Daytime drama

July 15/11.

Back in the Global TV years, I used to report on the soaps every day. (truth be told, it was one of my favourite parts of the job!) Often, soap fans would tell me that nothing in REAL life could ever compare to the action in the daytime dramas. But I am proving them wrong!

No scriptwriter could have topped the intrigue and excitement of what happened to me today. My late Mum gave me a very special gift.

Following the nine months since her death, Carrie & I have worked diligently to take care of every single, tiny detail in her home, making sure each item gets the attention it deserves and ends up in the proper and rightful place, whether it be an antique shop, a furniture bank for those in need, Goodwill, Value Village, relative's houses or our own homes. In return for all the love, time and trouble, Mum has left us an overwhelming sense of security, independence and freedom. It was a red letter day for Carrie and me. I can't really speak for Carrie, (as we each have our own feelings about this phenomenal day), but for myself, my husband Sam and our two kids, Kate & Max, I'm saying how thankful we are for what she's left us. We will use her gift to make our lives better, easier and more comfortable in the years to come.

The first part of the day was spent sorting things out at the bank. All done now. Thought it would be pretty easy, but didn't expect to find myself in tears, realizing this long journey has reached some kind of conclusion or closure, (although, that will never fully happen). Carrie and I stood on the very spot the above photo was taken, to chat for quite a while. There is no more hidey hole to hide out in, no more safety blanket. We're out there on our own now. After we said goodbye and went our separate ways for the day, I drove past Mum's house and saw the garage door wide open, the new owner, Dang, working inside on renovations. Could barely breathe as I passed by, realizing someone ELSE is in charge of the hidey hole now, and that person has NO idea of the history of the house. Sigh.

After the emotional banking experience, drove directly to Princess Margaret Hospital for my 3:40 p.m. radiation appointment - #3! (Not taking any chances this time! Nothing too revealing in the dressing room. Cowered in the corner and made sure to keep the medical gown tightly CLOSED)!! LOL.

The radiation room "Muzak entertainment" today? - Diana Krall singing The Look of Love. As I lay there, listening, being pushed, prodded and pulled this way and that, my mind was crowded with crazy thoughts. Everything from my ticket to Weird Al Yankovic's concert at Massey Hall this Saturday afternoon and what he will sing, to the side effects of Tamoxifen, (hot flash anyone?), to, well, can't even say. One of my sweet technicians, Christine, asked what kind of day I'd been having. I laughed and told her what had just happened at the bank. She sighed, put her hand on my arm, as I looked up, pretty much vulnerable on the radiation table, and she commented, "Your Mum is watching out for you." At that point, tears rolled down my face and I had to hold completely still, not wiping them away, thinking about clowns, (as one friend suggested I do during treatments, and it worked!), Weird Al, Amish Paradise, Diana Krall, Carrie, Lee and Mum. I've quickly learned that radiation (even though the time on the table is short), forces you to completely stop, concentrate, breathe deeply and hear the music.

Session #3 is history! This pic was snapped by a fabulous hospital security guard named Carm who kindly offered to take it. We ended up in conversation about faith, God, prayer, a positive attitude and much more. He's witnessed a lot during his time at PMH and told me to pray anywhere - at home, outside or even on the radiation table. He wished me luck and told me HIS job is to make people feel good about themselves! (He succeeded).

After a day of mixed emotions and high drama, took the kids to BMO to open accounts of their own, courtesy of their loving and generous Gramma. (Note: amounts blurred, courtesy of Kate).

I PVR'd my favourite show, General Hospital, earlier today and watched it back. It couldn't hold a candle to the action-packed, true life adventures of this day! Thanks Mum.

The countdown continues!

July 3/11.

Four days and counting till we have to relinquish the keys to the house. (Don't get me STARTED!!) Then the hidey hole will instantly cease to exist, except in our hearts and minds. I complain about the never-ending work, but now, I never want it to end, ever! - (Be careful what you wish for).

