Snow, cold, old man winter…all add up to a grumpier Rotzy!
HO! HO! HO!
Merry Christmas (belated) from unit #303 here at Harris Place in Brant’s Ford….a gray, almost drizzly, but mild for Dec 25th (+9C called for) day (*see below). Rotzy was up even EARLIER today than normal (don’t ask), grabbing my coffee to head down to Edna for a puff, still pitch dark as I glanced out the window, when what to my wondering eyes did appear, (*keep this one under your hat, and it had nothing to do with a ‘splash’ of Bailey’s in my Presidents Choice Dark Roast Coffee, OK?) but a large red sleigh was turning north at the end of our parking lot….and NO TURN SIGNAL!! Just like all those old farts (one in four) who have the ‘right of way’ coming into the parking lot at Fairvew Mall! Methinks they like to keep you guessing? Anyway, the sleigh made it outta here OK, if only for the fact there was no other traffic. So….SO….even tho it’s the 25th, it still IS Sat, and that means putting an hour or three into next week’s column as Miz. Jo and yours truly don’t open our presents for a while yet. What’s amazing is the temp here today (*see above), after we had 3 or 4 inches of SNOW yesterday ayem, however we knew it couldn’t/wouldn’t last. But just in case, Rotzy cleared off more than a dozen cars… a ‘winter hobby’ of mine. But no White Christmas anywhere around these parts. Not so up there in our olde stomping grounds as Miz Jo quoted me a near-30C temperature for Nakina a day or three ago and she showed me a picture of the plowed snow that Norman (not his real name) sent from Geraldton on Facebook*tm. Actually, it’s remained mild enough here that Rotzy is still wearing shorts…. yes, outside too….in fact I’m sporting my new/favourite pair that Miz. Jo gave me for our 44th Anniversary on Dec 22nd! Most people here in our building (and beyond) are by now certain that this olde guy’s elevator is ‘stuck between floors’ and that’s cool. But not cold, OK?
Readers Write
Here’s a couple items from TLN HQ….the first one I would venture is cause for concern! Check ’em out: * I saw this guy today at Starbucks. No I-phone, no tablet, no laptop.. He just sat there drinking his coffee. Like a psychopath. (scary stuff!) **When a woman says ”correct me if I’m wrong”….do not under any, I mean ANY circumstances do it. Keep ’em coming folks.
“From Nakina” Last Week Quoted….
one of ONT’s top health officials, who had said a week before that ”We/Ontario (are) on a course to hit 10,000 new COVID cases a day BY Xmas”. Well folks, we did it!! Hey, Rotzy’s not gonna bicker over a couple hundred cases, give or take. The thing is, this ‘accomplishment’ isn’t necessarily something we wanna ‘stick our collective chests out about’. You think? The ‘other’ thing is, we/Ontario are in the middle of the busiest two weeks of the year…..and if you have an IQ higher than that of porridge, you MAY conclude that the ‘10,000 a day’ count is NOT apt to go down….any tyme soon. Maybe a month from now? Maybe two? The third ‘other’ thing is that Delta is ‘yesterday’s news, OMICRON is ‘the new variant’, and opinions abound….”it’s less invasive, it’s not as bad, its’ symptoms aren’t as serious”, and cetera, and cetera (*see below). Well, yours truly and Miz. Jo don’t know anybody who has come down with it, or even tested positive…..but if it’s COVID….and it most surely IS!….it can/will take lives. It will also take a huge toll on hospitals!! OK? OK. So, what do we do we/Ontario gotta do? Wash your hands. Wear a masque. You know the drill! (*Jeez….I’m tired of writing this s–t!!) And go and get your needles like good girls and boys… yes, you’re excused from The Dunce Corner to go and do just that. Yes, We/Ontario can. We can’t control what happens elsewhere…. like the mess in Quebec, in Alberta, Russia, Australia, what Trump did or didn’t do, or Cleveland, Ohio….where 80,000 Dawgs (fans) cheered on their NFL Browns last week, with maybe 150 of them wearing masks. ‘Nuff said!!! Go get vaccinated/boostered!!!
