Summer in the city

We've officially been in Toronto for 10 days. It still feels like an extended vacation, but we're slowly settling into our routine. Every morning we take our family walk to the park, which usually lasts an hour or as long as Indy can hold out before he's due for his nap -- cue mini meltdown. E and Cassius get in a few laps around the track while I leisurely push the stroller and drink my Nova Era coffee.

Luckily for us, we moved here during the City of Toronto workers strike. [read: lots of sarcasm] That means no mom-n-tot swimming classes at the community centre and no garbage pick up...for the last 2+ weeks. The park we walk in is a garbage drop off point, so the warmer the day, the smellier the walk. There doesn't seem to be any end in sight, which is really frustrating as *Toronto the Clean* is beginning to look a lot more like NYC's dirty streets. People seem not to care about throwing their trash on the streets or beside the city garbage bins, which have been Saran wrapped shut. [The plastic has been torn from most of the receptacles I've seen and garbage has been thrown in and around them.]

Our corner trash/recycling can.

Garbage drop off area behind the blue fence.

This strike has made me realize how much I took for granted here. I'm used to clean streets, great community programs, and free health care. Last week, when we visited our local OHIP [Ontario Health Insurance Plan] office, we were told that Indy and I would have to wait 3 months before qualifying for health care and E would have to wait at least a year. So much for socialized medicine. The odd thing is that if Indy were adopted from the US he would be covered the minute he moved to Ontario. But because he is a *returning* Canadian citizen, he has to wait the 3-month grace period.

And I thought I left the woes of NY behind.