1000th Post

This is my 1000th post. I started this blog on September 12th, 2009. It took me 14 and a quarter years to reach this point.

I originally came up with the idea after doing something called the Ways2Work program, a pre-employment service for youth who didn't have a path forward after highschool. We used to do something called "check in" each morning where we would go around the circle and talk about what had happened to us the previous day.

Before attending Ways2Work, I had spent some time feeling lost and depressed after graduating highschool and breaking up with my first girlfriend. I couldn't keep track of time, and things fell into a sort of miasma. But when I was in this group I felt compelled to find something that I could at least speak to each morning, so I had something to say during check in.

After completing the program, my life became structureless again. This blog was made as a way of recreating that sense of continuity that Ways2Work's check in sessions provided me. Inspiration to do something worth talking about every day.

I originally named it "Lair of the Gryphon", a reference to an earlier blog I'd made on LiveJournal called "Lair of the Rat Sage". I don't know why I defined myself as such. That one had a similar initial purpose, but spiraled into my hyperfixation at the time, which was book reviews.

Eventually, I renamed this blog as "the Gryphon's Perch" after many years being known by its prior title. Originally, the subtext was "A daily blog about my life". Once I'd established a career in social work, I had to consider large amounts of my life confidential, causing updates to become less frequent.

This place has never been a huge public draw, although it has had two spikes in readership. After doing Canada World Youth, I spoke a lot on my experience in the village of Karadie, the only person at the time to do so. This meant that I'd be a primary source on Google for future teams going there. A lot of people in my own group found the blog ahead of time too. I also got some attention from people wanting to attend the Social Service Worker program at Conestoga College for the same reason. I've had two fans that I didn't know reach out to me.

At its prime, this blog was getting 600+ views per post. It's still one of the first hits if you Google "Gryphon Sibbald". Due to what I assume was caused by long breaks and inconsistency, it has dwindled to like... 10 on average. Some content was also filtered away after I made four satellite blogs: 

The Migrating Gryphon, originally KatimaGryphon, based on travelling and is simply an amalgation of my experiences in Katimavik and Canada World Youth. I was the group journalist in both programs and simply copy/pasted my entries into these for preservation. If I ever travel again, I'll update it again. As is, I haven't posted anything since graduating Canada World Youth. It was my first satellite, but the only one that isn't currently active.

Gryphon's Gallery, which started off based on photos. At first mostly from my neighbourhood in Guelph, just trotting around snapping pics on an old point-and-shoot camera. Eventually it expanded to include paintings when I got into that.

Gryphon's Reviews, harkening back to Lair of the Rat Sage. No one ever really liked this content, so I decided to spare the few regulars I get here and sequestered it in its own blog. Not just books now, it can cover anything.

Gryphood, my most recent but second most active blog, after this one. I found online recipes annoying, so I reformat them in a way that makes better sense for my brain. It started off as a pandemic hobby, but it became useful in adjusting to my life with Lee-Anne, and also to my diabetes diagnosis. I've also made a personal hard copy version.

I'm kay with the decline in readership on my main blog. The only views I cared about were those coming from my grandparents, who have kept up with my updates enthusiastically. One of those people was my granddad, who lost his ability to keep up as dementia set in, and who passed this December 23rd.

The original intent of this blog was to ensure that I had something to talk about every day, and it achieved that purpose. Once my life sped up and I no longer needed it as a tool for that, it became more about honing and maintaining my writing ability.

For this 1000th post, I am going to overview each year that it has been published and give a summary.

2009

I picked up Karate this year and talked a lot about that. I would later drop it for Katimavik, get back into it a bit after graduating, drop it again for Canada World Youth, and then never pick it up again. I did visit the dojo a few times after, and one of the instructors would later go to the same college as me, so we got to catch up.

I kept the friends I made there in an email chain when I was doing my two youth programs. I still have my old sensei as a Facebook friend. He stopped doing martial arts at some point, got into cars, and the dojo eventually closed. He's also now married to a friend of one of my coworkers.

I also talked about a small entrepreneurial business my mom had with a family friend. It was LGBTQ+ based homemade jewellery that they sold at the farmer's market. I helped making some of the items. My Oma still wears earrings from that old business sometimes.

I did my Katimavik paperwork but don't think I got accepted this year. I started my gallery blog. Me and my father reunited.

Something I noticed is that I spoke a lot more vulgarly. This makes sense, as I wasn't worried about maintaining a professional voice at the time.

2010

I got accepted into Katimavik, a youth travel-volunteer program where you are randomly given three destinations across Canada, living and traveling with a group of people. You're assigned a work placement at a non-profit organization and do volunteer events and workshops on evenings and weekends. People in the house take turns as House Manager, who get to take a week off work so that they can take on most of the responsibilities for cooking and cleaning.

Our first rotation was in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. My placement was at Community Connections, a day program for people with developmental disabilities. I liked it so much it was an inspiration for me to go to college for social work, and my career path wound up being with this population.

Second rotation was Thunder Bay, Ontario. My placement was with the Regional Distribution Food Association, better known as the RFDA. It was like the food bank for food banks.

Third rotation was Chisasibi, Cree Nation, North Quebec. We didn't get placements here, instead we had three major projects. One was helping to overseee a powwow, another was living in a traditionally Cree way on an island called Fort George, and another was helping to look after kids at a summer camp.

I was selected as the Chairman for the Katimavik Communication Counsel twice. I also became the resident bread baker. We weren't allowed to purchase processed food unless it was donated as a gift, so everything had to be homemade. For a long time after this, I would only eat homemade bread, and I loved giving it to people randomly. It's an easy thing to do, and no one ever forgets that you did it for them. The first recipe I uploaded to Gryphood was "Katimabread". When I was interested in Lee-Anne, I made her a loaf of bread. After the diabetes diagnosis, I chilled out with this. 

Mom got her Hepatitus C diagnosis this year. They got evicted from our apartment within a week of me leaving for Katimavik. While I was gone, they moved into the place that burned down this year.

After completing Katimavik, I applied to and was accepted into its sister program, Canada World Youth. But because my mom was struggling with her Hep C treatment, I rejected the offer and decided to stay back until she was well.

2011

I got my first real, full-time work this year. It was at Linamar, a car parts manufacturing factory, at their LPP branch. Got it through a temp agency. I put springs and rockers into car axels and clutches

I also made the notorious post "Depressiion", on January 16. I have opted not to take it down, but it was pretty humiliating. I got blackout drunk and made a post that starts out pretty coherent but which spirals into nonsense.

I only did that once, but I talked too much about drinking in general. I guess I was newly of age and it still seemed novel. I didn't drink much, but when I did I blogged, and I mentioned it. I don't really do this anymore.

Mom successfully completed her Hepatitus C treatment. She says that she can't remember anything from the year she went through it, or the one after. Even after you recover from the disease, it takes time to come back from the treatment. 

In the back half of the year, I did Canada World Youth. In this one, you live for three months with a host family and someone from another country somewhere in Canada. Then you and the person you were living with go live somewhere in their country.

I was selected to stay in La Pocatiere, Quebec, and live with someone from Mali, a West African country. We worked as florists. Then we went to the village of Karadie, as I mentioned earlier in this blog, and worked as agriculturalists. 

2012

This year had more updates by far than any other to date, with a staggering 163! My grandma printed out all the entries I did on my Malian experience and it was over 200 pages! That's a novel!

Even though I'd completed the program, most of my updates were about Canada World Youth. I'd updated my travel blog in La Pocatiere, but we didn't have Internet access in Karadie, so I had to wait to write on the experience. When I got back, I had things to say!

This was the year I went to my grandparents place in Northern Ontario so that my grandpa could teach me how to drive. I wound up failing "without making any disqualifying errors, but an accumulation of minor ones". I still don't have the next level of my license! Took another crack at it this year but because of some clerical stuff, I wasn't able to test.

Mali had a military coup this year, creating the breakaway nation of Azawad. This wound up not lasting long term.

Canada discontinued pennies.

It was reported that someone in my Canada World Youth group had contracted Cutaneous Leishmaniasis, and we were all to see a doctor immediately. Because I'd developed the same symptoms as someone else in the program, I contacted him to ask if he was the one that got the diagnosis. He had.

I saw my family doctor, who referred me to a specialist for my "scaly, multiplaying red leisions". That guy would delay my appointment twice, far beyond the recommended period Canada World Youth had told us to get checked. When I finally did see him, he said that whatever it was, my body had fought it off. I told him what the going theory was, and he seemed agitated that I had an opinion on the matter.

After this, I wouldn't see my family doctor for ten years. At this time, she read the notes this specialist made, and he'd copied what I told him, but wrote it as his own thoughts! Like a joke that took ten years to tell.

The infection left a ring of blotchy red markings around my ankle for years. I liked them, but at some point they decided to heal. I didn't know scars could do that.

