My Community
The Dude Lifestyle => Oh, Jesus, what's that smell, man!? => Topic started by: Rev Dave Man on July 20, 2020, 12:00:37 PM
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Just a quick background first. Me and my Special Lady are in our 50's and have lived our entire lives on the US/Canadian border in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area. This past weekend we were hiking in the gorge along the Niagara River below the Falls and could see the bridge over our head that goes from where we were to where we wished we were, the bridge we have crossed more times than we can count. My Special Lady was lamenting how badly she misses Canada, and I agreed. You see, we both grew up in a time when you didn't need a passport or a special drivers license/Federal ID to get into Canada. And now the border is closed to "All Non Essential Travel". But we both have family and friends in Ontario and we are so used to spending so much time over there, it's really a second home to us. We both spent our childhoods back and forth over the border, and as teenagers going there to party because the drinking age is 19 instead of 21, and as adults we spend a lot of weekends and week long holidays there, especially on special occasions like Canada Day. Sometimes, if I had a day off during the week and I was bored I would get into my car and drive to Toronto for absolutely no reason other than to walk up and down Yonge Street. I'd stop into the Hockey Hall of Fame gift shoppe and go search out a new restaurant and see how their poutine is. Suffice to say, Canada really is a second home to us, and we miss it very much.
I know a lot of people hear "Buffalo, New York" and their thoughts immediately go to New York City. But it's nowhere near NYC. It's almost 500 miles away. Buffalo is New York in name only, and that's the problem. We are closer to Pittsburgh, PA...Cleveland, OH and certainly much closer to Toronto. But for some reason, the Governor of NY makes laws based on what's happening in NYC and they get enforced statewide. Here, we fly the Canadian flag alongside the US flag, same height, side by side. Buffalo is often referred to as "Canada's favourite suburb". We love Canada, we grew up (before every house had cable tv, and we all had to have antennas for our tv's) watching Canadian tv shows, and listening to Canadian radio...still do, actually.
I understand this virus situation is bad, it needs to be contained and stopped, but I never thought that I'd ever live to see such massive restrictions put on peoples' everyday lives. I miss my friends and family and they miss us...but we miss spending time in the Great White North. Geographically we don't get a lot of time when everything isn't covered in snow, or frozen solid, so we try to make the most of the warm weather and the times we get to spend swimming in the lakes or riding the motorycycle into Ontario instead of taking the car.
Last August my Special Lady and I spent a week in Old Quebec City for our anniversary, inside the wall. She wanted to go to France but it just wasn't in the budget, so a buddy of mine who's an actor on a popular Canadian tv show (I'm not gonna be "that guy" and name drop) suggested that we go to Old Quebec City instead. I'd been to Quebec City, but I never had been in the "Old City". It's much different, it's very European like, very narrow streets that were built for horse and buggy and not cars, and blocks of buildings with shoppes and restaurants everywhere. Next to our wedding on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, it was my favourite holiday ever. But I digress, when are they gonna open up the border again for us "non essential" people who just want to see our family and friends and abide. I know they are saying the same thing, they miss coming here to see us. Video chats only do so much. Early on in this pandemic, and I mean EARLY on, the thing that frightened me the most was every person in the media began using the term, "the new normal". That right there told me that something is going on that they're not telling us. We'll probably never know. All I do know is that I can make my own poutine at home, but what I wouldn't do right now to walk in to Smoke's Poutinerie and order a double bacon poutine...mmmmm...I can hear my arteries clogging. Smokes is like the McDonalds of poutine, but it's quick and it's good if you don't have the time to go to a regular restaurant and have a quality poutine. Anyways, that's my rant for today. Peace, stay safe and watch out for each other out there and above all else, abide.
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I'm sorry.
I lost my train of thought.