Month: November 2019

November 21: Have you ever noticed that the quality of background music is worse when you are forced to stay in one place and listen to it ? This thought occurred to me as I stood in line waiting at the Service Ontario kiosk in the basement of the Canadian Tire store listening to a batch of treacly, repetitious and moronic songs playing over a crackling and scratchy PA system. There was no escape, and the only saving grace was the fact the they were not yet playing an endless loop of even more treacly, repetitious and moronic Christmas music.

I was at Service Ontario to replace my Driver’s License, Health Card and vehicle registration documents. The originals were stolen, along with my wallet, while I was in a Starbucks on Yonge Street at Davisville, listening to a somewhat better selection of background music with Kate and our friend Michel. I had draped my bag, containing my phone, my wallet, house and car keys and a note pad over the back of the chair. When we got home later in the afternoon, there was a text from TD VISA saying that a “potentially fraudulent” purchase ( $3999 ) had been made at the Apple store in Yorkdale. When I called them back, I discovered that my wallet was gone along with my identity documents and all of my credit and debit cards.

I spent the next hour or so, calling each of the card companies to have the cards locked and get replacements. They had used the VISA card for 3 purchases of roughly $60 each at Shoppers, a $590 buy at Harry Rosen, and then the big ticket buy at Apple. Similarly, they rang up another $200 at Shoppers on a Master Card and then a couple of other big buys at other stores. When I asked the Master Card rep how they managed to get around the PIN security, he said that someone had called and changed the PIN number using my personal data.

It’s brilliant really: someone steals the wallet with both the charge cards and the personal data which allows them to circumvent the bank “security questions”. Having just called them to block the cards, I knew that the banks asked really tough questions like your home address and birth date – information obviously available right on a Driver’s License. It’s like locking the door and handing a thief the key.

When I went to the Police this morning, the officer said that this sort of thing happens “dozens of times every day”. The thieves go to a restaurant, steal cards from a purse or wallet and then go to a store ( like Shoppers ) to buy Apple gift cards. These can be redeemed at Apple for merchandise. If, as in my case, they find personal information as well, they can unlock the cards and use them to make a big ticket buy. Whatever they buy is then sold on Kijiji, or through an accomplice  in a store for cash.

There are a couple of bright spots in all of this. Firstly, they are apparently uninterested in my personal information. The cop said that in the hundreds of cases he had handled, there had never been a theft of identity. “Your stuff is in a dumpster at Yorkdale.” The other bright spot is that Kate and I were able to end this horrible day on a high note. Specifically, a high G sung by David Clayton-Thomas at Koerner Hall. He was doing a benefit concert for Peacebuilders – a charity which provides restorative programs and services to young people and works towards effecting change in the justice and education systems. It was a really special night ( our seats were upgraded to front row …). The music buoyed my spirits and I realized that, unlike the Muzak at Canadian Tire, this is actual music that I could enjoy for a very long time.

http://peacebuilders.ca/

November 5: Just as the Saucer Magnolia at the end of the street is a harbinger of Spring (see May 9), this Maple in the north courtyard is clearly telling us that Winter is just around the corner. For reasons I don’t understand, it is the first of the large trees to get buds in the Spring, and the first to go scarlet and begin to drop leaves in the Fall. Today it is completely devoid of leaves.

Perhaps because I was a summer baby born in July, I am not a huge fan of the colder seasons. As a Canadian, I understand that Winter is a fact of life. But I view it as something to be tolerated and complained about, rather than celebrated and enjoyed more fully. So it is that Autumn feels like the “end of the year” to me.

Spring and Summer are full of promise and vitality. We become more active and spend more time outdoors recreating or enjoying meals on the patio with food made from produce straight out of the ground. The world is alive. People travel more, enjoy vacations and time with friends. Days are warm, nights are fresh. Autumn is clearly the threshold between these warm and sunny days of summer and the colder, grey days of Winter. There is a finality to it – the falling leaves are as inevitable as the falling temperatures. There is no escape.

This time of year feels like it should be celebrated in some way that marks it as a special moment of transition between the heat of summer and the cold of Winter yet to come – the end of one year and the beginning of another. I think the Pilgrims were on the right track when they decided that they needed to celebrate their survival for another year and created Thanksgiving.

On the other hand, we celebrate our “year end” on New Year’s Day which falls smack in the middle of Winter when poorer weather is fully entrenched. There’s little hope that the date will mark a change to better weather (although it frequently gets worse …).  New Year’s feels like an artificial holiday that was manufactured to keep greeting card companies and liquor stores in business after the cash-register season around Christmas. ( In fact, the same could be said for many of our holidays: I’m looking at you Halloween and Valentine’s Day. )

So perhaps we should enjoy and celebrate the good weather and colourful trees while we have them. They mark a passage to a much darker ( literally and figuratively ) time of year.

November 11: And, as if on cue: