Living in Amherstburg

We have lived just north of the central part of Amherstburg since about 1990.  It is a riverside community that has good parks and a National Historic Park/Fort (Malden) that was built and manned during the war of 1812.  The town also used to give ferry access to Boblo Island, a giant amusement park now an exclusive residential community instead.  Lately downtown has become a tourist magnet, offering pedestrian-only streets downtown during the summer with some type of festival at least every other week.  The downtown area is a fun place to spend a half day, with views of the river from well cared for parks, several decent restaurants and more cafes per square mile than Vienna.  There is a good bookstore, and my old fashioned barber shop is right downtown, staffed by two excellent female barbers.  The ice cream store draws people like moths to a flame.  There are three major grocery stores and a smaller one.  Our family doctor is there.  It is a safe town, currently policed by a branch of Windsor Police.  We could live in a worse community, to be sure.

 

However, the main reason we live in this area, being the most southwesterly community in Ontario, is the easy access to a big American city (Detroit) and all that it offers.  Amherstburg is not Detroit.  And though Detroit isn't London (UK) it seems to get closer to it every month.  Covid took a bite out of our Detroit visits, and then the 2024 elected President took an even bigger bite out of it.  Since Trump was elected we have not crossed the order.  We used to cross almost every single week.  Art museums, symphony concerts, restaurants, breweries, cafes, strolling downtown and admiring the fabulous architecture were all favourite pastimes.  All gone.  Even visits to our beloved New Mexico have come to a halt.  We are far from alone.  Enough Canadians disliked America even before Trump.  But now there is a strong movement not to visit.  This is so sad for me and Deb, since we don't have a lot of running around years left in us.  We can see Michigan every day from our house.  By the time Trump is out the door (could someone nearly as bad step into his shoes?) we will be getting on in years.

 

The good side to all this is that we are rediscovering overseas destinations.  Our recent visit to London, with a possible upcoming visit to either Vienna or Berlin, has come about largely because of the policies of the sitting president.  The only downside is how much I hate flying, even when the flight goes smoothly and is on time.  Why not visit Canada you might ask?  We explore our local area quite thoroughly, to be sure.  We even make it to Toronto once in a blue moon.  But Ottawa is untouched, and Montreal has been off the radar for decades now.  These days, more Canadians are touring Canada instead of you know where, so roads are busier, cities more crowded and attractions more expensive.  We would rather remain at home working on our various projects than put up with heavy tourist crowds.  Day tripping is more our style these days, with one coming up soon, if the heat goes away.  Here is a recent temperature forecast for our area next week.

 

Not pretty.  We will be staying home a lot next week.  Anything above 75 F is too hot for us. 

 

Extreme heatwaves with high humidity are familiar to us here.  Back in our teaching days our school only had air conditioning in the central area, but none in the classrooms.  When June and September were brutally hot everyone suffered and little to no education took place.  We usually hibernate in the depth of winter these days, but also in the height of summer.  We are happy and very busy folk here at the Homestead.  But we would really like to get back to Detroit.

 

We've been gaming a lot lately, mostly PC games but every Sunday we play board games.  Today was the Traders and Builders expansion of Carcassonne, one of many fun add-ons to the main game.  With 24 extra tiles it makes the game significantly larger and longer.  Next Sunday we will try for a MECCG session (Middle Earth Collectible Card Game).  In PC gaming news we are finishing up the original 3-chapter game called Agon: The Mysterious Codex.  I continue to run Train Sim World, a different route each day.  

 

And I have restarted the original Tomb Raider games, with new and remastered versions of the first six games now out and quite inexpensive.  I have completed the training program for TR 1 though my skills are still weak.  I am currently in Level 1, exploring my way through the Andes in search of Inca secrets and treasures.  I finished part 1 with no difficulty and so far am mostly surviving part 2.  These are huge games with lots of shooting and killing, but in a weird way it's also fun to just explore after the dangers have been eliminated.  My weakness is swimming and also sudden attacks.  I tend to panic in both situations.  I am going to share a few images comparing the old original version of TR 1 with the new remake.  While the photos here are too small to really show up the differences, while playing it is like night and day.

