I haven’t received it yet. But take my screen name above and spell it with only one “r” at the end, add .root and I use gmail.

Hi, JF. Today is funeral day (of a relative that is not too close) and meet a friend from NY who is in town for the American Thanksgiving day. Our Thanksgiving is at the end of September. All the crops are dead and plowed under at this point. All we are thankful for right now is central heating.

As I mentioned, I asked Tony to pass on to you my personal email. Hopefully he has done that or will be doing it soon. I have requested that before and he has helped out.

Thanks for your offer to help. The book is up on Amazon right now and will be in stores on January 11th. It hit minimum sales to stores for the distributor to carry it. That was my big hurdle. I have a friend promoting it to big time comic book artists. If I can get, say, three of them saying it is wonderful then it is worth negotiating with the publisher to buy an ad.

If you can think of a worthwhile way of promoting the book I will send you a summary of it, who I think will buy it and a few images from it. Again, to do this I await Tony’s help.

It is nice to hear about your Uncle’s activities and your involvement in them. It sounds as though he has led a very productive life.

One of my sons is in Central California. He managed to buy a house, though just before he did, the prices were obscene. He wanted my wife and I to come live near him. We told him that we would have to trade in our five bedroom home in Toronto for a two bedroom home down there. It just didn’t make any sense. Then the real estate crash of 2008 hit. He purchased a beautiful home at 1/3 the previous sale price after the owner went bankrupt and the bank that held the mortgage went bankrupt. Since that time the prices have risen down there, as have the prices in Toronto. However, the value of the Canadian dollar has dropped against the American dollar. With Trump in there is no telling what the future will bring for our currency. So while my home is worth a lot, take off a third if you are American. I don’t expect to leave here until my knees are truly shot. And going to the states isn’t really an option. The health care here is paid through our taxes. At my age, I doubt that there would be an American plan that would accept me.

It is nice that your friends have been successful in Southern California. My son also started a business and found considerable success. That wouldn’t have happened up here. I am fairly certain that America’s business model is good at generating wealth. Canada’s is good at spreading it around.

Have fun this weekend. Up here it is cold and rainy. The rain is washing away some of the snow. And Toronto is to Canada what Miami is to the USA.

More later. But for now, I asked Tony to send my email address to you. Have you received it?

Totally understand the too many commitments! I’ve done the same this week! In the midst of helping my in-laws ready a home they inherited from hubby’s grandpa to be rented and OMG was there a lot of stuff to clear out of that place! Now onto the more fun holiday prepping!

Hope the book distribution and promotion becomes very fruitful soon and if there’s ever a point at which you could use some help – I’m loving being at home w/my little ones, but the marketer & project manager side of me is stagnating & bored so TRULY I’d be happy to help do anything I could online from correspondence to social media promotion if you ever need or want that (for free)! I got to help my Uncle start up a nat’l football camp (to help him ease his way into retirement – he’s been a football coach for almost 50 years and is having a rough time deciding to step out of the University coach role, so he’s growing the camp to make it easier to take that step to retire finally…) and it was really fun to stretch my brain again!

I know you have to keep things anonymous so I understand if you aren’t comfortable doing so, but if you get to a place where you need the help – I’m here and happy to!

Glad to hear you were able to get a place in TO when it was more affordable! My friends actually came here to Southern CA because it had gotten so expensive up there. The first one is an industrial designer who got into custom metal work and launched a custom modern furniture and commercial signage/display business here but he misses home. The other is a civil engineer and while he could go home now and do fine financially, he couldn’t afford to start out up there so both came together (best friends) on TN (NAFTA) visas and were eventually able to stay permanently. But they both miss home terribly!

I know you guys do a Thanksgiving also, just not sure of how close in timeframe so if it’s soon I hope yours is wonderful and sees you surrounded by your sons & family!

I just built and put up a gate. I hope it stays up for a few years, anyway.

I have had two brushes with extremely poor health, one at age 38 and one at age 44. I have been OK since then. The medical system patched up both problems. Had my father ended up with the same problems his life would have been very different and a lot shorter.

I don’t think many people here care about mixed marriages. I wish I could say nobody but we have a few people who think otherwise. I can’t say what percentage that is or what ethnic groups they represent.

As for the book… I am spending a lot of time with it. The book is done. Now the problem is distribution. I am hoping that somebody will get a chance to buy it. I have had about a half dozen Canadian reviews, one British and one American. The American may turn out to be the most important. I am supposed to be interviewed by a popular website that deals in such things but that hasn’t happened yet. I also have to send out notices to the newspapers and radio stations. I don’t think I will get up the strength for that for a couple of days. My elder brother’s birthday is coming up. I have been spending the last little while preparing food. That will be over Saturday night.

I take it that you hope to attend Howdycon. It sounds like fun and I really do wish I could attend. I have driven to Denver from here but I don’t remember if it was two or three days. I remember sleeping in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Actually, I also remember sleeping in Iowa so it was three days.

Hi, JF. I might have to make this quicker than I wish. There is too much going on here and I am on a break now. It should calm, soon. Nothing bad, sometimes I just make too many commitments.

I was looking at Howdycon again. I remember why I missed it last year, though it was only six hours away. My son was graduating in British Columbia the same weekend. That was that. This year, sadly, a dear friend’s daughter is getting married in Alberta and I will be there. I would love to go. It will have to wait.

