From Mississauga, the business heart to Toronto, good morning all:

“How come congressional leaders of both parties proclaim bold-faced lies only to have their press secretaries stand in front of the cameras and swear it’s the truth?” — Mark Stevens, CEO of MSCO & author

Marcia just used the little Cuisinart in-room coffee maker to perk some very weak Italian LavAzza coffee. Furthermore, the room temperature is almost warmer than the final coffee product. Welcome to our waking up moments at a Hilton in Toronto.

Marcia and I drove here yesterday to enjoy the trade show and many seminars at the Cottage Life fall event. Cottage Life is a Canadian magazine with a special focus on the thousands of properties studding the myriad of lakes throughout the northern areas of this country. Later today we’ll learn all about such critical bits as Bat training and management, cabin cooking the French way, saving your septic system for under $15,000, and cold weather water survival in June—you get the drift.

My real interest is seeing what the various vendors bring to this party. I’ll be on the lookout for new and better ways to enjoy our little north-woods cabin.

We drove here via Detroit and then took the long and flat #401 highway; towns from my distant memories of when I lived in Canada whizzed by, Waterloo, Guelph, Kitchener, London, Stratford, and Ingersol. Marcia and I commented to each other that we had never seen such a police presence on a road. Minimally it had to be well in excess of 25 cruisers on the stretch we travelled. Additionally, many were covered with a huge layer of road grime all creating the perfect picture of being in an eastern European police state—which Canada is not. Bureaucratic yes, police state not.

On the way back home, tomorrow, we’ll head back via Niagara Falls and stop a spell to play the role of the tourist (which we are). It’s actually been about 30 years since I visited the area. We’ll see what I remember and what’s changed. I suppose that the Falls might have receded an eighth of an inch or so over this time period. What exactly is the rate of erosion?

Halloween was great. I have never seen such a continuous stream of people filling the side walks for two hours straight. Right in front of Tevita and Adrianne’s house even the police got into the action by stopping the cruiser, opening the trunk, and handing out pre-packed little bags of goodies. It was all too cool. While it was still light, I took little Vaioleti in her stroller to do some serious people watching; and she drank it all in. Clapping and smiling away she stayed totally oblivious to the fact that we never stopped to collect a single piece of candy. Adrianne, you can thank me any time.

During the front half of the week I spent a day in the Chicago area for a dinner meeting. All of that was worthwhile except for the fact that it’s a bit nutty to head up one day and race right back the very next morning. I did get a chance to ride one of the suburban Metro trains with the commuting crowd. Not a bad way to get to work, I think I could do that regularly (maybe not once the Chicago winter really kicks in though).

When we checked in yesterday we discovered that our room was already occupied. Since this place is a “full service” hotel—this is where every ‘service’ other than the mattress and pillow is charged for separately; parking, breakfast, WiFi, and you name it all becomes part of a long list and a little bit of a profit center. I negotiated continental breakfast coupons for our ‘deep disappointment.’ Therefore, now we’ll head down for our ‘free’ $17 continental breakfast consisting of coffee, juice, and not to forget, toast (whole wheat is probably extra). Don’t you just love it?

Make it a great week everyone.

Cheers,

Dirk