Brawl On the Bus~Someone Beat The Brick~Niagara Bound

                                                 
                                                                         ENTRY 4                                                 




       

  BRAWL ON THE BUS



I moved to Toronto from Hamilton in 2000. 
There were many reasons I decided to leave Hamilton. However, I still know a lot of people who live there, so I continue to visit there and I have seen a huge improvement in the overall city.
That being said, there are some things that never change.
One thing about Hamilton, or rather, the people of Hamilton, that has always really been a pain up my ass has been that most of them don't know how to mind their own business.
That is a huge problem. 
That is okay for a smaller community, but Hamilton is a medium-sized city.
I like Toronto because people mind their own.
That is good, because for one thing, nobody likes someone else's nose in their affairs, and secondly, everyone has their own destiny and goals in life. Strangers do not know those goals, and therefore, have no business in them.

Case in point, when I ride the bus, I have my music or I listen to the radio, or read, or just ponder life. Sometimes, I get blog ideas while riding the bus. I mean, what else is there to do?
Apparently in Hamilton, riding the bus means sticking your fat nose into other's affairs.

On my last trip to Hamilton, I was going to Main Street and Kenilworth Avenue to visit a buddy. Fellow blogger, Cliff T.

Since I do not have a car, I thought it would be a good idea to take the bus, completely forgetting that I was not in Toronto anymore, Toto.

Hamilton Spectator File Photo 

I had to take the 1 King from downtown out to the east end.
The bus was late, which did remind me of riding the bus in Toronto, but anyway...
since it was late, it became very crowded.
While I was doing what I normally do, listening to the radio and pondering my rather sad life, I noticed a scuffle. Some people were yelling, and then more began yelling, and then, a fight broke out. I mean it was a barroom brawl, but without the bar.

Apparently, from the bits I could understand, it was over seating.
Some nosy busy-body started getting into other people's business about where people should be sitting and how and why, and whatever...the whole thing was stupid and certainly did not need to turn into a fight.

Some numbnuts tried to get me involved, which of course, is never a good idea.

This went on for a good five minutes, and the bus driver just kept right on driving.
I photographed the bus number for reference. It will always be stuck in my head as the "Bad Bus". Friday, July 21, 7:20 PM, bus number 1310. Bad bus, very bad bus.

This event was very important. 
First, it reminded me of one of the main reasons I moved away from that place.
It will also change some of my future plans.
Originally, I wanted to semi-retire to Hamilton. That will likely not happen now.
Although I may not stay in Toronto for retirement, I may not be moving back to Hamilton as soon as I originally planned. 

I talked to a bus driver later, and he told me that kind of behavior is 'normal' on buses. 
Well, no. That is not 'normal' at all. It is quite abnormal and childish.
I have never seen that happen on a TTC (Toronto) bus. 
I'm not saying that it never happens, but it must be very rare.
I ride Toronto buses multiple times daily and I don't see that. I ride a Hamilton bus once in three months, and ...boom... that happens.

Note to self: Don't ride the bus in Hamilton.



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 SOMEBODY BEAT THE BRICK



This new team I am on is very tough.
On Wednesday for sparring, coach put me in with our heavyweight.

This guy hits really hard.

Coach wanted everyone to do six rounds, but the heavyweight had this continuous revolving-door of sparring partners. 
He'd take one out, and someone else went in.
He'd finish that guy, and in went another.
Eventually, it got back around to me, and yes I did end up doing six rounds with him.

He nailed me with quite a few body-shots including a nice liver-shot. The reason why I don't eat before sparring sessions.
Although, at one point he hammered me with a nice right hook to the ribs that put me out of service.



I don't think this photo shows it well, but that is my left ribcage.  If you look closely you can see some bruising there.
It is actually a lot more painful than it looks.

At the about the same time this happened, I somehow damaged a muscle in my left shoulder. 
Therefore, right now my whole left-side is out of commission. 
It could be worse. It could be my right side.

I kept on sparring this guy, and he kept on nailing me in the ribs.
At what point does one clue in? Hmmmm...maybe I need to work on body defense?
Yeah. I guess I do.

Well. It is a combat sport, and the idea is to take your opponent out of the fight...and that is exactly what he did.

