Ookings of d00m

Quick poll for the readership: can folks name anything about Toronto that has gotten better in the past five years? Ten years?

I'm just thinking about gentrification and the corresponding death of music and unselfconscious weirdness. Various cons relevant to my interests have either withered or flat out died. Neighbourhoods I am used to thinking of as "my" neighbourhoods to hang out in are unrecognizable.

But surely I am focusing on the negative, as is my wont? Can anyone on my flist think of some place, event, or organization that is more fun than it was in the past? Surely, there must be something out there that has gotten niftier?

Does anyone has an optometrist they like in the general Yonge/St. Clair or Forest Hill areas? The last eye checks I had were from a surly, unhappy guy in a closet attached to a chain optical retail store, and I'd rather not go back there.

Weird morning. Near home, traffic was far lighter than it usually would be at that time of day. On the 401, things got ugly, due to a big accidnet closing multiple lanes westbound near winston churchill, which is the exit after mine on the highway. I got off early, and found the alternate routes also insanely packed, and then got trapped at an intersection with seperate left turn signal lights that had my group of left-turners miss an entire light cycle.

When I got in, the walk from the parking lot to the office was enough to have the poor air quality set off my mild asthma - by the time I got upstairs, I sounded like Darth Vader. During his death scene. I pulled out the inhaler, so now I can mostly breathe okay, but I have a splitting headache, my heart rate is up, and the twitchy feeling in my veins suggests that the blood pressure jumped up, too. Breathing's still not 100%, and I feel like crud. If I don't start to feel better soon, I'm going to go back home, assuming I'm safe to drive.

On the plus side; I went out for drinks with captainmushroom last night at what the Toronto Star calls "probably the most authentic Irish pub in the city".

Also, Zil and I are off to see Hellboy tonight. Hellboy! And apparently The Dark Knight actually lives up to the hype - the CBC's Jesse Wente (sp?) called it "not just the best superhero movie of the summer, but the best superhero movie of all time". Apparently Ledger's performance is amazing. I look forward to that, but I'm not going opening weekend.

Way up Looking down through the glass floor at the CN Tower

I went out with webby today to be a tourist in my own city - neither of us had ever been up the CN Tower, and so up we went. I'm not quite as scared of heights as I had thought. I managed to walk on the glass floor, though I didn't have the guts to jump up and down on it. I couldn't feel the tower swaying when I was in it, but apparently my body was automatically compensating - when I got back down, I felt like the ground was swaying for about 20 minutes, and was feeling a little nausea as a result.

It was a lot of fun, regardless - thank you, webby for convincing me to go up, and keeping me company.