The Little Knittin' Kitten

Up in smoke

This morning on my way to work, I could smell smoke on the subway. I wasn't terribly concerned, because occationally the gears or someone illegally smoking on TTC property has caused a smoky smell in the past and it wasn't thick enough indicate to indicate an immediate threat, like that the train was on fire. However, I still smelled it when I got off the subway at Union station and walked to work. It wasn't until I got in and mentioned it to some of my co-workers that I found out the full story. A building at Queen and Portland St. caught fire early this morning and the fire has quickly spread to the surrounding buildings, mostly small retail stores. My first thought was, Oh no! That's near Romni!

I have been told by Nyron that it's actually on the south side of the street, so as long as the fire doesn't jump 4 lanes of traffic, it shouldn't effect Romni, which is on the north side. It has, however, burned down Suspect Video. We didn't rent from Suspect often, but it's been a well-loved independent video rental place in Toronto for many years and we enjoyed browsing the Queen St store and looking at their cool movie toys and collectables. It was the kind of place where you can get films that the big box rental places like Blockbuster don't carry (like Six String Samurai). It's always sad to lose an indepentent store, of any variety, in a world that is quickly being Walmarted. There is another location on Markham St. so at least we haven't lost it entirely. But still, it's sad. When the smoke clears, we'll see what else has been lost from one of my favourite streets in the city.

Until next we knit.

=^_^=

posted @ 9:23 a.m.