the great white north

Hi,
I'm in Toronto, and even though the circumstances aren't the best, I'm loving it.

Dad is in the hospital and had a chunk of his colon with cancer removed yesterday. The surgery was successful, at least the surgeon was happy with his job. We will get pathology results in a few weeks and hopefully all the cancer was removed, the lymph nodes are clear and he can get one with his next issue, kidney stones! They (the doctors) have already scheduled dad for a procedure in August to get the stones out of him. We're hoping he's well enough by then to deal with a second surgery. The man is a dynamo but he's also almost 84 years old.... we'll see what happens. One thing at a time.

I'm getting my mom down to the hospital and home every day. This is not an easy task: dealing with the wheel chair, her lack of mobility, Toronto traffic.... oy vey. It's also "summer", the season of road repair in the Great White North. Every major and minor route in the city is under construction, renovation, re-building, paving or just generally messed up for the fun of it. Can you say "head ache"? I can. Where does the city think the traffic will go if they close all the road down to ½ a lane each way? I guess the new Mayor Rob Ford doesn't care, he's up at his family cottage in Bracebridge, away from this mess.

Speaking of the 'mayor', he is on every gay persons' sh*t list for skipping the Gay Pride Week Parade last week. It's a huge deal here with over 1 million attendees.. everyone gay, straight, families and friends come out to celebrate and party. It's a blast. Rob Ford made a conscience decision to avoid it and he's the first mayor of T.O. who has not attended the event in some manor. Shame on him. The gay community in Toronto is fabulous and should be supported in my view. They have turned parts of this city into some of the coolest real estate in the country with restaurants, shops and real pride of ownership for everything they touch.

To zing the mayors' homophobia someone produced 20,000 pink postcards with a chubby beaver on it saying: "Mayor Rob Ford Likes Cottaging".
"Cottaging" is British gay slang for anonymous sex between men in public lavatories. Gotcha baby!  

On the up-side: I took mom to get her hair cut to my old stylist, Gavin. He is magic with scissors and mom loved her cut & him. I had lunch at Kow Loon, one of my most delicious Chinese restaurants. Heaven. Yesterday I walked Kensington Market, buying raisins, apricots and almonds at an outdoor bulk food stand, visited my favorite cheese shop just for the aroma and people-watched on Spadina in Chinatown. This weekend is the Outdoor Art Show at City Hall where over 500 artists set up their wares for browsing and sale. I'm planning on walking the show for a few hours..... I miss this city, more than I realized.

Time to crash, tomorrow is another day of running around and hospital sitting.

xox
m