Crashes, crunches and ‘the finger’…Road Rage Stuff….Rotzy’s had a few bumps in the road and hopes the road ahead flattens and smooths out a bit from now on.…or to be more correct/accurate, ‘parking lot rage’….and NASTY!….last Thursday ayem and directed right at yours truly as I was leaving Zehr’s Market in Norm The Truck. I was driving towards the front of the store to make a right, then head for the exit, and came upon a black Nissan SUV. The driver’s window was down, and in it I spotted a ‘somewhat pudgy’ arm, that, as I drew closer, seemed to be waving at me.(*see below) Behind the arm I could see a little, olde lady (likely my age or less), with her white curls ‘all done up’….looking like a minister’s wife, maybe the nice, olde spinster up the street who gave piano lessons, and definitely somebody’s grandmother….perhaps a great-grandmother. Her Nissan sat on a ‘blue and yellow wheelchair access spot’, stopped/parked in a ziz-zag/corner to corner fashion across it, neither coming nor going. I could see her face inside and she appeared to be talking, altho I had Norm The Truck’s radio cranked up (methinks for a Z-Z Top tune) and couldn’t hear a word she was saying, or if indeed she was saying something to me? As mentioned, I thought she was ‘waving’ at me (*see above). Wrong! She was ‘flipping me the bird’!….like there’s no tomorrow!!! Goodness me. Hardly proper behaviour for a minister’s wife and/or an olde maid piano teacher! As I drew closer to her vehicle, I caught a wee bit of the diatribe she was unleashing on me, but I shan’t/can’t repeat it in this space. Thing is, I did nothing wrong….tho I suppose I coulda ‘waved’ back, you think? Anyway, what can one do in this situation other than laugh? And laugh I did, nearly wetting myself, and I was still smiling when I pulled into The In And Out Store five minutes later! So….SO….Rotzy’s made a mental note to myself….’if/when I see a black Nissan SUV parked sort of zig-zag/corner to corner at Zehr’s (or any other parking lot) I am to AVOID it like conoravirus’.
Garden Update
Firstly for our pots out on the #303 balcony….tomatoes are doing OK (but not big as they should be), herbs and flowers fine, strawberries continue to grow, bloom and bear fruit. Watering is the key up here….daily and sometymes twice a day. Down front in our Community Garden plots, everybody seems REALLY happy/satisfied, however the soil (for lack of a better term) in some of the boxes has created problems for a few of our group and the general feeling is that Skyline Living ‘went cheap’ on the stuff they put in the boxes initially. As to the other garden, Farmer Rotzy pulled off our green and yellow bean plants last Wednesday, stuck in more green onion bulbs in their place, alongside the beets, carrots and (5 or 6) Winter Squash, which are getting lots of approving looks from my fellow gardeners….it was a ‘novelty thing’, three plants I bought at Elberta’s on a whim, but the vines are enormous and took over 1/2 of my space, which isn’t all that big to begin with. Overall, the feeling is that everything in 2020….the 3rd year….is the ‘best ever’! ‘Cept some of the boxes.
I Haven’t Spoken….
….to anyone in Nakina since the coming and going of the August 1st long weekend, and for the first tyme in well over three decades it went by WITHOUT the Annual Nakina Live Release Bass Derby…..which Rotzy has always bragged up as ‘Ontario’s Best’. Well folks, ‘Ontario’s Best’….I assume like G’ton’s Walleye Classic, and cetera throughout North and Northwest Ontario….has been shut down for 2020 by COVID-19. I guess nobody has come up with a way to run a ‘Virtual’ Fish Derby/Tournament?! Jeez I hate that word/term….VIRTUAL….to Rotzy it’s about as far from ‘real/reality’ as you can get. Virtual Graduation, Virtual Prom, Virtual Rock Concert, Virtual Symphony Concert, etc., etc. Sorry, but yours truly’s gonna take a ‘virtual rain check’, OK? Ditto for NHL Playoff Hockey….in AUGUST!!??….c’mon man!….and it looks like the same results for the Maple Leafs. Nice to see The Jays back on TV again, in spite of the cardboard/cut-out/’virtual’ fans propped up in the first five or six rows and the ‘canned’ applause and cheering, which reminds Rotzy of Joe Crysdale doing radio broadcasts of the T.O. Baseball Maple Leafs road games in the International Baseball League back in the late 1950’s….as Joe read the ‘incoming script’ off an old teletype machine in the T.O. studio….maybe CHUM?….and there they added the ‘canned’ applause and cheering….but the thing I recall from those broadcasts wasn’t the cheering and clapping, it was the shouts of a vendor walking up and down the aisles yelling ”get your peanuts, popcorn and cold Coke”. Over and over and over! Too funny. So I guess I’d have to say the TSN techie guys in 2020 have improved somewhat over Joe C. and his crew. Anybody else out there remember those Maple Leaf ball games? If you do, you’re olde. Lemme know.
Readers Write
Some people I know have taken to doing Jig Saw Puzzles as a form of entertainment and a means to grab onto some kind of sanity, in a coronavirus world that is anything but sane. Anyway, after thinking on it for a bit I said (to myself)…..”Hey Toad, ain’t no reason why YOU couldn’t do this, ya know”!!?? So I went out and bought me one. Well folks, I don’t mean to brag, but I put that puzzle together in 1 day! and the box said ‘2-4 years’!! And yes, it does help one forget COVID-19 for several hours.
More ‘Virtual” Stuff
If the readership thought y’all were gonna get away with just ONE item complaint/rant from Rotzy about my new ‘pet peeve….VIRTUAL…..you were wrong.(*see below) I got a fone call last week from the Ancaster Clinic where I had my colonoscopy done some months ago, and the secretary on the other end of the line was clearly not ready/organized to talk to me, no tymes nor dates and she had to put me on hold at least half a dozen tymes! Anyway, after 15 minutes of ‘fone funn’ I was advised I have an appointment with the doctor who ‘scoped’ me, this Thurs Aug 13th…..at 1:00PM. Or 2:00PM. Or somewhere in between 1:00 and 2:00. And NOT at their clinic….a VIRTUAL appointment….meaning ”the doctor is gonna fone me when he gets a free minute or two between patients”. Hey, it’s not even necessary as my/our family doctor has already gone over the results with me….but yours truly does do as I’m told. Unless he wants to do another colonoscopy….in which case scenario I would agree to a “Virtual Scope”!!
*Monday 5:00AM* Update
*Stop the presses!….the NHL Leafs did an ‘exit-stage left’ last night as the Blue Jackets hung a 3-0 shutout on them. The ever faithful are saying ”IF ONLY we hadn’t blown a 3-goal lead, then lost 4-3 in O.T in Game 4 things would be different!!….right Al? Maybe. Then again, IF ONLY the dog hadn’t stopped to s–t, he woulda caught the rabbit….right Al? Hey pal, there’s always next year, as y’all been sayin’ since 1968. **Go Jays GO!! And they are….some days….but it says here that they need a new manager! Charlie was ‘cut a lot of slack’ in 2019 because it was his debut in The Bigs. The debut is over, and he’s still in over his head….WAY over his head. Hasta la vista, Charlie!! ***Woof! Woof! WOOF! This ayem at 5:30 it was already 23C, feels like 32C. We’re going up to 32C F/L 42C….welcome to the Dog Days Of Summer…and I’m reminded of Martha And The Vandellas.
*Thought Of The Day…Sometymes when I close my eyes, I can’t see.
