Thursday, December 22, 2016

31 days...

... hath December.

This is the second year that December sees me still in the saddle. My last jaunt on the Vespa in 2015 was on the 8th of December.

On Thursday the first of the month I rode downtown for a fruitful meeting at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Scribbled - Voting in a Democracy

Susan is a little concerned. She may be right.

Lately I have taken to sending e-mails to Toronto Star columnists. I have also written to the Prime Minister on two or three occasions.

We're not talking about angry Tweets, or dozens of e-mail messages, or about indiscriminate rants, much less unpleasant ad-hominen diatribes aimed at reporters and politicians. Still, Susan's concern is certainly warranted (she doesn't want me morphing into either Statler or Waldorf, those angry old muppet men).

That said, I may be done with the few topics that recently prompted me to take to my keyboard.

This morning I was ingesting my daily ration of news (Toronto Star, New York Times, and Quartz) and found it largely indigestible. This is a steady diet of worrisome stuff, after all. I can't write letters every time I read an item that rattles my cage. I'd spend my days doing nothing but. I certainly shouldn't devote too much time airing my concerns here, right? Who cares what I think, anyway?

So that may be it for a while.

Let me say this though.

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

PMS

We humans are ruled by hormones, pheromones, and craveomones.

Many years ago we were sitting around the kitchen table. We were eating something good, but it couldn't have been entirely healthy. The kids began to read the ingredients on the labels of the jars and other containers on the table. That's when someone discovered that one of the condiments claimed it contained "flavonoids".

It only took mere fractions of a second for us to invent "tasterenes".

In that same vein, yesterday I discovered that craveomones were ruling my body.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Life after snow?

Winter is here.

I was rummaging in the storage locker today. For a brief moment I considered the Vespa's winter storage cover. Then I tossed it back on the shelf.

Snow, shmow. I'm in no mood to close the book on riding for 2016. It might happen, it might not.

The truth is that Toronto is new to me. I'm pinning my hopes on the lake effect.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Fall riff

Summer lasted forever.

And then there was fall. As often happens, when summer ebbs and leaves us contemplating the looming winter, life gets busy.

What have we been up to? We've been busy.

In mid-October I joined fellow members of the Toronto Moto Scooter Club and headed northeast towards Georgian Bay.


This is the ride that marked the arrival of fall.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Requiem for an epoch

My life began as we emerged from horrible decades of genocide, world wars, and depression. The lessons we learned at unimaginable cost gave rise to an era of stability, growth, and prosperity accompanied by unprecedented international cooperation.

Today we stand at the edge of a precipice. A very dangerous time in history.

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Canadians are a rare breed

If you are not yourself Canadian, the best way to understand what it means to be Canadian, is to study the ways of a quintessential Canadian.

It's a little like birding. You need to learn the habitat, haunts, and habits of the quintessential Canadian.


Saturday, November 5, 2016

Scary story


The most remarkable totally scary thing is happening right before my eyes.

It's one of those massive fog-bound freeway pile ups in slow motion. It's a system with the rules tossed out the window. None of the usual strategies like steering or braking apply to ward off disaster.

Except it's not traffic that has me mesmerized like a King Cobra's afternoon snack.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

A place to call...


A place is just a place, until it becomes something more.

It remains only a place until you find meaning there.

Meaning is a peculiar brew of knowledge and feelings. Isn't that the same basic recipe that defines every single one of us? Without that combination of knowledge and emotion, a person is not really a person, and a place is just a speck in the universe.

The stronger the emotions and the deeper the knowledge that bind us to a place, the more meaning we attach to it.

When the tug of emotion is strong, and the place is familiar, our bonds grow, with the most important places eventually looming large, punctuating the landscape of our feelings like so many villages, towns, and cities.

Ultimately, a place becomes home.

It's a simple four-letter word. Yet it means so much.

Leaving home is one of the most important transitions we make.

Leaving our parents' home, finding a home of our own, leaving our own home behind, and eventually finding another. None of this is easy, and it takes time.

It hasn't taken that long, all things considered.

Toronto is beginning to feel like home.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Eureka!!!

Toronto is not Montreal. I suppose that's painfully obvious, and it's a really good thing that that's the way it is. If Toronto were just like Montreal, that would mean be one less place worth visiting, and how sad would that be?

Wouldn't it be great though, if a passionate ex-Montrealer could get some really good Montreal comfort food in Toronto? 

