Occasionally Ford educated people can’t explain a darn thing.Readers Write
Here’s a couple or three notes from folks which are part of the overflowing/overwhelming/over the top I/B Mail Box ‘situation’ here at “F/N”HQ. Check ’em out…*’I’m at that ‘delusional’ age where I think everyone my age (coming up on 75) looks older than I do’. **’Our kids will never know the joy of finding a quarter in the phone booth coin return’. ***’Common sense is like deordorant. The people who need it most don’t use it’. (Thanks folks….and please keep ’em coming!)
Snow Birds???
Miz. Jo and Rotzy have a number of friends currently vacationing in Florida in different parts of the state….none of whom needed a couple ‘seasoned valets’ to ‘help out’….and we got an ‘arrival email’ from the ones in the Miami area a week ago, just to let us know (brag?) it was 81F! The couple who live here at 555 Harris Place are near Orlando, tho we aren’t in touch with them (*see below). A third couple are near/in Titusville, just a hefty stone’s throw from the NASA Launch site. The latter have been there for coming on two months now, so they’ve seen ‘cool fronts’ come and go….hence no big deal. Anyway, I doubt they, along with the 81F pair were quite ready for ‘the big freeze’ that gripped Fla last week….virtually the entire state, altho we aren’t in touch with the pair in Orlando (*see above). There was rather widespread crop damage, so we’ll expect higher veg and fruit prices. Reports indicate temps are (getting) back to normal, and it won’t just be the Cdn Snowbirds smiling with relief. So will The Sunshine State’s iguana population….yes, I said IGUANA!!!….which apparently is quite substantial! As to size, they go from a ‘handful of cute and cuddly’, up to ‘gator-size’ and definitely NOT ‘cute and cuddly’. These cold blooded, lizzard-like creatures are everywhere and spend much of their tyme in trees….including sleeping hours. However, the cold weather causes major problems for ‘Iggy’….it puts them into a ‘deep, coma-like sleep’, so if they’re 60 feet up a tree, they drop like a rock….hopefully not directly on top of a human target, be it a Snowbird of a Floridian. Interestingly, I heard this story twice….firstly on Zoomer 740 AM News, and the next via our friends at Coral Gables. I gotta say that for 15 + years we were going to South Daytona Shores, the biggest lizzard-like creature was the plentiful, colorful, little chamelons which the Great White Egrets dined on (pretty much daily) amongst the trimmed hedges at the El Caribe Motel. Sorry, but yours truly knows not how/if chamelons are affected by cold weather? For sure it wouldn’t be as serious a problem, you think? Anyway, take care down there, Snowbirds…and keep your heads up!
Education ‘Mess’
This one caught my attention. Still does. With a LARGE percentage of Ont Teachers taking various strike/work to rule(*see below) actions these days, and things not looking one damn bit better than they were in mid-Dec, Ford’s P/C’s have come up with a plan…..a beauty in fact!! I still don’t believe it, so if I heard it wrong on 92.9 The Grand News last week, I’m sorry. Really. But methinks it’s true because I scribbled it down immediately. Here we go….they are paying ‘up to $60 a DAY for/to families affected by the teachers’ various strike/work to rule(*see above) actions’. I also heard it said that MANY families returned the $ to the gov’t, asking for it to be ‘spent on education’. Anyway, Rotzy got to thinking of a potential situation as to how an average Ont family would handle/use this $60 a day handout. Check this scenario….there’s Mom and Dad….Jimmie (son 18) Kimmie (daughter 17) Their high school is closed by a strike on a Wed…kids not happy being off school. Dad goes and gets his $60 Fordo money next day. Next week the teachers hit the bricks….again on Wed. Kids start grumbling again….Dad’s grinning from ear to ear as he hands Jimmie the $60. He says ‘this week, thanks to Doug Ford, you’re all set. It’s 10:00AM, so get on down to Vape’s R Us and get what you usually get, then you can go over to the mall….keep an eye on your sister Jimmie-boy, and no mary-wanna, OK?….then you can hang out with your friends and play stuff on your cell fones. Maybe grab two $1.50 pizza slices at Papa John’s for lunch and a couple Dr Peppers. Enjoy your day! Damn!! Ya gotta LOVE education Doug Ford Style!! It’s very similar to what Mike Harris did, another P/C who was premier back before you guys were born’. (*yep, it sure is similar….ditto for education. **by the bye, we were assured last night that the Fordo’s $60 bucks a day program is indeed in effect. ***heard Doug on the radio yesterday telling one and all he is about to ‘lose his temper with the Teachers….especially the union leaders. ”Negotiating’…..Doug Ford Style!!
Here And There….
….as in Brant’s Ford and Nakina….a comparison of sorts. For starters, the number people in Btfd 120,000…Nak 300; # of Tim Hortons…Btfd 400-500 (est) Nak 0; # of Robins Donuts…Btfd 0 Nak 0 (tho there IS one 70 minutes down the road in Longlac; # of bars in Btfd a LOT Nakina 0…unless you count The Legion; # of Legions…Btfd 2 Nakina 1; # of restaurants in Btfd 127 Nak 0; # of Banks/ Financial Institutions in Btfd 30 (approx) Nakina 0; Annual Snowfall…Btfd 12-14 inches Nak 12-14 feet; # of signal lights in Btfd 5-600 (est) Nak 0….in fact, as I recall the closest signal lights are in Thunder Bay, 4 hours away; # of Post Offices Btfd 24 (est) Nak 1; # of Churches Btfd 24 (est) Nakina 1; # of elementary schoolsBtfd 24 (est) Nak 3….under one roof! So….SO….”F/N” readers are/should be well aware that, aside from Miz. Jo being borne in Nakina at the Red Cross Hospital in 1940, we’ve owned a camp (cabin) there since 1977 (now sold) and we lived in Nakina for 20 years…having moved into #555 Harris Place Oct One 2018, so we have 15 months under our belts at this point, if someone axed me today ”what, if anything, do you miss about the north”? Without any hesitation whatsoever my reply would be ”the snow all around our little house (home!), 3-4 ft deep by now, sparkling like diamonds under the sun…not like the scrungey brown stuff down here where there may still be 1 or 2 inches covering the lawns. That said, I don’t miss shovelling it, especially when the wind chill said -43C, tho when we DO get a couple inches overnight, I’m a holy terror with the wooden handle snow brush/scraper I got from Tap….an effort to help ‘all these olde people’ here at #555, cleaning off 15 or 20 vehicles. I/we also have very FOND memories of Twin Lake walleyes….as some very thoughtful friends always saw to it that our freezer had a couple feeds in it. Sorry, Btfd, but Pt Dover ‘eyes aren’t even in the same league. Or more correctly, in the same water, and they can’t compete with the price of their Twin Lakes ‘cousins’!!!
*Thought Of The Day...At a movie theatre which arm rest is yours?
