The Colonies

I've decided that these are the colonies. We've left the mother ship and we're out here on the frontier pushing out the perimeter for humanity. The people of the colonies are very friendly; especially the ones aged 8-10. I've come to know them quite well out in the playground that is RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM OUR HOUSE.



There is Mooshu the eight year old who lives next door who instantly adopted us and tells us the tales of everyone in the crescent. Mooshu really likes playing with the wonder dog and Jane Austen and Zoo. She is quite bossy and I was wondering how Jane Austen could put up with it when it struck me that she was used to it - being a child and all. My cousin tells me that our crescent is known locally as "Sesame Street" and it is true there are a ton of kids.

I love the hills. Wonder dog and I have already had lots of fun wandering through them. There are lots of dirt bike paths to follow and a couple of times I've had to bushwack my way in pursuit of the dog who thought it might be fun to catch a deer. I've lost him a few times but eventually after much backtracking and name-calling he bounds out of the grass his tongue looking like a big floppy piece of turkey bacon.

We've checked out the library (not bad), the farmer's market (lots of old school knitting - yuck), the grocery stores (better than I'd expected), the playgrounds at the schools (legacies of the 70's), an interior design shop (cute), and the Canadian Tire (extremely helpful staff). I even noticed a day spa the other day; and I have to admit that caught me off guard.

The one thing that the colonies desperately need... What would be the one thing that the colonies desperately need? An IKEA, a toy store, a Starbucks? No. They need a traffic engineer. The roadways and intersections are worse than in Montreal and that is saying a lot. The main intersection to downtown is a 5 way stop. The one and off ramp to the highway requires home study. Even in the new end of town the access roads to the Tire and Extra Foods are convuluted. 98street our main artery is 3 car lanes wide with no lines; sometimes it seems like there is a double lane northbound but when I'm over to the right nobody will pass me on the left. Were they just making it wide enough for the horses to turn the carts around?

I can't believe that that is what bugs me most (so far) about the colonies. Though I have been missing IKEA and when I went to purchase Duplo as a birthday present (our traditional one year gift) I found two choices in three stores.