Another year has come and gone….thank god! What a crazy two years. It was 2 years ago that I ended my 30+ years at Wilson. It was 2 years ago that we first started to hear rumours about a new virus that was coming out of China and it was 1 year ago that Ms. Sheila was out walking a neighbours dog near the condo and in a flash she went down on a patch of ice. No big deal right? I later found out she crawled home and I could hear her crying out from downstairs. Off to the hospital we went and a broken something or other was the result. The first few months she had to work from home and because of her lack of mobility she was stuck upstairs. Nurse Doug had to step up and take on more responsibility. Our bedroom became her office and she managed to keep working for many months from upstairs. It has been a long rehab and unfortunately, she could not play any tennis this year. She still walks with a bit of a limb but here’s hoping that maybe in the spring she can try to hit the yellow ball.

January was a continuation of a wild time in politics. The election in the fall of 2020 didn’t solve or settle anything. Generally when you lose you go out gracefully. You take your lumps, say the right things and ride off in the sunset. Write your memoirs, become a consultant and enjoy your retirement. Not this guy. The sad news is the political divide in the country south of us is not something that just began with the election of Trump. The GOP party has chosen a path to ignore what went on and simply pretend that it didn’t happen. So very sad. On the other side the Democrats are guilty of trying to make political hay out of this. If everyone could bury the hatchet and try to do what is best for their country that would be a positive step forward. Chances of that happening are most likely - slim to none! What is worrisome is the country is moving quickly to a place you never thought it would go to. We have been brought up to believe that the concept of all people were supposed to be equal and political arguments could be settled by quiet words or wholesome debate. Frankly, just doesn’t seem that will happen in the near future.

Great…..our government just announced another shut down. Holy smokes…..I get it. This is uncharted waters, or so it seems to be but two years in and we don’t seem to have learned a hell of a lot. A week or so the governement told us that don’t bother to get a test if you have any symptoms, because your probably positive anyways and they can’t actually handle all the tests anyways. Try getting a rapid test kit? Nowhere to be found. What about N95 masks? Nope…they don’t exist. Okay, we have managed to do a pretty good job getting jabs into people’s arms but let’s be honest. We’re all getting a little tired of this. I certainly don’t profess to have the answer(s) but either we open everything up and let it impact all of us or go the other way and shut everything down for 2 weeks. Schools are going to be closed but we can still go shopping at the local mall. Figure that out.

Probably time to shift topics. When I originally decided to begin this blog, one of the things I wanted to do was write about interesting things - travel, food, wine etc. Well, to be honest, I can say only 2 of the 3 things actually happened. Lots of food and lots of wine. I certainly don’t want to even begin to think about the size of the alcohol bill the past year. We did cut down on restaurant eating given that for a long period of time going to a restaurant was not allowed. So that leaves us with “pizza.” Yes, I do like my pizza and although we did try different places, we more often than not would stay with the local joint around the corner - Martino’s. A couple of favorites do stand out though. We have tried “Blondies” more than once and it gets 5 stars. The kid aka Ms Sarah likes to order from the Dip which is an establishment on College Street. Food is quite good and not very expensive. I do believe is better when eaten there vs. getting takeout but usually we would do takeout.

It wasn’t all bad this year. Clearly the #1 highlight was the addition of Miss Ellie to the household. She is coming up to her first birthday and she has been an incredible addition to the household. She is a cock-a-poo who should have been around 15 pounds but has topped out at 5 lbs. Which makes her even more wonderful. You can pick her up with one hand. We affectionally call her the “The Mayor of the Madison Lofts.” She holds court when the weather is nicer on our small outdoor area shouting out to anyone who dares to walk by. She has a few new friends including Lola Bean and the world famous Teddy (who has sadly moved away). Can’t say enough good things about her.

Since leaving Wilson I have done a number of things. Some of them were short lived and some are ongoing. I have been hanging out at THE MERCHANT OF TENNIS for the last year on a full time basis as the acting GM of the store. Long story short they needed someone to fill in and up went the hand and here I am. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m glad I’ve been able to help them out. A year ago this time we were closed to retail shoppers and only able to offer in-store pickup. This carried for a number of months while we worked our way through the pandemic - still working our way through it though…..

Once the tennis clubs opened with the warmer weather it was a gong show. We would have 2 hour lineups outside on a Saturday because of the capacity restrictions which were in place. We were running all day and it was incredibly tiring. I would get home at 7 pm and collapse and then get up and do it again the next day. So here we are a year later and tennis clubs seem like they are going to close again and my guess is we won’t be very busy. Back in the fall, I told the owner that my expiry date would be May 1st, so I will pack up the fulltime gig to take some much needed time off and hopefully continue to offer my services to them on a more casual basis - 2 or days a week would be better. If that doesn’t work then it’s time to really retire.

The AGO re-opened this year and we were fortunate to take in two great art exhibits - the Warhol show and the Picasso show. I had seen a Warhol exhibit in NYC a few years back at the Whitney and loved it. And this one in Toronto was pretty good. The Picasso exhibit was in the fall and it covered a certain period of the artists career and we both enjoyed it.

Who would have thought that getting a needle in your arm would become such a newsworthy thing? I’ve been fortunate that I have my 3 shots so far and it wouldn’t surprise me that sometime in 2022, we will be getting a 4th shot. You spend every moment you have trying to avoid people but they say that the chances of avoiding this latest variant will be nearly impossible. Great…looking forward to that.

Yep….a lot of both in the past year. Mornings would begin with a coffee and the day would end with a glass of wine. We tried a few cocktails and the expresso martini was a crowd favorite. Fair to say that 2022 would be better off with a little less of both items.

The Madison Lofts Wine Bar was a welcome place to be this past year but due to the change in weather it has closed for the season. It will re-open likely in April and we are looking forward to some minor renovations and we expect to have a banner year in 2022!

One of the highlights of the tennis season was an invite to play at the QUEENS CLUB. It is a very special place that is steeped in history. It has 2 permanent indoor clay courts and everytime I’ve been there I swear that the clock stopped in 1957. Very traditional and nothing fancy - just the type of place that I like.

So that’s enough for now. I have missed out writing more often and I hope to do better in 2022.