I applied for Conestoga College's Social Service Worker Program. Despite it saying they were still accepting applicants, I was rejected based on the fact that I applied "past the time of equal consideration". They offered me the Human Services Foundation college certificate program as compensation until I could apply for my preference the next year. It didn't seem financially responsible to do an additional year of college when it was unknown if I would need to do it, but at the time I was just so sick of factory work that I took the plunge.

I moved into Student Residence.

I got my first cell phone this year. I quickly noticed that everyone else had one. I went out and got the cheapest pay-as-you-go plan I could find. I got a flip phone, which was outdated even by the standards of the time. I liked it though. I only had to charge it once a week, instead of once a day. It was durable and I replaced it when I was ready to upgrade to a smart phone, not because it broke. Sometimes I miss it.

My Great Aunt Linda passed this year.

 2013

This year I graduated from Human Services Foundation and was accepted into Social Services.

I joined the Respect Campaign and became an English as an Additional Language Partner. I got a job working at the Information Desk.

I managed to blossom my first sunflower, which I got on the campus for Earth Day in a jiffy pot and brought home to Guelph. This began my love of sunflowers.

I moved into a room in a nearby house aimed at students, where I would live until the end of college.

I had a falling out with my father this year and we became estranged again.

2014

A classmate and friend of mine passed suddenly due to a rare autoimmune disease. She was only 19 years old. My great grandmother would also pass this year, just shy of her 101st birthday. Another friend gave birth. The start of new life, one cut short, and one ended after a great length of time. I don't know if there's any meaning behind it, but it sure sparked existential feelings at the time.

I got selected to do my student placement at WALES this year, which is where I've been working the past five years as of this entry. I also got a job being a Respect Leader for the Respect Campaign where I'd been volunteering. In this position, I led meetings and helped run campus events.

I also worked my first year as a Summer Program Leader at Extend-a-Family, which I would do four times over five years.

I was given that first spice rack that I finally got rid of this year. I updated my flip phone to a smart phone.

 I became 25 this year. Since schizophrenia runs in my family, I was very relieved to make it to this age without developing it. Most studies say that the risk decreases significantly past this point.

2015

I shaved my beard for a fundraiser, the only time I would do this in adult life.

I graduated from Social Services. I made a really funny entry on April 19, called "Forest Adventures". One of my favourites of all time. Me and some friends walk into the forest, get ambushed by snakes, and we chase a guy down through the woods, weirdly thinking that he might hurt himself because of our fresh egos as social service work graduates.

At my convocation, I remember setting my phone to "Airplane Mode" meaning that it shouldn't be able to ring. After putting on my gown, I felt it buzzing in my pocket. Puzzled, as it shouldn't be able to do that, I lifted my skirt, reached into my pocket and took the call. It was Emergency Services. Apparently Airplane Mode doesn't prevent you from calling them. They told me I should shut my phone off, as I'd apparently called them three times. They were able stop their people from showing up, but I almost had Emergency Services crash our convocation!

Also, because of some weird mixup, my full name Gryphon Walter Barent Sibbald came up instead of just my first and last. I got an especially large shout as I crossed the stage to receive my diploma, with my huge name being called out.

I moved out of student housing and into a place that I sublet for a bit.

I got a job as an Independent Facilitator with an organization now known as Bridges to Belonging, but at the time named Facile, and I took on several Direct Support Contracts with Extend-a-Family.

2016

Moved out of the place I was subletting from, as the owners came back. Moved into a townhouse where I would live for the next five years.

I left my job as an Independent Facilitator but kept my contracts with Extend-a-Family.

Pokemon Go came out this year, which I still play.

There was a weird incident in my townhouse complex where a bunch of guys showed up in unmarked vans, came out dressed in body armour, weilding assault rifles, and dragged out the residents of a neighbouring unit. Later, we found out that someone who wasn't on the lease had been staying there, who was a wanted murderer from Quebec.

My first set of roommates post-college moved out and I got a new one.

In Guelph, my childhood pet rabbit, Moss, passed away. 

2017

This year both the house in Guelph and the one in Kitchener flooded at the same time, for two different reasons.

I got my job as a Safe Management Instructor, which I'm still doing. I also got a full time job at a group home, working the night shift. It was for displaced youth, not strictly in the developmental sector.

One of my neighbours passed away from cancer.

I had another roommate shift out, and another shift in. I'd live with this new guy for the next three years though. We'd part ways because I would move somewhere new with Lee-Anne.

I got accepted into the Social Development Studies program at University of Waterloo. I tried to quit my group home job, but they offered me sleep shifts. Getting paid to sleep was too good to pass up. This led to my most insane work saga.

I was working full time, doing four Direct Support Contracts, and five University courses. I didn't have a vehicle, so my schedule was so packed that I almost never had time to be home. I found ways to do every life necessity while working. I slept at the group home and did my laundry there. I kept my clothes in my backpack. I brought some people to a pool, so I'd bring a bar of soap and shower on the job.

And sleep shifts don't guarantee any rest. If things are going down, you have to address it. Eventually I quit the group home job.

At University I took an intro to art class, which is how I got into painting.

2018

I've got a fun post this year, titled "Malevich", posted February 28. It was about a presentation I did for a Russian Studies class, where I covered the artsyle Supremetism and sold the class on a piece called Black Square. I end the post saying "I should just move to Russia". Based on how things are right now, I'm really glad I didn't!

Another fun one is titled "Chocolate Favoris". One time, in Canada World Youth, we were at an ice cream shop. The person asked what kind of chocolate I wanted, I just said "non" reflexively. Later, I learned that the chocolate was there specialty. I used to joke that one of our cultural integration techniques of asking ourselves if we would be mad five minutes, five days, five weeks, months or years told me that I should be mad, since I still wanted that chocolate! Well, a branch opened in Guelph and this covers my experience there.

I also had "The Hat Man" on October 28. It was a good year for fun posts.

This year I got my job at WALES. I dropped out of University to take the opportunity. Unfortunately, one of the members that I had been looking forward to working with again passed, suddenly and unexpectedly, right before I could start.

Marijuanna was legalized in Canada.

The family friend that my mom had that entrepreneurial business passed away this year. I felt bad because she used to always say I would get married, and she looked forward to coming to my wedding. I told her not to count on it. But this year, I'd met Lee-Anne and was planning to ask her out. But I never told the family friend this, and she never got to meet her.

2019

This year introduced the ION Lightrail system. It was the cause of constant construction ever since I'd moved to Kitchener. I didn't have high hopes for it and even made a post talking about how it was nothing special after I tried it. But given time, I've become quite the fan. I almost never need to use a bus anymore.

There was a shooting near where I lived which really scared me. It was at 5 PM, in an area I often went, and two bystanders had been hit.

I changed the name of the blog from "Lair of the Gryphon" to "The Gryphon's Perch"

I asked out Lee-Anne this year. Our first date was at a bubble tea shop near the University of Waterloo.  I managed to grow sunflowers at the townhouse for the first time, which I took as a good sign. It's a big reason our wedding would be sunflower themed.

I adopted my cat Kieran this year! I partially did it to impress Lee-Anne, as I knew she loved cats. But I'd wanted one ever since I moved out, I just never felt stable enough. I figured I'd survived long enough on my own to put a little trust in myself.

In Guelph, beloved family cat Luna passed suddenly at only ten years old.

2020

Infamously, this was the year of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, we were put into lockdown measures and my work turned remote. Everyone was panic buying. Weird times.

Earlier that year, my Uncle Steve passed away.

My roommate developed kidney failure and I had to call 911 for him. He wound up recovering.

George Floyd was murdered, sparking a resurgence in the Black Lives Matter movement.

I helped my Guelph family and someone else adopt cats. Both of them would die unexpectedly a few years later, making me not want to help anyone with adoption ever again.

I started my Gryphood blog. Found an old recipe my boss at the time gave us for a crockpot Thanksgiving Dinner on October 14. I was wondering if I still had it somewhere. Posting the date here so I can find it again.

I inherited the remains of a trust fund that I'd used to help me through college.

Me and Lee-Anne moved out of the townhouse and into the place where we currently live.

Granddad experienced an episode that would cause his to rapidly decline.

2021

Canada had its worst spree shooting in history. Some dentist in Nova Scotia went on a rampage.

We adopted our second cat Finn this year from Lee-Anne's sister in law.

Wow, not much happened this year. Lowest total post count of any year, too.

2022

Lee-Anne found my personal white whale for lost media, the Friends of the Forest theme song. I have it included in the February 5th post, titled "My Hot Ones Interview"

One of the Guelph cats, Blackavar, passed away. Peacefully and at a decent age.

I got reassessed for ADHD as an adult. I was confirmed to still have it and was even upgraded from the Primarily Inattentive type to Combined. They detected hyperactivity in me.

I visited my doctor for the first time in ten years and got diagnosed diabetic. I got on meds and made some quick recovery, dropping my A1C from 11.5 to 5.9 and losing 35 pounds.

