Yep…those are the baby skunks that come up in our story. 
The site of Lake Erie from the GoTrain from Union Station to Whitby. 
Our first meeting with Isabella. 
Jack’s bedroom had this cool thing where Google will make the lights different colour. 
Sorry…the image isn’t the right rotation but that’s Jack’s name in the program. 
Another photo of the program. 
The Ugly Baby had to make an appearance at the Graduation Ceremony. (It is a family In Joke.) 
Mom and I waiting at the GoTrain on our way home. 
Hey? What happened to the VIA Station in Ingersoll?
Wow! For once I have more to write about than just going to the grocery store. (Although I did do that today, so I guess some things never change.)
As many (perhaps even most) of those reading this know, this past week, my Mom and I headed to Whitby on Monday to attend my nephew Jack’s high school graduation. I know both Mom and I were nervous about the trip but I am happy to say that all went well…and we’re not still wandering around downtown Toronto trying to find our way to the train.
We got up in good time on Monday and weren’t rushed in getting ready. If anything, we were kinda just trying to find ways to kill time before we headed to the Train Station in Ingersoll. (We ended up watching Storage Wars and Cheers.)
We took a cab over to Ingersoll around 10 o’clock and awaited the train. We were there about an hour early and the train ended up being about 25 minutes late.
Both Mom and I admitted to saying a little prayer to Dad the night before to ask that he watch over us as we made our way to Whitby and back. Well, Dad must have decided to play a little joke on us because as we were waiting for the train, I saw some movement down the road that leads to the train station.
“Oh….those must be squirr….NOPE!” Turns out we had two baby skunks making their way down the road towards the station. When he was alive, my Dad was deathly afraid of skunks so my Mom thought he was probably getting a chuckle out of seeing those baby skunks. (If he was still with us, he probably would have been running down the tracks and got the train at the station before.)
We managed to get on the train without getting skunked as it were. (Would they have let us on if we had been sprayed? That’s what was concerning Mom and I.) The only real issue in all of our travels was trying to get the GoTrain tickets to go from Union Station to Whitby. (There seemed to be about a dozen options but I guess most of them were buses.) Once we found the right page on the machine to get right to Whitby and found the Go Train, it was smooth sailing from there.
We met up with my sister, Cathy, with no problem at the Whitby Go Station and stopped off to get pizza and snacks before heading back to her place. It was there that we met Isabella, their cat. I was happy to discover that, unlike their old cat Gilbert, Isabella didn’t immediately hiss at me every time I came near her. Isabella wasn’t too sure about the newcomers at first but did let us pat her and pick her up. By the time we left she was very comfortable with us. (Cathy said she thinks Isabella misses now that we’re back home.)
Once we were settled in for the night, we started watching movies. We started watching a movie called Hitman but only made it through about the first half hour. We switched from that to Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash biopic. I had seen it once just after I got it on DVD but hadn’t seen it since. I had forgotten just how cool a movie that is. (I’ll probably watch the extras on the DVD sometime this weekend.)
Jack’s graduation didn’t start until 7 p.m. so we had a lot of time to kill on Tuesday. It should come as no surprise that we ended up going to an antique and collectibles store: Vintage Vendors. I was actually pleasantly surprised to see how much NASCAR stuff they had. I didn’t buy anything but I did see a Clifford Allison diecast that I was tempted to pick up, seeing as how that’s a pretty rare find. I also saw a Chase Elliott #24 sweatshirt, which I took as another sign – and one that was a little less risky – that Dad was still watching over us.
Once we came home, we started getting ready for the big night and went over to John, Cathy’s ex-husband’s, house to get some photos of Jack in his cap and gown.
Somewhere in between, we watched Wedding Crashers and Incoming, which was ironic because the latter was about kids entering high school, whereas Jack was graduating from high school. I also watched a grand total of about 10 minutes of the England-Ghana World Cup game, which brings my total time watching the World Cup to…10 minutes, most of which seemed to be England passing the ball around to three different guys. I was, however, happy to hear that Canada had advanced to the Knockout Round for the first time ever.
