Good old summer made one last stab at sticking around…it was nice, while it lasted…and it even set temperature records.
”Summertyme….
….and the livin’ is easy”. As the olde standard goes/went. Well, yours truly doesn’t know how ‘easy’ anything is in these ‘COVID-controlled tymes’….nor does the last week of Oct qualify as ‘summertyme’. Usually. But last Fri (Oct 23) here in Brant’s Ford we recorded a high of 24C Degrees….and tossed in a F/L (feels like) 29C just for good measure. Now, it wasn’t anywhere near 24 all week, usually 10 or 12, and Rotzy was getting a number of ‘looks’ from other oldsters here in the Skyline Living compound for wearing my shorts in anticipation of Fri…..hey, we’d had plenty of notice and yours truly saw no need to pull on some jeans, socks, sneakers and perhaps a jacket with a ‘one day heat wave’ on the way. Besides, I’ve worn nothing but shorts, T-shirts and Crocs*tm since June 1st! Anyhow, on my way out to Norm The Truck for my first puff Sat about 5:00AM I said (to myself) ”Well goodness me Toad!, turn out the lights, the party’s over”. Indeed. I started up Norm, and seeing as 740AM and 92.9 FM don’t do the weather THAT early, I got CBC 89.1 on, but Btfd doesn’t exist to them so I heard the temps for T.O., London, Hamilton, N. Falls, and after some quick ‘calculations’ figured it to be between 1 and 3C….+1 and +3C I assumed. As to last Fri, I know not if it was/is a new record or not, but it was surely a fine way to bid adieu to summer/fall (*see below) and make ready for colder weather/winter, Brantford-style. *Update….Sun….it WAS/IS a new record high for most of S. Ont, breaking the olde mark of 22.5C from 100 years ago*….long before Al Gore mentioned ‘Global Warming’. Imagine.
Breaking New Ground….
….but not literally. MIz. Jo said yesterday, what with the sunshine (*see above) and in spite of very strong winds, she’d like to ‘forget the compound’s parking area today and ‘hike’ on the the state-of-the-art walking/biking trails over on the other side of the Wayne Gretzky Parkway’….at an amazing multi-use facility named Jaycee Park. I used to watch slo-pitch and fastball games on w/ends there way back in 2019. Remember 2019? So we loaded Tillie (her four-wheeled Trillium*tm walker) in the rear of the Equinox, drove over to the large parking area and found what looked like a good spot. I’m somewhat familiar with the paved walkways that serve the three or four ball diamonds, so away we went! Looking/hopefully finding an area that somewhat resembled ‘walking in the woods’…..well, unfortunately (or fortunately?) after a few miles we came to the end of the paved walkway, hence there would be ‘no woods walk’ this tyme. OK, OK, OK….I exaggerated/lied about the distance we covered. Miz. Jo took a seat on Tillie, Rotzy had a puff, then we headed back vs an uphill slope most of the way! The good news….we made it. AND, after checking a sign with the layout of Jaycee Park and learning more about the wooded trails, we’ll get it right next tyme. One thing guaranteed, it will NOT be 24C for our next ‘hike’.
”It’s Lawren Harris Day”….
….Miz. Jo called out to me as she read the Facebook*tm info from her iPod. Now, that may not mean anything to a number of our “From Nakina” readership…..but it hits directly home for Jo Ann and Rotzy! For the uninformed and/or new “F/N” readers, we live at Harris Place!….the name for two of the buildings here at this Skyline compound…..#555 Park Rd North and #535 Dunsdon….named to honour the famous Cdn artist. Lawren was born and raised in Brantford and his ‘style’ is easily spotted in his paintings….particularly in rural Quebec and in the rugged Canadian North….and of course he is known as one of the most popular painters in The Group Of Seven! Miz. Jo told me they were giving out posters to mark Lawren Harris Day at Glenhyrst Gardens (free/gratis) so after lunch I headed over there to grab a couple. (I actually had some of my own artwork on display there….no kidding….when I was in Grade 9 or 10 but that’s another story). Well, the mgr’s here at #555 and over at #535 didn’t even know it was Lawren’s Day (!!) hence, they seemed thrilled to get the posters….I thought I’d taken 2 posters but I had 2 bundles of 5 each! but they said they’d get them all up…..and of course Unit #303 already has one installed on our door.
If You Don’t Like It….
”Protest” is the name of the game these days….altho ‘game’ is certainly a ‘misnomer’ on the three vastly different upsets “From Nakina” is checking into this week. 1/ Things have gotten terribly out of hand in Cracow (Krakow) Poland, where Poles are NOT happy in the least at being ordered to wear masques, with COVID-19 numbers soaring out of control and there is talk of a Total Shutdown, similar to what took place in Italy,Israel and cetera. To date there has been no sign of a ‘middle ground’. 2/ This is the ongoing, worldwide Systemic Racism Protests/Marches/Concerts….under the growing Black Lives Matter network and tho their events have cropped up all over Canada, it is clear that Tronna is their main target, no doubt because of T.O.s large black populous. The most recent location was Allen Gardens. 3/ Tho I expect BLM has been around the longest….in one form or another….the Six Nations F/N dispute over the ‘land development’ in Caledonia seems to have gone on forever, I suspect because it’s only 16 miles downstream from Brantford on the Grand River….and following COVID-19 updates, local and worldwide on The News, Caledonia is usually/always first up locally. And it goes on and on and on, in spite of TWO Injunctions (!) and at least two dozen arrests (!)….arising from protesters setting up a major blockade on Hwy #6. Well, it appeared the 2nd Injunction a couple weeks back settled things down, but #6 found itself closed for business (and pleasure too) a week ago with an olde wrecked school bus, burning tires, wooden pallets and you name it. It looks like the OPP’s ‘hands are tied’….or perhaps ‘restricted’ is a better term and when they show any degree of ‘force/enforcement’ at all the First Nation spokesman….whom methinks might be ‘self-appointed’ warns that ”we’re really gonna get loud now”. Well, Rotzy can’t say if the volume went up many/any decibles at all, however, the Six Nations took ‘protesting’ to an all-tyme LOW by throwing buckets of feces at the OPP who were on scene. I can only imagine the feces were from humans and the humans were from the Six Nations….not that it matters. It’s s–t! And it’s a pathetic excuse for a protest! It says here that Six Nations needs a new leader/spokesperson!
*Thought Of The Day..If you believe all this COVID-19 will end and we’ll all be back to normal when we re-open things, raise your hand. Now slap yourself with it. Hard.