Crossings And Stuff
Got an email a week and a bit ago from an old friend up north about the CN rail crossings at Nakina and just up #641 to Aroland First Nation, tho the latter had ‘steel plates’ installed at one tyme. He was lamenting their condition and how ‘bone jarring’ it is crossing at Aroland….and trying to get Canadian National to fix it is like pulling teeth!! Actually, it’s much worse than that!! How that took me back in tyme to when Miz. Jo and Rotzy were putting out TNN….The Nakina News monthly, before “From Nakina”….and we had the same problem coming into Nakina on Hwy #584….which TNN called The Michael Gravelle Freeway, after our long-tyme MPP. Anyway, back then the Nakina Crossing was much WORSE than Aroland and I remember doing a write-up, with a picture showing the damage (ruined tire and rim) to a Nakina teacher’s van after she hit ‘the crater’ even at reduced speed. And when the Fish And Game Club’s Bass Derby was on we were terrified one of the competitors coming from out of town would lose their $25-$50,000 boat and trailer right there, but I guess we got lucky. The CN ‘person in charge’ was a woman in Montreal and she was a real treat….(not)…..but that was more than 15 years ago so hopefully my Aroland pal won’t have HER to deal with. Thing I learned about CNR is that ‘nothing is wrong’….with anything….derailment or not! Ever. And the ‘lady’ CNR Cop carried a gun, so ‘don’t go snooping’!! Rotzy was doing just that….snooping….for TNN….at a derailment a mile or so east of Nakina and she ‘removed me (from near the scene) numerous tymes, until I finally said (to myself) “Hey Toad, move it before she ‘cuffs’ you”. Anyway, good luck to my pal on getting some/any action from CNR.
While We’re Talking About ‘The North’….
it just occurred to me that The Municipality of Greenstone, unless I’m mistaken here, is TWENTY years olde. NO….WAIT….DAMN!….that was LAST year, January 1, 2021. Well January 1, 2001, was AMALGAMATION DAY so Nakina had a big dinner party and dance (with The JKMG Band from Aroland) at The Rec Centre….all free/gratis. Why? Because Nakina was ‘in the black’ and dropped a few hundred K’s into Greenstone’s new account….the ONLY one of the ‘new wards’ not severely ‘in the red’. Anyway, Rotzy was ‘appointed’ (by Town clerk Kim Frech) as a member of the first two Nakina Advisory Committees. I went to all the meetings but felt kinda felt like a ‘double agent of sorts’….yours truly was one of the LARGE majorities of Nakinaites who wanted NO PART of Greenstone and we fought like hell to stay Nakina. It fell on deaf ears….even in the courts….the last of Mike Harris/Ernie Eves ‘supersize everything effort’. I even went to a few G/stone Council Meetings at ‘the olde place’ up on the hill, which was like a ship’s galley, where I argued with Mayor Charlie….sometymes with coughs and far coughs ….yet Le Maire and I liked each other. One Gerbilton Councillor didn’t know that and was gonna help the Mayor and punch me out right there in the hallway. OK, Bub. But Charlie settled it immediately, and methinks (obviously without saying it publicly) he was already seeing what a disaster this Greenstone amalgamation was…..and it was all about $$…..TCPL Tax Money….the Pipe Line was paying Ontario $7 Million ‘rent’ for the affected land, money which would then go to Greenstone. As a Geraldton Councillor (and BIG amalgamation fan) said to Rotzy at the ‘A-Day’ Promotion Campaign at the Rec Centre “What would YOU do with Seven Million’ Dollars’? I asked ”do you mean if I was Greenstone”? ”Yessir” Well, ”I’d use a good chunk of it to get rid of the ****ing ‘Red Ink’ that you and each of the other ‘new wards’ brought with them….accept for Nakina, who brought a pile of THEIR money to the ‘party’. ” Of course, Greenstone never did get the $7 Million from TCPL. It ‘became $3 Million!!! A little ‘last minute deal’ cooked by P/C MPP Tony Clement, the Min in Charge. Tony also knew this amalgamation wasn’t gonna work but did nothing to stop it. MPP Clement went on to become Conservative MY Tony Clement, then one of P/M Harper’s ‘inner-circle’. Then one day ‘the circle wasn’t unbroken’….Tony was a BAD boy….and became the ‘disgraced MP Tony Clement’. Jeez, I wonder if Greenstone is up to 7 Million TCPL dollars a year yet? I mean, twenty years? inflation? Must be getting close, eh? Anyway, here’s to the Municipality Of Greenstone’s next twenty!
*Thought Of The Day…New Year’s Toast….*Here’s to nipples! Without them titties would be pointless! (Bonne Annee!)
