Vintage sign hunting in California

The Christmas season is in full swing and the eat write create household is up to its eyeballs in holiday preparation. The tree is up and the wrapping is about to commence, baking will occur on the weekend. I have a brief moment now to catch my breath and am taking the time to share something I've meant to post for months now. Yes, this poor little blog has been ignored all year as the Captain and I embarked on many adventures, some small and some large. It's been a year full of ups and downs, but isn't that true of every year?

One of the highlights of the year was the very exciting adventure we had in California, where my photography was included along with works from my fellow Sign Geeks as I participated in my first-ever art gallery showing! Not even here in Canada, but in Los Angeles! The Captain and I spent a whirlwind week, flying first to Vancouver to visit family, then down to LA for an extraordinary long weekend that included the opening reception of our exhibit along with fitting in as much sign hunting as possible. From Burbank to Santa Monica, from North Hollywood to Pomona...we drove and drove and drove.

Above, just a drop in the bucket from the photographs I took. Two of my "bucket list" neon signs are shown: Circus Liquor and Premiere Lanes (the clown and the Bowl signs). I've admired them for years and wasn't leaving LA until I'd shot them!

Couch potato time

Do you subscribe to Netflix? The captain and I have been Netflix customers for about a year now and while we don't actually watch it often, we appreciate its service. We do think the Netflix offerings in the US are superior, with such a greater variety of shows and movies, but we're not unhappy with Netflix Canada. And now we're even happier.

Earlier today, on a whim, I logged into Netflix to see if they're offering Call the Midwife yet. This is a British series that Leslie told me about last year -- the first two seasons of it were on Netflix US but not here in Canada. After reading online this morning that the series was into its third season, I tried to find it on PBS On-Demand but it was not listed. So, expecting disappointment, I pulled up Netflix Canada and lo and behold, there was Call the Midwife, seasons one and two! I was very pleased. I also found Downton Abbey on Netflix Canada (I'm probably the last person on the planet who hasn't watched this series yet), as well as many of the wonderful Ken Burns documentaries.

Now we just need to stock up on snacks and we're all set!

Happy New Year, my friends

AND a big ol' bye-bye to 2013. SO happy that it's a new year!

The Ice Storm of 2013

Somebody should be selling "I survived the Ice Storm of 2013" shirts -- just about everyone I know would buy one, because just about everyone I know has suffered from the storm and has lived to tell the tale. Some have suffered a little, some a lot. The captain and I were without power for about 55 hours or so, from 2 a.m. early Sunday morning until about 9 a.m. Tuesday morning (Christmas Eve). Not fun at any time to be without power in sub-zero temperatures, but particularly hard when one is sick, as I have been (and still am). I didn't get many "icy" photographs; I was too ill to venture outside so had to settle for a few quickie shots out my living room window.

The captain's older sister didn't get her power back until 9 p.m. Christmas Day, and his brother lives in an area of east Toronto known as The Guild, or Guildwood, which has been one of the last areas to have power restored. As of now, we are not sure if they have their power back or not. Yesterday, they did not.

It has been most frustrating listening to our idiot mayor show up at press conferences and photo ops, all the while lying to everyone. He and his cronies have been talking for days now about how the power restoration was down to "one offs", while everyone here in Scarborough knew the entire Guild area was without power. That is NOT a "one off", Mr. Mayor!

I also question their claim that the city and hydro were immediately on top of this. You see, our neighbour's boyfriend works for Toronto Hydro and he wasn't called in until Monday morning, a good 30 hours or more after the power went out! Personally, I think there have been cost-cutting measures and a reluctance to rack up employee overtime that took precedence over getting the power up and running. The priority has never been service to the tax payers, all the talk from this administration has only been about saving a buck or two.

But enough on that. This is the season to be jolly, after all. The captain and I both send along our merriest of Christmas greetings to one and all, and a particularly big shout-out to all our friends and family who weathered the storm that will live long in all our memory. 2013 is certainly going out with a bang!

It's December!

I must be getting terribly old because the days, weeks and months just seem to fly by; it's hard to believe that the last month of 2013 has arrived. But indeed it has and so it's time to truly get into the festive spirit -- the holiday decorations may hit the stores in September, but I don't think of it as being Christmastime until December.

I have a vast collection of vintage Christmas images I've collected over the years, including the one above, originally a business-themed Christmas card. I'll try to share several of them here as we count down to December 25th. I love all vintage images, but the Christmas ones are so special. I hope you like them too.