2023

Randomly, me and two others were requested by the city's fire fighters to develop a workshop for them on de-escalation. We did a series of sessions until every one of them in Kitchener had attended.

Me and Lee-Anne got married! My coworkers threw us a wedding shower. I managed to blossom a record number of sunflowers. On our way home, someone had taped a single red rose to a beam in front of our home street. Must have been a coincidence, but it felt fated for us.

The two remaining Guelph cats, Cassidy and Thor, passed away. Thor was like 20 but Cassidy was ony seven or eight. This is when I vowed to not help people adopt cats. But it just so happened that Lee-Anne's sister in law had new kittens, and she, my mom, and my brother would all be at the same place because of the wedding.

So Castor and Pollux were adopted on the day me and Lee-Anne got married.

Near the end of the year, we all got COVID. I had managed to avoid it this long, as had my mom and brother. Lee-Anne had had it before, but she got it again. It wasn't too bad.

And that's that! 14 and 1/4 years of documented living. I'm not doing too much proofreading, this is really long. Hopefully it reads alright. With this, I have completed my New Year's Resolution of getting to my 1000th post with 42 updates.

Christmas 2024

I was invited to Lee-Anne's family's place in Brampton for a Christmas celebration. However, since Granddad had passed just two days prior, it seemed better for me to stay in Kitchener with Mom. This made sense to everyone. 

I'll still be heading out to Brampton tomorrow and I think there's some kind of celebration on Saturday. Lee-Anne's family is big enough that they have to do it in pieces. I did make it to one of their events about a week ago, before the news about Granddad.

Mom didn't feel like having a traditional Christmas, so instead of turkey or ham, we had lasagna. She and Lee-Anne say they'll tag-team a more classic dinner at a later date. They volunteered that, I don't feel entitled to anything special. Plus, obviously me and my brother can contribute. 

The lasagna was still pretty good, and we got to try out their new dining room table. One of my coworkers dropped one off, along with an old coffee table on Christmas Eve. Since she'd been on vacation she didn't know about Granddad and I didn't share. Didn't feel like ruining the Christmas cheer.

Likewhys, I'll need to request January 2nd off work, which would be our first day back. My Granddad's ceremony will be that day. It shouldn't be a problem, as my boss explicitly told me to let them know if I needed to take time off for a funeral. But I only learned of the new arrangement on the 25th, and our work chat was full of Merry Christmases. I didn't want to kill the vibe.

My coworker's old coffee table is solid. I was a little leary of the dining room table, as it seemed a little wobbly at first. But it was given to us with the legs detached and me and my brother assembled it by hand without any tools. So it could be that we just didn't get it quite tight enough. When we were eating dinner, I didn't notice it feeling wobbly at all. It's a perfect size for their space, too.

They also got some more stuff from my cousin, who was storing a few things for them and also passed down some knicknacks of her own. Her mother, who is an artist, came along and gave a few of her paintings. She gave one to us as a wedding gift. Between her art, mine, and a couple pieces from another aunt's, they have a nice family gallery going on.

Lee-Anne's parents followed through on delivering the couch and armchair from her grandmother's old house. We also donated an old TV monitor, so the place has filled out quite a bit. Feeling much more like home.

Because everyone has put so much into rebuilding their space, we didn't do a traditional gift exchange. At least not between our household and theirs.

It was a white Christmas. The weather has trended warmer the past few years, but it's been pretty reliably cold and snowy this time around. I've heard some people complaining, but with my climate anxiety I celebrate every frosty day. 

I didn't get around to posting about it, but me and Lee-Anne went to Christkindl Market a little while ago. It's a seasonal event that celebrates Christmas from the lens of Kitchener's German heritage. It was uncomfortably, but appropriately cold. Felt very festive.

This is my 999th post. One of my New Year's resolutions for 2024 was to make it to 1000. I think I can do it.

Granddad Passed

Today, my Granddad passed away. Two days ago we received news from my Oma that he had been hospitalized. This wasn't the first time, so it was difficult to gauge severity. We got a better idea when she followed up by saying that the doctors were going to try to keep him alive long enough for her to see him.

It was an unfortunate coincidence that Oma was in New York at the time. It's a rare occurence that she isn't in the retirement residence with Granddad. She got an emergency flight and managed to return home that night, in what would turn out to be ample time.

The doctors estimated he could live anywhere between a few hours and a few days. It turned out to be the latter, which gave my mother the chance to ride in the next day and be there for his last evening and morning.

At the time of his passing, he was with his wife and two daughters. He had been listening to his favourite piece, "Mahler - Symphony No. 2", which I am listening to as I write this. It's an hour and a half long. What I've been told is that he gave his last breath just as the music closed. My aunt made the sweet observation that he carried his favourite music over with him.

Granddad had not been well for a few years. If you've been following my blog, you'll have heard me speak to this. He experienced a sharp cognitive decline after an event that sounded like a stroke, but was ruled out as such by doctors. I thought I may have written about it on here, but looking back, the closest mention I can find of him to the event is when he met Lee-Anne for the first time in 2020. I think I opted not to post anything about it, as he was a fan of my blog and still lucid enough to potentially read it. Not that I had anything mean to say, but it might be awkward to read your grandson talking about your failing health publicly.

I believe I did speak on the topic when I later made a painting of him and posted it on a year-in-review entry. I also mentioned why he couldn't come to mine and Lee-Anne's wedding when I wrote about that as well.

In the past four years, he transitioned from seeming "off" to those that knew him, but passing for normal publicly, to forgetting important details but still able to follow a conversation, to losing his ability to regularly speak and walk.

His mother had fallen to a similar illness in her late life. Before his decline, Granddad made it known that he did not want to live to experience such a state himself. As a University Professor of Sociology, he loved his job so much that he joked that he'd never retire, opting to die mid-lecture. His intellect was obviously very important for him. This made seeing his regression more painful to the people in his network.

But he didn't lose everything. Despite being functionally nonverbal, he could still read aloud and sing. The human brain is fascinating. He held onto a few words that he could use for communication as well. He still obviously loved socializing and having company over. He would smile contentedly eating lunch with his family and look to each of us with what seemed like recognition.

Growing up I always knew him to have a strong focus on physical health. His efforts may explain why he showed such resiliency even as he cognitively waned. However, his discipline did eventually slip, revealing a secret love of ice cream.

Lee-Anne speculates that somewhere deep down, he was waiting for his daughters to be okay before letting go. My mother had lost her home in a fire this year, as I've spoken to. After four months of living with us, we managed to lease her a new apartment. She'd continued to stay at our place though, finding the new residence daunting in its emptyness. Last week we finally moved her stuff out of storage and some people gave a few pieces of furniture. This made it comfortable enough that she was willing to move in with her two cats.

She's been there about a week. Maybe Granddad felt he could move on now that Mom has found stability. It's a nice thought.

Doppelganger Cat

Last February, I got a call at work from Lee-Anne. It was about our cat Finn. This one:

He had urinated blood into the litter box. We managed to book an emergency apppointment at our vet and I took the rest of the day off. I feared the worst. At the time, a few cats in my network had recently experienced misfortune. 

My mother and brother's Cassidy had passed away from cancer, originally thought to be a respiratory infection. This was only three years after I'd helped them adopt her. Another person that I'd supported in a similar way lost her cat from a stroke unexpectedly. Both were adopted within a week of each other, and had passed within a month. It seemed like the bad luck for felines had caught up to our household.

The vet's diagnosis was unexpected. We were told that he had managed to urinate successfully with assistance, although he had been on the verge of requiring surgery. He had gotten to this state from anxiety. That seems like such a human disorder.

Apparenty they usually experience an influx of cats with similar symptoms around the same time every year, due to stress from get-togethers and new furniture arriving during the Christmas season. Cats tend to hide their symptoms and therefor have a delayed reaction from when they are impacted, explaining how he'd only got this way a couple months later.

We hadn't thrown any parties at our place. We did receive a few new large items through gifts. We figured it could have been because we had been gone on several trips.

The  vet complimented him on being a very good cat. An early sign is normally to start peeing in areas outside the litter box after they begin to associate it with pain. But Finn never did this. He also hadn't shown any resistance in the office, despite his usually pink nose being a deep red, indicating a racing heart.

We got him on a couple of medications, which caused his whole body to loosen up. Unfortunately this meant that he leaked everywhere. The mess was the secondary grievance. The first was that he was helpless to maintain the cleanliness he had taken so seriously even while in pain. It was distressing to see him cleaning himself so rigorously and futilely.

But he did get better. Flash forward a little bit, and him and his brother Kieran were sitting in our kitchen window. I suddenly heard a growl and rushed to check what was happening. It isn't unheard of for some backyard critter to show up and cause a commotion. Usually Finn runs away despite being the one with the "athletic build" while Kieran stands his ground.