That's how I came to my quest to find Montreal smoked meat in Toronto good enough to justify going out of my way to get it. A wiser more realistic person (not to say a pessimist) probably should have said to themself "if you really want good smoked meat, GO TO MONTREAL!" But I'm not one to give up quite so easily. That's why Susan and I headed to Caplansky's Delicatessen.






Thursday, October 13, 2016

Rider profile: Steve Liard

Name: Steve Liard
Find me on Earth: 43.6532° N, 79.3832° W
Find me Online: Aside from this interview and my Toronto Moto Scooter Club profile you'll have to find me on the road
Interview Date: October 10, 2016
Interview Location: Toronto Moto Scooter Club ride to Wasaga Beach




Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Free lunch, of a sort...

That's the way Ed put it, when he sent me a link to a call for participants in a 'popular Canadian culinary competition'.

They were looking for eaters not cookers, hence the 'free lunch'. I've been training for a chance like this three times a day for more than 60 years. You can imagine how quickly I took the bait.

http://masterchefcanada.ctv.ca/

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Scribbled - Vespas hauling stuff

Let's say you ride to the hardware store because, Vespa.

Well actually because you need some stuff to remediate the drippy thing that disposes of condensate from the heat exchanger thing-a-ma-jig on the home comfort system.

And let's say that you decide you need a four or five foot long piece of PVC. You kinda know you chose the Vespa over the SUV, but you feel that you need the PVC pipe, and so, what the hell, you buy it, because, well, Vespa.

Riding home I thought, what if I decided I needed an eight or even ten foot long section of PVC? I would have gone vertical.

You can haul telephone systems too. Oh, and by some accounts, Christmas trees.

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Aliens among us!


It was late on a balmy summer evening. I was fifteen years old, hanging out with my friends and neighbors' kids on the street. The day's light was fading fast. Soon it was too dark to continue playing catch.

Someone glanced at the darkened sky "Hey guys, what the heck is that?"

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

An eyewitness account of Toronto's 2016 Distinguished Gentleman's Ride

If you need to raise a significant amount of cash to fund research and treatment, year after year, after year, you have to get creative. It's simply no longer enough to knock on doors and beg.

Getting it done means seizing the public's imagination.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Rockin' the DGR!

If you're wondering why I am so excited about participating in the upcoming 2016 Distinguished Gentleman's Ride, feast your eyes on this. If you want an update on how my fundraising campaign is going click on this:

The 2016 Distinguished Gentleman's Ride


Ten great videos of past Rides in...

Sydney



Monday, September 12, 2016

A cure for the hots!

A lot has happened in the past week. Let's see...

My sponsors stepped up and increased my total amount raised for the September 25th Distinguished Gentleman's Ride by over $600! You will recall that last week I reported on the minus side of the equation that my Vespa GTS, my steed for the Ride, had sprung a coolant leak. Here's where you find out how that tiresome distraction is working out.


Thursday, September 8, 2016

ART

waking up the city!

When I say art moves me, it's not just painting, it's also music.

I listen to the radio, like most people, I collect CDs, and I purchase songs and albums in the iTunes store.

As with my collection of museum photos that cycle on our television and computer screens, my music collection streams from our iMac to fill our three-story townhouse. I use a combination of the following tools and systems:

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

ART

and a hot Vespa

Art, in all of its forms, moves me. I believe artists make some of the most important contributions to society. They play a key role, yet they are, for the most part, not compensated enough for their work.

There was a cartoon, most likely Dilbert, or the Far Side. Its punch line was  '... will work for recognition'. Even on that non-monetary scale, artists are often left wanting. The well-deserved recognition that some eventually earn, only comes when they are dead and long gone.

Susan and I are amateur art collectors. We have a modest art budget, and we agonize over the works we purchase, yet we are slowly but surely running out of wall space to display our collection. This considerably raises the stakes and makes any decision to purchase a new piece all the more difficult. In spite of our limitations, we are always on the hunt.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Bluetooth adventures with Ed and David

I've mentioned before that this journal changes so much in my life, for the better.

It teaches me how to inform and entertain. It earns me friendships to treasure. It allows me to speak up when I have concerns great or small. It's a way for me to share life's challenges and heartbreaks. It teaches me how to be grateful and how to pay tribute. It opens undreamed-of vistas. It helps me to adapt to life's constant change with optimism for the years ahead.

