Our largest park is now open

London's largest park, Springbank, is now welcoming visitors. The park is not crowded like some that one's reads about on the Internet. It's long trails are being used again but very lightly. Still, it is nice to see. The city is waking up; it is coming out of its covid-19-inflicted stupor.

This raccoon will get its water

I wish I had the pictures to tell the whole story. If you have ever wondered whether or not animals can engage in creative thinking, I have the answer: They can.

The urban raccoon was looking for a drink. The bird bath offered water but it was difficult to reach. After awkwardly drinking while hanging from the bowl for a few minutes, the raccoon climbed a nearby tree, climbed out on a limb over the bird bath and, when well out towards the end of the branch, it sagged and the raccoon hopped down to the bird bath and to the water

Years ago, in the late '60s, I there was a course at the University of Windsor that taught animals were incapable of true thinking. I raised an example of an action similar to this raccoon's, which, by climbing a tree and moving away from the goal (water in the bird bath), seems to be taking an approach requiring creative and not instinctive thinking.

The professor got angry and banished any more questions of that ilk. He used bluster to hide the fact that he had no ready answer: animals might well think and creatively too.

Scooters are for tricks

I believe it was built as a skateboard park but now it's used by young people with scooters. I had no idea that high-flying tricks could be done with scooters but clearly they can. And the nice thing about the park is that it naturally encourages social distancing. Only one athletic scooter trickster is allowed on a ramp at any one time. It's a covid-19 safe activity. Hmmm. Where did I put my scooter?

Keeping our urban world functioning

Keeping an urban region running smoothly is not just about repairing roads and bridges doing all on the taxpayers' dollar. Keeping our stock of residential structures sound is also important and this expense falls on the home owner, as it should.

Our garage door is now approaching 40-years-in-age. It is painted wood not aluminum like those available today. Its motor is new, replaces last fall, and its rollers and seals are replaced when necessary. Four rollers were replaced today and the seal that repels mice was repaired.

I spoke with the repairman from afar. Covid-19 rules of social distancing were in force. I trusted him to do a good job and the company he works for will email me a bill. I will pay it electronically.

It is not often considered but living in a city provides services like garage door maintenance at a very reasonable cost. The business is located no more than ten minutes or so from my home. Travel costs are minimal. Not so if one lives in the country. There are advantages to city living that often go unnoticed.

163 unbroken years of dividends

Canadian banks are amazing. TD Canada Trust has an unbroken record of dividend payments going all the way back to 1857. That's right it has not missed a dividend, or cut the payment, in 163 years. And TD Canada Trust is not the only Canadian bank with bragging rights in the dividend area.

Canada's oldest bank, the Bank of Montreal, hasn't missed a dividend since 1829. That's 191 years! The Bank of Nova Scotia has a record going back almost as far: 1832. The Royal Bank, Canada's biggest bank, can only brag about not missing a dividend payment since 1870 or a mere 150 years.

And Canada's banks are not the only one's with bragging rights when it comes to paying dividends. BCE, also known as Bell Canada, hasn't missed a dividend payment since 1881, which is just a few years after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. (An invention that Canadians lay claim to.) The Bell Telephone Company of Canada was incorporated in 1880 and started paying investors a year later.

Will covid-19 put an end to these companies' unbroken run? Not if they can help it. The banks have already stated that if they must they will issue new equity to cover expenses. All banks are stating publicly hat their dividends are safe. And Bell, well it is not known as the stock for widows and orphans for no reason. It's dividend may well be safe, too.

One last note on TD Canada Trust. The TD stands for Toronto-Dominion. That was the name of the bank when I was a boy. The Canada Trust tacked onto the TD came about when TD merged with a London, Ontario, based competitor. Trust companies are not banks but a very smart Londoners figured out that this should not stop trust companies from competing with banks. Canada Trust did was such a great competitor that TD merged with the trust company a few decades ago.

When covid-19 was still off-shore but threatening to invade, I got out of the market. After the virus struck and the stock market crashed, I bought back in but this time I filled my portfolio with dividend paying, oh-so-trustworthy Canadian companies. Banks, utilities, communication businesses and pipelines make up a big part of my investments. I may lose money but my income should be relatively safe.

If these Canadian companies cut, or worse miss, a dividend then we have more to  worry about than the stock market.

Sadly, a covid-19 birthday is very memorable

The excitement began building late last year. Come May Isla would be seven. Mom would rent a room at a party palace. There would be games and pizza and friends, lots and lots of friends. At least once a week the little girl would ask how many weeks until my birthday. It was a long countdown made longer by the unrelenting anticipation.

And then—wham!—the coronavirus: Covid-19. It ended schooling for the year. It brought mom home. It put the grandparents off limits. And the much anticipated seventh birthday bash, it wouldn't happen.

Kids all over the world suffered the same fate when it came to their birthdays. In the covid-19 world, birthdays come and go quietly, not unnoticed but not loudly celebrated either. Isla's grandparents dropped off a gift. She opened it on the driveway. Her grandparents could not enter the home. It was off limits to them. The gift was a kitchen set. Isla quickly carried it into the home. 

No point waiting about. A covid-19 birthday does not have hugs. No kisses. No one, other than mom, dad and her older sister, can get closer to her than six feet. Isolation does not make for great birthdays. All around the world, thousands of kids are learning covid-19 birthdays may not be great but they will be memorable. Unforgettable, in fact.

It would be sad except for the fact that it was a seventh birthday. Seven! Think about it. Turning seven cannot be a bad thing. Never. And then there is that kitchen set.

At the moment, Detroit is infinitly far from London Ontario

When I was a boy in the '50s I lived in Windsor, Ontario. That's the city immediately across the Detroit River from the city of the same name. Crossing the border was easy. A ten-year-old could do it, and a ten-year-old did.

In the '60s and '70s Canadians living near the border, would visit Detroit. It was an exciting city to visit with a rich mix of restaurants, stores and shops, art gallery and a big-city zoo. Back then lots of Londoners made a day trip to the big city and as often as not the big city of choice was Detroit rather than Toronto.

This art work was done in those distant years by Detroit artist Ronald Scarborough. It looks at first glance like a signed and numbered lithograph. On careful inspection one realizes it is a very good half-tone print. This print is from a numbered run of 900 copies.

An unsophisticated Canadian visitor might think they were getting an incredible bargain when buying this Scarborough print for only $10 in a Detroit private gallery. They weren't but they were not getting ripped off either. The price was fair for a mass produced copy. As a halftone and not a lithograph one could say it came from a run of 900 copies and was not part of an edition of 900 prints.

Over the years the private galleries closed. Many of the restaurants closed. Big stores, like Hudson's and Kerr's, and small stores, too, closed. The trip from London to Detroit seemed two hours too long. Today the border at Detroit is closed. The covid-19 virus has put the once grand city of Detroit off limits. And yet, for many, the draw had already become very weak. Many crossed the border only to reach the Interstate and immediately leave the city without stopping to head quickly south.

My Ronald Scarborough print hangs in a front hallway, its white paper slowly turning yellow. The image, like the city it came from, has faded with the passing time.