Finally, it was time to head off to the graduation ceremony. While Jack was a graduate of the Henry Street High School Class of 2026, the ceremony took place at Durham College, although there was also some connection to Ontario Technical University. There was some irony there was well because both Jack and Cathy had worked at Durham at one point or another over the course of their careers, and OTU was one of the schools that Jack was accepted to.
With almost 300 graduates to get through plus a seemingly endless list of awards and bursaries and scholarships to be announced, I think we were all wondering just how long this event was going to last. We were, however, relieved when we figured out they were going to recite the bursaries and scholarship and “chisms” (yeah, I don’t know what that is either. Jack told me but I’ve forgotten.) as the students crossed the stage. Jack got several including being on the honour role and got an award for his role in the Peers Helping Peers program, which I was very proud of him about.
I will state for the record that I refrained from doing a “Macho Man” Randy Savage impression when they started playing “Pomp and Circumstance” to start the proceedings. All of us were on our best behaviour and, once Jack got his diploma, didn’t immediately start demanding that they wrap things up so we could go home. (I’m kidding!)
I was a little concerned about just how emotional my sister, my Mom, or even I would be when Jack got his diploma. However, Cathy was taking video and Mom and I were taking pictures so I think each of us having something to do to capture the moment gave us something to focus on, while still seeing Jack cross the stage.
It was definitely a stampede to get out of the building after the ceremony was over but I made sure I kept hanging on to Mom so we wouldn’t get separated. We made it back to the car and back home safely. (We actually saw a coyote prowling around the streets of Whitby.)
Tuesday was a long day but it was a good day. As much as I was joking “Couldn’t we just watch it on Zoom from home?” I am so glad we went and were there for Jack.
There wasn’t a lot going on Wednesday. We got packed up and ready to head home. I was looking for something to watch on Netflix and ended up watching the Office for a few episodes.
We left a bit early to catch the GoTrain so we didn’t have to rush to get to our VIA train home. I think we got into Union Station and found the lounge area for our train about two hours before our departure. It wasn’t too bad, though, as there was a Tim Horton’s nearby, so we got some Timbits and a pop, plus both Mom and I had a book to read. (For me, it was the dog-eared copy of Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War, that I had brought along.) All in all, the time went pretty fast.
Mom was a little peeved when she saw how long the line was that we were going to have to wait in once boarding started. However, the line moved quickly and then one of the VIA Rail staffers took note of my Mom’s age, and said we could move ahead to pre-boarding.
Once we were on the train, it was smooth sailing (to mix a metaphor) all the way home, although we still ended up back in Thamesford about a half hour later than expected. There were no baby skunks there but the train station in Ingersoll was boarded up, so not sure what happened there over the course of two and a half days. (Maybe the baby skunks got into the building and stunk up the place.)
We took a taxi back to Thamesford and found the house was still standing and all the valuables still in place. So those of you who read my previous blog entry and knew our house was vacant for the better part of three days can rest easy in case you were worried you might be a suspect in a robbery case.
Thursday and Friday have been pretty quiet as Mom and I are taking it (fairly) easy for the remainder of the week. Our big excursion was into London to Home Depot and Talize and then to Ingersoll to get groceries. I’ve been getting my To Do list back in order and working away on the Job Hunt a little bit. (It will go back into high gear on Monday.)
The biggest excitement since Mom and I have returned home is some threatening weather on Thursday night. While Thamesford barely got anything more than some clouds, a supercell tornado hit near my old hometown of Glencoe. There was some damage to some trailers and the death toll was estimated to be three chickens. It was scary to get the alerts on the phone but it was weird to hear of a tornado in Glencoe of all places.
While the weekend will probably be a pretty quiet one. Both my Mom and I however are hoping to get a bunch of things done around the house, now that we are back home and – with our groceries restocked – have no need to leave the property until Monday.
johnmilner.ca 