This time was the reverse. Finn had his tail puffed and his face locked to the window screen. Cautious, and despite being worried that his hunter instincts would kick in, I slowly closed the glass door between him and whatever intruder lurked outside. He bounced to the kitchen floor but continued to stare intently.

As I looked into the night, trying in vain to see what had caused the disruption, I saw something very strange. Finn approached from the other side of the window. I did a double take, glancing behind me to find our beloved cowcat was also safely, abeit frenzied, inside our kitchen.

I can't guarantee that the patterns were exactly the same, but they were similar enough that it fooled me in the moment. I was telling this story to a coworker the next day, and she pointed out how this fit my description of a poltergeist.

I don't think there are any hard definitions of spectral beings, but I'd been reading something that described poltergeists as projections of energy from the living. As opposed to ghosts, which are the lingering presence of people who have passed. I clung to this definition, as I had experienced a very strange phenomenon over the course of three sets of roommates. In isolation, each had claimed to see me in places where I verifiably wasn't. At the time of each sightinh I had been experiencing a great amount of shame. It made sense to me that my disturbed energy was projecting this spectral lookalike. This is probably the weirdest story I have, and one I often hesitate to share.

Now, knowing that Finn had an anxiety disorder, it was easy to imagine that he had summoned this spectral cowcat from outside. Sensing himself as a disturbed energy being may have caused him to react more aggressively than he would to the average outdoor cat.

This explanation is strange enough, but let me posit one more. One time, when I was walking the Iron Horse Trail, I ran across one of those missing cat posters. This one featured seven cats that had all vacated their home during a house fire. All of them had the cowprint pattern, and one of their names was... Finn.

We don't have seven cats, and the two we had were accounted for the morning of my walk. Even if a fire had occured, there's no way a poster could have gone up at that part of the trail between the time I left and when I got there. Even though the story was so disconnected with my reality, I still felt the need to call Lee-Anne to make sure everything was alright at home. Everything was fine.

But it's such a weird coincidence. Finn isn't a particularly intuitive name for a cowprint kitty. It's not even a classic cat name. What were the odds that two lookalikes with the same name could exist in the same neighbourhood?

So now I must put forward the possibility of a very strange quirk of fate. There is a non-negligible chance that our Finn was approached by this cat that had escaped a housefire, who didn't just have the same pattern as him, but the same name.

Guelph Storage Move

Today we moved my family's things into the new place. I've already blogged about it, but after the incident with the fire, they put most of their possessions into storage. Since none of us drive, they weren't able to move everything in on the first day of their lease. 

They have some things that they've accumulated during their stay with us for day to day necessity, such as mattresses, blankets, sheets and laundry hampers, as well as a few things they decided not to put in storage, mostly electronics like laptops, but also some paintings and books. 

They've since got some survival stuff to make the mostly empty unit more livable in the short term, such as dollar store cookware; a frying pan, baking sheet, casserol dish, measuring spoons and cups, and cutlery. Lee-Anne and I went to a few thrift stores and got them some things, like a bread bin since their cats love bread for some reason. Maybe not to eat, but they love to carry and drag it around.

We also got a bean bag chair. Not exactly something we went looking for, and it was kind of inconvenient to travel over the light rail. But it was just comfortable, cheap, and light enough to make it worth it. Hitching it over my shoulder made me feel like Santa Clause, as it gave the impression of his giant sack of toys. I am also a decent likeness of the Christmas icon.

I gave them my two folding tables and one folding chair that I used to use when I painted, and some plates and bowls from back in my bachelor days that somehow survived this long. They got their wooden bowls, made by the same guy that made mine and Lee-Anne's. 

I also gave them our birch tree painting, which I've posted about on here when I was speculating on why artists love them so much. I got it from a thrift store when I discovered the concept of decorating. This ushered in a phase of just throwing random things I thought looked nice on walls. The birch painting was the only piece that has survived from that era. No sentimental value, but looks just a little too nice to get rid of.

We found some yellow wooden chairs that someone was throwing out. We also came across a couch that looked in good repair, but it's harder to tell with softer furniture if it's safe or not. It could be infested or broken in a way that isn't obvious. Also, it was snowing and while it looked fresh, it had been left to the elements at least a little while. Still, at various points each of us walked by and it looked good enough to make each of us think about taking it.

Anyway, today a family friend helped us move the items from storage.  He's one of the people that took my mother and brother in after the fire and helped us salvage as much as we could from the old place. He rented a truck and me, him and my brother moved everything in one go. 

It wasn't as difficult as I was afraid it could be. Worst thing that happened was a box full of books broke open, but we just put them into the empty chest freezer. Getting all the new stuff into the new apartment was easy because they're on the first floor. Instead of moving everything through the lobby, we were able to bring most of it via the balcony. There were a few larger items that we needed to move through the front door. All told, it took about four hours.

Some of their old stuff is sort of obsolete at this point. They may eventually need their mini fridge and chest freezer, but the place is currently sparse enough that it's hard to imagine. They brought in a toaster oven, but that was mostly a replacement for their oven at the old place, since it had become unreliable. The one here is brand new, and the office staff seem attentive enough to help out if the need ever arose, unlike the landlord where they used to live. The unit came with a microwave, so they won't need the one they brought from storage.

They didn't manage to get much furniture out of the old place. What they had was already pretty worn in, and most of it was damaged by water and smoke during the fire.  But recently, Lee-Anne's grandmother moved out of her old place and is downsizing, so her family has offered a couch and an armchair. I've got a coworker that has offered to donate a coffee table. The only large-ish thing that's still unaccounted for is a computer desk, but it's all coming together.

As an aside, if you've been following the blog, my work's audit went fine. Apparently the person that came to inspect only had nice things to say. I shouldn't say I'm surprised, but it was still a relief to hear.

Paperwork Paperwork Paperwork

Getting everything in order for my family's application to the new apartment was rough. After we did our tour, we were instructed to apply through their online system. Reasonably, it asked us to give two valid pieces of photo ID per applicant. This was where we learned that all of Mom's ID was expired.

We went down to Service Ontario, which is the most depressing place I can imagine. They told us that if she had one piece of ID, they could use it to renew the other. But because her's were so out of date, she needed to give three years of tax returns to prove she had been in the country.

Fortunately, that wasn't too difficult and we were able to get both pieces update. Of course, they couldn't print them at the office and had to give her temporary licenses in the meanwhile. But Canada Post is on strike right now so it will take a while to get those cards.

It wasn't just her. I applied alongside her as a guarantor, so I also needed to issue some photo ID. This was right when I was getting ready to test for my G2 driver's license. I'd been issued what I thought at the time was an extended temporary license, as I'd registed for my test before expiry but was scheduled after. But what I actually had was just the application for a temporary license. This is what would get me barred from testing on the day.

Of all times that I would need two pieces of ID, it had to happen during the few weeks after the five years it was valid. If I hadn't tried to get my G2, I would have just renewed my G1 and there wouldn't be a gap. Anyway, everything during the day of the test shook out and I did test for and receive a new temporary G1 license. I have to wait for the official card, but of course that's frozen by the Canada Post strike as well.

In the end we had to submit three temporary licenses along with the outdated versions of them, which is legal but weird looking.

We had to issue bank statements. Mom's account is old enough that it was set to receive paper copies. I guess TD stopped offering that service down the line and it automatically reset to give no statements. I set it to give them electronically in the future, but for the present this meant that we were not able to fulfil the requirements of the apartment application. We did offer the same information in the form of copies of her account activity, which was accepted.

All that and they didn't ask to check our credit ratings. I remember that being important, last time I looked for places. Slightly disappointing, as my rating is a bit of a feather in my cap.

It was messy, but in the end the apartment was approved to us. I figured that even if they didn't take us, we'd be better equipped for future places now that we'd ironed out our information. But we wound up getting the first place that we tried for.

In addition to the apartment application, this week at work we're getting QAM'd. That stands for Quality Assurance Measures, and is basically the auditing system for developmental services. Apparently they used to come by almost every year, but I've been working my job a little over six and have never seen them. The pandemic happened jost over a year into my position, which created a huge backlog, slowing everything down.

Everyone I know who's been through a QAMing is nervous though. We'd heard they were in the area and only gave one agency 24 hours notice. They gave us a week, so it could have been worse. Everybody's spent last week checking to make sure everything is up to code. We're pretty good, but it's still a lot to review, especially when your usual duties don't lighten up at all.

I went through everything I'm responsible for last week, but I'm taking this one off. I'm terrible for keeping track of my vacation time and often wind up needing to spend it near the end of the year. This time I was proactive enough to take a week off to see my grandparents, but since I had my five year work anniversary, I now get an extra week so I'm still in the same position.

Considering the unexpected appearance of QAM, I didn't want to take this week off out of solidarity. But my boss said that everything I can do is in the lead up, and the during the actual check there isn't anything I can do. Still, I feel like I should be sharing the stress with the team.

