Spilt Milk

It was a long time after the trade before Kawhi showed his face, which gave me the very distinct impression he wasn’t happy to be coming to Toronto. Now, he’s history. Thanks for stopping by, Kawhi.

During his season here - albeit a championship one - the city - the entire country - poured out its love for Kawhi. Condos, free restaurant meals, plants; you name it, and he was offered it by excited basketball fans!

Now, most conciliatory Canadians have accepted that he wanted to go home. I think as a professional athlete, having achieved what he did with this city, this country and his teammates, he could have - and should have - easily done one more year to thank Canadian fans for the support they showed him and to make it clear to fans that the city, the country, the team and the championship, meant more to him than a mere fling he was coerced into by a trade.

Of course, unless you’re Canadian, you can’t know what it means to be appreciated by our entire country. You have to understand how big and magnificent our country is before you can have any sense of the breadth of appreciation being showered upon you.

True, I got a Raptors NBA championship t-shirt out of the deal, but I haven’t worn it yet. It’s a heckuva nice shirt, but wearing it just seems to advertise the fact that it ain’t happening again because Kawhi bailed. There are certainly some pretty high-flying memories too, but they’re tainted by the absence of key players.

Remember that guy, Kawhi?

Even before the season ended, like so many other fans, I hoped he was going to stay. His time here would mean so much more. Same thing for the playoffs. I kept saying to my wife and son, it would feel pretty lousy to win the championship and have him leave. It would be as if he was unwillingly detoured here, lifted us out of our mediocrity and then, just as quickly, dropped us back in it before resuming his trajectory of choice. From a fan’s point of view, that’s not exactly a dream “team” scenario. Sure, they functioned as a team during the regular season and playoffs, but, to me, there always seemed to be instances where it felt like Kawhi was apart.

I got a t-shirt, but I would have preferred getting a team out of that championship year, one that is happy to be playing for their stoked fans and one that’s excited to take at least one more run at a championship next season. Imagine having a “team-by-choice” win a second championship to go along with the one won by a “team-by-trade”.

It’s possible Raptors players, having seen basketball greatness up close, have learned more about what it takes, in terms of mental toughness and physical performance, to pursue a championship. I am certain the Toronto players are better for what they observed.

As I said in my tweets and to friends during the regular season and playoffs, Kyle is the steady heart and soul of the Raptors. He’s invested seven seasons here and it means a lot to me as a fan that he chose to spend his time and energy in Canada. He has said he would like to stay here longer term and I hope they can make that happen at the end of the season.

If Toronto never wins another championship, Kawhi will have been a fortuitous blip in its basketball legacy. If Toronto wins a bunch more championships, Kawhi will have been that load-managed loaner who hightailed it out of here as soon as he got the chance. One more year, a decision to stay here by choice, would have made it mean so much more.

If Kawhi wins a bunch more championships, Toronto will have been a fortuitous but largely overshadowed blip in his basketball legacy. It will likely mean more to Toronto than to Kawhi. If he never wins another championship, Toronto will have been a fortuitous blip in his basketball legacy. It may mean more to Kawhi than to Toronto.

Will he ever have the adulation of an entire nation again? It’s possible, but not likely. Be that as it may, it’s spilt milk.

My wife says even though he’s gone, Kawhi has been saying all these nice things about Toronto and Canada. I say - actions speak louder than words.

Truth is, I’m trying not to dwell on it. Kawhi bother.

The Reacher Creature

There was considerable muttering on her part once the first movie came out. She made it very clear that, for her, Jack Reacher and Tom Cruise did not equate. Even though I could not understand why she found the choice of actor so immensely disconcerting, I was pretty sure that had I known what she knew, I would indubitably agree.

When the second movie came out, the indignant muttering persisted. She was completely annoyed by the casting of Cruise as Jack Reacher, the character she had come to know and appreciate over the course of twenty novels by Lee Child.

