In the winter of 2020 I began a new [almost] nightly habit of walking from my condo at Queen’s Quay & Bay St to Billy Bishop Airport and back again. What started as a way to get some extra exercise at the end of the day sparked a love affair with audiobooks (specifically books about psychology, spirituality, neuroscience, political science, religion, wellness, and history). Coming from a guy who had rarely read more than 2 or 3 books a year, that first year I managed to listen to 6 whole books! Wee-ow, look at me go.
I was instantly hooked on the prospect of learning while letting buttery voiced narrators do all of the heavy lifting. For my whole life books were a daunting print of pages and pages of words that would leave me with literary dread, which would lead me to flip ahead to see how many pages were left in the ghastly chapter, and then further ahead to see how many chapters were left in the monstrous book.
Fast forward to the end of 2021 and I had my previous year’s record handily beaten with 17 whole books under my belt. Bloody hell, I’m the shit! Better yet, I could actually feel myself becoming more clever and easier to interact with at parties, which was great timing because we could finally start going to get-togethers again.
It is now June of 2022, I am moving in 3 days, and I am writing this after taking my final night-walk to Billy’s Airport and back. My current book count for this year is… drum roll please…
18 fucking books! And it’s only 6 months into the year! Hot damn, I’m a WINNER baby.
There was serious melancholy as this Queen took their final stroll along the Quay. Diving head-first into educational materials that I’ve always felt were out of reach has been one of the most satisfying habits I’ve ever developed. And it inspired a belief that everyone has the capacity to become a smarter and more realized person when allowed to learn in a way that works for them personally.
I took a bunch of photos to commemorate my final walk, mostly of things that had caught my eye on many a night out. I look forward to looking at these in the future to see where it all began.
Every walk I wondered: "Does the dentist live there?"
Harbour Nails doesn't have a drive-thru.
Storytime of what may have been my most eventful night-walk encounter. While heading eastbound a rabbit graced my right leg as it ran by me at TOP SPEED. Not 1 second later, a ravenous young fox gave chase into a nearby building's courtyard shrubbery. I was able to whip out my phone's camera as they both re-emerged, then I too gave chase when I lost sight of them around a corner. When I regained sight of the fox it was doing a determined 180 away from a nearby fence. The hell? They seemed so ravenous before, but now couldn’t be less interested. I took a peek over the fence and saw the fruits of the rabbits escape route. They had taken refuge by running into the territory of a terribly stinky skunk that I had seen on at least 8 of my previous night-walks. All hail the hero to the hare!
On my final walk tonight that skunk saw fit to grace me with their presence one last time, as if to say “smell me later.”
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