Daily Archives: Sun,October/24/2004

OCTOBER WINDS DOWN

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The weekend’s almost over and it’s back to work tomorrow. The weather was 50-50 with yesterday a beautiful fall day and today a cold drizzle. Managed to get golf in both days which is always a blessing at this time of year.

Yesterday I cut the lawn for the last time this year. A chance to cut it short and get the last of the leaves. Putting the lawnmower away for the winter is one of those signs that the unstoppable slide into winter has begun. Next weekend I’ll clean out the add-a-room and put away the hoses before they freeze. The weather forecast calls for rain this week so I might set out for Home Depot and get some grass seed to help the lawn out for next year. While I’m there, I’ll probably look for a replacement snow shovel for the front driveway. That will feel strange.

Tonight we had a BBQ. Got a couple of nice T-bone steaks yesterday and they came out really tasty. Sure you can grill all winter but by February the snow on the deck will be 2 feet deep if the past few winters are any indication.

Next Sunday the clocks go back an hour. Another clue that the seasons are changing.

If spring is rebirth than fall is the lingering illness that tells us our time is fleeting. Sure we have great days when the air is fresh and the sky is a blue that you don’t see in any other season. But it’s also the time when the last leaves fall and collect in sodden, rotting piles and the kids don’t play road hockey quite as often. You leave for work in the morning and it’s dark and you come home in twilight.

Soon we’ll have frost every morning and one day you’ll look at the sky and notice that the flurries have started. Just a few and pretty as hell but you know it’s just advance scouts for the troops waiting in the wings.

The Christmas commericals will start in earnest just as soon as we get Halloween out of the way. I find this depressing and you can be sure that I’ll write at least one rant condemming the commercialism and false fellowship that makes me cringe a little more every day.

My aplogies if this bums anyone out. I go through this every year and a week from now I’ll probably be singing the praises of November. Or not. Living in Southern Ontario is a meteorological crapshoot and, at this time of year, your best long range forecast is determined by how far you can see out your window.

WE DO HAVE THE RIGHT

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I was on a forum today that was discussing the US elections and one poster took offense with Canadians making comments. In essence, the post asked what right foreigners had to voice their opinion on the outcome of the November 2nd vote.
Living next to a giant means you take the good and the bad. America is the one remaining superpower and everything that happens there has an effect on Canada. Right now, the Canuck buck is trading higher than at any time in the last 12 years. Is our currency strong? Only in relation to the greenback. This is a good thing for those who can’t wait to fly to Disney World without having to take out a second mortgage. Our export economy, on the other hand, is worried that their US customers will no longer be able to afford their product.
Homeland Security doesn’t make us feel all that secure. Post 9/11, a high percentage of the American people believed that the highjackers had made their way into the States by crossing our borders. This was immediately proven false but the perception remains that Canada’s liberal immigration policies make us a haven and staging ground for terrorists. Tom Ridge and his band of thugs continue to turn their eyes North and attempt to implement Draconian measures to “tighten up” the line on the map that has, for years, been known as the longest undefended border in the world. I guess civil rights and personal freedoms have no place in today’s paranoid landscape. My flights this week subjected me to the most comprehensive security checks I’ve ever had. It took everything I had to refrain from suggesting to the TSA screener in Greenville that if he planned on touching me there he should at least buy me dinner.
We can’t export our world famous beef for fear of sending Mad Cow Disease along with it. Why? One cow that had been in the US for over a year was found to have it. That was nearly 2 years ago and still our ranchers are suffering. Don’t even get me started about the SARS scare.
The United States of America is bound and determined to be the world’s policeman. As soon as they can get out of the quagmire that Iraq has become, the Bush regime will turn its hawk-like eyes to Iran and North Korea. The result will be years of struggle and bloodshed that could easily escalate into a nuclear exchange. Call me selfish but I really think I have some say as to whether or not I want a 1000 year winter. If they manage to keep the conflict conventional, the cost of fighting on multiple fronts will put the US economy farther down the toilet with the effects being felt here. The Euro will become the world’s dominant currency and their reasoned foreign policy will further isolate the US and, by association, Canada.
Four more years of Republican rule will hurt Canada. It scares me and I have a right to say so.