The endless Write in the Journal fail. :)
Nov. 8th, 2020 02:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tetsabSo clearly still doing a fantastically poor job at writing here more frequently buuuuut tonight is NaDruWriNi so you're gonna get This One Post fueled by lazy gin sours (a lazy gin sour is just gin and lemon simple syrup. If I was feeling ambitious I'd have tried something like this but I spent hours out of the house today, for the for the 1st time since March, enjoying the world so I'm so very not feeling ambitious!).
I'd said in a comment in a previous post that I was going to write in my next post about the social trick of writing here more but I suspect I will not have the brain for that on multiple gin sours and so am going to pivot a bit into the semi-related topic of my Very Nice Day Today (spoiler: I'm not going to get to the bit where I explain why it's related today).
Before there was Covid I used to do all sorts of things in the world. You can tell this from my (2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018) Nice Life-y Things posts. Now there is Covid mostly what I do is sit at my kitchen table next to my fridge. If you've had cause to join a video call with me you will Most Certainly have seen my fridge (fun fact: before Covid I never sat at this spot of the kitchen table. I sit here now as I dumped all the stuff I need to work at this end of the table so I could still have the bit I used to sit at every so often still available to me).
[Now on my 2nd lazy gin sour]
So. A few days ago I learned from my local Councillor in an local FB group that the somewhat famous Water Treatment Plant (yes, really) at the foot of my street was going to have a Dia de los Muertos light display projected on the side of it after dark. Having done Sweet Fuck All enjoyable around the city since the WHO declared the pandemic March 11th some outdoor art in a week with a 20°C streak seemed like Just The Ticket.
I originally thought I'd do this yesterday after work, but, due especially to the whole Dumped Into Darkness aspect of the time change, I wasn't feeling super inspired to barrel down a hill ('cause the Water Treatment Plant at the foot of my street is actually at the bottom of a Big Ass Hill of varying grades that, like most of Toronto, tips toward Lake Ontario) on my bike in the darkness (particularly since with the whole 'have barely done anything since March' thing I'm pretty dang out of practice with being on my bike as well).
This meant The Better Plan was to go today while it was still light out so off I set around 4:20 knowing sunset would hit around 5. Since the display wouldn't start until 6:30 I also decided to go The Long Way 'Round and start at one end of the beach and meander my way back to the appropriate side. So in order to do that I used the new Danforth bike lanes for the 2nd time this pandemic (1st time was to go the bank) to get to the Woodbine bike lanes and wind up at the beach.
I knew I wouldn't be thrilled from a global pandemic perspective about what I'd find there as there have been multiple stories of social distancing fail centered specifically on Woodbine Beach but I wore my mask in the crowded bits and leaned into outdoor is better than indoor and minded myself as best I could. First I locked up my bike and beelined to the water while there was still light. Then I split my time between a log on the sand where I could best see the sunset over the city and a rock on the shore where I could most enjoy the water. To my surprise, while on the log, I got a phone call fromevening_tsar. I think this is the first time I've gotten a phone call while Out And About In The World, which is kind of amazing in this cellphone age of ours. I answered and would say we mostly talked about what had just happened in the US, which I think bar none was the most popular topic of conversation in the western world today.
[3rd and final gin sour. Not actually remotely drunk -- not even tipsy! -- should have gone with the vodka creamsicles as the speed with which I can suck those back should have assured drunkenness]
As darkness really started to set in some cops pulled their dune buggy uncomfortably close to my rock and I started to wonder if there was a post-sunset ban on being on the beach and so I decided to move on before they actively directed me to. I made it back up to the boardwalk and sat on a bench until you couldn't tell any more if the reddish orange in the sky was still the sunset or an effect of the street lights. I retrieved my bike from lock-up and started the walk with along the wooden boardwalk in the darkness. I could have rode on the adjacent trail but I'd wanted to walk to better listen to the waves (I love that sound) and look at the stars.
It took about 40 minutes to make it to the other end which meant I'd be between 15 and 25 minutes "late" to the 6:30 start but since I was pretty confident it would either be a repeating or static show I was OK with that. Once I made it to Queen Street I locked the bike again and headed up the steps to the plant. Somewhat to my surprise it was a repeating show but it was only repeating on one small corner of the building. With something as large as the edifice of the R.C. Harris is I liked the idea of the projections being spread out across the whole faces of it (especially in our current circumstance to trying to avoid crowding) but can certainly appreciate the extra challenge logistically that would be.
The displays were beautiful and in my luck I happened to walk up right as they were starting one of their rounds such that I wasn't even sure if it was the case that something had gone wrong and they were starting late overall. I stayed for 3 rounds of the showing, which in the end, only ran about 10 minutes: once to properly watch it, once to capture some favourite images (I think most of you are most likely to be able to access a small selection of these on FB) and one last due to a bit of capture fail in the 2nd 'round.
Then it was back to unlock the bike in order the push it up the worst part of the hill (the steepest grade here is right before the lake) which happens to conveniently get me to the street I'd just noticed this past Thursday (as I biked to my local post office) has a burrito place so I also stopped in there to take one of those home for dinner. It was absolutely delicious and my only regret by the time I got home and ate it is that I ordered the 'regular' instead of the 'huge'. :)
As I nommed away on it I tuned back into the Light It Black event, which I'd been previously been listening to all day since I woke up at half 9 that morning. This was so enjoyable I was then more than an hour late to the Zoom chat going on in part in the service of NaDruWriNi (and at this point wholly in the service of NaDruWriNi as it's justthe_siobhan and I left at this point.
And, good holy god, it's now quarter to 3 so I'm officially going to pack this in!
