No one on the streets. No dogwalkers, students and professors slipping by, shift workers coming home having stopped by the grocery store on the way. Nobody.
Then I see two young women, balancing themselves as though they were walking a tightrope. And a heating fuel truck making an emergency delivery. It is [...]

Panhandlers (panners) aren’t invisible. Stop debating as to whether ot not to give them money. Don’t. Instead, look them in the eye whenever you neet, smile (acknowledging they have a right on this planet just as you do) and say, “Good Morning,” in a friendly fashion. Don’t hurry on. Realise that you have [...]

We can hear every word & note of the Blues Festival when it comes around in August. Then there’s the stage set up and blocking the street…

But all of this negative talk is just so much blowing in the wind. Basically I’m deliriously happy living downtown. I look forward to the [...]

Everyone was out in the street taking pictures of this gigantic rainbow that stretched from the harbour clear up the hill where I live and talking to each other about how great it was. The rainbow hung for ten to fifteen minutes, dark navy at both edges with bright yellow light in the [...]

Parades, the inebriated kicking your garbage can into the middle of the street where it is then struck multiple times by various vehicles, knife fights (well, in my neighbourhood anyway) and military tactics, training the soon to be sent overseas in handling city manuevers. Yes, this is rare except in a town that [...]

Our city recycling program includes composting. Here’s a picture of our fliptop bins, (next to the frequently stolen lawn chair, #15). Normally the lid is closed, honest.
Those who see themselves as too classy for littering, open the top and drop their coffee cups, beer cans, fast food wrappers and boxes, [...]

Funeral home half a block away, active church across the street, entertainment venue at the end of the fence – everybody interested in parking across the driveway.
Early on I scrounged an orange metal NO PARKING sign from some student trash which I put out now and then in a pinch. Knowing [...]

Not apparent in this picture of my house is the big crack over the front door after a passing trucker lost control and plowed into the front (before I bought it). Hence the covering vine.

Not just car traffic but foot traffic too, (usually inebriated). Some of it inclined to vandelism (hence a [...]

These perils aren’t in any particular order though once I’ve got a list, I may go back and rearrange them by annoyance level. Right now it’s this doorsign being swiped. Passersby, used to gawking at shops see something in your yard or on your door worth swiping. Queen’s university is nearby and sometimes [...]

Yesterday I got 4 of the worst looking lawn chairs you can imagine, from garbage set out curbside that was mostly construction remnants. This green broken-back chair with paint stains is the very pits, so bad I leave it turned over outside.

This one, half sprayed with black paint is [...]