Winter Wonderland and Wine Bar is closed.

So…..another one is in the books. What can I say? It is safe to say that 2022 was interesting.

I began the year with some financial changes - it was the start of the new era of not having a regular paycheck. It had been two years since my departure from my previous job and the severance package that was provided at that time required me to sit at home for the next two years, be quiet and you will still get paid. I remember vividly when it happened and thinking, wow - can you imagine? Someone will actually pay you to sit at home! On the surface it sounds kind of stupid, don’t you think?

I mean wouldn’t it make more sense to have the person still working? Ah….no, they actually don’t want you and the reward is go home and we will pay you to go away. Now I get it. Anyways, enough of that.

What was important is the belt tightening was supposed to begin. The chief accountant is and likely will always worry about this thing called money. Nothing I can do about that, I guess. The end goal was of course is to see if one can learn to live on one salary and not touch any of the “retirement money.”? If you can use it whats the purpose of retirement money? Gee whiz….

When you look back you do your best to put away money for the future but I’m sure most of us really have no idea what that means. I doubt that I did and I am always thankful that the accountant (Sheila) figured that out early. Given a choice of living in the moment vs. saving for some unknown time long down the road, most of us would say….screw it, let’s go on holidays or buy that latest new car. There is no doubt we could have (me) done a better job saving but I think we ended up doing okay.

Anyways, we survived and on the positive side we made it through the year without raiding the piggy bank - in spite of the market blowing up (sigh). I don’t even want to consider how much money has been lost in the stock market. I plan on taking the view that what goes down has to go up - fingers crossed.

At the beginning of the year the tennis world did its best to keep us amused by showing us how crazy both sides can be when it comes to vaccines. Okay - I declare, I don’t have a lot of time for people who refused to get the jab. Sorry, but that’s the way I feel. If you were following tennis in January of 2022, you knew that a huge controversy was taking place. The start of the tennis season begins down under in Australia and the favorite to win “again” was Novak Djokovic, but due to some screwups at many levels (including himself) he was actually deported from the country. He isn’t and won’t get vaccinated. Opinions tended to favour the government because the locals had been through a long lockdown and they didn’t relish the idea of a sportsman getting a break. If you were team Novak you were outraged and if you were not team Novak you tended to say - you reap what you sow.

Lots of crazy things were going on early in the year. South of us some of our friends in the USA didn’t want to let things go and a mob of angry, primarily white men/women decided to storm the capital at the behest of the outgoing President. It would seem that they didn’t want to accept the will of the people and wanted to continue with the reign of what likely will go down as the worst leader ever in the history of the Western World. This mess is still ongoing and we may never see the punishment of those who were behind this.

And of course - COVID 19….sigh. I have to admit that the last three years (is it 3 years) seems to be a bit hazy and if you asked me the timelines of when things opened/closed, I simply can’t remember. It is a big blur.

The tennis clubs were closed and retail shopping continued to be restricted. I started the year working as the Manager of The Merchant of Tennis. With the various restrictions in place we were forced to pivot on a continous basis. From reduced hours, limited people in the store, masking and sometimes completely closed it was frankly challenging. Online shopping grew dramatically and people were willing to brave the cold/snow to play anywhere they could find a tennis court. Both tennis and golf were the clear beneficiaries of the restrictions because a lot of sports didn’t open as quickly, so people wanted to take up things that they could be outside and be active. Try joining a local tennis club in Toronto - many of the community (public) clubs were telling people that they have a huge waitlist. It has gotten a little better and its not as crazy as it was in 2021 but Covid is still hanging around. But, supply was still a problem and it was tiresome telling people - sorry, we don’t have your shoe size. Let’s hope 2023 will be better.

