Homeward Bound and more

I a short while ago took a visit back to Ontario Canada to stop by with my family and also with some old friends I once worked with in the field of comic book publishing. It was an interesting week with lunches with my Dad and a weekend train ride into Toronto with an old friend to be inducted into the Hall of Fame Citation for my accomplishments in the early days in the indie side of comic books.

Packing for a trip is always hectic and I always seem to leave it until the past minute, and then try to plan for the weather three thousand miles away. I have came to understand over the years to travel in comfort. I always wear a pair of cozy stretch pants on the trip, after several years in a row of having the metal brads in my jeans set off the metal sensors at airports. It does not hurt that they look sleek and allow me to stretch out a little in the back of the plane on extended trips.

Slip off shoes have of course become almost a necessity when traveling, so I always find myself having to pack my walking shoes and wear some simple slipper type shoe for the flight. I was considering on doing some gardening at the house my brother is house-sitting for my journeying sister and her husband, and my family loves to walk and talk, so a dependable pair of shoes would be vital to this trip.

There is something almost miraculous about walking through a area you lived in almost thirty years ago, speaking with family and just noting the improvements in the town. The first thing my brother Michael and I did after my five hour trip was take a long two hour walk into town, all the way through the town park and back to the house where I would be lodging for the extent of the trip. Just the act of walking around, after a day dealing with airports and customs, sitting and breathing recycled air for five hours is enough to renew your body and mind.

Knowing that I would have a couple of days of gardening, an pastime I have missed since relocating into my apartment, was also a thought that reinvigorated me. I may sit and write about gardening for my organic garden fertilizer site and my grass seed planting tips site, but nothing beats the real thing! Fingers in dirt, discovering a full season of growth since the snows receded and clipping back spent spring bulbs to discover a new crop of wild strawberries appearing in the front yard rock garden. That is my concept of a fantastic day.

On the weekend, I took the train up to Toronto with my old friend Sally and we checked into the hotel that the Joe Schuster Canadian Comic Book Awards show had arranged for us. It was so fun going out in Toronto, a city I used to love to visit when I lived in Kitchener but had not been to for nearly thirty years. We wandered through Kensington Market, dined at a little outdoor cafe that served delightful Indian food, and appreciated the sixties flashback quality of that colorful vibrant community. We passed street musicians in tie-dyed tops, women in multi-colored long skirts and hair, bell-bottomed college kids selling and buying goods from open-air markets, and chalkboard sandwich boards proclaiming what neighborhood bands would be performing at the coffee shops and bars that night. The air was filled with the scent of delicious coffee, Indian spices, fresh baked bread and incense. The sidewalks were so crowded you had to share the narrow roads with the cars and bicycles to get from place to place.

It was a wonderful afternoon to lead up to the awards show. We returned to our hotel, changed into our dresses and headed out to the University Hall where the Awards Show was taking place. It was a little event, maybe 75 people there in all, but well prepared and it was lovely to see the work of the new kids who were awarded for best cover, best kids comic book, best writer, penciller, inker and of course best comic series. There were more than a few people being inducted in the Hall of Fame, some I knew and some I simply knew their work. I had not prepared any kind of thank you speech, not being sure how that segment of the award show would be dealt with. But everything went easily, I was able to draw on everyone elses comments when they received their award, and even to speak on stage with my presenter.

It is funny- I am always concerned about it, but never really stressed when I have to speak before a crowd. But I never recall what I say so I have to gauge by what people say after if I was decent. But everyone at the pub after the function thanked me, so guess I did alright. Thank goodness that in this day and age a person is always video taping something like this and I could check out my talk on the internet at YouTube after I got home. Nothing special, but at least I did not sound like an idiot.

The train back to Kitchener was relaxing and Sally and I had more time to get up to date on each others lives and hypothesize how we might do more traveling together in the next year or two. Back in Kitchener, I had time to spend with my Dad, who at 93 is still beating everyone at bridge and shooting pool with a bunch of young whipper-snappers in their eighties. I hope I am half as successful at being a senior as he is.

I even had a bit of time to open up my laptop, brought in the mistaken idea I would get several hours of work done each day while I was there. But I did get a bit of work done revamping one of my websites about building an interlocking retaining wall. It is always fun to spend some time exploring something you do not know and learning from the research so I can write articles on the resources and structure principles used for these walls. That is what I love about developing these sites I am always discovering something new. And that is what makes these trips so remarkable too. I get some time for new learning, old reminiscing and time with my family members all mixed together. What could be better!