 

Screenshot from the original 1996 version.  Note the pixels; they are everywhere.

 

The 2024 remake.  Lara moves much more smoothly, the lighting is superior and the game looks gorgeous.

  

1996. 

 

2024.

  

1996.

 

2024. 

 

In film news there is one to report.  Trade Winds is from 1938, a comedy murder mystery directed by Tay Garnett.  Frederic March is a womanizing detective sent to track murderess Joan Bennett as she flees San Francisco for various Asian ports.  Ralph Bellamy plays a rare comedy angle as a bumbling cop sent to keep an eye on March.  Bennett looks cute as a button and there is enough witty dialogue and exotic (backdrop) locations to keep viewer amused for the short running time.  So many old films worth watching that we have never heard of, this being one.

 

Leaving Criterion June 30th. 

 

I may report during the heatwave, or I may just sit in one spot in front of a fan until it is over.  Until then, I will publish my monthly book reviews very soon.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 


 

 

Everything and Nothing

The title of this blog is named after a fascinating documentary we watched on Prime, hosted by Professor Jim Al-Kalili.  Programs such as this are an astronomer and science lover's best friend on cloudy nights.  He simply and brilliantly encapsulates the history of physics, focusing on the perceived emptiness of a vacuum.  Worth repeated viewing, at least once per year.

I have had two clear nights in a row, driving 37 miles each way to get into a reasonable dark sky.  That's almost 150 miles of driving just to get somewhere decent to observe.  Luckily, it is worth the drive.  I enjoy satellite radio on both vehicles, so I generally listen to either Symphony Hall on Sirius XM, or public radio for the incredible talk shows.  So the time goes fairly quickly.  Best of all, I only have three traffic lights in those 37 miles, and traffic is generally quite light on the roads I take.  Monday night I was at my windmill sight for five hours.  No cars went past.  Tuesday night I was there for four hours--one vehicle went past.  It's good to have a night off to recuperate, however.  Thursday is promising to be clear once again, so I should be ready.

Deb's movie choice last week was a little oddity called Fiend Without A Face.  A classic 1950s SF paranoia film, it supposedly takes place in Manitoba, at a remote US air base.  Nice mountains they have there in Manitoba!  These old movies are truly great.  For one thing, despite four or five grisly murders, no outside police are called in.  There is no RCMP even mentioned, though the FBI is always used for info.  Pretty funny stuff.  In essence, radioactivity (of course) and a nearly mad professor's experiments (of course) combine to give us some of the most unique monsters in the history of cinema.  They are walking brains, using the attached spinal cords to locomote.  Nifty and scary as hell, too.  Well worth a watch, I don't really know how I missed this one growing up.  Now showing on Criterion.  It comes with a six minute short discussing the opening of this 1958 treasure.  It opened in Detroit on a double bill with a Karloff feature, at the classy Adams Theatre downtown.  Thereby hangs a tale, and a pretty funny one.

A recent view, showing on the Criterion Channel.

 A local fiend (without a face) attacks the beautiful assistant to the professor. 

In other news, Deb has had her 2nd and final shot of Shingrix, to prevent the onset of shingles.  Her arm is red, hot, and painful two days later, but the fever and flu-like symptoms that seem to accompany it have retreated.  And she has won two awards recently, one from the Women Over 50 Film Festival in Brighton, England (a 3rd place, I believe), and a Best Director award for her dance film, "Joyfully."  So Huzzah once again!!

And just tonight I got slaughtered in a friendly game of Carcassonne.  I just could never pick up the correct tile, while you-know-who got virtually every one she needed.  I think I got my use of bad and fearful language out of the way for the week.  We played a variant called "Flying Machine," where you can fly short distances to nearby tiles.  Just like in real medieval times.

Mapman Mike