I'd said in a comment in a previous post that I was going to write in my next post about the social trick of writing here more but I suspect I will not have the brain for that on multiple gin sours and so am going to pivot a bit into the semi-related topic of my Very Nice Day Today (spoiler: I'm not going to get to the bit where I explain why it's related today).
Before there was Covid I used to do all sorts of things in the world. You can tell this from my (2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018) Nice Life-y Things posts. Now there is Covid mostly what I do is sit at my kitchen table next to my fridge. If you've had cause to join a video call with me you will Most Certainly have seen my fridge (fun fact: before Covid I never sat at this spot of the kitchen table. I sit here now as I dumped all the stuff I need to work at this end of the table so I could still have the bit I used to sit at every so often still available to me).
[Now on my 2nd lazy gin sour]
So. A few days ago I learned from my local Councillor in an local FB group that the somewhat famous Water Treatment Plant (yes, really) at the foot of my street was going to have a Dia de los Muertos light display projected on the side of it after dark. Having done Sweet Fuck All enjoyable around the city since the WHO declared the pandemic March 11th some outdoor art in a week with a 20°C streak seemed like Just The Ticket.
I originally thought I'd do this yesterday after work, but, due especially to the whole Dumped Into Darkness aspect of the time change, I wasn't feeling super inspired to barrel down a hill ('cause the Water Treatment Plant at the foot of my street is actually at the bottom of a Big Ass Hill of varying grades that, like most of Toronto, tips toward Lake Ontario) on my bike in the darkness (particularly since with the whole 'have barely done anything since March' thing I'm pretty dang out of practice with being on my bike as well).
This meant The Better Plan was to go today while it was still light out so off I set around 4:20 knowing sunset would hit around 5. Since the display wouldn't start until 6:30 I also decided to go The Long Way 'Round and start at one end of the beach and meander my way back to the appropriate side. So in order to do that I used the new Danforth bike lanes for the 2nd time this pandemic (1st time was to go the bank) to get to the Woodbine bike lanes and wind up at the beach.
I knew I wouldn't be thrilled from a global pandemic perspective about what I'd find there as there have been multiple stories of social distancing fail centered specifically on Woodbine Beach but I wore my mask in the crowded bits and leaned into outdoor is better than indoor and minded myself as best I could. First I locked up my bike and beelined to the water while there was still light. Then I split my time between a log on the sand where I could best see the sunset over the city and a rock on the shore where I could most enjoy the water. To my surprise, while on the log, I got a phone call from
evening_tsar. I think this is the first time I've gotten a phone call while Out And About In The World, which is kind of amazing in this cellphone age of ours. I answered and would say we mostly talked about what had just happened in the US, which I think bar none was the most popular topic of conversation in the western world today.[3rd and final gin sour. Not actually remotely drunk -- not even tipsy! -- should have gone with the vodka creamsicles as the speed with which I can suck those back should have assured drunkenness]
As darkness really started to set in some cops pulled their dune buggy uncomfortably close to my rock and I started to wonder if there was a post-sunset ban on being on the beach and so I decided to move on before they actively directed me to. I made it back up to the boardwalk and sat on a bench until you couldn't tell any more if the reddish orange in the sky was still the sunset or an effect of the street lights. I retrieved my bike from lock-up and started the walk with along the wooden boardwalk in the darkness. I could have rode on the adjacent trail but I'd wanted to walk to better listen to the waves (I love that sound) and look at the stars.
It took about 40 minutes to make it to the other end which meant I'd be between 15 and 25 minutes "late" to the 6:30 start but since I was pretty confident it would either be a repeating or static show I was OK with that. Once I made it to Queen Street I locked the bike again and headed up the steps to the plant. Somewhat to my surprise it was a repeating show but it was only repeating on one small corner of the building. With something as large as the edifice of the R.C. Harris is I liked the idea of the projections being spread out across the whole faces of it (especially in our current circumstance to trying to avoid crowding) but can certainly appreciate the extra challenge logistically that would be.
The displays were beautiful and in my luck I happened to walk up right as they were starting one of their rounds such that I wasn't even sure if it was the case that something had gone wrong and they were starting late overall. I stayed for 3 rounds of the showing, which in the end, only ran about 10 minutes: once to properly watch it, once to capture some favourite images (I think most of you are most likely to be able to access a small selection of these on FB) and one last due to a bit of capture fail in the 2nd 'round.
Then it was back to unlock the bike in order the push it up the worst part of the hill (the steepest grade here is right before the lake) which happens to conveniently get me to the street I'd just noticed this past Thursday (as I biked to my local post office) has a burrito place so I also stopped in there to take one of those home for dinner. It was absolutely delicious and my only regret by the time I got home and ate it is that I ordered the 'regular' instead of the 'huge'. :)
As I nommed away on it I tuned back into the Light It Black event, which I'd been previously been listening to all day since I woke up at half 9 that morning. This was so enjoyable I was then more than an hour late to the Zoom chat going on in part in the service of NaDruWriNi (and at this point wholly in the service of NaDruWriNi as it's just
the_siobhan and I left at this point.And, good holy god, it's now quarter to 3 so I'm officially going to pack this in!
no subject
Date: 2020-11-08 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-09 01:12 pm (UTC)As an overall event there are going to be large scale projections of various kinds across the city (there are a couple of shots of these on a tower and on the waterfront silos on Twitter) until Dec. 5th but the schedule on the website is terrible at noting what most of them are about!
no subject
Date: 2020-11-09 06:33 pm (UTC)Mainly I'm interested in what I can walk to, and at least it gives me that information. Still, I miss being in the art loop.