Set to take off (again) from home, to head for another afternoon with Carrie at the hidey hole. - Ready to work!
While I was out, my good friend, Bruce, (plug plug plug - "Emmy award winning writer extraordinaire" - Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Curb Your Enthusiasm), called me and got our machine. Later, his phone message floored me. - (quoting you here Bruce, OK?)

Terrific shot of Bruce (a few years ago), on the writer's strike picket line with his daughter, Laura, and son, Andrew
Bruce said, "Hey Elaine! It's Bruce! It's been a little while. WOOOO! I am trying to keep up with the outpouring of the incredible writing. Just amazing stuff. The last couple of days have been very emotional. It's like watching a movie unfold before your eyes. Selling the house. It's like leading up to the 2nd act break or something. But anyway, - just was calling to say hello and hope all is well. We will talk soon. Bye bye."

Makin' my day here Bruce! After all the years I've been raving about YOUR writing, never expected things to become a mutual admiration society. LOVE it!

Today, we continued work on BOOKS. Mum had SOOOOOOOO many. On every subject you can imagine. Art, travel, medicine, gardening, movies, celebrity bios, television, literature, cooking, Lawrence of Arabia, on and on. Packed them up, box after box. STILL haven't finished. More to crate up tomorrow.

Among the tattered kid's books we discovered - the famous Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss. - (just a fun book, right?) Nope.

When Carrie was a kid, she had an INTENSE fear of one particular illustration from that wacky book. Something about the way the two characters - (Fox and Knox) were staring into each other's eyes - and the shape of their big hands really disturbed her, to the point of having nightmares for years.

She told me that after I take this photo, the book is going directly to Goodwill, never to be seen by her again for the rest of time!

I had no particular feeling either way about Fox in Socks, however, I did love this one verse, which I remember, as kids, we tried, over and over again, to get the tongue-twisting words out there - fast and furious. I always LOVED to try and talk fast, like an announcer, especially with patter or tongue twisters, but THIS one was a killer!

Clocks on fox tick.
Clocks on Knox tock.
Six sick bricks tick.
Six sick chicks tock.

Carrie also came across this book.

I had NO recollection of it, but when we looked at the inscription, (from our Dad), it said this.

Just seeing that fancy, curly-cue writing brings tears to my eyes. My Dad has always had this unmistakable, pretty writing. He left the family when we were tiny kids, so whenever we would receive a card or letter with that distinctive writing on the envelope, Carrie & I were excited, since we always recognized it was from HIM! He was known as "The Phantom Father" in our house. Dad had to start work every morning at CBC radio in the middle of the night, so he would drop off birthday and Christmas gifts around 3 in the morning on the way to 354 Jarvis Street. We never saw him, (or caught him) but knew he was there. He was the Santa Claus of our real world.

Dad, (Rex Loring) on his apartment balcony in Oakville, overlooking Lake Ontario!
To this day, I LOVE sneaking up to my relative's houses and silently leaving gifts or flowers on the front porch or hanging gift bags from their door handle, the way Dad always did. Sort of sneaky, like The Grinch. (HEY! - Maybe THAT'S why I love The Grinch so much! - Never realized that!)

The Grinch. (Ultimate Sneak).
Always believed a therapist would have a field day talking to me about my Dad. I learned about "secret delivery" (among many other things), from him - the master.

Once we got the books all crated up - I lugged them out into my car. Be damned breast cancer surgery and Sentinel node removal pain! I am woman, hear me friggin' roar, and I will carry thousands of books to the car no matter WHAT you say! - Now, I'm sitting down though! (maybe I should just get Goodwill to cart ME away too!)

Carrie & I have been saving this special canvas, (found in Mum's basement), and painted by our beloved Uncle Ev during his "Everetto" period. We want to give it to Auntie Ray. Check it out. Truly incredible!

