Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Highway of Heroes
Laura and I were out in Oshawa two weekends ago checking out wedding places and were heading back to Toronto around dusk. As we were pulling onto the highway, we noticed dozens of cars parked near and along the overpass we were using, but didn't pay much attention to it. Weird.
The next overpass we went under, again had upwards of 100 people standing on it, some waving Canadian flags, and a handful of firemen standing on top of their firetruck.
Then it clicked. We were driving on "The Highway of Heroes" - 3 Canadian soldiers had died in Afghanistan that week. In a sad tradition, the soldiers are flown to Trenton, then the families accompany the soldiers bodies to Toronto for post-mortems at the coroners office at Bay & College. Inevitably, the procession makes its way along the 401 from Trenton to Toronto.
The folks on the bridges were waiting, waiting patiently in order to be there for the 10 seconds when the procession would zip by below, offering what sympathy and thanks they could to the families of the soldiers. This was truly one of the most touching and patriotic yet incredibly sad things I've seen.
Every single overpass (20+ I'd guess) from Oshawa, to Whitby, Ajax, Pickering, Scarborough and finally right up to the DVP was filled, Canadian flags waving or draped over the side. The shoulders of the 401 before and after the overpasses were lined with cars that had pulled over, 4 ways on, waiting. Most bridges had a police car, ambulance or fire truck, lights on, with folks standing on top, their silhouettes against the darkening sky. I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me cry.
I can only imagine the pain when a loved one dies overseas, in a war that's been dragging on without seeming to accomplish much - especially when these 3 soldiers were all just 2-3 weeks away from coming home. There's not much I wouldn't think that could help lessen that pain - but this simple, silent gesture from the thousands of folks just waiting to wave in support is certainly something people won't forget.
"Paying respect on the Highway of Heroes"
The next overpass we went under, again had upwards of 100 people standing on it, some waving Canadian flags, and a handful of firemen standing on top of their firetruck.
Then it clicked. We were driving on "The Highway of Heroes" - 3 Canadian soldiers had died in Afghanistan that week. In a sad tradition, the soldiers are flown to Trenton, then the families accompany the soldiers bodies to Toronto for post-mortems at the coroners office at Bay & College. Inevitably, the procession makes its way along the 401 from Trenton to Toronto.
The folks on the bridges were waiting, waiting patiently in order to be there for the 10 seconds when the procession would zip by below, offering what sympathy and thanks they could to the families of the soldiers. This was truly one of the most touching and patriotic yet incredibly sad things I've seen.
Every single overpass (20+ I'd guess) from Oshawa, to Whitby, Ajax, Pickering, Scarborough and finally right up to the DVP was filled, Canadian flags waving or draped over the side. The shoulders of the 401 before and after the overpasses were lined with cars that had pulled over, 4 ways on, waiting. Most bridges had a police car, ambulance or fire truck, lights on, with folks standing on top, their silhouettes against the darkening sky. I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me cry.
I can only imagine the pain when a loved one dies overseas, in a war that's been dragging on without seeming to accomplish much - especially when these 3 soldiers were all just 2-3 weeks away from coming home. There's not much I wouldn't think that could help lessen that pain - but this simple, silent gesture from the thousands of folks just waiting to wave in support is certainly something people won't forget.
"Paying respect on the Highway of Heroes"
Labels: Highway of Heroes
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Falling off the wagon
I've officially fallen off the bloggin wagon.
- our internet at home was flakey for most of the past month..the connection would die every couple minutes and would require a voodoo dance with the router and modem to get back online. A new modem has fixed the problem, and we're fully back online.
- Planning a non-banquet hall style wedding can be a whole ton of work. Each criteria you're picky about causes things to be infinitely more complex - ex: we want to be able to choose / buy our own wine and beer. (Really, most places open bars come with a powerhouse choice of Bud, Coors, Blue and Canadian and the 'house red' and 'house white' wine. Yay!) That eliminates almost half the places we looked at - if the venue itself is licensed they need to buy the alcohol themselves and will charge you a stupid arm and a leg for anything above and beyond what they normally stock, so you need to find a venue that ISN'T licensed so that you can get a special occassion permit from the LCBO.
- We've literally looked at hundreds of websites, and have spent the past 3 weekends checking different places out in person, everything from Hamilton to downtown Toronto, up to Barrie / Newmarket / Vaughn / Kleinberg, over to Pickering / Whitby / Oshawa. Sadly the spot we were really keen on in Cobourg simply have any good ceremony options.
- Speaking of ceremony options, if you're looking for something non-church, that's a whole other can of worms. You've got the outdoor ceremonies, but try finding a nice outdoor ceremony place that also has a solid Plan B in case it rains. Then there's indoor ceremonies...but do you look for a place that will hold both your ceremony AND your reception, or end up with two seperate locations.
Oi. Anyways, I'll stop the wedding whining. We're close to pulling the trigger and settling on a place...right now it's down to two finalists. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but if you want to have a vote on which we choose, fire me an email or give me a call and I'll give you all the deets!
- our internet at home was flakey for most of the past month..the connection would die every couple minutes and would require a voodoo dance with the router and modem to get back online. A new modem has fixed the problem, and we're fully back online.
- Planning a non-banquet hall style wedding can be a whole ton of work. Each criteria you're picky about causes things to be infinitely more complex - ex: we want to be able to choose / buy our own wine and beer. (Really, most places open bars come with a powerhouse choice of Bud, Coors, Blue and Canadian and the 'house red' and 'house white' wine. Yay!) That eliminates almost half the places we looked at - if the venue itself is licensed they need to buy the alcohol themselves and will charge you a stupid arm and a leg for anything above and beyond what they normally stock, so you need to find a venue that ISN'T licensed so that you can get a special occassion permit from the LCBO.
- We've literally looked at hundreds of websites, and have spent the past 3 weekends checking different places out in person, everything from Hamilton to downtown Toronto, up to Barrie / Newmarket / Vaughn / Kleinberg, over to Pickering / Whitby / Oshawa. Sadly the spot we were really keen on in Cobourg simply have any good ceremony options.
- Speaking of ceremony options, if you're looking for something non-church, that's a whole other can of worms. You've got the outdoor ceremonies, but try finding a nice outdoor ceremony place that also has a solid Plan B in case it rains. Then there's indoor ceremonies...but do you look for a place that will hold both your ceremony AND your reception, or end up with two seperate locations.
Oi. Anyways, I'll stop the wedding whining. We're close to pulling the trigger and settling on a place...right now it's down to two finalists. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but if you want to have a vote on which we choose, fire me an email or give me a call and I'll give you all the deets!
Labels: Wedding
