Homeward Bound plus more
I a short while ago took a visit back to Ontario Canada to explore with my family and also with some old friends I once worked with in the field of comic book publishing. It was an insightful week with lunches with my Dad and a saturday and sunday train ride into Toronto with an old friend to be awarded with a Hall of Fame Citation for my achievements in the early days in the indie side of comic books.
Packing for a trip is always frenzied and I always seem to leave it until the final minute, and then try to plan in advance for the weather three thousand miles away. I have came to understand over the years to travel in comfort. I always wear a pair of cozy stretch pants on the journey, after a couple of years in a row of having the metal brads in my jeans set off the metal alarms at airports. It does not hurt that they look sleek and make it easy for me to stretch out a little in the back of the plane on long trips.
Slip off shoes have of course become almost a necessity when traveling, so I always find myself having to pack my walking shoes and wear some simple slipper type shoe for the flight. I was contemplating on doing some gardening at the house my brother is house-sitting for my traveling sister and her husband, and my family loves to walk and talk, so a dependable pair of shoes would be essential to this trip.
There is something almost enchanting about walking through a community you lived in almost thirty years ago, talking with family and just observing the modifications in the town. The first thing my brother Michael and I did after my five hour airline flight was take a prolonged two hour walk into town, via the town park and back to the house where I would be staying for the extent of the trip. Just the act of walking around, after a day coping with airports and customs, sitting and breathing recycled air for five hours is enough to refresh your body and mind.
Recognizing that I would have a handful of days of gardening, an activity I have missed since moving into my apartment, was also a thought that reinvigorated me. I may sit and write about horticulture for my organic garden fertilizer site and my grass seed planting tips site, but nothing beats the real thing! Fingers in dirt, unveiling a full season of growth since the snows receded and trimming back spent spring bulbs to discover a new crop of wild strawberries emerging in the front yard rock garden. That is my concept of a great day.
On the weekend, I took the train up to Toronto with my old close friend Sally and we checked into the hotel that the Joe Schuster Canadian Comic Book Awards show had booked for us. It was so fun hanging out in Toronto, a city I used to love to pay a visit to when I lived in Kitchener but had not been to for practically thirty years. We walked through Kensington Market, dined at a little outdoor cafe that served delightful Indian food, and appreciated the sixties flashback quality of that multi-colored vibrant area. We passed street musicians in tie-dyed t shirts, women in multi-colored long skirts and hair, bell-bottomed college kids offering and buying goods from open-air markets, and chalkboard sandwich boards proclaiming what neighborhood bands would be performing at the coffee shops and pubs that night. The air was filled with the fragrance of delicious coffee, Indian spices, fresh baked bread and incense. The sidewalks were so congested you had to share the narrow streets with the cars and bicycles to get from place to place.
It was a perfect afternoon to lead up to the awards show. We came back to our hotel, changed into our dresses and headed out to the University Hall where the Awards Show was happening. It was a small event, maybe 75 people there in all, but well ordered and it was lovely to see the work of the new kids who were honored for best cover, best kids comic book, best writer, penciller, inker and of course best comic series. There were more than a few people being inducted in the Hall of Fame, some I knew and some I simply knew their work. I had not written any kind of thank you speech, not being sure how that section of the award show would be managed. But everything went easily, I was able to draw on everyone elses comments when they received their award, and even to talk on stage with my presenter.
It is funny- I am always concerned about it, but never really nervous when I have to speak before a crowd. But I never recall what I say so I have to measure by what people say after if I was worthwhile. But everyone at the tavern after the function thanked me, so guess I did okay. Thank goodness that in this day and age a person is always video taping something like this and I could check out my talk on the internet at YouTube after I got home. Nothing unique, but at least I did not sound like an idiot.
The train back to Kitchener was relaxing and Sally and I had more time to catch up on each others lives and theorize how we might do more traveling together in the next year or two. Back in Kitchener, I had time to spend with my Dad, who at 93 is still beating everyone at bridge and shooting pool with a bunch of young whipper-snappers in their eighties. I hope I am half as productive at being a senior as he is.
I even had a bit of time to start my laptop, brought in the mistaken idea I would get several hours of work done each day while I was there. But I did get a bit of work done revamping one of my internet sites about building an interlocking retaining wall. It is always fun to spend some time researching something you do not know and discovering from the research so I can write articles on the resources and building principles used for these walls. That is what I love about developing these sites I am always discovering something new. And that is what makes these trips so interesting too. I get some time for new learning, old reminiscing and time with my family members all mixed together. What could be better!