A Strange Walk

The Cherry Park area has a monthly newsletter and Lee-Anne volunteered to help deliver its December edition. The section she was designated responsibility for was Strange Street. I love that name, it's such a strange choice for a street. 

I think I've mentioned some of the unusual addresses in Kitchener at some point on this blog. There's a Home Street, and I love the idea of living at 123 Home St, because it sounds like the most fake address ever. 

We've got a Princess Street, which makes sense considering we have other royalty names, like King, Queen, Duke, and Earl. But Princess still feels unexpected. 

There's a very short Griffin Ave. While it's not spelled like my name, I think it would be funny for me to live there. 

We've got a Kitchener Street in Waterloo and a Waterloo Street in Kitchener... and a Waterloo street in Waterloo, which connects to it's counterpart and repeats some of the numbers. Madness.

I decided to tag along and help Lee-Anne deliver the newsletters. Let me tell you, Strange Street lived up to its namesake.

The first bunch of houses didn't have any mailboxes, which made delivering awkward. The first place was a two story structure with five residential units. It wasn't larger than a house but it was built like an apartment building. A lot of places with tightly packed living spaces give themselves weirdly fancy names that don't have anything to do with the location. 

I grew up in a building called "The Pinedales", which neighboured "The Sprucedales". There was a sign outside the townhouse complex I used to live in that said "Brookside Park". This two story, five residence house with no mailboxes that was trying to look like an apartment building had a name! The lowest population I've ever seen to believe they warrent their own.

One of the addresses was 17 1/2. That instantly reminded me of Platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter. A place that only exists for users of magic. I wondered if we were delivering to a Wizard's residence, and was baffled that the address actually existed and was displayed as such.

There was a factory with a bunch of false entrances. Staircases leading up to brick walls. Having a large factory in the middle of a mostly residential area is slightly strange on its own.

There was a church rectory that had a mailbox at the level of a cat door. There might be a religious reason for this that I am unaware of, but without context that seemed strange to me. Also, do cat doors actually exist? I feel like everyone knows what they are, but I've never seen one in real life. Kitchener has a bylaw against outdoor cats, so maybe it's illegal to contruct them here.

There was a flower store that had the same address as a house that was earlier on the street.

We found this sign 

I think it says "The Taifty Secret Closet is open". I don't understand any of what that means. Pretty strange!

One of the houses had a banner saying that they support frontline workers. This sounds like a reference to the pandemic, when many jobs were changed to be remote. Those that couldn't were placed at a higher level of risk. Since the Global Health Emergency has been called off, front line workers are just employees again. I could believe that someone just forgot to take it off, or felt awkward about removing it. But the banner was in chalk, so it must have been re-drawn at least somewhat recently to be so clear.

One location had a dog on a really long leash standing in front of the side door with the mailbox. The owner yelled from a window for it to be quiet. We yelled back that we were delivering a newsletter and he said we could put it on the front porch since the dog couldn't reach there. We hadn't considered that since the porch was covered in boxes, making it inaccessible.

My brain tells me that the name the guy called the dog was "Ember", but what I actually heard was "Member". I realized I was trying to rewrite what I perceived because the former is more normal, but it was probably the latter because it would be more... strange.

We saw this mailbox setup

Why not display them consecutively? Pretty strange!

We ran across this decorated mailbox

Honestly, more cute than strange.

I got this scenic pic of some railway tracks while I was on the walk

It was also a blizzard outside, which is suitably strange considering the weather trends in recent history. This was later as we delivered the newsletter

Ankle deep, how strange!

First Floor Apartments

For apartment rentals, there is a trend where, the higher the floor, the higher the price. I've never really understood this. As someone that grew up in them, I've always envied the first floor people. They seem to set the tone for the rest of the building. They're more visible, they can talk to people easily from their "balconies", and if their cat jumps over the guard rail it isn't a tragedy. Often, they can sprawl out with company because they functionally have a front yard. They don't have to go as far to get outside. Sometimes they can bypass the need to go through the lobby to get to their unit entirely. The higher your apartment is, the more divorced from reality you are. Superintendants always seem to have one on the first floor, so they have to be good.

I guess it does sort of conceptually go against the idea of an apartment. It can be funny how despite being at ground level, they usually have the standard guard rail for their balconies. I've heard it might be a security thing, but houses are at ground level and don't require a locked lobby to get in. Maybe it's because the balconies have a sliding door, which might be considered less safe than standard. But houses have windows. Besides, it's relatively easy to kick in a door. I had to do it once, and I've known two others with less imposing statures who have needed to do this as well.

I've heard it might be about noise, but depending on location this could be more or less true. Apparently most people just want the view, but I'm scared of heights and don't ever want to be above the treeline.

So I'm pretty stoked that my mom and brother have been accepted for a first floor apartment!

It's in Kitchener. In fact, it's in the same neighbourhood as me and Lee-Anne. Since they've been staying with us, this means they're already accustomed with the area. Because it's on the ground level, we can just carry their stuff from our place and pass it through their balcony. Easy move. Well, they'll eventually need to move the stuff from the storage unit in Guelph, which will take more planning.

They're going to have a dishwasher, which is really nice. I've never had one long-term. I sublet for five months at a a place that had one. It was awesome while it lasted. I feel like there is a subtle class difference between those that have dishwashers and those that do not. Not that their place is super swanky. I didn't expect that perk.

They're going to have a bathtub too, which Mom is really happy about. Both they and we have been living in basement apartments that only have showers. I didn't even notice it on viewing. Honestly, I fail to see the appeal of those little standard apartment bathtubs. They seem to be only large enough for children. But I don't remember the one at this new place, so maybe it was a bit better.

They're going to have access to an outdoor pool, a gym, a social room... and maybe a few other things. Mostly I just remember the pool and gym because those are things I would like access to. There aren't any gyms in the immediate area so I've just been doing home workouts.

They're set to move December 1st, which is Sunday. We have a few things to complete in the next couple days to make that possible though. We need to connect them with hydro, with tenant insurance, and we need to make out a bank draft with first month's rent. But we've signed the lease, so the hard part is over.

My brother had been in the States for an extended visit, finding himself after the fire. He came back a week ago, so our place has been a bit crowded. But we'll all have our own space again soon.

The application process had a few hiccups which I might blog about. Still, it was the first place we tried, and it was our first choice, so everything worked out well.

False Exit

One time recently, me and Lee-Anne were leaving an ION light rail station, and we were flagged down by a security guard. She told us that the direction we were taking was "emergency only", and that we had to exit from the other side. This felt a little perplexing, but at least she wasn't singling us out. As we walked in the direction she requested, we saw her approaching person after person and giving them the same warning.

She was not out of her right to do so. It's easy to overlook, but in the direction we were walking was a little sign that says "emergency only".

Still, while she was technically playing by the book as she ushered people away from the false exit, she was really tackling her role with a ferver that made me question her motivation. People are constantly leaving and entering from there and we saw her camping pretty hard, taking lots of initiative to correct passengers. It seemed like she had taken it on as her personal mission to correct this societal trend.

It just feels like a weird hill to die on, because there is barely a difference between the two exit points. At both sides there is a payment podium. If people are only supposed to enter it during an emergency, would they even worry about train fare?

Even curiouser, I wonder what kind of emergency there might be that exiting that way would be helpful. It's in the open air. If the train were on fire or if there were an active shooter, I would run in any direction that would take me further from the crisis. I wouldn't file into a line labeled as the emergency exit, placed at an arbitrary point in the outdoors.

That might be unfair. It isn't totally arbitrary as there is a ramp... onto the tracks, but not off. This means that if you use a mobility device, you can be assisted off the platform, but not past the railway which has a curb facing the road.

My guess is that the payment podium was placed there due to the cookie-cutter design of the ION stations. Most of them have one on each side, so they did it here even though one of the exits is technically not viable.  Other than the half-deconstructed curb, I guess the one thing stopping it from being considered legitimate is that there isn't a crosswalk.

But perhaps one day there will be, because we just got a new one in our neighbourhood. There's a corner near where we live intersecting how I get to work and between our home and the nearest grocery. It has a very annoying level of traffic. During the pandemic, Lee-Anne put in a request to the city to install a crosswalk and got a response that they'd look into it, but that everything was backlogged due to COVID. Well, some three years later we got some paint on pavement. 

It doesn't do much. The cars don't really acknowledge it, and when they do you have to worry that traffic moving the other way won't be on the same wavelength. This can cause some awkwardness as you either have to reject the offer of the person that stopped due to the lack of hospitality shown by other drivers, or you have to feel a bit guilty for the car that feels pressured to stop because someone else did. 

Maybe the addition of a crosswalk to the false ION exit wouldn't help much.

Driving

When I was 19, I broke up with my first girlfriend. At the time I was just out of highschool and had no plans for my future. To avoid feeling completely stagnated, I took the initiative to get my G1 Driver's License. No one in my family or anyone in my local network drove, so I wasn't able to practice.

