Mambo Taxi

I went to the optometrist for the first regular checkup in many years. They did the pupil dilation thing, which was sort of annoying and now I remember how much I didn't like it the last time. I probably should have used the cheap sunglasses they gave me, but I didn't. On an overcast day, on the walk back to the office, the white lines on the road were blinding me. Yeesh. My pupils looked, and still look, like an animé character's.

Night fell shortly after I got back to the office, which was convenient. And from then until now, everything is brighter than I expect, and point-source lights have pretty auras around them.

I walked roverthedog through the big park, which has been decked out in Christmas lights.

Wow. Pretty. Very pretty.

The strings of lights in the trees each looked like thick cables, bright but not quite painfully bright. Again with the pretty auras. If I could have turned off the streetlights, it would have been perfect.

I'm not sure I would recommend this as a way to get into the Christmas spirit, but hey, as long as I've got weird vision, might as well take advantage of the few unexpected benefits.

There was quite a downpour this morning. I was hanging out with my parents at their hotel just as they were on their way back home; I stuck around a bit longer so I wouldn't be caught in the worst of it getting back to the car. It turned out to be a very warm rain, but also a lot of water.

Things I then saw on my way to work:

- ducks swimming on the shoulder of the road
- a toddler joyfully stomping in puddles in a front yard
- a pair of middle-aged women driving a scooter in the bike-lane with raincoats billowing. The one in the front looked like she was soaked to the bone and had an ear-to-ear grin.

We just bought a condo in downtown Kitchener. It used to be the Arrow Shirt Factory. There were four floors, and they've built 4 more floors with a set-back. Ours is the first level of the new construction, the only level with terraces. It's 1500 square feet of usable space, it will be complete some time between March and late Summer of next year, and we have ten days from yesterday to have second thoughts.

To say I'm excited is an understatement. Last night as I tried to get to sleep, my brain took me on a walk around the new neighbourhood, with little jolts as I realized what was within roughly ten minutes walk. Victoria Park! persephoneplace! nobodyhere! thefateyouare! Kitchener Market! Kitchener Market Light Rail Stop (hopefully)! Pho! Jerk Chicken! KWArtzlab hackerspace! A somewhat OK video rental store! Eventually I ran out of exclamation-marks and started falling asleep, until I was jolted awake (repeatedly) with we just bought property sight unseen!

The process, last night, was a zoo. They had an open-house for agents, but I had just called the afternoon before to find out when we could look at the demo unit, and they said we were welcome to come with our agent (who we trust very well- she sold us this house, and similarly for many of melted_snowball's colleagues). Mary was a bedrock. She was the one who suggested a few weeks ago that we be open to downtown Kitchener (it's where she lives) instead of close to the University. She was the first to tell us that the unit we were looking at was quite likely the most sensible layout in the building (I've since heard similar feedback, scarily enough) and when she left us last night, she was considering buying a smaller unit in the building to rent out.

Meanwhile, there were 40 other people talking in the non-noise-canceled sales office. Imagine like: a narrow Apple Store with wine and canapes. We got time to tour the demo units (there were two set up). 14-foot ceilings, exposed original pillars of the factory, and a lot of beige. One unit was very snark-worthy (Mary had some sotto zingers about the design and the agent who was telling everybody how great it was) and the other was fairly nice except for one feature: the loft bedroom. It turns out most units have an (optional) raised bedroom with half-height walls and sort-of wraparound windows to let in the light. We kind of want to have noise isolation in the bedroom, so that was a non-starter, even though the storage area underneath the loft was sort of cool.

Our unit only has 9-foot ceilings, but it's got 32 feet of windows, a fairly good amount of storage space, and best of all, the condo allows pets. (That was actually the first question I asked when we arrived. The first two helper-people said, "I don't know, let's find somebody who does." and the third person explained their two-pet minimum, I mean maximum.

A last bit of condo-buying usefulness: we can move whenever they say our unit is finished. However, beyond our 10% deposit, we're not on the hook for the rest of the price until 75% the units are sold, which is possibly not going to happen for a few months after. Which means we get to move first, then sell our place, assuming things line up OK.

What could possibly go wrong?

(*wibble*)

I hear other parts of town are just getting a drizzle or heavy rain. Well, we were getting quite the wind and rain just now.



That wasn't even the worst of it; my camera only gets video in 30-second chunks.

Ah well, the backyard tree seems intact; the only damage done seems to be a house plant that got knocked over in the wind. I wonder if there's much more due; we're still getting a fair bit of lightning and thunder. The radar map shows another big red blob down by Windsor aimed directly at us. :)

Hope everyone else is OK. ...Toronto, batten down hatches!

[edit to add: and now the birds are chirping again.]

[Poll #891868]