On Sunday, we're having lunch with Auntie Ray in the dining room of her seniors condo. (they have GREAT food!!) We will bring this painting for her to keep and will ask her, WHO was Uncle Ev trying to channel here? Is it Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Battista, Sassoferrato? Auntie Ray will know immediately. My guess is Sassoferrato. We shall see! It's like a Columbo mystery. (I miss Peter Falk, who passed away just over a week ago).

"Uh, just one more thing."
And speaking of "one more thing", is it any wonder I fell in love decades ago with the news biz, - (and newsMEN) - and generally, all-things-news-related?

BOTH my parents instilled in me a keen interest in, and curiousity about world events, newsmakers and people everywhere. And guess what? - I ended up a diehard news junkie. Sigh. - (in fact, hang on just a sec. Gotta go listen to NEWSTALK 1010 right now to learn the latest and hear them alert me, "Now you're caught up on what's happening!") - otherwise, I won't believe it!

In between blaring Bryn Christopher songs on the CD player, I'm listening to NEWSTALK 1010 for news fixes.
During the (ongoing) massive basement cleanout at Mum's, came across several unbelievable old news articles, which Mum saved.

Carrie insists we can't throw them out, so we've asked Sam to list them on eBay and try to hook up with someone who will appreciate that "old news is good news"!

Meanwhile, Kate dressed up and attended the Dyke March today.

The incredible Henry, (one of my favourite among Kate's array of unbelievably talented friends!)

The gorgeous Cadence. Va va voom!

Mayor Rob Ford - "there in spirit??" - NOT!!

And coming up on Sunday? - Pride parade!!

Contents sale over!

July 1/11.

Happy Canada Day!

Got to sleep around 4 a.m., back up at 6:30 a.m. (gak) to get ready for the second sale at Mum's. The last one was the estate sale. This one, contents. We're trying to clear out everything possible so the furniture bank won't have so much to take. (They charge a lot to haul it away).

What do you think of my "sale attire"? (it's been a helluva long time since I wore an apron!!) The dog belongs to a customer who left him outside.

We had a string of special guests at the sale! Carrie answered the door to THIS guy!

Introducing musician extraordinaire Mark Kersey! He's not only a fabulous pianist (playing the piano we're inheriting), but is also a Canadian yo-yo champion, a children's performer (who used to appear on Mr. Dressup as "Mark the repairman"), and worked with Carrie for years in Performers for Literacy. He plays gigs all over the city and is in high demand. Mark sat down, pounded out a couple of beyond phenomenal numbers and managed to knock the socks off the customers in the house. (Luckily for them, we had lots of socks for sale!)

I took Carrie's picture with Mark and his lovely wife, Bonita! (not only is this Canada Day, but it's also Bonita's birthday AND Mark & Bonita's 27-year anniversary! - Have a great day you two!)

Next special guest? My friend, Pam Deacon-Pickard. We met a few years back at Fern Resort in Orillia and became pals immediately. It was great to see her and catch up, (and we even ended up roping her into helping to wrap glassware and china for a couple of buyers!) Thanks Pam!

For her trouble, we told her to choose some books to take home. Among her picks - two Young & Restless anniversary books! (one for her, one for her Mother!)

(My Mum was a huge Y & R fan too and would love to know someone else will enjoy these special commemorative books). Too bad Victor Newman didn't drop by to autograph them!

Carrie's son, Lee, the hard-working garage sale king, was back in action with us again, lugging things here, there and everywhere, helping anyone who needed to get heavy items to their car.

Two MORE special guests! My sister-in-law, Debbie and her handsome son, Justin surprised us by dropping by! We told them to take what they like from the sale at the "family rate," (free!) - and Justin was also asked to cart some heavy boxes to my car. Team work!

Next? A visit from Tien, the gardener. She and her husband, John, have been taking care of Mum's lawn, and garden for years. They always did a wonderful job!

Carrie borrowed Tien's hat for this shot! - Thanks Tien and John for all your hard work. We'll miss you!