The Reacher paperbacks I've read

Every now and then, the topic would resurface. We might be watching a Tom Cruise movie, or she might be reading a new Jack Reacher novel. She had urged me several times to read one of the novels so that I might offer an enlightened perspective on her source of dismay. Last August, I finally agreed to read a story starring Jack Reacher.

I read “Midnight Line”, at the time, the latest of the Jack Reacher novels. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed him.

Then Susan suggested I start at the beginning of the series, which I did. The first book, a little too gruesome for my liking, is titled, “Killing Floor”.  You never know what the book plots will bring, I’ve learned to “hope for the best and prepare for the worst”.

Eight Reacher novels in, I got a Kindle for Christmas

Lee Child explains the thinking behind his creation of the Jack Reacher character, “I wanted the kind of vicarious satisfaction that comes from seeing bad guys getting their heads handed to them by a wrong-righter even bigger and harder than them.” In one of the novels, Reacher is described this way, “He was huge, for a start. He was one of the largest men she had ever seen outside of the NFL. He was extremely tall, and extremely broad, and long-armed, and long-legged. The lawn chair was regular size, but it looked tiny under him. It was bent and crushed out of shape. His knuckles were nearly touching the ground. His neck was thick and his hands were the size of dinner plates. His clothes were creased and dirty. His hair was matted.”

Like Susan, I’m just not seeing Tom Cruise.

Here are some other descriptive phrases written by Child about Reacher, “Reacher was a big man, six feet five inches tall, heavily built, and that night as always he looked a little ragged and unkempt.” and “He had hands the size of supermarket chickens”.

Cruise don’t cut it.

I’ve sorta got hooked on Reacher; not the movie Reacher, the book Reacher. I’m a fan. When I’m not reading a Jack Reacher story, I miss him. I wonder what he’s up to. I wonder if he’s ok and who might be depending on him, for better or for worse, for justice and protection. I cheer for him. 

I’ve been binge reading - blowing through the Jack Reacher stories one after the other. I’m about to start “Make Me”. I’ve read a variety of authors, including Wilbur Smith and Irving Stone. Certainly, Lee Child’s writing is more functional, but I don’t need more than that and Reacher wouldn’t want more than that.

We occasionally discuss better casting choices. I could accept Liam Neeson in the role, while Susan is leaning more toward Chris Hemsworth.

I always look forward to the next Jack Reacher novel but, due to the aforementioned casting incongruities, I can’t possibly say the same for the movies.

One Wallet To Go

Hark!

As of yesterday, I have successfully reassembled the important cards contained in my wallet, after having it stolen a couple of weeks ago.

Driver’s permit replaced? Check.

Bank client card replaced? Check.

Credit card replaced? Check.

Health insurance card replaced? As of yesterday, check!

My social insurance card was not in my wallet when it was stolen Friday March 29^th.

My wife and I had decided to stop at a restaurant in Laval for supper. We sat in the corner window at a table with four chairs around it. I sat in a chair directly opposite my wife and draped my coat over the back of the empty chair to my left. We finished eating and we drove home. Later that night, my son texted me to go pick him up at the train station, at which point I began searching for my wallet.

When I got back home, I retraced the events of the evening in my mind, in hopes of figuring out what happened to my wallet. I remembered that, at one point during our meal at the restaurant, someone seemed to sit very close to our table. The person had backed their chair up against the chair with my coat on it. I remember thinking that the restaurant must be getting crowded. A few moments later, I noticed that the people who'd been sitting at that table were gone, with no trace they had even eaten. I remember thinking at the time that it was strange.

The next day, Saturday, I met with a Laval police officer at the restaurant and explained my theory that someone may have pickpocketed my coat as it was draped over a chair while we ate. Police checked the videotape in the restaurant and discovered that is exactly what happened!

Two men sat down at a table near us. One was facing us and the other had his back to us. The one facing us signaled to the other when it was safe to reach behind and dig into my coat pockets. The suspects were quick, coming into the restaurant and leaving with my wallet within three minutes.

