Beginning of the End 

Toronto used to be more bicycle friendly, as this photo from the 1930 CNE attests. See more at BlogTO.

It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury

In Ontario (I can't speak for other Canadian cities) everyone knows, summer begins to end when the "Exhibition" comes to town. In Ottawa, it's known as "The X" or "The Ex" (depending on the current marketing campaign). Whereas in Toronto, it's called the CNE, short for the Canadian National Exhibition. How grand. I can't remember what we called the one that appeared in the Avalon Mall's parking lot in St. John's. The Midway, the Fairgrounds? Midway sounds right. Right?

So that's it. At 10 AM Eastern Standard Time, August 19^th, the end of summer begins. At the same time it's the official close of the sale of 112 Fern Avenue. A summer of house sales, house builds, house moves and endless, endless trips back and forth. I'll always think of it as "The Summer of a Thousand Cuts" (as in "Death by a thousand cuts"). A summer of endings and beginnings. At times it seemed like a cruel "Groundhog Day" version of an Endless Summer. It certainly was the summer of our discontent, in the real sense that all of my "discontent" was in full bloom. Of course, summer really ends with the explosive, howling Air Show on the Labour Day long weekend. If I could escape the city for a weekend, that would be it. Though Caribana would also be in the running.

I recently heard a quote from MacBeth that seems fitting. "It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Yeah. Full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing. That's life.