Sushi time

I live in a little township that has five communities with a total population somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20,000 people.  In this township we have almost everything you could ever want or need. We have a small movie theatre, and art deco live theatre, a horse racing track complete with slot machine, a lake, a gorge, rivers galore and, i think, 129 bridges.

We have a Centre for the Arts, three libraries, the County Museum and Archives, a Truck Show, Writers Festival, Singing Festival and a Scottish Festival.

We have more pubs than you can shake a stick at.  We have family restaurants, each with a hint of ethnic flair.  We have an excellent Chinese Restaurant and our Indian Restaurant, according to my friend, is as good as anything he's found in Vancouver.

With a laundry list like that it might be hard to add anything that a jaded fella like me could get excited about.

Well, a month or two ago a restaurant on Fergus' main street closed its doors.  It had been struggling since the death of the previous owner a few years back.  Paper covered the windows and speculation began.  Early on I heard a rumour, but I shook my head in disbelief.

Not a chance, I thought.  A town this size in white-bread rural Ontario couldn't possible support that kind of restaurant.

That's right - Sushi in downtown Fergus.  We went for lunch and it was excellent.  I know that their opening night was busy.  I certainly hope there's enough patronage to keep them busy.

Now all we need is a really good Italian restaurant...and maybe Greek...Thai?

The Extra Day...and it's a SNOWDAY

Every four years this big old clock needs correcting.  On each rotation we gain a little time and every so often at the end of February we need to balance the books.  Today is the extra day that shakes everything out and keeps us regular.

It's an extra day for the kids, too, but they're calling it by a different name:

SNOWDAY!

One of the benefits for children in Canada is the SNOWDAY.  I capitalize it because you only ever hear it yelled by children.  Today was a SNOWDAY for the kids.

Excuse me for a moment while I shift into curmudgeon mode.  Ahhh, there we are - all I need now is my walkin' stick...

What we have today wasn't really a true and for real SNOWDAY.  No sir!  What we have today is an anticipatory SNOWDAY.  With nary a flake on the ground they cancelled the buses (when I'm in curmudgeon mode "they" takes on that non-specific universal quality.  I'm speaking of the transportation provider right now but when you're a curmudgeon it is always "they" or "them").  And they did it with only the promise of snow.  Something as flighty as a forecast did away with the buses today.  Why, I remember when I was boy in rural Ontario that there'd need to be a good solid six inches of fresh snow on the ground before they'd think of cancelling the buses and invoke a SNOWDAY.  A SNOWDAY used to mean something back then.  They were rare things and meant to be savoured  and were, by their very nature, magical.

Anticipatory SNOWDAYS hardly deserve capitalization.  When something as simple as a forecast can spawn a SNOWDAY they become common things, devoid of the magic they once had.

But my kids enjoy a good SNOWDAY none the less.  Once the snow, which I'm promised will be formidable, finally arrives we will head out to build castles and persons of snow and to engage in the bloodsport of the season - the snowball fight.

Ah, to hell with being a curmudgeon.

I guess even anticipatory SNOWDAYS are pretty damn magical, especially on the 29th of February.

Doing my part to help Canada Post

So I checked the mail box and there was an envelope - sans postage mark - with this in it:

Yeah...that's an unsolicited little CIBC credit card application.  It might be unrelated, but when we there's tough talk about the economy it seems, to me at least, that these things start to show up.  I see these applications and I know that the people who will jump at these "opportunities" are probably those who can least afford them.

And the banks make it easy:

Wow - not only can I apply for credit I might not be able to afford, I don't even need to pay for postage!  What a bargain!   I'll try not to notice those 19% interest rates on the back of the application...

I figure I should let CIBC know how I feel and they've been kind enough to supply the means.  

I do this with all unsolicited mail that shows up with a postage paid envelope.  It might seem petty, but the post office needs all the help it can get.