Canadian Lyndsay

Man, I love living in Osborne Village and I love working in the Exchange District.  Everyday, I see and hear things that make me laugh, or shake my head, or run away.

Today, while outside at work, I observed…

• Two people fighting at the top of their lungs.  I moved away because stabbing is a popular pastime downtown.
• A girl bawling her eyes out talking on her cell phone as she walked down the street.
• The poor Aboriginal man who sits on the stoop of a building across the street with an orange hat pointed outwards for money. He always tucks it into his jacket when the police or Exchange Patrol walk by.
• This crazy boat of a car that parks on the street every day, all day. Despite a two hour limit.  Not sure how the parking people miss this, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

This was just today!

Now, for Osborne Village. Today’s only real observance was the guy on his UNICYCLE, cycling along just like other cyclists on BICYCLES.  Interesting.

The village is hilarious because at night, you get people begging for money, but there’s often a group of young people with a sign that says something like “We’re not going to lie. We want money for weed.”

Ahh, only in the Village.

Dear Academy,

Since moving to Osborne Village a year ago, I have enjoyed many a beer and wing on your patio.  Yes, your patio is the best of the patios in the village.

But things seem to be falling apart. Why?  Just after Canada Day, you didn’t have many beers available.  Since then, a lot of time your draught beer has been flat.  Then was the day I wanted a steak sandwich from your menu, but you were out of steak.  Then came the revamped menu that appeared to be half of what it used to be.

The days you’re open are sporadic and unpredictable. I’ll drive past any day of the week and not know whether you will be open or closed.

And now, most incredibly, in this incredible month of April, where patios across the city have been jammed full for over a week, you still do not have your patio set up.

Dear Academy, my friends and I fear for your life. Are you soon to leave us? Why would you deny us the pleasure of your patio unless… unless there’s no point because you’re shutting down soon.

Please, have some consistency and look at your business plan. I don’t want you to go.

Love,
Lyndsay

PS – Get a freaking website! Put your days and hours on it!

I’m currently visiting my parents in St. Catharines, Ontario. Last night as I stopped for a Tim Hortons tea, I noticed something interested at the nearby car wash.

It also had a stall for a dog wash.

Now I didn’t spend a lot of time looking at this… but questions that later came up included – do they reduce the water pressure in that stall? Certainly you wouldn’t use full water pressure as is normally seen at a car wash on a dog.

So I say, awesome idea! Very cool, never seen it before but I hope I see it again.

I’ve been making an effort to spend more time outside, so I’ve been taking a few breaks throughout the day to just stand outside and take in all the action of Winnipeg’s Exchange District.

I noticed a lot of people taking their bicycles into a building across the street (all the buildings are about 100 years old around here, so definitely no elevators) and didn’t think much of it – I figured they live in the building in the apartments above the storefronts.

Actually, turns out there’s a bicycle shop in there. In the basement.

Why on earth would a bicycle shop be in a place with a whole flight of stairs? Plus the stair going up to the main entrance. Most people don’t seem to have a problem, but I noticed a woman yesterday struggling to get up the front stoop – not sure how she managed to get it down the stairs, and then up again. Weird. But, lots of traffic going in and out so they must do well.

I sure love the people watching around here! Always something interesting.

In the past six months, twice I’ve had to spend some time in emergency room waiting rooms. There was an identical, although probably coincidental, occurrence. Both times, CSI was playing on the TV.

Now, I enjoy watching CSI now and then. But I find them to be the most graphic of all the crime shows. And so I ask you…

Why on earth would an ER play violent, depressing TV shows?

I get that it’s not intentional. But why not try to keep the TV tuned to something a bit more uplifting, like a sitcom or something. Both occurrences I mentioned resulted in people being upset and uncomfortable and in one case someone actually got up and shut the TV off.

You’d think a hospital could consult a psychologist about ways to keep people calm and patient in a waiting room – where people are usually neither calm OR patient!