I have enjoyed walking through the old neighbourhood and visiting the Dufferin Mall. But I haven't really gone south of Bloor Street. There is a "natural" East-West divide (approximately at Yonge) and also a North-South one at Bloor. The joke was that downtown folks thought that Thunder Bay was north of Bloor. When I stepped outside on Monday afternoon, the frigid wind almost drove me right back inside. I kept repeating that I will turn back at the next intersection such that by the time I found myself south of Bloor, decided to finish my chores.
I was heading to the Metro grocery store at College and Shaw. It carried a peanut-only peanut butter brand that had a good price to taste ratio. But first, I stepped inside a branch of the Toronto Library. I often came to this location to scan the Saturday crossword in pre-pandemic times: 10 cents was cheaper than buying a copy for $5. Now that the newspaper was $10, it was an even better deal. But they had upgraded the printer and switched to a different management system so my old photocopy-print card with a few bucks on it was invalid. I'm sure it's against consumer law for a business to cancel accounts with cash balances. With millions of residents, the aggregate amount was at least some thousands of dollars. In any case, I was able to top up directly using my library card.
On the way back, with a less gusty wind, the distance didn't seem so far; it was less than 10 major intersections. I passed my old attic apartment and saw that the lights were on. I wondered if the new landlord (the daughter of my old one) ever renovated the 15-year-old bathroom, fixed the electrical outlets, or did the other repairs that she promised me but kept delaying. When I left, she had rented it out to 2 separate boarders (and a total of 8 for the entire house).
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