I’ve lost count the number of times I took a rapid test. In what seems like the “old days” when you got the sniffles or symptoms of a cold you basically sucked it up and went to work. You never stayed home unless you were comotose. Now as soon as you get any signs of anything you take out the mask and do a rapid test. Don’t dare even cough near anyone - because they may (they will) ask you if you have Covid. In my travels around the city it’s clear that people are tired of masking as you rarely see people “masked” up. I use public transit quite a bit and you do see some compliance but its usually based on age - older people often are masked.

On a more serious note war broke out in Ukraine and the world could see in all its glory the work of the mad-man Putin. This particular war seems to make no sense at all and too many people have been killed or displaced. The world has gone mad. I am lost why the rest of the world has not done enough to stop this. I get that interest in entering into more wars is probably not very interesting to most, but we have an innocent country being destroyed….come on!

The Queen of the castle is now Miss Ellie as she managed to take over and make sure we are here to serve her. Every dog we have had has been special and I don’t really want to say this is better than that….but Miss Ellie is pretty special. She simply didn’t grow so she is about 7 lbs of fluff. Okay, may a little bit less barking would be in order but beyond that she is perfect.

I’ve written in previous posts about the wonderful meals we had in 2022 and some of the best are a local place called Le Paradis. Dollar to dollar it is one of the best values out there. As in many places prices have gone up but at Le Paradis they are still lower than most restaurants and the service, atmosphere and quality is continues to be excellent. And best of all….it’s a stumble home without having to drive.

I decided to take a road trip in May to visit our place in the Tampa area. Long story short we had decided to sell it and my role was to drive down and bring back things that we deemed valuable. You know…pots/pans etc. When I retired, I had all kinds of plans to go on a number of road trips and of course as usual nothing actually happens - that is sort of the way I seem to do things. I’ve very good at planning but a bit weaker at the actual execution.

I wrote a blog post previously on about this trip. As much as it was sad to move on (especially now with the winter months here), I know it was the right decision. The whole complex (Saddlebrook) had been sold to a new parties and they have big plans to renovate, which means more money. We figured we might get hit with a $40-$50 thousand renovation bill and at this point in my life, I don’t need that.

The pictures above are day two. I stopped near Brunswick, Georgia and of course, I had to have pizza for dinner.

After checking out I drove up the east coast and made my way to the Big Apple to meet up with Miss Sarah. So, something I actually planned did work out. We had a wonderful time together eating, walking and shopping our way throughout the city. We stayed at the Moxy on 6th and 28th and location wise, it was excellent.

We drove back to Toronto and made it back in one day. A few days after arriving home, I didn’t feel that good and I thought there was a strong possibility that I may have “finally” picked up Covid 19. So…what to do? Take another rapid test.

Positive!

After reading years and years of information, I have to think that I may have gotten off lightly. I would say that I didn’t feel very good for about 4 days and started to feel better after that. The intelligence of the time said you had to isolate for 10 days and mask when going outside - no problem. I tested negative around the 12th day.

Another decision I made was to stop working full time and so I handed in my notice - some of it was predicated by someone had given “me” a bad google review and it really bothered me. I could not recall anything that I had done and I actually never read the review. I was so annoyed because I felt I worked so hard and provided good service and advice to all. It just didn’t sit well with me so I said - that’s it. I don’t need this # *(&^* and I’m out. Anyways, they asked me to hang in for a few months on a part-time basis which would take me to the end of August.

I could go over on the stupidity of social media and reviews but as much as we use it and like it, there are times when you have to wonder about it. I recently had a meal at a restaurant that we typically go to often and it was one of the worst pizza’s I’ve ever had in my life. And that is saying something because as you may know - I like my pizza. The waiter was great and very apologetic and corrected the bill. I could have written about it on social media but I thought - why? Shit happens sometimes so simply let it go.

We found a “new” place to visit called J Steak & Frites. Located in the trendy Queen West- West area this restaurant fashions itself after a famous chain in Paris called Le Entrecote. Very simple concept - only one thing on the menu. Steak, salad and frites. Imagine - how can you go wrong. Anyways we think its very good and we did manage to get back again one more time with Miss Sarah when she came home for Christmas.