Good job, on his part. Not so good on mine.
I guess coach and I are going to be working on some body defense drills once I get back into it.
I am going to take it easy for a while, so I don't make it any worse.
A couple of days off, then go back to light exercises. Once I know I am completely healed, then I can go back to harder exercises and sparring. 
I am hoping just a couple of weeks.
You know how much this will drive me crazy having to take time off.



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 NIAGARA BOUND

Big plans for the weekend.
Sunday, July 30 and Monday, July 31 I will be in Niagara Falls.
I will be doing a vlog from there.
I will be visiting Louis Tussauds Wax Works, Movieland, Ripley's Odditorium, and of course the Skywheel, plus a couple of other places.

I am also hoping to get a nice long night shot of the falls.

Join me...shall you, for a new 'Another Brick In the Sprawl Video Edition' next week from Niagara Falls., Ontario.

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The Way the City Doesn't Think ~ Getting Ready For Fall ~ Maybe Try Conservative

                                                   
                                                                         ENTRY 3                                                            

THE WAY THE CITY (DOESN'T) THINK



As you will see later in this post that I am not a huge fan of Mayor John Tory. Well, I am really not a fan of anyone in city hall right now.
I will not right now go into details of all the problems with the Toronto Transit Commission and their never-on-time buses.

Oh, by-the-way, the TTC was just voted "Best Public Transit In North America". 
Compared to what? A place without public transit?
Anyway, continuing... I am not even going to discuss at this time the ridiculous taxes and fees we pay here.

Let me just tell you what happened on Saturday.
Part of the subway system was closed for track repairs. That has been going on for too long, but that is another topic. 
Since the system was shut down, they put more buses on Bloor Street. That is fine, except at the same time there was a street festival on Bloor Street.
I ended up being 15 minutes late for work.

Who has street festivals any more? Infrastructure can't handle it.  Toronto has many nice parks and open areas to hold festivals. There is no need to close a street. Especially when there is something else happening.

This is City of Toronto thinking: "Ummmm...Okay...so the subway is being shut down and they are putting buses on Bloor Street, so let's close Bloor Street for a festival."
I get a headache trying to figure out that logic.
What chucklehead at city hall thought that would be a good idea?

Now, who is going to pay me for making me late for work, but of course if the City wants money for something, they are sure fast enough to collect.

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CAN PATRICK BROWN DO BETTER?

The Ontario Conservative party has recently elected a new leader. 

Patrick Brown is the leader of the Ontario PC.

Even though an election is still a few months away, he has been advertising his role like crazy.

He claims to be a politician who wants to treat everyone equally. 

I find that a bit odd because generally, Conservatives are somewhat 'selfish'.

We are about to find out. 

I highly doubt that Kathleen Wynne will be re-elected, and who else is there? Andrea Horwath? 

Yeah, sure.

As for me, this is the first time I have been unhappy with all levels of government.

I did not vote for Justin Trudeau, but he won by a landslide. I was actually tolerating him for a while, but what really pissed me off was when he cancelled the public transit tax credit. That credit was what separated me from having to owe income tax and getting a tax refund. Now, for next year unless I can find other credits, I will have to pay something.

In addition to his stupid legalization of marijuana, which is nothing more than another government cash-grab. 

As for Kathleen Wynne, I am pissed off at her for the same reasons as everyone else. 

I don't think I have to go into them. 

I also did not vote for her.

Then we have Toronto Mayor John Tory.

Wow. where do I start?

I did vote for him, but that was before I realized that he was completely and totally useless as mayor.

He has done nothing to help this city. In fact, the conditions of this city have worsened since he has been mayor.

I won't even go into all the problems with the TTC, some of which I already (kind of) covered.

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GETTING READY FOR FALL

A little fitness/boxing update. 

I have been sparring weekly and I am still working on conditioning.

I got my weight down to 183, with a goal of 180.

I want to be ready and registered for September.

I would like to be in the fall Stockyards show.

Plus there are many more shows all around that the coach has been talking about.

The great thing about the Coutur team is that we do get to do a lot of travelling. More so than any other team I have been part of.

I am at the gym whenever I am not working, either doing a class or my own training, and I also do personal sessions with the coach. I am slowly beginning to know the other people on the team, and they are a great bunch of people to work with.

Check out this week's featured fitness product from Amazon, to your left near the top.

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