They say you can never go home again
They lied. Here I am.

here's to those I left behind
When I left town in 1998, I didn't think there would be much that I would feel nostalgia for, and for the most part, I was right. There were a few things, though, like going for coffee with Toots. Hi Toots.
errrr, ummmm
 on the prowl for treats CD Plus what?
Of course, I missed my parents, too. My dad is busy hiding somewhere to avoid having to look at the weirdness.
I also missed my cats. Here, Sasha stalks towards me, to gnaw my leg off in punishment for leaving her behind, while Lao looks on in typical bewilderment.

Strangely, I also miss the Music Baron, but it's now a cdplus.com store, and the decor now makes it look all hip and urban. Like a disco in a submarine.
Ammonia Avenue
 Gettin in deep yes, but where do they keep the ice cubes?
On the other hand, I didn't miss Simplot all that much, spewing out tons of steam and the occasional bit of ammonia.
Nor do I miss the waist-deep snow...
...the snow that gets into and onto everything.
peek a boo
 I think my keys are out there somewhere

It's so thick, in fact, that you can barely see oncoming traffic for the piles of snow. There's actually another car peeking out from behind that bank.

Yes, this is actually a full-sized fence.

We have so much snow here that we just throw it away, wantonly.
Looking for place to land
 RUN! Into the groove
I'm a five minute drive from the open plain, though. You lose all sense of perspective out here. This snow is 30 feet deep or something.
For example, though these look like fox or rabbit tracks, they're actually Sasquatch tracks.
In fact, just one quick glimpse at these fearsome creatures is enough to make you veer off of the road, into a ditch.
Bake em away, toys
 send the swine to the spa And what do YOU want for Xmas, little boy?
In Brandon, we keep our water locked up in jail.
In Brandon, all our swine are elite.
In Brandon, we love Santa all year round!
Believe it or not, this is just the company greeting
In Brandon, we all carry pets around on our shoulders.
In Brandon, we all really really HATE little spiral notepads.
In Brandon, we are all insane.
Pink skies at night, grapefruit's delight
 Enjoy. And a coke.
Sometimes, the sunsets over the prairies can be mighty beautiful.
Unless you take the long view.
I mean, you can almost get the same effect indoors.
watch yer mouth, buddy
 trippy ...and they're going to STAY that way
Speaking of effect, low lighting can make it look like you have two mouths, which is neat when you're at a restaurant, but twice as expensive.
Tyla's only got one mouth, but it's hard to tell where his head begins and ends. Anyone who knows Tyla knows how accurate this is.
This is the band Warm Erasmus, one of Brandon's best kept secrets.
Big tree? Small jet.
 Why is the Beaubier like a tight pair of jeans? No ballroom. 200 km of this
Nothing really to say here. I just liked this picture.
The Beaubier is one of Brandon's best-known hotels, but not necessarily for the right reasons. Note the right-hand side of the sign. Yup.
Too scary. Time to head back to Toronto. Only 200 km of this, and then you can get on the airplane. See you next year.