By the time I cancelled it late Friday night, the suspects had racked up $531 in charges on my credit card, including $125 at an Ultramar. Police checked the videotape at the gas station listed on my credit card bill, but were unable to pull a complete plate number. They used footage of the suspects’ faces coming into the restaurant to identify one of them and the individual was arrested. Last I heard, the thief was to appear for a bail hearing.

Thankfully, my bank told me I was not liable for the charges on my credit card.

Laval police Constable Rick Green was amazing, keeping us in the loop all the way through the investigation. Knowing authorities were actively investigating the theft made it much easier to bear. Thank-you to Laval police and Constable Green for his professionalism and empathy.

My son had his wallet stolen out of our driveway several months earlier.

In his song “Where Have All the Good People Gone?”, rocker Sam Roberts sings “the modern world is a cold, cold world.” For us anyway, one police officer made it a little warmer.

A Beauty and A Beast

She works out at a gym Saturday mornings. She works out every day of the week. Saturday mornings, just because she is working out and the guilt of not working out is too much to bear, I drag myself out of bed and punt myself down the stairs and into the car. I do not like going to the gym - hence the hashtag #cursetheworkout - which I always tag onto my workout-related tweets.

I worked out last Saturday morning because, as usual, my wife was already out there with her trainer doing a private workout. Her dedication to fitness really does inspire me to workout. In fact, she continues to inspire a lot of people to workout. It’s pretty cool. Last Sunday morning, she wanted to go to the gym so, muttering under my breath, I went back.

Photo by @northsideways

Put me down for two days in a row – yay.

If I happen to be on the treadmill at the gym and she gets on the treadmill beside me, it can be downright humiliating and scary, not necessarily in that order. While I’m casually jogging on my treadmill, she is blistering along at incredible speeds, her legs blurring as the gym staff eye their roaring and overworked machine, fire extinguishers in hand.

Half-joking, I have asked her not to run on the treadmill beside me. Last Sunday, I was on the treadmill. She approached the treadmill beside me and before stepping onto it, she looked at me and sweetly inquired, “Would it be ok if I use this treadmill as long as I don’t run fast?” Relieved, I indicated that would not be a problem.

A few moments later, as I shifted my attention away from my lazy jog, I looked over at her, to discover she was hopping sideways while running and then adding lunges to her run. Feeling that familiar inadequacy, I suddenly found myself wishing she was sprinting beside me instead. Better to be shown up by straightforward running as opposed to a flurry of fancy footwork! 

There’s no competition, she insists. She’s just a beast being beastly.

I can't argue with that.

One Very Important Truth

Make no mistake, I do not typically bound about merrily praising automotive industry executives. I have never had any reason to praise any within their breed. However, and much to my surprise, I have run into an exception. I am not so much praising the executive as much as I’m praising what he said to other automotive industry bigwigs.

His comments this week made me want to position my person in an arabesque on my rotatable office chair - as it rotates – while holding a note in my best soprano voice. In the end, I didn’t perch; I more crouched and, silently, held on tight.

Toyota Canada Newsroom

Larry Hutchinson spelled out what I have been saying all along, namely, enough with the self-driving contraptions - let's drive baby! The President and CEO of Toyota Canada says that in the race to achieve fully automated vehicles, the industry has forgotten one very important truth - people still like to drive. I am, unshakably, one of those people and, try as I might, I cannot suppress the symphony of sweetly serenading violins I hear in my head as I read chunks of his speech...

"The proposition that, given a choice, people would prefer to be idle occupants of a pod… that's not Toyota's vision… not even close. As other automakers are working on vehicles that drive themselves - turning us into passive passengers - we're incorporating advanced automated safety technologies in ways that enhance, rather than deaden, the driving experience."

