Hoarding and fire don’t mix

A former bookstore burned and took the life of its ower. It was crammed to the eaves with books and junk, with just a narrow corridor through it. Neighbours smelled food cooking just before the fire was noticed. The front door was partially blocked with junk and there were triple back doors. Firefighters had to break through the walls and roof to get their hoses onto the fire. The buildings on either side were damaged as well.

Dinner out

An old and good friend is in town with a colleague. So they met us at The Auld Spot on Danforth and we had a nice meal and talk. Eventually my brother showed up as well. Everyone seems to have a lot of interesting experiences to share.

The Auld Spot is named after a pig or a breed of pigs. The front of the pub looked like this last summer but there’s a new, roll-up front now.

Spring cleaning

Now that we have four cats, we seem to get a lot of these…

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In memoriam

My friend called. Her friend’s husband just died of complications after an operation a couple of weeks ago for lung cancer. He seemed to be an awfully nice fellow. His wife has finally quit smoking, about the time of the operation. But maybe she’ll start again now.

Swim workout, April 14

Approximate swim workout in 25-yard pool:

• warm-up: breaststroke, 50 yd. x 5 = 250
• kicking 101, 50 yd.
• kicking with flutterboard, 50 yd.
• freestyle with pull-buoy, 25 yd. x 4 = 100 yd. (50? 200?)
• freestyle with paddles & pull-buoy, 25 yd. x 4 = 100 yd. (20? 200?)
• freestyle, 50 yd.
• freestyle fast, (relay), 25 yd.

Total: 625 yd. (825?)

Cute kitten

Just big enough to curl up on a hand:

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Biking aches?

I had my first bike ride, first ride on new bike, and first long bike ride of the season yesterday. Then in the evening one of my feet hurt a lot. I was afraid that it was something about the bike or the biking; but then I remembered I twisted my foot yesterday: it’s a simple bruise. So I don’t have to worry about the geometry of the bike.

This morning I went swimming and had a good hour of practice with Oannes swims.

Pigs escape from highway crash

From Toronto Star:

The eastbound lanes of Highway 401 through Mississauga are expected to remain clogged throughout the afternoon following a crash involving a tractor trailer hauling pigs, the second recent accident involving livestock on a GTA road.

Monday morning’s crash occurred near Winston Churchill Blvd. Ontario Provincial Police originally shut down all eastbound and westbound lanes, but then re-opened the westbound ones.

“About 8 a.m. this morning, Highway 401 eastbound was slowing down as it usually does in morning rush hour,” OPP Sgt. Cam Woolley told CTV.ca Toronto.

“A tractor-trailer travelling eastbound, hauling livestock, for some reason failed to slow down and slammed into slower traffic, virtually crushing a full-sized pickup and ramming a car and a large van.

“The tractor-trailer then hurtled over to the left lane and rolled onto its right side, with the cab bursting into flames,” he said.

“The driver escaped — along with about 50 to 60 pigs.”

The pickup truck driver suffered very serious injuries. The car driver was also injured, and the van and tractor trailer driver suffered minor injuries. All four were taken to hospital, Woolley said….

…most of pigs have been corralled now. A livestock truck has been commandeered to haul them away.

See The Whole Hog by Lyall Watson.