We are proud of Toronto. On the plus side we all seem to get along in what the U.N. called the most multicultural city in the world. We are a peaceful city. We are a city of neighbourhoods. We have an impressive skyline. We have no slum. On the down side the traffic is worse than LA or NYC. Anyone who owns a detached home is a millionaire or close to it– average price is $1.1 million. Those are big down sides. It is hard to live near by and commute because the transportation system is so bad. So the alternative seems to be live in Toronto in a very small condominium. I am old and I bought a long time ago and cheap. Today, a retired teacher could never afford to live the way I do. The people who move into the area either gut of knock down the home they purchased and build a far nicer one.

More later.

PS – How is your book doing so far?

How interesting about your Uncle! Lol not too exotic isn’t a bad thing – something to be said for a family that manages to stay out of too much “drama.” Yeah it was a shocker for my dad when my Uncle came into our lives. I was a child and just thought it was “cool” to have an uncle who was 6 mos younger than I.

Hope your hand and body don’t feel too badly after finishing your work today. I never understood the cliche “at least you have your health” until I didn’t for a bit. I definitely appreciate it now! Having had my first 2 sons in my early 20’s and now having my two youngest at 39 and 41 – wow was there a difference in energy. But the trade off has been the patience, embracing of smaller moments and appreciation of how quickly time passes so I’m thankful (even if DAMN they tire me out! 😋).

Toronto has always impressed me as a cleaner, much better run version of NYC. I thought it was incredible how so many different areas/neighborhoods held onto their respective cultures there (most of my close friends were from 1st-2nd generation Italian families whose parents or Grandparents moved to TO) but respected and embraced the multi-cultural aspects of the area. Plus just how proud they all are to be Canadian – the patriotism they embrace is really impressive. I’ve an uncle whose African-American and coaches football. When he coached for the World League, he traveled to Canada often and fell in love. He said the people were so welcoming, kind and it was one of the few places he’d been where he and my aunt, being a mixed-race couple, weren’t even noticed as different even in smaller-town areas. This was in the early 90’s and he’s loved Toronto and Montreal dearly ever since.

You should come to HowdyCon!!!

That’s an interesting family situation. It must have been a real shocker to find out about that uncle. I found out while in my twenties that I have a cousin named Rick, who had been adopted by an uncle. I only saw that uncle twice in my life. He married three rich women. I suppose he had a certain charm. I find the idea of Rick who could now be in his eighties, at least in his seventies, an interesting notion but we have never met and are not likely too. That is as exotic as it gets over here.

I have been healthy, for the most part, all of my life. I hope it keeps up. I do have some of the problems that come with age but they don’t affect me in my day to day activities. I hurt more at the end of the day and I don’t have much endurance anymore. Today will be another day, day three, of mending a gate. My right hand is already pretty weak and my knees are shot from all the getting up and down.

The city of Toronto is now bigger than the city of Chicago though Chicagoland is bigger than the Greater Toronto Area. In the city proper we are less than half white. We remain an extremely peaceful city. The Economist just did an article on Canada as a beacon to the West and also says that part of it is an accident of geography and history. We are very lucky here. At the moment we also have a left of centre government and no one seems to upset about them, yet. Their time will come but it will take at least a few more years.

We have a Trump on the go. I don’t even remember her name. People say that we are not the same as the US and it won’t work here. People said that Trump wouldn’t amount to anything, too. Still, that is no reason to react to everyone who leans toward a draconian form of government. Most of the time they don’t amount to anything.

I’ve never heard of the Lubovitch, I’ll have to read about it. Ah – the family jerk – amazing the strife and distance just one of those can create! Sorry to hear. Our family, or at least my father’s side, has stayed very close. Part of that is it was my Aunt & Uncle (my Dad’s younger sister & her husband) were lost to cancer 6 years apart so we came together to help them each and then my cousins after losing both parents. Then my Grandma was diagnosed with her 3rd recurrence of cancer just afterwards, so that was the jarring “we need eachother” event that pulled us all closer again. My Dad’s the 2nd eldest of 5 kids (later we found out it was 6, my biological Gpa had an affair at the end of their marriage which gave me an uncle 7mos younger than I – we got to know eachother in adulthood). Then there are 11 of us in my generation. Since we mostly live in the West US, we’ve stayed close enough.

Yeah my surgery was scary – well the process of becoming septic & the rupture was. We didn’t know if I’d make it and were told it was 99% certain our baby wouldn’t (she’s 3.5 now so they were wrong, thankfully). Now it’s an annoyance and I’d just like to have it reversed finally.

That must be interesting having the two sons in the US & Canada with differing views at times on politics. I have many friends from Canada, most from the Greater Toronto area. I have immense respect for how the country is run and can tangibly see a difference in tolerance and openness to difference from which many Americans could benefit. I think Canadians tend to be more global citizens, aware and respectful of different cultures whereas Amercians are not raised as internationally aware, which is why you can typically spot (or hear – lol) an American from a mile away when abroad. My own travels definitely changed me and I wish more here would travel abroad and be a bit more sensitive.

I’m with you on the election. I think he’s full of bluster but not evil personified, either. He’s what we’ve got so I’ll wait and see. Hillary had dirty hands and I wasn’t a fan of her either. I voted 3rd party and wished we had different options.

We may have Trump but you guys gave us Justin Bieber! ;P