Leaves and Petals

Unlike most of Toronto, I’ve not been overly bothered by our cold, snowy winter. Also unlike most of Toronto, I’m out in the cold four or five times a day at least, which is what happens when you replace children in your life with two large drooling, fur-covered beasts. The huge gritty snowbanks can sometimes be an obstacle, and I will curse and wave my fist in the air with a zeal unknown to all but the emotionally disturbed upon encountering an uncleared sidewalk (shovel your snow, cocksuckers!), but the fresh cold air is bracing, the exercise imperative (for me and the dogs), and getting out of the house is a nice break to what can sometimes be a monotonous day.

Which is not to say that the experience is pleasant.

I try not to complain too much because I think of the other extreme. When the cold wind whips my cheeks to a scarlet red, and that little area above my eyebrows and just below the edge of my hat starts to go numb, I think of August. I look around me on the streets and remember the parched brown lawns, and the feel of sweat trickling down between my shoulder blades as I gasp for breath in the polluted Toronto air. I replace the shriek of wind in the trees with the eerie drill of cicadas. The energy to push on against the cold takes me back to the days when it felt too hot to put one foot in front of the other.

Looking around, it’s hard to imagine that the trees coated in ice, or the park an expanse of crusty snow, will ever be green again. How can it be possible? Winter makes us feel as if we’ll be trapped in the deep-freeze forever. The idea of glorious daffodils emerging from the ground or the amethyst heads of crocuses pushing up through the snow to herald the return of spring seems almost a cruel joke, never mind roses and lilacs and the glory of a vegetable garden.

Despite the harsh cold, I caught the first whiff of spring today. It may well have been -18′C (before the wind chill) when I was out this morning for the first of many treks around the block, but as I stood in the park, waiting for the dogs to grace the ground with their very special gift to the earth, the sun felt warm for the first time in months. Facing south, fulling exposed, allowing my black pants and coat to absorb the weak heat of the sun’s rays, my body began to remember. I closed my eyes and let the light dance across my lids and sparkle in my lashes as I bowed my head.

In that brief moment in the sun, I remembered it all, and I was reassured. Spring will come; flowers will bloom in a glorious palette, leaves will unfurl with breathtaking grace. The glossy blackbirds will return to sing their shrill “Ocaleee!” from the trees. This will not last. Have strength, have patience. Find a sweet spot in the sun and wait it out.

No, not aliens, not Samsquantch… cute, stylish, funky orthopedic shoes!!

Regular readers will remember my post of about a month ago in which I bemoaned the lack of cute shoes, whined about ugly puffy sneakers and theorized that my chiropodist was out to get me. Thanks to my good pal Erika, and some folks on the Toronto LiveJournal community, not to mention a whole string of drug shoe mules who are currently at work transporting my beautiful boots from Buffalo to Toronto, my feet are happy, healthy and clad in some sweeeeet looking stylz.

Finding stuff I liked was not easy. The internet was incredibly useful, but shoes don’t look the same in photos online as they do in real life. I had picked out some Naots styles that I liked and then headed up to Prairie Dog, the Naots store in Toronto, to try them on. The shoes I liked online were not to my liking in person, while the Seashell Mary Janes I didn’t care for so much in photos were gorgeous when I saw them up close. They’re pink inside! With pink stitching! I literally hugged these the whole way home. I’m afraid to wear them for fear of having them get scuffed.

The boots I had planned on buying were less impressive to me irl, and my heart was stolen by the Oysters. I tried to talk myself out of them for a couple of reasons; first, Erika has a pair and wouldn’t we look dumb going places together wearing the same boots? But also, the Oysters are an older style, and the store didn’t have them in black in my size. Two shades of red, green, beige or mushroom, but not black. But I needed them – bad. Thus began a wild goose chase that required me to order them from a shop in the US. That store doesn’t ship to Canada, so I had them sent to a beer geek buddy of Greg’s in Buffalo. Another friend will pick them up this weekend when he’s there for a visit and bring them back. I feel like a mother anxiously waiting to be reunited with her children.

A word about the Naots – they’re not cheap. These shoes are handmade in Israel and have a cork footbed similar to Birkenstocks. If you’ve only got minor foot concerns, the footbed they come with will conform to the shape of the foot. For those of us with our own crazy $500 plastic inserts, the footbed is removable, while still providing decent support, cushioning and shock absorption. These shoes average around $150 – $200, but these are serious shoes. The majority of the line is sandals and clogs, but the collection of boots, mary janes, oxfords, etc., are definitely worth looking at if you want something funky and unique.

