The Colts lost yesterday, making my tickets to the last game virtually worthless. I will not be going and I am doubtful that I will find anyone else willing to go. Why would they? This trainwreck of a season for the Bills in almost over. Just tell me when then have a GM and a coach and a quarterback. I'm not really interested in hearing about much else at the moment.
We felt the effects of the security hype last night coming into Pearson from Moncton. Air Canada ground ops took 75 minutes to get the bags from our flight onto the carousel. That was after a 20 minute taxi to the apron where we waited another 15 minutes for a gate. We touched down at 8.45pm and left the airport around 10.30. The flight itself was about 90 minutes. On the way out, we saw a line-up of maybe 1,500 to 2,000 miserable people with bags, children and no idea if they were going to be able to fly out to their selected US destination.
We are off to Muskoka on Wednesday morning. It will be my 16th consecutive New Year's at the cottage.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Patriots 17, Bills 10
Spent the weekend in the city except we drove to St. Catharines on Sunday morning to see my mom after her latest surgery. 8 operations on her right arm alone since 2002. This was an important one and she's doing pretty well considering everything.
Siobhan has struggled for days now with a 750 word column on the latest developments in research in a journal for library professionals. She says she needs to de-politicize it or tone down the opinions in it so as not to throw off the readership with a return to the old capital/labour struggle. These are librarians after all. She reads me excerpts and then re-drafted excerpts. I say that they represent her research perspective. She says that the field of librarianship is short on Marxists right now so it's a sort of a tough audience for this kind of dialogue. Maybe I'm just used to it.
Well, the Bills last beat the Patriots in the 2003 season opening game. 13 in a row and 19 of 20 now. Moving right along then - next up: at Atlanta to face the Falcons who are also not going to the playoffs. We will be in Moncton, New Brunswick over Christmas then in Muskoka from the 30th to January 3rd, 2010, the date of the last game of the season against Indianapolis.
Siobhan has struggled for days now with a 750 word column on the latest developments in research in a journal for library professionals. She says she needs to de-politicize it or tone down the opinions in it so as not to throw off the readership with a return to the old capital/labour struggle. These are librarians after all. She reads me excerpts and then re-drafted excerpts. I say that they represent her research perspective. She says that the field of librarianship is short on Marxists right now so it's a sort of a tough audience for this kind of dialogue. Maybe I'm just used to it.
Well, the Bills last beat the Patriots in the 2003 season opening game. 13 in a row and 19 of 20 now. Moving right along then - next up: at Atlanta to face the Falcons who are also not going to the playoffs. We will be in Moncton, New Brunswick over Christmas then in Muskoka from the 30th to January 3rd, 2010, the date of the last game of the season against Indianapolis.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Bills 16, Chiefs 10
The OPP asked drivers to avoid the Gravenhurst/Bracebridge/Huntsville area on Friday morning as some areas were forecast to receive 80cm of snow in a 24 hour period. Strong and cold winds blowing over the relatively warm water of Georgian Bay made for perfect lake effect snow conditions with narrow but long bands which reached as far east as Bancroft. Jack-knifed tractor trailers had necessitated periodic highway closures and the police got the message out loud and clear. We left at 10.30am.
We reached Orillia before it even clouded over but at Washago the nasty stuff started. We had made very good time to this point, having completed all of the grocery shopping in Orillia. We hit Washago shortly around 1pm and from there, Highway 11 was a single file line of trucks, 4 x 4's and a few cars inching along through the snow. For all of the remaining hours in the day until when we went to sleep, it snowed very heavily and did not let up for a second. Washago to Gravenhurst took almost an hour but the logjam broke after Gravenhurst as many drivers aborted their journey there - but not us. We carried on and reached the Highway 118 offramp before long but there were several vehicles stopped behind a tractor trailer which was stuck. After about 30 minutes, someone was able to plow around the truck and we were on our way but the adventure had really just begun.
The left turn onto Black River Road from 118 was blocked by a 5 foot tall plow windrow so we started digging with our plastic trunk shovel. I wanted to get the car off the highway as quickly as possible so we dug until I could get most of it out of the westbound lane. Then I put the chains on and the destination was Joe Trinka's driveway - only about 100 metres along - but the snow was too deep for my low clearance car and it just couldn't do more than 10 or 20 feet without a 20 minute excavation exercise every time. A few people live along the Black River Road and before long 3 of them were lined up behind us wondering what has possessed us to even try to drive this car on this road at this time. They tried to pull us but could not. Joe arrived home from negotiating various road closures in Bracebridge in his eventually successful attempt to buy more diesel fuel. He got me out with his heavy duty tractor and plowed enough to allow me to make it to his driveway. The traffic moved, the dogs got out in the snow and we were ready to prepare for the last leg of our journey - walking in to the cottage - 6km through deep snow in the dark with as much of our groceries and clothes as we could manage.
We dragged our stuff into Joe and Amy's mud room from our snow filled car and sorted through everything, packed my old packsack (which I keep in the trunk for this very purpose) and left the rest there. We had frozen lasagne and salad and a bit of milk for breakfast. I had a headlamp. Our winter boots were at the cottage and Siobhan had only running shoes. Joe had plowed the road at lunchtime but there was another 14 inches of snow to trudge through. Our 13 year old Westie, Poppy, had to be carried pretty much the whole way. At about 20 pounds, she's a bit awkward to carry - especially for 6km. We arrived just before 7.30pm or 9 hours after we departed the condo.
