The GNE becomes an annual tradition ...

This year’s Great Northern Exhibition ran from September 25th to the 27th. As you know, Dave and I loved last year’s ex, so we had to go again. This year was a bit trickier to schedule, as we had weekend guests arriving Saturday morning, so Dave decided to take Friday off. Dave wanted to take pictures again. I don’t understand why he wants to shoot the same vintage tractors and midway rides year after year, but I suppose it’s not so much the accumulation of nearly identical photographs as the act of taking the photo. Whatever.

For our local friends, the GNE is an all-weekend event. Mariane’s mother Maureen is on the GNE’s Board of Directors. Mariane competes in the baking and other food-related competitions – this year her butter tarts won first prize! As a young girl she was a GNE Ambassador. I think it’s kind of like being “Miss GNE”, but with a more politically correct and gender-neutral role and title. I envy that connectivity to a community and its various functions; I can only dream that one day I will be allowed to join that club. Mariane was one of this year’s judges for the junior talent contest, and we agreed to hook up near the stage at around 5:00PM.

Dave and I arrived at around 4:00. Though Dave had wanted to get there earlier, Mariane had warned us that Friday is “Education Day”. Every school kid in Clearview Township and beyond gets the day off school to go to the fair. We opted to wait until the young ‘uns had left the premises.

Once Dave shot his vintage tractors, we toured the agricultural exhibits. We spotted the sheep in one building. I love sheep! I approached each pen, admiring the cuteness within. Some were freshly shorn, others still wooly. This man kept coming up beside me and gripping the sheep’s haunches. “Wow, he must be a local farmer. I’ll bet he really knows his sheep!” I thought to myself. I was only mildly annoyed that he was invading my personal space. After about the third time, I noticed that he was being trailed by someone carrying a clipboard and making notations after Buddy spoke. Oh. He was the judge, and I had wandered right into the middle of the sheep judging competition. I moved out of his way.

While waiting for Mariane and her husband to meet us, we spotted her mother Maureen. Just like last year, she looked busy, and just like last year, we made eye contact. I’ve never forgiven myself for not acknowledging Maureen at last year’s cattle judging competition. Back then, my Citiot reserve was just too strong. But my desire to become a local, or at least be perceived by strangers as one, was also getting stronger with every weekend spent up north.

I hesitated, then boldly ventured, “Have you seen your daughter? We’re supposed to meet her here.” If Maureen didn’t remember me, at least she had a point of reference. Yes, I had felt the need to establish our commonality by playing the Mariane card, but more importantly, I did it. I had spoken to her! And I had spoken first! I can’t help but wonder what next year’s GNE has in stock for us. Who knows, Maureen might even know me by name!

And after a summer hiatus ...

Shameful. I'm a discredit to the blogosphere. There's no excuse for my lack of posts. It's not like we haven't been coming up to Collingwood, we have, despite the exceedingly crappy, wet, cold, unsummer-like weather. And I have lots to talk about: the carp, the baby robins, the roofing, the painting, the Elvis Festival, my car troubles, the tornadoes, and more.

I blame it on Facebook. Whenever I would sit down at my laptop, full of good blogging intentions, Facebook would lure me with its siren song. In fact, if you want to know what I've been doing in Collingwood, just check my Facebook status messages for the last six months: there, you'll find an abbreviated, almost Twitter-like portrait of my Northern adventures. You'll also see my ever climbing scores in Algerian Patience, Agnes II and Whitehead. Curse you, Facebook, for having such addictive Solitaire games! Thank God I'm not into Twitter, too!

Well, that's it: no more procrastinating, no more distractions. I shall blog again, dammit! I may even revisit some of the events I meant to cover over the course of spring and summer. They won't be in chronological order, but at least they'll be out there.
I plan on talking about the swans for my next post. Let's see if I do. Now that I've said it, I have to, don't I?

Time for a shower, then a walk around the grounds. I just logged off Facebook. One step at a time ...

After a long winter's nap ...

Based on the lack of postings since last fall, one might think our place up north is a summer home. Not the case. Lighthouse Point is a four-season, full-service condo complex. After all, it is in Collingwood, mere minutes away from Blue Mountain. And no, we do not ski; I’ve lost track of how many times we’ve answered that question over the past winter.

“Dave’s never skied. I have, but it’s been years. We might try it one of these days. Actually, we think we’ll buy snowshoes. We see people snowshoeing on the property and it looks like it’d be a lot of fun.” I hope I don’t have to say that again until next November at the earliest!

It’s not as if we didn’t go up this past winter. We went almost every weekend. We took a week off in February and spent it up north. Dave painted the master bedroom, guest bathroom and guest bedroom. We bought new appliances. Lots happened up in Collingwood.

We had many blog-worthy adventures, but for some reason (laziness?) I did not put fingers to keyboard and document them. I considered writing “The Citiots experience their first bad traffic on the way home” – everyone had slowed down on Highway 400 Southbound because of a snowmobile show at Georgian Downs – but once we were past the visual distraction, the urge (and my grumpy mood) vanished. I could have blogged about the massive early snowfall, the massive late season snowfall, the joys of walking on top of the massive ice slabs that had been pushed onto the shores of Georgian Bay, or the minus forty degree wind-chill days. (Did you know that minus forty is minus forty in both Celsius and Fahrenheit? C-O-L-D!) But, blog I did not. Why not? I have no excuse.

It’s Thursday morning. The weather in Toronto promises to be beautiful this weekend: warm, sunny, reaching the mid twenties (Celsius), possibly even with a Humidex value close to thirty. Yay! We could work on the back yard. We could clean off the pool cover, remove it and get our swimming pool going by the end of Sunday. It’s not swimming weather yet, but I am so much happier once the pool’s open.

It will be cooler in Collingwood than in Toronto, and there’s the chance of rain on Sunday. So, what’s on tap for the weekend? Well, Dave has taken Friday off. We’re heading up north. I’m spending today packing, and reading the installation instructions for the dog hammock I bought at PetSmart on Tuesday. I sure hope it fits into the back seat of my car. And maybe, just maybe, I can convince Dave to drive up to Collingwood tonight!

We’re hoping to get our first motorcycle ride of the season in on Saturday. If we do, I’ll be sure to write about it! The Citiots are back.