I did Katimavik and Canada World Youth. After this I applied, and was accepted into college. It would be some months until my program started, so I went up North for a time to practice driving with my grandfather. I believe I referenced that in a recent post. I tested for my G2 up there and "didn't make any disqualifying errors, but made an accumulation of minor ones", preventing me from getting the license.

After starting college, I found that I either never had enough time or enough money to take lessons. I did two sets with one agency, but I was working multiple jobs and never managed to do enough conistently to warrant another attempt at the G2.

At my current work, it's pretty common for employees to be able to drive. We try to empower our members to be as independent as possible, taking public transit or our accessibility service, Mobility Plus. Every job I've had in this field has required a driver's license, and I've really learned to pitch the benefits of not having one. The classic thing to say is that, because you aren't able to drive, you have a more thorough understanding of the services that the people you work with use.

However, it does prevent you from a lot of community engagement opportunities.

My wife can't drive due to being legally blind and epilleptic. Whenever we arrive somewhere and people realize that we took public transit, we have to explain why. Easy enough for her, but I'm usually left saying that I have no excuse.

After we started dating, she encouraged me to renew my G1, which was either expired or about to. Since they last five years, it must have been my second time.

And recently, I was approaching my third renewal. Surprisingly, I found that I had both the time and the money for lessons. I chose a different agency than the one I used twice before, since I would have been embarassed to get the same guy.

I did five lessons total. I even went up North and practiced with my grandfather. I drove with my father-in-law as well. I scheduled a drive test. Unfortunately, my license would expire before the date they proposed. Not to worry, it turns out that if you schedule the test before your license expires, you can get an extension. So I went to the DriveTest office and they gave me a piece of paper, saying that if I show my expired license as well as this yellow sheet, that I could do my test.

I used a vacation day from work for my chance at the license. I show up, and I'm told that my yellow sheet of paper is not a temporary license, it's an application for one. Apparently in their system, I received one on the day I got my extension, but because I can't present it to them, I'm not allowed to do the test.

So I do the G1 test again. Get the same license. Silver lining is that I can schedule another G2 test immediately, and I don't have to wait the usual requisite year. Still, feels ike I'm fated never to get this thing.

Snack Packs

I struggle to come up with ideas for work lunches that aren't carb heavy. Before my diabetes diagnosis, I used to go by the format I used for the kids at my old grouphome job. It was something like, a sandwich, a snack, fruit, vegetable, and a yogurt cup. Most of the kids hated the yogurt cup but for some reason our protocol really wanted them to have it.

After the diagnosis, I wanted to cut back on bread because of the starch. So that put out sandwiches, and most of the snack options, like granola bars, had almost as much added sugar as candy. So I opted to just make dinners that would often leave excess, and bring leftovers to work.

When Mom and my brother needed to stay with us, we were cooking for four, which would leave me without this option. I wound up getting pre-made lunches at the local grocery. There wasn't much in the way of diabetic-friendly options, but they did have these snack trays segmented into four. They would usually include a cheese, a meat, and two vegetables.

I thought this was a pretty good way of keeping track of your nutrition intake, but the grocery really inflated the price for what it was. Eventually, it occured to me that I could make my own. At first I was collecting the trays from the store and reuse them with home ingredients, but Lee-Anne pointed out that they were of poor quality, meant for single-use. She said that someone had probably made resuable food containers like this.

My new snack packs! The left one has dark chocolate covered cranberries, cheese, popcorn, and snowpeas and the right one has grapes, radishes, cashews, and dark chocolate covered crandberries.

I find it really convenient, because I can make multiple and then I don't have to worry about remembering to do lunch prep.

When people see them, they often get called "adult lunchables". I think this is funny because I've chosen this way as a healthier alternative, while lunchables are discouraged by doctors due to having low nutritional value.

Quick-pickled green beans go well in these. I sometimes like to have a brined vegetable to go with a fresh one. This is how I found out that chocolate and pickles go well together. I tend to absent-mindedly pluc from each section. One day I had dark chocolate covered almonds and pickle slices and I noticed myself going between the two.

Making Sense of the US Election

I don't really like writing about politics on this blog, and I'm not going to enjoy making this one either. However, recently there has been a development that is difficult to ignore. This past Tuesday, there was an election for the Presidency of the United States. It was Kamala Harris vs. Trump, and Trump won.

As someone in the helping professions that supports people of all backgrounds and opinions, who is cognisant of his influential position and believes in democracy, I seldom make political commentary publicly. I believe that it is professional to maintain an image of neutrality to allow space for people with contrasting beliefs to express themselves.

I suppose this blog technically counts as public. I've made exceptions for Trump in the past though. Back when he had a bunch of peaceful Black Lives Matters protestors assaulted with rubber rounds, flash bombs and tear gas so that he could pose in front of a church with an upside down Bible, I made a post on that. 

So if you've been following me long enough, you'll know that I am not a fan of Donald Trump, and I view his recent victory negatively.

It probably goes without saying, but one might question why I care about the US Presidency when I am Canadian. It's because they are the world's largest economic superpower and functionally our only neighbour, separated from the rest of the world by a wide expanse of ocean. Technically we have Iceland too, but come on.

Much of Canadian identity centres on how we are "not American". For example, globally we have a pretty mediocre medical system, but because it's better than America's we think it's top class. Canada is a world economic superpower in its own right, but we feel small and impoverished because we're next to the leader in that category. 

They are our largest trading partner and vice versa. Trump has stated that he wants to impose a 10% tariff on international trades, which would cause inflation for us. What happens to them impacts us. 

So I care about who is in their highest seat of power. I am ashamed to say that I was shocked by the outcome of their election. I was so confident in Kamala's win that I was reassuring other people as the ballots were coming in. The map was looking redder and redder, and I was saying that Republicans tend to vote in-person while Democrats are more likely to vote by mail, and that an early Conservative lead was expected, which would follow a blue wave.

I wasn't just saying this because it's what happened last time. There's this guy named Allan Lichtman. He has a system that he calls the "Thirteen Keys to the Whitehouse". He's been making predictions over the past ten elections, and has called nine of them correctly. 

The one he got wrong was Gore vs. Bush, which was historically close. He's argued that he got that right too. He says that election was stolen by people intentionally misinterpreting ballots from Black people as "over-voting". Apparently there were two places that looked possible to indicate a selection, and a sizeable number marked their preference in both as an abundance of caution. This was to combat this very same form corruption that they had historically experienced.

I would argue that even if this is true, Lichtman's tool is the "13 Keys to the Whitehouse", not to a "Victory Under Fair Circumstances". If corruption is enough of a variable to make the difference, then there should be 14 keys.

He also sometimes gets challenged on his 2016 prediction. He said Trump would win, but he said he'd also get the popular vote, which he didn't. I don't care about that either though, because as I said, I only care about who gets the Presidency, and Lichtman was right about that.

He's said that the 13 keys hold up for centuries, but obviously he wasn't around for those so he's going in with confirmation bias and I don't take that seriously.

Still though, I'll give him a 90% accuracy with his only wrong prediction being extremely narrow. I was converted in my way of thinking, and started to believe that election results had less to do with campaigning and more to do with environment. I saw Lichtman go through each key and he called a win for Kamala, with the only variance being by what margin.

There's also a pollster named J. Ann Selzer who is considered the gold standard. She said that Kamala would flip Iowa.

That didn't happen, and the election wasn't even close. Well, it was in the way that almost everyone in the US is already locked in based on party loyalty and the only variance is some small percentage of swing voters. But Harris lost the popular vote, the first time that's happened to a Democrat since 2004, and Trump flipped four states.

Sometimes I get criticized for being pessimistic and gloomy. I really think it's the opposite. I have so much hope and optimism for humanity, which gets routinely crushed. This causes a sometimes dour demeanor.

Since the election, the strangest thing is that no one is talking about it. It feels like everyone was fixated on it, and then the next day no one I spoke to in person even mentioned it. Even I didn't. 

Some family members have been talking about it on WhatsApp. Online, some left wing pundits have discussed it, but their videos have been mostly brief and dispassionate. People that came out of the woodwork to discuss politics even though it's not their usual thing have been totally quiet. I feel like even Conservatives have been pretty subdued in their boasting.

I had to be the one to break the silence with my mother and brother on the topic and their initial response was something like "Yep, it's bad", although they've both expanded on their feelings since. One of my coworkers asked me a day later how an American I know was taking the election results, which was my first entrypoint into having an actual, in-person discussion on it. She agreed that the silence has been deafening.

I really feel like we might be witnessing the beginning of the end of democracy as the global standard. Trump will likely be more unhinged than last time as he won't have to appeal to prospective voters. This is because he'll either have reached his term limit, or he'll have managed to eliminate that as a barrier to his continued rule.

