besides being illegal and very dangerous riding east on the westbound side of the street does not really solve the problem because the road conditions are almost as bad as the eastbound side!
Surely with all the money Ottawa is going to be throwing around for "shovel ready projects" there must be enough in there somewhere to fix the roads in Toronto? The value of road repairs will be appreciated by more than just the automobile drivers.
Curiously the pothole repair crew who are just beginning their work around the city fixed the worst of the holes on Queen East at Church by the time I rode home that afternoon.
In other news I donated blood Friday morning, number 66 for anyone still counting, besides me. Saturday I took Erin for a spin, she wasn't shifting gears right and after a quick inspection and replacement of her front cable housing (and a new rear-deraileur cable) I took her on my first BCC ride of the season.
The first route, on Saturday, was short, I had to ride back to the office to swap out some defective hardware.
On the BCC ride the effects of the blood donation were very clearly obvious with every single hill climb, I bailed out at the first turn, on 16'th Ave.
I am embarrassed to report I did a have a small mishap on Sunday morning. As I was headed home after the ride I unclipped on the left at a red light, then I leaned to the right and fell over. Ooops! The natural reaction from a driver beside me probably matches any other reaction, he asked if I was alright. Well my pride is kinda hurt, but it will heal, my knee is a little bruised but who cares! The knee will heal too. My right side pedal and bar tape are scuffed and I am really steamed about that!
Then today something that was not my fault. I was riding along, minding my own business in the bike lane on Dundas street near Jones Ave. The light turns green and none of the cars ahead of me had a right signal on, so I start hammering and then BANG, some idiot in a big old dodge pickup truck just starts turning right, I managed to scream and turn enough that my left hand bashed into their truck hard enough that there are burn marks on my left glove (never ask why I always go full finger) but other than that I am actually no worse for wear, critically, Erin was unharmed. I did decide to buy an air-horn in honour of my little incident. So drivers do a shoulder check, and next time this happens I am taking a licence plate number. The driver of the pickup drove away too fast, litterally a hit and run.
In honour of the idiotic pickup truck, I bought a marine airhorn at Crappy Tire. I have to inflate it with a bike pump to 80psi, then when a driver pisses me off, well no more lifeguard whistle from this cyclist. I used the airhorn to tremendous stress relief today when a taxi stopped for a pickup in the middle of the road. Too bad the airhorn is only 120 dB, I want something louder damnit!
Finally I got the following email from my brother, who along with his wife (Sheri) is in Florida on vacation.
Sheri pulled up with groceries. I went out to the car to help. There were two teenage girls in the road talking on the cell phone - no big deal I thought until one of them says, there was a rocket launch. I turned around and there was the unmistakable FRESH vapour trail leading up to space. At the top of the trail you could still see the bright white burn from the rockets engine. However, the vapour trail was what really caught our eyes. It was dusk and we were facing East. The sky was a light royal blue - just beginning to fade from the baby blue it had been all day. The trail was white at the top but appeared to be on fire towards the bottom as it reflected all the colours of the setting sun - burnt yellow, orange, pink, crimson - just like clouds at sunset but so much more surreal considering that it was one thin stream stretching up from the ground to the otherwise perfect blue sky. As we watched the rocket go further into space we saw three times the bright white light of the engine fade to nothing then moments later reappear as a new bright white spot. At one point we could see the ejected early stage rockets, still alit, falling to earth. Only when we came back in and looked up launch schedules for Cape Canaveral -- two hours later -- did we learn we just saw a shuttle launch!
I want to go to Florida too! I wonder how much it would cost to hitch a ride on a Soyuz I hear the Rubble has lost a lot of value.
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