I’m not sure I can add anything profound or new to the discussion about 2020. I think history will do it for us. I’m confident that none us had this figured out when we first learned about Covid 19. Someone who I play tennis with and who I think is very, very smart - told me “ this thing will go away as soon as the warm weather comes in.” Well, that certainly didn’t happen.

As I write this we are in our second lockdown in Toronto and all we have to show for it is increasing numbers of new cases of Covid 19 in Ontario. Everyday seems to be a new record. I am starting to believe that there really is no solution to this mess. I guess they call that covid fatigue. In other parts of the world, countries that were showing improvement are now having to lockdown again. On a positive note we have some people starting to get the vaccine but it’s going to take many months before we will all be able to get the shot. I think we’re looking at late fall before we can begin to see some sense of the word normal.

The year ended somewhat strange for us as I have posted an image of Sheila with a cast on. Unfortunately, she had a nasty fall on ice just a few days ago, resulting in three fractures and she is scheduled to have surgery later this week. She can’t put any weight on that leg (so that means she can’t walk). And our condo has 3 levels so it’s a bit complicated. She can move around on one level but going up stairs - yikes.

Anyways….what a year it has been. As I’ve written in previous posts, I finished my 31 years with Wilson last December (1 year ago). The official word is “I retired” - but realistically my job was eliminated and home you go. Ultimately, I was treated fair and so I can’t complain. In retrospect, I may have been one of the lucky ones because I don’t think working this past year in my old environment was probably a lot of fun. A number of retailers were closed, supply chains were impacted and many people were left wondering what the hell is going on.

I can’t lie - I was a bit lost initially. As I understand it that’s quite normal especially after spending so many years in a pretty stressful world. The job was great but man oh man - we would have to duck and dodge every year. We never felt very safe even though our business was pretty good. In my final year we grew the racket business double digits and so I left the business in a very good position. Nevertheless, it felt very strange. You go from being at the centre of everything to being in charge of nothing. Yes, it’s more peaceful but you have to be ready for it and I knew it would take time to “calm” down and begin to take a deep breath.

I had a bucket list of things I was going to do this year - doesn’t everyone? I wanted to take a few trips - go to Paris for the French Open, drive to Chicago and then to our condo in Florida and then circle back to NYC. You know - the stuff of dreams that usually don’t come true. It doesn’t come as a surprise but I didn’t do any of them. But as I’ve said - I can’t complain because many people have lost their jobs and livelihood.

In January, I was taken out for dinner by former colleagues from Chicago who had come to Canada to meet with the Canadian Wilson Sales Reps. We had a nice dinner at Buca on King as it was my first time there. I remember being at the table and realizing that things were really over. I met with a few of them in the afternoon to discuss the business and it felt strange sitting there. There were moments that I wasn’t part of the conversation (as if I wasn’t really there). I’ve kept in touch with most of them and they are fine people. Ironically there are only two people in the picture still at Wilson.

At the end of January, I took a call from someone who I used to work with almost 25 years ago - Mike Ballardie. It was a strange call - it was one of those conversations that you felt you just had yesterday but in reality it was 25 years ago. Prior to moving on to bigger thinks Mike was in charge of Wilson in Europe and we would see each other at Sales Meetings. My first trip to Asia was with Mike and we had a lot of good fun.

Anyways, during the call we caught up very quickly and he told me he is the CEO of Slinger Bag. We decided to meet the next day for lunch and he asked me if I would be interested in helping in Canada. Ironically, I had seen the Slinger many months prior on social media and I thought it was pretty cool. I have written a previous blog about Slinger so you can learn more about it there.

They asked me to travel to the USA in February and pick up the Bryan Brothers and drive them to meet some early purchasers of Slinger. We spent about 5 hours together and it was an interesting experience. I picked them up at their house and we drove to Miami and surprised two early backers of the company by presenting them with a new Slinger. We had a film crew with us and they took some great pictures and videos. Ironically that was one of my last trips this year.

Covid 19 has certainly impacted our introduction into the Canadian marketplace. We recently were able to put my email address on the Slinger website and so I get probably 15 emails per week asking how, when and where they can buy Slinger. I’m confident that in 2021 we should be able to start shipping and start making an impact in the Canadian market.

If you have read some of my earlier posts, I mentioned that one of the things that I wanted to do with this blog is write about some of the great restaurants in this city. I started off strong with a visit to @giulietta972 on College Street. It is one of the highly rated Italian restaurants in the city and on my first visit, I ended up going alone. I sat at the bar overlooking where the cooks ae working (which I like to do) and it turned out to be a great dinner. I had the TONNARELLI CACIOe PEPE - which the menu describes as a traditional long Roman pasta, kampot black pepper & pecorino. It was so good that I went back a few weeks later as a family! LIttle did we know that it would turn out to be one of our last sitdown dinners of the year.

One thing I was very much looking forward to was going to the Canadian premier of HAMILTON. I was one of the lucky one’s who managed get tickets so the plan was to go with the family in April - as I had four tickets. However, I decided to see if I could get a single ticket and go see it prior to us going as a family. Now remember this was before any signs of a shutdown.

This would be the second time that I has seen Hamilton. The first time was in Chicago in the fall of 2019. I was attending meetings and I had flown in early (Sunday). I knew that the play was not far from my hotel so I decided to take a chance - and surprise, I got a single ticket. And suffice to say it was fantastic. The Toronto cast was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed the production and was eagerly looking forward to seeing it in April - but as you probably have figured out - didn’t happen.

So, on that note let’s call it a day. Will update with part #2 of Looking in the Rearview Mirror soon.