The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves...

Friday, July 11, 2025

Muskoka Bound

We made the trek northward for a series of visits with friends and family. After a stop in London to visit Dave at his new digs at Victoria Hospital, we carried on to Orillia for lunch at Montana's with my dad. We stayed with Keith and Ashley and got in a nice visit with them as well.

On Saturday, the three of us headed further north to explore Muskoka, journeying through my old stomping grounds and past Huntsville to the Burks's Falls area. After a nice swim near Port Sydney, we visited a great café and tourist info centre overlooking the falls, followed by a visit to the Screaming Heads art installation to the west.

It's a great spot and highly recommended - all kinds of weird and wonderful cement structures in the fields and woods of Muskoka, complete with a hippy commune vibe. It was a hot and muggy day, but otherwise we greatly enjoyed exploring the 67 acres of artistic embellishment. Apparently they also have weekend festivals with music and bonfires and so forth - check it out!

We also took the opportunity to explore two local museums - one an historic one-room schoolhouse, the other an old farmhouse with a garage full of vintage antiques including a horse-drawn hearse.

We visited my dad again on the way back south. We also opted for the scenic route home on Sunday, travelling due west past Stayner and then cutting a diagonal south and west through rural countryside to London to visit Dave again. What a great weekend!

Jane and Keith swimming in Port Sydney

Screaming Heads near Burk's Falls

Great installations!

Great cafe with a view in Burk's Falls

Wiseman's Corner Schoolhouse museum

The old swing bridge

Watt Farm outside Burk's Falls

The old Burk's Falls hearse

Fish Fest!

It was once again time for Wheatley Fish Fest, with a long weekend of fun in store. In typical Wheatley fashion, things got interesting early - on the Thursday eve of Fish Fest, there was another gas leak and another evacuation of the downtown. About 60 homes and numerous businesses shut down - again - and people were literally staying at the local arena. Turns out they were just "testing the system" and had shut off the venting system. Without telling anyone.

Friday night kicked off with a Tragically Hip cover band named Grace 2 playing at Two Creeks Conservation Area to an excited yet PTSD-influenced crowd. Early in the show, a fire truck and ambulance flew past with lights and sirens blaring - as the entire crown turned in anguish. They quickly announced that it had nothing to do with the gas situation - it was "only" a fatal car accident down by the harbour as someone has lost control and crashed into a greenhouse retention pond. Otherwise, great show by a great cover band and local brews from Top Dog!

On Saturday we set up the booth down at the harbour - with many more vendors this year, there were "aisles" of booths and about 40 tents. It got really hot and uncomfortable, and Jane dunked herself in the lake numerous times just to cool off. Behind us, they had fish tote races across the harbour, and then the Firefighters water barrel challenge on the other side of the slip. One of our vendor friends kindly gave Jane a "hairy coo" stuffy, which made a number of appearances over the rest of the weekend!

Later in the evening, we went to the arena for the annual fish fry and broasted chicken dinner, with Jody Raffoul and his band rocking the rink afterwards. We ran into several of my co-workers, past and present. We also enjoyed a great dinner with Heather, including a few beverages.

On Sunday we set the booth up again, this time uptown at the main village intersection, right on the very ground where the explosion occurred in August 2021. Around us were vendors and food, a ring toss tournament and a very well attended car show. The main event was the big parade that came down the main drag, right past the booth.

At different times I managed to sneak off to Joe's Bar AND the Renny's patio for beer, given that I could see the booth at all times and know when or if to return. After the show ended, we packed up and left the van to walk across the street and get takeout dinner from Renny's.

Later in the evening, there was a boat parade along the shoreline, followed by a great fireworks show. We LOVE being able to be a part of our little village and our BIG celebration!

Set up Two Creeks and waiting for the band

Grace 2 rocks Two Creeks

Set up down at Wheatley Harbour

Jane disappears into Lake Erie to cool off!

Firefighter Water Barrel Challenge across the harbour!

OV and a Hairy Coo!

Dinner at the Arena with our Hairy Coo!

Open Door booth "uptown" on Sunday

Village ring toss game in the street

The new patio and outdoor bar at Renny's

Car show!

Fish Fest finale!

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Michael and the Argonauts

In mid-June, I took the VIA Rail train from Chatham to meet some friends in Toronto for a guys weekend. Though the train was an hour late due to speed reductions and delays, it was still a far more pleasant experience than driving into the city and finding parking.

Keith and Kevin were waiting at Union Station when I arrived, and we promptly Uber'ed out Lake Shore Boulevard to BMO Field, home of the CFL defending Grey Cup Champion Toronto Argonauts. Due to some renovations, some entry gates were closed, making for long lineups and some delay getting into the stadium. We did luck out in that the first 10,000 fans were given a heavy souvenir Grey Cup ring, which was surprisingly heavy!

Once inside, I sated my immediate needs with a hot dog and a beer. We found our seats and were very impressed with the view. Being the home opener, we also got to see the Grey Cup take the field and were treated to some fireworks and extravaganza. Kickoff followed and the Argos squared off against the visiting Calgary Stampeders on a beautiful day for football.

The Argos didn't play particularly well, and the offence struggled to find rhythm with backup QB Nick Arbuckle at the helm. The defence struggled to contain the Stamps QB on scramble plays that resulted in critical first downs after backing them up to long yardage.

The dog show at halftime was arguably more entertaining than the game - mainly small dogs doing frisbee tricks with trainers but also racing an obstacle course at midfield.

In the end, the 29-19 score wasn't as close at it seemed, with Toronto mounting some late game offence when it was too late, including a few Hail Mary attempts into the endzone right in front of us. Calgary was the better team on this day and we filed out of the stadium.

After securing an Uber along Lake Shore, we hit the hotel for the night (Don Valley Hotel and Suites) and settled in to watch Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals - Edmonton lost to Florida to go down 3-2 in the series - and some UFC.

The next morning, we headed back downtown and had lunch at the Loose Moose before touring the nearby Hockey Hall of Fame. Ironically, we saw The Cup the day before it headed down to Florida for Game 6, from which it did not return as Florida won the game handily to repeat as Champions.

I bid adieu to my companions as they headed back north. I returned to the Loose Moose to kill some time with beer and a Jays game while awaiting my late afternoon train. We made a little better time on the return trip but were still about 20 minutes behind schedule, pulling into Chatham about 9:15pm. Clearly I am spoiled by European trains and their efficiency!

Jane was waiting to pick me up and the whirlwind weekend was over as I arrived home in time to round up the garbage, set up the coffee, and head to bed for another work week.