I pulled a muscle in one of my famous soccer legs. Hurts a bit, but it got me thinking. There used to be a restaurant/bar on Danforth called "The Pride of Erin." It was a bit of a dive and its unofficial name was "The Puddle of Urine." Still, it can't be denied that they served the most excellent mussels: fresh (more or less) from the east coast, and pulled from their shells we swallowed them whole.

The winter I broke my ankle it snowed every single day for months. I got to know all the eastend taxi drivers by name and they told me their troubles.

Hail, hail the blue-and-white Danforth taxis.

What is the temperature in Toronto? Oddly, if I want the answer in fahrenheit, I have to check msnbc. Canadian websites are in celsius, a language so lacking in the weather-beaten poetry of my youth.

32ºF

(brr)

I'm wearing my autumn colours because I want to blend in: rust-coloured pants and a green pullover. My pockets are full of woodchips and I smell like rain. People I don't know smile and nod when I walk by because I remind them of the harvest. Little do they know my antlers are clip-ons.