Rotzy’s gripes are clearly focussed this week…COVID related. All us old codgers can relate to everything he says except for the longing for the north.
Pretty As A Post Card….
….t’was. I refer to a picture Miz. Jo received on Facebook*tm last Thurs from her friend Joyce (not her real name) up in Nakina, with summer/fall things still in place around her nicely kept back yard….all covered with a 1-2 inch blanket of fresh snow! Now, I’m quite sure that wasn’t their first snow (they’ve had some flurries) of what is surely ‘the longest season’ up there, but the first ‘accumulation’. I’m sure it’s long gone by now, replaced by autumn, when the air up there at this tyme of year is wonderful(!)….I wasn’t the first to say they ‘should bottle and sell it’, but they really should!! Whether out walking in the bush along olde over-grown logging roads….gun or no gun….searching for mushrooms, doing some trolling on Lower Twin Lake, splitting/bucking some jack pine for firewood….there’s nothing like that air!! And here’s hoping that the ‘perma-snow’ holds off for a while longer so Nakinaites can still enjoy autumn.
Readers Write
And this one had picked up on an item featuring any number of quotes from 1955 about money and how expensive everything was getting to be! One was lamenting ”how costly travel was getting to be, with gas over .30 cents a gallon (!) and motel rooms going for $3 or $4 dollars a nite!! Then the writer took dead aim at pro sports, ”Major League Baseball in fact, where a player has just signed a contract for $50,000 a year”!! Imagine. Actually, Rotzy followed MLB very closely at that tyme and would bet it was maybe/likely Mickey Mantle who became the $50 G Man. Well, to see how that amount would stand up in today’s game I went into the “F/N” Figures/Stats Dept to check it out….and….are you sitting down?!….Mike Trout plays outfield for the L/A Angels and is said (by many/most experts) to be ‘baseball’s best’ signed his current contract last year (2019-2030) for $426.5 MILLION total!! Got it? And for this (COVID-shortened) 2020 season Trout will make his full salary anyway….$37.7 MILLION!! Got it? Well folks, if you do the math, after a little calculating Rotzy is reasonably sure Mike Trout makes pretty close to The Mick’s $50,000 Annual, altho Mr Trout gets that much per inning!! S–t.
Becoming Canadian (*see below)
I heard a news item on Zoomer Radio 740AM last mid-week and, safe to say, it got my attention. OK, OK, OK….it more than ‘got my attention’!! It involved a group of immigrants who were taking classes, reading, writing and cetera…basically doing what is required when one is ‘becoming Canadian'(*see above). It was unfolding kinda like a ‘feel good story’….you know, the ones with the happy ending for all involved, tho I’m not sure of the size of this group….or if that was mentioned. Well, less than ten seconds into the item and, umm, so much for the ‘feel good story’. ONE person emerged….’emerged’, for lack of a better word….a Syrian guy. And he is coming on like gang-busters….as if WE…..as in CANADA….owe HIM, big tyme! He is bllaming governments, fed and prov, certain individuals, the length/tyme involved for the course/classes, and you-name-it!! So I said (to myself) “Hey Toad…..isn’t this guy some piece of work’? Hasn’t he heard about this COVID thing causing delays and problems everywhere?! Wow!” Or something like that. Then I added, “Hey Toad, you think this ‘poor, unhappy camper’ is one of the throng who moved in when Junior Trudeau opened the floodgates to anyone and everyone”? Imagine.
Word Has It….
….that we are now into COVID-19 Part II. Well, SOME of them are saying that….others hinting we’re about to enter into it….and I heard a scientist yesterday very confidently indicate the ‘next wave’ will in no way resemble the initial pandemic and yours truly was left with the impression that Part II is gonna have MUCH more impact than #1. And….the way the way they’re reacting/under-reacting/not reacting in Hogtown, Peel and Ottawa scares the s–t outta me….it is a GIVEN they have/will continue to have the worst daily number of ‘new cases reported’. Hey….I can see, and even perhaps understand, T.O’s dreadful numbers….maybe Peel too, because that area is Canada’s most heavily populated, with approx. 5 million souls. But Ottawa? Our nation’s Capital??!! The home of common sense and democracy, Canadian-style. Or does democracy Canadian/Canadienne-style mean “If I don’t want to wear a damned masque I’ll NOT wear one….comprenez vous”? Meanwhile, some guy from North York and his wife….they must be well-set financially….are going full steam ahead for their only daughter’s BIG wedding on Oct 3rd! They told the weddiing planner to keep it under $60,000, and she did. Almost. It came in at $63,500 (incl. her commission’). However, the illegal gathering $10G fine he WILL be hit with takes it very close to $75,000. And what about the 380 guests (who said ”Oui” to the RSVP) having to pay the $750 ‘gathering accomplices’ fine?! As to the priest, he’ll surely get nailed $750, hence the FOB (Father Of The Bride and the MOB (Mother Of The Bride) gotta cover that, as well as ”the little envelope with something ($1000) in it” and they’re out another $1750. I suppose they could cancel the cake and pocket the $2500 and pack a hundred dollars worth of Tim Horton’s Pumpkin Muffins jammed side by side on a giant baking tray. “Who giveth this woman” says the priest….and the poor FOB, by simply uttering two words which will cost him a lot of $, says nary a word.
By The Bye….
….I was on my way down to pick up a Maria’s Med. Pizza last Fri and it was obviously lunchtyme at Pauline Johnson CVS (my old alma mater) The first tyme I’d seen ANY kind of PJ on-campus life in years, probably decades. The very first thing I noticed was that there were kids/groups of kids everywhere out front of the school….that never happened during my years there….Sept 59 to Mar 62. Especially on the lawn! If Head Janitor Scotty Baxter caught you on HIS lawns, he’d drag your sorry ass down to Prin. Herman ‘Leaky” Fawcett, who didn’t especially like me, or take you into V/P Glen Kilmer’s office, whom everybody was terrified of, yours truly more than most. Anyway, Scotty was olde back in 1959 so he’s not worried about the grass now….and the kids were there, dozen & dozens of them, standing, sitting, stretching out….VERY few sporting a masque…EVEN FEWER doing any sort of distancing at all. Some vaping going on/cigarette smoking/probably some weed as well. I said (to myself) ”Jeez Toad, what a bunch of irresponsible little s–ts, eh”! Then I reasoned (”Well, they’re no different than any/all other area high schools. And if you were 15 or 16 again, you’d be right there with them, and doin just what they’re doin”. I’m not so sure how well schools (at ALL LEVELS) and COVID-19 can ‘co-exist’, let alone ‘get along with each other’?! Stay tuned.
*Thought Of The Day…I bought a little bag of air today. The company that made it was kind enough to put some potato chips in it as well.