Ed Kilner is one of the friends who emerged from the process of this journal. I first met Ed on my grand 2013 tour. I stopped by briefly as I swung through Toronto headed south of the border to meet with up Bob and Karen in Pennsylvania. Then Ed dropped by our home in Montreal on his way to the Maritimes. Once Susan and I moved to Toronto, it was just a question of time before I would hit the road to explore my new home with Ed as my guide.

I owe Ed an apology for this long-overdue account of our rides exploring the country highways and byways north of the city.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Surfing a wave

Picture this.


It's Monday and I'm in Whistler, British Columbia. God's country.

Days like this come along, but only so often. To be truthful, a day like this has never happened before. I am surfing a magnificent towering wave.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Parking, starting over from scratch

When I was living in Montreal (which was my entire life prior to April), I had a really good grip on parking.

You'd think that parking in a big city was merely science. Ha!

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

The 2016 Distinguished Gentleman's Ride

This is exciting. Don't believe me? Would I stretch the truth? See for yourself. I've added some amazingly cool videos at the end of this post.

It promises to be a brand new experience for me. The exact opposite of riding with all the gear, all the time. Well, not the exact opposite, because the exact opposite would be to do that whole Lady Godiva thing, and well you didn't think I'd be up for that, did you?

Please read on. Your curiosity will be rewarded. This is another kind of 'evergreen' post that I continue to update until I post a follow up post once the 2016 Distinguished Gentleman's Ride enters the record books.

https://www.gentlemansride.com/rider/davidmasseorg

Garbled - No longer!

Relax. I have no intention of foisting another annoying category of blog post on you. This is not about that.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Elmhirst's resort

I decided at the last minute.

There is still so much to do to get our new home to where it needs to be, and Susan and I don't want the work dragging on forever. That why I was reluctant to set out to join fellow members of the Toronto Moto Scooter Club for what was billed as a day long ride. When Susan said I should go, I threw my hat in the ring. I was lucky there was still room for me on the ride.

Monday, July 25, 2016

Scribbled1 - Alternative PokéGame


That's right, it's a PokéCraze. PokémonGo.

Let's say you want to join in the fun, but don't feel like walking around like a zombie with your nose in your phone. Here's what I recommend. It is (so far) endless fun.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

The Quest

A deeply rooted part of us is programmed to seek out and explore new worlds. That aspect of our humanity dreams of setting off in search of distant new places, even when they may, or may not, exist.

When the quest is very long and expensive, and the time comes to render a satisfactory account of the adventure to an overbearing potentate with a fickle disposition, we don't hesitate to lie in the most mesmerizing way. And that's how the Montreal suburb of Lachine got its name. When the impassible eponymous rapids brought the early French explorers to a full stop on the new continent, they named the place where they hit the wall "China  - La Chine". There you go King Francis, mission accomplished! Finding a new route to India was another major 16th century mission foiled in large measure because the new world turned out to be not even remotely close to India. And that's how the native people of North America came to be Indians.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

It's a small world, after all

It was 1964. I was twelve.

It just occurred to me that if I had been the same age then as I am now, I would have been born in 1900. Now that is weird.

We were in New York City for the World's Fair. That's where the future as I know it (which is now) coalesced.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Smoque N' Bones

Graffiti off Queen street in Toronto
 One of the many perqs of being a father, is Father’s Day.

We deserve that day.

I say that because by the time our kids are grown and off on their own, our hair is gray, our joints sometimes fail to cooperate as they once did, and we don’t always hear every little detail going on in our surroundings, we have long since become accustomed to putting our wives and kids first.

This past Father’s Day those I put first, put me first.

How so?

Monday, June 20, 2016

Rider profile: Ed Thomas

Name: Ed Thomas
Find me on Earth: Toronto (Leaside)
Find me Online: No website or blogs.
Interview Date: June 2016
Interview Location: Cyberspace
Copyright - Stephanie Yue

Friday, June 17, 2016

Inspiration

This is just a quick little post for a few things that bear mentioning.

Rachael recently mused about the phrase 'where are you headed?' It's a nice little gem, like most things that Rachael writes about.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

E.M.

Saturday night we got together at Jonathan and Vicky's to celebrate all the family June birthdays over a barbecue, some wine, beer, burgers, grilled chicken, snacks and deserts. The weather cooperated and even after the sun set, the air was warm, humid, and fragrant.

As often happens, the boys gathered on the back porch huddled around the grill as Jonathan performed that ritual guys do of charring all the delicious savory things in sight. The girls were in the living room in a circle around the coffee table. Heaven only knows what the gals were chatting about.

The copyright in all text and photographs, except as noted, belongs to David Masse.