a backalley.

This is the back alley behind my apartment. The snow helped cover up all the ugly bits quite nicely. It also made it very quiet since almost no one drove down it that day, except for the garbage collectors.

There is something special about garbage collectors in Montréal; nothing ever stops them. They might be a touch grumpy and their truck smells pretty bad, and they don't always get everything, but twice a week, there they are.

Huzzah!

Painting the walls.

Montréal is a complex city.

In Mile-End graffiti flows over the gates and walls of nearly all the alleys. I’ve been walking the back alleys a lot lately. Things are looking good.

But apparently, in West Montréal, you can’t even paint your own garage the way you want to. Any form of expression involving paint and what you own can be considered ‘visual pollution’ and might not be considered ‘harmonious with the neighbourhood’.

I’m not a home owner. I prefer to rent, at least until that great multi-million dollar a month career move happens. But if I were, I’m not sure I would care so much about my property values that I would complain about a neighbour’s poor choice of colour and paint. When did we start looking a roof over our heads in terms of ‘If I sell this shelter now, I can get a bigger shelter with a fridge that has a teevee in the door’?

I was under the mistaken idea that when you owned a house, you could do what you wanted, providing you weren’t endangering folks, or painting other garage doors with a pirate flag.

And that’s what I would say should happen more often anyway.

an alberta farm.

Sometimes, like today, I miss the prairies.
When I was smaller, I thought they were boring.

I was wrong about that.

snow.

It snowed here in Montréal. It's very pretty and, for a day or so, it really had a happy impact on traffic. And by that I mean, not so many people drove.

The snow didn't make as many people as happy as I would have thought. Angry muttering about the lack of snow removal started surprisingly quickly. No wonder city workers are so grumpy. No one is ever happy with them. How do you think parking ticket people feel about their snow day? How do you even find the windshield to hand out tickets?

Kids got monday off of school. Two of my friends under 10 were busy building snow forts and watching movies while sipping hot chocolate. Seems like a reasonable way to spend a snow day.

I'm not sure I understand adults.


If you saw your car in the state of the above photo (yup, there is a car under that) wouldn't you just call it a day and build your own snow fort?

Get a life, fellow adults, or you'll drop of a heart attack while angrily shoveling snow and muttering about city hall while kids laugh and throw snowballs at you... kids are useless at CPR and will think you are just screwin' around anyway.

a warning

A warning.

There is a distinct possibility that a rodent uprising is upon us. I have a reliable source.

A friend of mine works at a library and has informed me that the rate of squirrel related injuries is on the rise. If libraries are reporting this, I can only imagine what hospitals might be currently facing. A library is a very fine thing, but it is pretty low on the list of health facilities.

I suggest that instead of attacking first, which doesn’t seem to work as well as it used to, we befriend the rodents. They are impressively smart and could be reasoned with.

I would also recommend not feeding them by hand for the time being.

not so smart cars

I know I should welcome the 'smart' car, but I don't. Calling an object smart makes me nervous. Could it be that I might be outsmarted by a car or a toaster? To me, smart implies a certain level of sentience.The thought that an object might have a more rewarding life experience than me because it has figured out all that I cannot, is not comforting.

My mother decided she wanted one this past summer. I don't know why. My parents have two SUVs and a truck as well as a tractor (plus a car up on blocks). Granted, they live near the top of a mountain on a west coast island... but how does a smart car fit in? That little pod of a auto surely couldn't make it up the 1.5 km switchback drive way. I believe she thought it was cute. I also believe she told me about it to fill in 30 minutes of silence that I was enjoying before the phone rang.

In the end, she didn't get the 'smart' car. The deciding factor was the complete lack of cup holders. Cup Holders!

And that is how decisions are made.

If you happen to feel guilty about all the climate change and you want to do something about it to show the world you care, don't buy another car. Park the one you already have and walk. Cause in the end, a smart car is just another car on the road, and a pretty ugly one too.

merde.

It seems cruel to expect dogs to read french.

I'm not sure that it is at all clear to an illiterate dog that pooping is pas permis.

No one tells Roofdog where to shit.