The TTC wildcat strike yesterday delayed me getting to work, as it did everyone, I guess, who couldn't just walk or bike in time. I walked down Warden and got the first cab I flagged properly (learning quickly that while crossing the intersection cabbies will look at you stonily, as if you weren't there) and it was congestion all the way down Victoria Park, the very edge of the old Toronto/Scarborough border, and I could see at 8 am the smog already hanging over the city. Windows open, I could at times smell lilac as the sun warmed it up and in East York I heard the songbirds in a cage someone put on their porch. Only on Bayview did we actually speed along so fast I had to push my window up, and that didn't last for long. None of the drivers were yelling or honking, everyone seemed to know they were not to blame and downtown was surreal with no streetcars or buses going along; it was like a 'one of these things is not like the other' game, only for real. At a quarter to one I saw a lone bus go down the street and wondered who was driving it & to where, but only at 4 did I hear there were streetcars on King, and soon after I saw one on Queen. The subways didn't get going until the evening, and I stayed downtown as I was tired and as I walked past Yonge & Dundas I saw people waiting for the Yonge bus, and the feeling on the street was one of defiance. The strike should not have happened and the people of Toronto don't like being pawns. Today I came home and the bus driver said "You're welcome" to my usual thanks, which was nice...for now.

I must get some sunscreen (my freckles are already more evident - not that I mind them) and I'm wearing my straw hat today, the first of many. My mom is feeling well enough to go deliver the props to the theatre (she is being driven there & back I think) and I hope to help her clean up the apartment soon, box books, whatever needs to be done. There is a literary high-go at UC on Thursday night but I may not be there out of sheer inertia; yes, Jeffrey Rosenthal is going to be there, but so is my awful English prof from Ryerson and do I really want to fete her? I don't feel like it, but I'll see how I am on the day...