For walking shoes I headed to Walking On a Cloud, a chain of speciality footwear stores in the GTA. It was there that I found all of the styles of the ugly puffy sneakers from the running store I was sent to originally – at prices about 50% less. Which made me especially happy I didn’t succumb to the running store clerk’s verbal abuse and hand over $140 for the ugliest shoes ever. Because getting ripped off and insulted would have put me over the edge.

At WOAC, I found a pair of Rockport Viviana walking shoes that made me especially happy (again, I totally overlooked these when looking online). With a fairly delicate cut and some nice detailing, these were nothing at all like the “pillow wrapped in garbage bags” type shoes I was expecting to get stuck with. They’re super comfortable and the orthotics fit quite nicely.

Since I’ve been getting piles of hits to my other post about trying to find cute orthotic shoes, here are a few more links to online shops where I did see some stuff I liked. If you found this post while looking for some version of “cute orthopedic shoes”, I send you plenty of good wishes in finding a pair that you love. Please do make an effort to try them on before buying though, as those orthotic inserts can be tricky, and buying things that need to fit properly on the internet can be risky.

FootSmart – online shop specializing in orthotics and hard to fit sizes, based in Georgia, USA
Healthy Feet Store – online shop specializing in orthotics, more fashion style – based in California – ship only to USA

Walking on a Cloud – Speciality shoe store with both an online shop and locations across Ontario. Selection is better online, but you can order stuff online and have it shipped to the store of your choice to try on

Greg came home with the very best Valentine’s Day gift ever. It wasn’t roses, or chocolates or tacky lingerie. It was a recount of a cell phone conversation he overheard on the streetcar on his way home.

The woman seated in front of him dialed up what was obviously her live-in boyfriend. And went about dropping hints left, right and centre, mentioning Valentine’s Day several times and even specifically asking her spouse to “pick up some flowers on the way home for dinner”.

Except that hubby was either dense, not into the Valentine’s game or was really just not that into her, because, as Greg recounted, her next statement was, “Oh. You’re going to the bar.”

There was some more mentions of picking up some flowers (hint, hint, hint), and finally, a “Have fun at the bar!” which no doubt was uttered with the most guilt-inducing tone she could muster. Greg also indicates that he was able to hear the line disconnect just as the woman said “I love you,” in a sad, tiny voice.

So what have we learned from this?

1. Valentine’s Day is lame, stupid and hurtful.

2. For the love of God people, stop having your pitiful private cell phone conversations in public places.

We caught another glimpse of V-Day guilt this morning. As we were heading out to walk the dogs around six-thirty, a guy was coming into the building with a cardboard tray holding two cups of coffee and some pastries from the nearby coffee chain. He was also carrying one single red rose, wrapped in cellophane and undoubtedly grabbed from the convenience store on the corner.

We shot each other a look when we were out of hearing range. “How much shit do you think he got in last night?” Greg asked. “Enough to put him in the dog house and make him beg for forgiveness today,” was my reply.

Yeah, Valentine’s Day. A wonderful opportunity to show the person you love how much you care for them – or – make them feel like complete and utter shite.

How much snow is enough?

If you live in Toronto, you’ll know that we’ve been walloped with snow this year, with more likely to come. Downtown streets and sidewalks are a mess, snowbanks in some places are higher than the average person. We’ve officially gotten more snow than in 1999 when our then clown of a mayor called in the army.

1999 was also the last year we had enough snow to roll out the Melters. Until now.

The snow melter is a huge contraption the size of a mobile home. With the help of a backhoe to break up the snowbanks and dump them in the melter’s path, snow ends up on a conveyor belt thing, travels into the machine and is melted. When the melter hits a storm drain, the tank is emptied.

This is an absolutely awesome thing to watch. But it costs the city a lot of money to run the melter, and it’s really only useful on main roads because of its size. It wouldn’t solve the sidestreet problem especially. However the City of Toronto does have 5 of the things, and they’d certainly help to at least clear the main roads of excess snow.

There’s one in the Works Department garage around the corner from me. No sign of it being rolled out yet, but I’ve got my fingers crossed. It means I have to hope for more snow, which seems counter-intuitive, but the things are just so darn cool to see in action.