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looking for a home

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Today we spent the entire day looking at apartments in Toronto. Which meant getting *to* Toronto, ordinarily an easy enough task.

But not today. Today the highway conditions were, in my entire driving experience, among the very worst I've seen. Let's say top five. Lots of road-top ice and slush; little to see but heavy blowing snow and tonnes of filthy spray from passing trucks; vehicles in the ditch; thick piles at the side of the road that ensure a pull-over is a trap. And of course those fascinating individuals who drive like nothing is wrong, hurtling along at 120kph without forward visibility, road traction, or reason.

I gave us two hours to make our first appointment. It took three. During the course of the day I got into snowbanks three times. The rental car (a v6 Honda Accord, which I'd chosen for its extra weight and power) had no snow tires, so the system kept throwing up its pathetic warning sign--perhaps saying, "your tires are spinning freely", or perhaps, "you're at 5,000 RPM's!" But we persisted.

In the end we didn't see anything that wowed us. But we certainly saw a good selection of buildings and neighbourhoods. The Yonge & Lawrence area is in the running, and Bathurst & Eglinton, and even Kipling & Bloor area, way out at the end of civ^H^H^H the city. Much to my surprise, so is "The Beaches".

The weather finally cleared up at around two and we saw the last few properties (with the assistance of my aunt Sue, a real estate agent) under the remains of the day's sun. It was fun after that.