Another reason is that the political environment right now is much more vulnerable to abuse. Before I get into this, I want to say that I'm not all that savvy when it comes to talking politics, and I'm venting more than anything, so I might get some of this wrong.

During his first term, Trump installed three right wing Supreme Court Justices. During Biden's run they've managed to enact two pretty damaging bills to the checks and balances that keep democracy functional. The first one allows the President to fire as many people as he likes from his office. The implication here is that you could remove people with expertise and replace them with propagandists. The second one allows the President to bypass the Supreme Court's rulings when making official acts. There have been almost no parameters given to the definition of an "official act", although it does offer any and all use of the military, which Trump has already stated an interest in using on US citizens. It would be easy to imagine this being used to dispatch future political rivals as well.

These are the kinds of moves that make democracy fall apart. Putin needed to win his first few elections fairly, but was able to destabilize the system to the point that it's an open secret that he is pre-ordained to win every term by a wide margin. President Xi in China has managed to eliminate term limits in the not-so-distant past as well.

So why are the US citizens handing power over to Trump again, when even he says that he'll be a tirant on the first day but then stop? I don't feel confident in speaking on this, as my prediction for the election results turned out to be incorrect. But I have looked at some speculation.

First of all, despite a complete victory, Trump didn't get as many votes this time around. Harris just got a lot less than Biden did. This implies that Trump didn't convert more people to his side, just fewer people, mostly Democrats, chose not to show up.

In 2020, record numbers of people went to the polls and Biden got more votes total than any President in the history of the US. I think that was due to desperation to get Trump out of office. Now that we've had four years of relative normalcy from the States, I guess voter apathy has kicked in again.

The elephant in the room is that Kamala's demographics may have come into play. She would have been the first woman of colour, and the first woman at all to take the position. The sample size for how this impacts voting decisions is too small right now to come to a conclusion. But at any rate, I think there is enough data to suggest that having "woman-like" traits has been viewed as undesirable to the American people.

In recent history, the vast majority of Presidents have been over six feet tall. Even though that doesn't influence a person's ability to govern, I actually worried that Kamala wasn't "Presidential height". I've heard complaints that she isn't good at public speaking because she has a "nasally voice", but really, it isn't outside the spectrum of normal for a woman.

Other prominent nations such as the UK, Germany, and New Zealand, have had women at the highest level of power. But in the USA, they seem to want a manly figure to tower above the rest of the world.

There's also the fact that most undecided voters choose their candidate based on the economy. I've heard a lot of annoying bickering on whether or not Biden was good or bad for this. My understanding is that, post-COVID, globally we have fallen into a recession. While the US has done a comparably good job of staving this off, they have not been untouched. Their citizens don't see themselves as one piece of a larger picture, and instead compare what they have now to what has been.

This logic can be faulty as well, in that there is often a lag between when a policy decision is made and when its impact hits. This means that Presidents are often credited for their past rivals actions.

There has been a lot of people speculating that Biden shouldn't have dropped out of the race, or that he should have done so earlier. It's hard to say how that would impact things.

One hot take I have is that I don't believe Biden has dementia. I remember lots of people making fun of him for being old, which  made sense as he was the "return to status quo" candidate with the long political resume, while Trump was the pro-change guy who was new to the scene. Even though they weren't too different in age, I could see Biden embracing the traditionalist image, which would get mocked for coming across as "old".

When he debated Trump, it was the first time where I thought "Uh-oh, we might have a problem". I'd come in about an hour late so I figured he'd just run out of steam. But watching from the beginning, I saw that he never fully had it together.

Still, he was the oldest sitting President in history, and he was sick and had a speach impediment. I can't guarantee he didn't have age-related illness, but I felt his performance was explainable by those things without the needed addition of dementia.

Some people have said that Kamala's decision to continue to support Israel in their ongoing conflict with Palestine alienated their voting base. I kind of sympathize with this perspective. It's been a hot topic, and for some reason, it's been the only one that both parties have united on. So if you're pro-Palestine, you were left without a voice. 

I've also heard that globally, there is an anti-incumbant trend. So this means that regardless of which party is in power, people will be switching to the other side. So while this means the US and Canada will be shifting right, many traditionalist places are turning left.

I hesitate to say that Trump is the worst politician in history. However, he has set a few records in that he's:

• First to be impeached twice
• First convicted felon to achieve the Presidency
• The oldest person to hold the position

I hope my more pessimistic viws don't come to fruition. In these circumstances I very much hope to be wrong.

Late October Stuff

Last year I made a post about a local event called the Central Art Walk. For a weekend, local artists display their work from their homes, and the public is invited in to browse and make purchases. Art can be on the more traditional side in the form of paintings, but can be anything including sculptures, woodworking, jewellery, homemade soap, etc. Last year we got some wooden spoons, a canvas with colourful buttons attached to it, and Lee-Anne got some mittens.

It was inspired by another event called the Frederick Art Walk, which has been going on for longer and is larger in scale. I went to that one once, but I was alone and too shy to look at things closely.

This year we made it to both. On the Central Art Walk we didn't see our spoon guy, which is too bad because we have a few more wooden bowls and would have made a purchase to accompany them. We did see the person we got our button canvas from. 

There was an Artists's Co-Op, which I think is pretty established but was new to the walk. A piece that caught our eye was a painting of a sliding scale of citrus fruits, with a lime at one end and a grapefruit at the other. The artist wasn't present that day, but Lee-Anne took her contact information and contacted her later to make a purchase. It's paid for now and we just have to pick it up.

One of the addresses was located on Waterloo Street. We went there but it didn't have a display. Before we could decide whether or not we should knock, the home owner took the initiative to poke her head out and say that if we were looking for art, the address number was the same, but it was in the city of Waterloo. We were at Waterloo St, Kitchener, but we needed Waterloo St, Waterloo. I got the impression that she'd needed to give this explanation a lot over the weekend.

Our neighbourhood borders the two cities. The place we were looking for was on the same physical street, just in the opposite direction. I've always thought having Waterloo Street so close to Waterloo was a problem. Having a Waterloo Street in Waterloo shouldn't be allowed.

Lee-Anne's mom expressed disappointment that she wasn't able to come to the Central Art Walk. Lucky for her we still had Frederick. She came with us to that one and got a couple of new Christmas stockings, as a new child had recently been born in the family, and another one is on the way. She also got some soap. Lee-Anne got a handbag and some wool balls that are supposed to replace dryer sheets while doing laundry. I've tried them since and I guess they work. To be fair, I haven't used dryer sheets since college.

I was bolder at this walk and got a 2025 calendar, a sketchbook, and some bookmarks. We also got a cat toy. Part of me felt bad for making more purchases at the Frederick Art Walk than the one in our own neighbourhood, although Lee-Anne did later get that citrus painting.

I ran into the guy that made my wooden bowls. Because I'd bought some for my family as gifts and we rescued them, we currently have two households worth and weren't in need of any more. Since I hadn't seen him at the Central Art Walk, I was worried I'd bought too much of his supply and he couldn't justify doing a stand, but I was glad to see he still had a good quantity.

I ran into some old colleagues from when I was an Independent Facilitator. The Frederick neighbourhood is basically social work central.

It was Lee-Anne's 31st birthday recently. We got Detroit style pizza from a nearby place, and on her request I made a fattoush salad to go with it and brownies for dessert. Normally I'd make a chocolate coconut cream pie, but that wasn't the birthday wish this year. Maybe I'll make one this Tuesday for the US election, since Kamala has that coconut symbolism.

We gave out candy on Halloween. Mom is still staying with us, and she hasn't lived on a street with active trick-or-treaters for at least as long as I've been alive. Last year I tried to keep track of how many kids came, but a bunch showed up in a huge wave near the end and I lost count. I estimated that we had about 40.

I was told standard trick-or-treating hours were 6-9. Things were slow at first, picked up around 7, and died around 8. Because we live in the basement apartment, we have to set up a stand in the front yard or nobody will approach us. At 8:30 it started to rain in a serious way so we went in. At this time we had 40 trick-or-treaters. Even one of the kids from upstairs said she was sorry I "didn't break the record".

But later, after 9, Mom was sitting outside and two trick-or-treaters came by, raising us to a final count of 42.

Best costume of the night goes to the kid that dressed up as a recycling bin. Apparently his dad was wearing a matching costume. I didn't see the father, but I like to imagine that one was paper and the other containers. I'm pretty sure I remember the kid was paper.

35th Birthday

In my "Traveling North" post I forgot to mention that when we purchased our bus tickets, they misspelled my name as "Grython Fibbald". Seems like an error of judgement, not a slip of the fingers. The "t" key is more than half the length of the board away from "p", and "f" is buffered from "s" by "d". It just sounds like a fake name too, with the word "fib" integrated into it.

People have really been struggling with my name lately. When me and Lee-Anne were out buying a few items to accomodate my family after the fire, we dropped by a Starbucks and this happened:

Brethon!

