Everyone complains about the weather....

One of the defining characteristics of being Canadian, they say, is that we like to complain about the weather. Well there’s certainly good cause to do so this summer (?), especially in Eastern Ontario.

The only thing that got us sanely through a miserable winter with near-record snowfalls was the weather forecasters promising us a “long, hot summer”, starting in April. Well, to be fair, we did have a week of summer-like weather in April, but since then it’s been in the crapper. May was just miserable and cold. June, with 22 days of rain, has been dubbed Junuary by some. July, which is when we expect to be basking under hot, sunny skies, has been mostly below normal highs, grey, and with at least a 40% chance of precipitation virtually every day. And there’s no end in sight as rain and cool temperatures are forecast to the end of the month.

Enough is enough! Golfers are wearing out their umbrellas from the constant opening and closing as shower after shower passes through. Motorcyclists have stripped every last piece of raingear off the shelves at the local dealers. Vegetable gardens, if they are growing at all, are weeks behind where they should be. Mosquitoes, deer flys and other damp-loving insects are out (and biting) in record numbers. My furnace actually started up one morning. In July! @#%&#@

Now the weather guys are insisting that, in fact, they were right all along and that the summer so far has been warmer than usual. The justification for that stunning assessment is that it isn’t getting as cold at night because of all the cloud cover, so the average temperatures were slightly up over previous years.

Well, I don’t know about you, but when someone tells me it’s going to be warmer than usual, I don’t expect to have to enjoy that excess heat swatting mosquitoes in the dark!

Poilievreian wisdom

I have no intention of getting into the Ethics Committee hearings on the Cons in-and-out scheme, but I just had to comment on Kady O'Mally's live blogging report where she refers to "Poilievreian wisdom". Aside being an obvious oxymoron, that expression made me think of what could be the shortest book ever printed: "Poilievreian Wisdom - The Collected Original Thoughts of Pierre Poilievre, Conservative MP".

Great one Kady!

Summertime, and the living is easy

It seems it’s finally here. After a long, snowy winter and a miserable spring, we’re now into the 30-degree days of summer. The water temperature in the lake has reached 27 degrees (about 80 on the ‘old’ scale) – perfect for floating in the lounger with a cold beer at hand. The golf courses are in great shape after all that rain. Bass season has just opened. And plans are afoot to take the new ride to Sturgis for the 68th Anniversary Rally in August.

So with all those reasons to exit the cocoon and enjoy this all too brief respite from the other 9 months of the year, why on earth would anyone waste any time at all paying the least bit of attention to all the political posturing, gamesmanship, and general bullshit that sadly never takes a break?

But I do have to relate this one told me last week:

“Why is it that our politicians all seemed surprised by the sudden shortage of oil?”
“Because the oil is in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. And the dipsticks are all in Ottawa.”

All of which is to say that unless something catastrophic happens over the course of the summer such as Stephen Harper deciding to become an NHL General Manager (Please, someone make him an offer!) I don’t expect to be doing much political blogging. I’ll leave that in the hands of far more capable folks than I.

And you’ll find me in the lounger, on the golf course, in the boat, or on the road.

Have a great summer!