You will notice, firstly, that the last two blogs are backwards. I wrote them in order but saved them as drafts and published the most recent one first. Well...labour day weekend was quiet in comparison to the previous weekend. I listened to the spirit of the west album labour day. The first time I heard Spirit of the West, I was the age my daughter is now. This was before I'd ever heard anything like it, not even The Pogues, though I would be introduced to them two years later by an older boy at my school. In any case, when I first heard Spirit of the West, I didn't even know what I was hearing, something I would listen to or something my father would listen to. I liked it nonetheless. Got a cassette tape to listen to on the next family car trip, and I was kind of disgusted that my parents and I actually liked the same music. At the time, I didn't even realize that the style of music Spirit of the West played was more suited to eastern Canada. In my mind, that was the sound of the west. My parents had taken me and my brother on a train trip to Vancouver, and most places in between, the summer after I turned thirteen. We stopped in Winnipeg, of course, actually that was one of my favourite stops. Paul lived in Winnipeg as a teenager and young adult, then he moved to Vancouver for most of his adult life. Once he went from Winnipeg to Vancouver on his bike. I asked him if he was ever scared on that trip and he said only the time he bedded down one night in the dark, and was awakened with the earth around him rumbling. What he didn`t realize in the dark was that he had gone to sleep very, very close to some train tracks. If you live in North America but have never left the Eastern Seaboard, I strongly urge you to. It will change your life. Now I have a little bit of the west, albeit a very important little bit, lying next to me three or four nights a week. I don`t think I would appreciate his stories as much if not for the train trip I took at age thirteen. Well, that was a tangent. On the Sunday night I cooked at the Mudhouse. I made pasta and someone else had made pie. It was fun hanging out with the Mudhouse gang, as always. When I got back, Paul had fallen asleep and I lay down beside him. Lily got off to Grade 8 ok, although I am not sure I am ready for her to be in her last year of elementary school. She says that every year of school is a bit better than the previous, so hopefully high school will be great. The next Sunday, Lily came into town and she, Paul, and I went on a 4hr shopping spree, mostly at the Eaton Centre with a little bit of Queen St. I had this idea that we would go to the Eaton Centre, then down along Queen St. and then end up in Kensington market. This turned out to be totally unrealistic given the time we had, but all were happy. Paul decided he didn't need to go into Pink so he sat on a bench next to some other guys and they chatted a bit. Turns out there is quite the community of people who get dragged on these shopping sprees. We went into J Crew and Lily really wanted to get something but it was mostly a bit outside of the price range. Lily picked up this *thing* and said well, can I have this, for $75...Paul said, what is it and Lily said I don't know...so Paul said you want to get a $75 thing that you don't know what it is... I don't really want to think about how much $$ was dropped. I guess if this only happens once or twice a year, its ok. This week, just to add to the excitement, the fair came to our town. Nothing compared to the Ex but fun nonetheless. Lily went with some friends while I was at a badly-timed meet-the-teacher night at her school. Lily joined us at the end for a special meeting concerning a trip to Quebec City for the Grade 8s at the end of the year. Exciting!! And back in Toronto, first stop a strike fund benefit concert for bike messengers. Paul and I were impressed with the bands. I hope things turn out well for them.