The above special guest is Hank. He is a chestnut tree! (Mum named him Hank after a guy she went to school with named Hank Chestnut!) Years ago, Mum's huge, beautiful front yard tree was hit by lightening and destroyed! The city had to cut it up into pieces and take it away. Later, they returned and planted a tiny chestnut tree to replace the big one. Mum fretted away over that little tree for years, because it never grew very much, but this year - (after Mum's passing), he suddenly decided to flourish! Now, he's taller than Carrie!

And our final special guests made their way out of a massive plastic bag of stuffed animals. These two puppets, (appropriately named "Giraffe" and "Panda") were part of Lee's old collection.

As a master of puppetry and voice work, (after so many years on Polka Dot Door), Carrie spent countless hours doing funny voices for Lee when he was a little boy. She's always been quite the entertaining Mum who has an amazing way of making little kids laugh with her crazy puppet antics! She wanted to say one more goodbye to these two little characters. Adios Amigos! Thanks for the memories!

Once the sale wrapped up, we put more stuff on the lawn for the taking. The rest has been boxed up for Goodwill and other charities. Will be back again on Saturday and Sunday to continue the never-ending process of cleaning out and closing down the house.

In the meantime, Carrie met the new owner of Mum's place! He stopped by the day before the sale to take some house measurements. His name is Dang!

I wasn't there when he arrived, but Carrie was, and took his picture for the blog! (he must have wondered what the heck was going on!)

Welcome to the neighbourhood Dang! Hope you'll be as happy in this lovely house as Mum was for nearly 30 years!

(So, wait, hang on, just a cotton-pickin' minute. Lemme get this straight Dang. - YOU'RE taking over the hidey hole????????? - Yikes! - Gak - Egad!)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! - It can't BEEEEEEEEEE! I will have no life!!!!!!!!

Playing dressup!

June 20/11

In the never-ending saga of clearing Mum's house, today, Carrie and I spent the afternoon back at her place, trying to clean up from the massive estate sale on the weekend. Bagged up piles of stuff for Goodwill and then decided to put many of the items that didn't sell, out on to the lawn, free for the taking.

For about 30 minutes, we had only one "customer", but she managed to cart away about half the things we put out! (What she'll DO with them, I'll never know, but we're glad someone wanted the stuff!)

Carrie shows off the merchandise!
Since this visit meant another few hours together in the "hidey hole," we decided to amuse ourselves by playing dressup, the way we used to as kids. There wasn't much left to "work with", but we did find some hats!

Not sure WHAT statement these hats are making! - Mine, Charlie Chaplin?

Mine - old-time school girl look? Carrie's - no clue! - (Have to laugh at all my bruises. During the estate sale, I got whammed so many times by heavy items as I tried to carry them to people's cars! DETERMINED I wasn't gonna let the remnants of cancer surgery get in the way). Somebody STOP me!!
Meanwhile, found some old coats too.

Apparently, this coat originally cost $500! Must have been the most expensive one Mum ever owned! Gets it's a keeper!

This black leather jacket belonged to my daughter, Kate, but she tried to sell it in the sale. Nobody bought it! (Guess Carrie wanted to feel like a biker chick! Where's your Harley??)

Our fantastic agent, Sinisa Paradina, dropped by to let us know he's still getting requests from people who want to be shown through the house! Will be interesting to see how this story unfolds and eventually plays out. - When we finally leave this house behind, Carrie and I are really going to miss Sinisa, (who was also a neighbour of Mum's). FYI - We highly recommend him! (It's unlikely he's ever worked with sellers who play with Barbie dolls or dress up in their Mum's old clothes, but he rolls with it!)
After playing dressup, I took off with five massive sacks of clothing for Goodwill, headed home, but not before dropping them off. Hopefully, someone else will get good use out of them!

In the meantime, today is also the wedding anniversary of my parents-in-law! Hope you've had a great day!

Jean & Ben Bornstein!

Happy 63rd anniversary to you Mum & Dad! - Where would I be without you? Love you BOTH very much!