I wanted to take another road trip and so I decided to go back to NYC - alone. I bought a ticket for the 2nd day of the US Open and wandered around the grounds. I am a odd watcher of tennis. I prefer to wonder and watch a lot of matches but usually only a few games at a time. It’s hard to get me to sit there for 3 hours. I also managed to hook up with some former colleagues and of course this was both nice and sad. Can’t explain it, but maybe you might know what I mean….….

One of the highlights was Mr. Saturday Night on Broadway.

I love the energy of NYC and I’m sure if I was 40 years younger I would love to live there. So, now I do it vicariously. I have been watching vlogs on YOUTUBE about young and usually interesting people who have become the new reality stars in internet media. Who would have thought that if you buy a camera, video yourself buying groceries at Trader Joes, or do apartment tours you could make that a full time gig.

Some of these people have hundreds of thousands of followers. And they are not doing it for free. Many of these people have “brand deals” and have learned the art of social marketing. I find it fascinating how these new ways to reach people evolve. Its amazing how media continues to change.

The summer was fairly uneventful and I did manage to play quite a bit of tennis. I actually thought I was playing pretty good till one unfortunate day. I was playing my buddy Jacques and I hit a serve in which I felt my elbow give out. We continue to play on but over the next few days it continued to give me problems to the point in which I could barely brush my teeth or wipe my you know what.

Prior to this injury I had made a decision to try to do something about another injury that I’ve been living with which was my shoulder. So, now instead of one injury, I was dealing with two. And the elbow was a game changer because there was no way I could play. Th shoulder was somewhat manageable - I could play but I had to take care of it. But not the elbow.

The plan for the shoulder was to have what is know as PRP. It’s a bit out there when it comes to treatment. They take your blood, spin it a machine and then insert it back into the area of the injury. After what seemed like a long waiting period I had 3 painful needles over a 3 week period in my right shoulder. While this was taking place I also had lots of treatments on my damaged elbow. After numerous visits, a lot of money and over 5 months off from tennis, I think I may be getting a bit better. The plan is to test in early in the new year to gauge whether there is improvement.

Time for another road trip. Couldn’t pull off another trip to NYC, so after reviewing options the boss said we could go to Boston. Great - never been there and I think they have pretty good pizza. :)

The drive took about 10 hours and we arrived into Boston in the early evening. Finding the hotel was a bit of adventure as the navigator doesn’t like GPS…sigh. After threats of divorce we managed to get there in one piece. Anyways, it’s a great city to walk around and thoroughly enjoyed myself. One of the best parts to me was the tour of Harvard.

The rest of the year sort of ran into each other. Not being able to play tennis was a drag and having to protect both the arm and the shoulder meant many types of exercise was forbidden - thus a tummy on the waist began to form - sigh.

I did write a review of Pizzeria Badiali earlier this year and its worth remembering it. I managed a few visits for slices both with Ms. Sarah and the boss - Ms. Sheila. When Sarah came home for the Christmas holidays we actually ordered a whole pie and brought it home. The only problem with takeout is that it does get a bit cold.

Our other fave place is a restaurant on Harbord called “Y Not Italian.” The owner had a place close to us at the corner of Avenue/Davenport but early during Covid he shuttered it and a few years later re-opened a new place and its become our go to spot for special occasions.

We closed the year with Ms Sarah being quite sick with a very, very bad cold. She was stuck in bed for a week and she couldn’t even write her final two exams - which she would have to make up in the new year. So, it was a bit of a quiet Christmas - although I did go back to work for an extended period over the holidays to help out with staff shortages. I have stayed on for one day a week and it looks like staff shortages are not getting any better soon. The final excitement was our attendance at Joseph and the Amazing Dreamcoats on New Years.

As I write this we are halfway through the month of January, tennis has begun, snow is not on the ground but it’s cold. Let’s hope 2023 is different and better than 2022! See you soon…..