Larry declares, “I don’t believe in pods”. Neither do I, Larry, and thank-you for your unflinching vision. In my June 3rd blog last year, titled "Make It Stop", I tried to make that very point.

Pampering passengers with pillows in self-propelled pods is pure piffle; I much prefer pressing pedals! And as long as I can work the pedals that matter in my life, whether they be bass drum and hi hat - or brake, clutch and gas - know this - I will be there at every and any opportunity to leave pod people in our dust.

Escalating the Situation

I hope Fabio forks out some serious coin. 

Paying a Supreme Court-ordered monetary award to Bela Kosoian will give him something useful to do, which will probably be a nice change from his usual agenda.

He was apparently having one of his usual days on the job back in 2009 when he had nothing better to do than hassle Bela Kosoian for failing to hold the handrail on an escalator in a Laval metro station.

No one friggin’ holds the handrail and they shouldn’t have to.

Photo: Bobby Button

She was arrested, detained, ticketed and, no doubt, subjected to the idiotic ramblings of two clearly underworked, power-tripping cops. It’s hard to believe those kind of police officers are out there with all the serious trouble either happening, or brewing, in our streets. And I don’t mean jaywalking.

I’m almost tempted to agree with Bela when she refused to identify herself to these morons. Identifying yourself at that point prolongs the stupidity and opens you up to more of their abuse. 

That the Supreme Court has agreed to hear Bela Kosoian’s case is awesome news!

Fabio and his fellow cop gave Bela a $320 ticket for obstructing the work of an inspector and a $100 ticket for disobeying a pictogram. She was acquitted of both infractions and proceeded to file a $45,000 lawsuit against the city of Laval, the Montreal Transit Corporation and officer Fabio Camacho. You go girl!

Two lower courts rejected her lawsuit because, evidently, they were presided over by judges who either always use handrails when they ride metro escalators, or never ride the metro. One of the judges ruled the officer had reasonable grounds to believe that an infraction had been committed. Well, if that’s the case, Fabio better hurry back to the metro station right away because I have reasonable grounds to believe the same infraction is being committed on a daily basis by tens of thousands of metro users, up and down Montreal metro lines.

If you’re going to assign police officers to patrol metro stations, they should have some basic discretion. Assigning dunces to the job does nothing for the image of police officers or for the advancement of effective police work. Hopefully, the highest court in the land will agree that, even on the prized escalator beat, pointless policing is a step in the wrong direction.

Lowell the Mole

Even before I had a child to read to, I enjoyed rhyming and the sound of words. I wrote poetry in high school and college. Once in my university career, I got an A++ and that was for a children’s story I wrote for my university children’s literature course. When she didn’t feel well, I would read “Winnie the Pooh” to the woman who became my wife. When we had a son, I loved reading Dr Seuss and Sandra Boynton to him. I always wished I could contribute fun children’s books. For years, I sent stories I’d written to publishers, only to have them rejected for a variety of reasons, some vague and some pointed. 

I decided to hire an illustrator so that I could see what one of my books would look like. I was fortunate to find the incredibly talented Stephanie Lambert. A friend printed a few copies for me and I took those around to publishing houses, only to field the same rejections. Last year, I decided to try to put out a book myself. I wrote “Lowell the Mole” in 2000 and it’s arriving in stores now. Early in 2019, I plan to publish a second story. For people who like reading aloud to their children and who would like their children to learn new words in a fun way – I believe my book does the trick. 

On Saturday September 22nd, I will be at Babar Books in Pointe-Claire for a reading/signing. I want to thank Babar Books for the exciting opportunity. I think children from ages 4 to 10 will have fun at the event, but everyone’s welcome! On Saturday September 29th, I will be at Indigo downtown as part of an event there. Come stop by if you’re so inclined. I hope to have other events coming up. If you’d like to keep in touch, follow my Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram accounts.

There are lots of inspirational, and true, quotes about “trying”. I'd like to think it's better to take a run at it than not to.