I just uploaded some images to my Gallery blog of my time up North. You can find it here: https://gryphonsgallery.blogspot.com/2024/10/kenabeek-pics-fall-2024.html

Before I posted it, I glossed over my previous entries to see if I'd ever made one before. I had, in 2012. You can look and compare here: https://gryphonsgallery.blogspot.com/2012/07/kenabeek-pics.html

I guess I didn't used to make commentary on my images back then.

I mentioned it in a previous post, but this was my first trip up North where I had a smart phone. In 2012, I was using a point-and-click digital camera that was noticeably primitive even by the standards back then. It's what I used in Canada World Youth and got a lot of commentary on it. But I did take some good pics with that thing.

 Something interesting I noticed was that during my visit in 2024, I took this photo:

And in 2012 I had this one:

I think this is the same birch tree! I didn't have that in mind when I took the more recent pic. It's not so weird, as its proximity to the house lends itself very well as a photo opportunity. I think the 2012 shot was more appealing, as it features a more drastic bark peel. The most iconic feature of the birch.

You might notice that the title of my older post specifies that I was in "Kenabeek" while in my two recent entries I only ever state that I went "up North". I also made an effort to only show images of nature, not the house and not much man-made (I did show autumn leaves on a small staircase and my aunt's stone circle, if you caount those). The reason is because at this point of time I am a little hesitant to share identifying information. But I've been documenting my experiences on the Internet long enough that there is enough content from a time when I did not feel this way. I can't completely scrub it.

On another note, I hadn't planned it this way but I wound up having my 35th birthday while I was up there. It just made the most sense scheduling-wise. I wasn't going to remind anyone but my grandparents remembered and we had a wild blueberry pie to celebrate.

I'm sure I've mentioned it several times before, but blueberries naturally grow in the area. When I was a kid, I used to pick them and my grandmother used to bake them into pies. It was a fun way to feel like I was part of the process. I alluded to this in a recent post when I said we mostly came up during Christmas and blueberry season, which is why we'd never visited in Fall.

It's funny because there was a recent study where people with ADHD and neurotypical people were observed picking blueberries. The people with ADHD consistently picked more than their neurotypical peers, implying a potential benefit to the disorder. This is kind of in line with the "hunter gatherer theory", which is a controversial idea that ADHD is not really a disorder, but rather an evolutionary trait that was beneficial for millenia but does not serve well in modern urban settings.

As a former kid with ADHD that prided himself in his blueberry picking skills, it was hilarious to read about this, as it seemed so targeted to me. Also, whenever this theory is brought up it seems like people hone in on the hunter side of things. Good to see the gatherers getting some love too.

Another thing I got to do while I was out there was practice driving. I avoided saying the date until now, but since I mentioned having the 2012 Gallery post, I'm pretty sure that was the last time I'd visited. We'd seen them annually since then, but they would come to Guelph. It makes sense, because it would have been after I did Canada World Youth and before I went to college. I expressly went there to learn how to drive from my grandfather.

I tested up there but didn't quite make it. The instructor said that I "didn't make any disqualifying errors, but made an accumulation of minor ones". Since then, I've either not had the time or the money to do lessons.

Until now. I've currently had 5 lessons with a driving instructor and a test date booked for November 20th. So while I was up North, me and my grandfather got to pick up where we left off.

We also met a neighbour of there's who they've known for years but was new to me. He gave us some buckwheat in the form of "groats". He also gave us a recipe to make chocolate groat squares. When I make them I'll post a pic here.

His wife has a falconry license and has tamed a red tailed hawk. I showed a picture of my grandma with the hawk and it's one of the reasons that I have a coworker who is a big fan of my grandma. She was excited to meet her at mine and Lee-Anne's wedding.

Return to the Ridge

Being back at my grandparents house was an experience. It was as if I had been there yesterday. Their property sits on the Canadian Shield, which consists of cascading mossy rocks and sparse forests of birch, poplar, and conifers overlooking flatter lands of more traditional woods.

Because of a fire that ocurred about 100 years ago, the area is full of pioneering tree species, slowly being replaced by more long-lived variants. So it's not technically "old growth" but I would argue it counts as "undisturbed". Wildfires are a part of Ontario's climate, pioneering tree species are the natural recovery response, and the soils that had been worked over by old-growth conifers remained primed for their successors. The natural link to old growth remains intact.

It's almost impossible to capture the depth of the rolling ridge using a phone camera.

I could still remember the grooves in the rock that I used to walk. I found the old ceremonial site where my aunt practiced Wiccan rituals. Even after all these years it was fairly undisturbed. I think one of the stones in one of the piles was nudged over, but that was about the extent of it.

I found my old clubhouse

As kids, me and my brother wanted a tree house. None of the trees in the area were able to support one, so my grandpa created a little space in the back of the garage. I opened th door and found this old toy truck. I was too nervous to go in, partly because I didn't trust something that was built to support my weight as a child, and also because I thought it probable that something else had taken up residence in my absence.

This was my first time visiting in the Fall. As children, we would often come for Christmas and in the summer during blueberry season.

The Autumnal colours were somewhat muted, with more yellow than red appearing among the green. On the trip up, we went through really vibrant pockets, making me think that the climate getting colder as we travelled further North was causing an earlier change in season. But then it started getting greener again.

In the four days we were up, it did feel like Fall swept in properly

The house was pretty much the same as I remembered too. It was so close to how I remembered it that I could identify the small things that had changed.

I easily found my way to my favourite childhood books.

These had pictures of different North American species. Each colour was a different category, e.g. mammals, trees, birds. Part of the book was a list of names with pictures next to them and a code which you could use to find their specifics in the other part of the book. My favourite at the time was mammals, I guess because they were relateable. Nowadays I'm more of a tree guy. I would also watch out the living room window at the bird feeders and try to identify the species using these books.

There were also these,

This is a bad photo. For some reason, my phone camera wouldn't let me flip the image. I was trying for a horizontal shot but had to settle for this one with my shadow in the way.

Anyway, this is not an exhaustive list, but these were some of my favourite childhood books. The one at the top, No Fighting, No Biting is about an older cousin babysitting her two younger. When they won't stop quibbling, she opts to read them a story illustrating the trouble they might get into for their behaviour.

It teaches a lesson that at the time I found quite bleak, which I reflect on even as an adult. The story that the older cousin tells is about two young alligators that find themselves unable to reach their fishing spot due to a large log being in the way. An older, hungry alligator offers to carry them over it in his mouth. After some deliberation, the two children get wise to the predator's intentions and escape unharmed.

This alone was not too disturbing. I'd heard stories with villains before, and I knew about Stranger Danger. What really bothered me was later in the story, when the siblings encounter another obstacle and the same alligator shows up. The children take the initiative in saying they won't get in his mouth, but he isn't interested in that this time, and simply moves the obstacle from their way.

The children report to their mother this change in behaviour, who is quite unsurprised. Apparently the behaviour of this stranger, which oscillated between homicidal to helpful citizen, was not based on his virtue or lack thereof, but on his level of need. The alligator wasn't good or bad, he was hungry or not hungry.

If I were to be an obnoxious critic as an adult, I think the story didn't really require the book-within-a-book framing. I only remembered the story about the alligators, not the one about the human cousins.

On the bottom left of that book pile, you have Moomintroll. This one is a comic version, but they're also a series of novels that I read up North as well. They're about a group of not-humans and their various antics and interactions. My favourite character was Snuffkin, who was a nomadic fellow that believed all the Earth was his home. He played a harmonica, which is part of the reason why I tried to learn it in middle school. He's a quiet, reserved type that is still anti-establishment and has trouble following rules.

This series is actually pretty mainstream, and shows up in various incarnations over time. There is at least one television series based on it. I think Snuffkin is a fan favourite too. I wasn't special to hold that opinion.

It's hard to see, but on the top there is a fuzzy book called the Little Fur Family. It's basically about a boy roaming around, exploring the world around him and being fascinated by it. I think the tactile element of the book itself being furry really enamoured me as a child.

Finally, on the right is Eloise. It's about a girl that lives in a hotel, who's taken care of by a nanny, who doesn't go to school or have any peers. Instead, she's left to her own devices and crafts a routine using her vivid imagination. This mostly involves being a brat.

I don't know why I liked this book so much as a kid. Obviously it wasn't relateable at all. I think I was just fascinated by looking into the life of someone who was so different from me. I'd ask where her parents were, and  why staff would scold her one moment then be fond of her the next. Returning to it as an adult, it's obvious that Eloise is pretty emotionally neglected despite simultaneously being pampered.

I was reading this book later in the evening, thinking about the gulf of time that had passed, pondering a life unlived. This brought me to tears. Lee-Anne found me like this, and I offered to read her the book. She accepted, and through gentle sobs I read Eloise to her. 

She was polite enough not to remark on her distaste for the character, mistaking my emotional state to imply I had some resonance with the spoiled little rich girl. The most absurd book to cry while reading.