January 2010

Tuesday 26 January - Stop and think

Toronto has had a rash of pedestrians being struck (and, in many cases, killed) by vehicles on city streets in the last 2-3 weeks. It seems hardly a day goes by without someone else being knocked down, and I heard on the news last night that so far this year we've had almost a third of the total number of such accidents that we usually have in a whole year. Quite rightly, the authorities are trying to figure out why we have a sudden rash of these accidents and whether we can fix whatever is causing the problem.

One of the main ideas, it seems, being kicked around at City Hall is to reduce the speed limits on our roads. Apparently, whoever came up with this has never had to troubleshoot anything, because the first question you ask when something that used to work one way starts working another way is "What changed?" And did we increase the speed limits on our roads 2-3 weeks ago? No, or at least not on any roads I've been on lately.

I'm pretty sure that I know where this idea came from: the car-hating wing of city council has siezed upon this issue and is using it as an excuse to take another poke at drivers (i.e. most of the population).

Thursday 21 January - Much better

Loyal Readers may recall that my car's windshield suffered a stone chip a while back, and the insurance company screwed up the claim. They denied it, so I had to pay for it myself, and when I called back to complain, the rep said they had no idea why it had been denied because they always pay for stone chip repairs. Eventually, it got sorted out and they reimbursed me, but it was an extra hassle I didn't need.

Driving home from band last night, I got another stone chip. And this time the insurance company handled it properly. I called them and they asked if I wanted them to recommend a repair shop. I said yes, so they not only gave me the shop's address and phone number but even called the shop and put me through to them. By the time I got to the shop, the insurance company had already faxed them all the paperwork and authorized the work. About half an hour later, it was all done.

Tuesday 19 January - Repatriation

The route that the motorcade takes when a fallen soldier's body is brought back home goes almost right past my home, and there's an overpass less than a ten-minute walk from my place where people gather to pay their respects as it passes by. But I'd never done that until today. The motorcade usually goes by between 4-5 p.m., so usually I'm working elsewhere, working at home, making dinner if it's Caledon band night, or already on my way if it's Brampton band night.

But today, I'd finished work early and didn't have anywhere to go (other than a condo board meeting in the evening), so I went to the bridge. While waiting for the motorcade to arrive, I chatted with a few of the other people who were there, including one man who'd lost his son in Afghanistan a little over a year ago. It was touching to speak to someone like him.

From the bridge (Wynford Drive), you can see a fair bit of the DVP, and at around the time that one of the frequent participants had told me to expect the motorcade to arrive, I noticed that the line of headlights on the southbound DVP pretty much disappeared. Within a couple of minutes, the flow of traffic past the bridge stopped, and it got eerily quiet (northbound traffic continued, but at that time of day, it's very congested, so it's not as noisy as traffic moving at highway speed).

A few minutes later, I saw flashing lights in the distance, and a couple of minutes later, the motorcade drove by. By this time, there were a few dozen people on the bridge, many of them with Canadian flags. And then it was over. I said bye to a few of the people I'd met and shook the hand of the man whose son had previously made that trip.

It was a very moving experience. Of course, I don't hope any more of our military personnel have to die, but that's not a realistic hope. I do hope I'll be able to do this again.