Muskoka is an incredible winter wonderland right now as more than a metre of snow had fallen when we left Sunday morning at 10.30am. Outside our lakefront condo: none. It was like we had been in another world for 2 days. Needless to day, it looks like we will have a good ski season again.
The Bills have probably moved down in the draft with their 5th win. The Colts game looks like it could be a chance to see a team trying to finish 16-0. Maybe the Bills will deny them. That would be our Superbowl this year, I guess.
We reached Orillia before it even clouded over but at Washago the nasty stuff started. We had made very good time to this point, having completed all of the grocery shopping in Orillia. We hit Washago shortly around 1pm and from there, Highway 11 was a single file line of trucks, 4 x 4's and a few cars inching along through the snow. For all of the remaining hours in the day until when we went to sleep, it snowed very heavily and did not let up for a second. Washago to Gravenhurst took almost an hour but the logjam broke after Gravenhurst as many drivers aborted their journey there - but not us. We carried on and reached the Highway 118 offramp before long but there were several vehicles stopped behind a tractor trailer which was stuck. After about 30 minutes, someone was able to plow around the truck and we were on our way but the adventure had really just begun.
The left turn onto Black River Road from 118 was blocked by a 5 foot tall plow windrow so we started digging with our plastic trunk shovel. I wanted to get the car off the highway as quickly as possible so we dug until I could get most of it out of the westbound lane. Then I put the chains on and the destination was Joe Trinka's driveway - only about 100 metres along - but the snow was too deep for my low clearance car and it just couldn't do more than 10 or 20 feet without a 20 minute excavation exercise every time. A few people live along the Black River Road and before long 3 of them were lined up behind us wondering what has possessed us to even try to drive this car on this road at this time. They tried to pull us but could not. Joe arrived home from negotiating various road closures in Bracebridge in his eventually successful attempt to buy more diesel fuel. He got me out with his heavy duty tractor and plowed enough to allow me to make it to his driveway. The traffic moved, the dogs got out in the snow and we were ready to prepare for the last leg of our journey - walking in to the cottage - 6km through deep snow in the dark with as much of our groceries and clothes as we could manage.
We dragged our stuff into Joe and Amy's mud room from our snow filled car and sorted through everything, packed my old packsack (which I keep in the trunk for this very purpose) and left the rest there. We had frozen lasagne and salad and a bit of milk for breakfast. I had a headlamp. Our winter boots were at the cottage and Siobhan had only running shoes. Joe had plowed the road at lunchtime but there was another 14 inches of snow to trudge through. Our 13 year old Westie, Poppy, had to be carried pretty much the whole way. At about 20 pounds, she's a bit awkward to carry - especially for 6km. We arrived just before 7.30pm or 9 hours after we departed the condo.
Muskoka is an incredible winter wonderland right now as more than a metre of snow had fallen when we left Sunday morning at 10.30am. Outside our lakefront condo: none. It was like we had been in another world for 2 days. Needless to day, it looks like we will have a good ski season again.
The Bills have probably moved down in the draft with their 5th win. The Colts game looks like it could be a chance to see a team trying to finish 16-0. Maybe the Bills will deny them. That would be our Superbowl this year, I guess.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Jets 19, Bills 13
I traded our tickets to the game to Dennis for a pair of good Raptors tickets. Then, Brian asked me to go with him so I saw the game from the endzone. A much better game than last year's excruciating JP Losman debacle against Miami. And, I think I heard the crowd making a faint but noticeable murmur on Jets third downs - something which was absent last year. The Bills scored a touchdown for heaven's sake in this game and it was close until the last interception with around 2 minutes left. It looked to me like the number of empty seats was about the same as last year. Overall, if last year's game was a 1 out of ten, this one was a 3.5. A long way to go before it offers a home field advantage for the Bills but I would very cautiously say that it's going in the right direction.
The Bills are 4-8 now. Perry Fewell is 1-1. The Shanahan speculation has tailed off. I don't know what to think or what to hope for over the last 4 games. I still have the tickets for the Colts game on January 3rd.
We arrived Friday night at the cottage to find about an inch of snow - not enough to effect the road but enough to transform the look of the forest. Another inch overnight Saturday night and then 6 more inches in a couple of hours in the early afternoon. With the temperature around -2, I couldn't get up the driveway so it was on with the chains and out we went. Full winter conditions along Hwy 118 but no snow south of Orillia really. The biking season should be over now. I hope we have to get the skis out next time we're up.
The Bills are 4-8 now. Perry Fewell is 1-1. The Shanahan speculation has tailed off. I don't know what to think or what to hope for over the last 4 games. I still have the tickets for the Colts game on January 3rd.
We arrived Friday night at the cottage to find about an inch of snow - not enough to effect the road but enough to transform the look of the forest. Another inch overnight Saturday night and then 6 more inches in a couple of hours in the early afternoon. With the temperature around -2, I couldn't get up the driveway so it was on with the chains and out we went. Full winter conditions along Hwy 118 but no snow south of Orillia really. The biking season should be over now. I hope we have to get the skis out next time we're up.
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