What a crazy summer we’re having this year.
We had some hot days and plenty of rain. The past four days we got about 90 mm
of rain. Fortunately, it came down slowly and not all at once. Winnipeg wasn’t so lucky.
They had 80 mm of rain in a short time a few days ago. Many streets were under
water. People were using a canoe and one guy was snorkeling in his street.
Underpasses were so full of water cars became stuck. Many basements were
flooded.
This morning it rained, then it cleared up,
then it rained again. After supper, I went outside to cover the BBQ and to take
the compost pail to the compost bin. As I walked out, I looked at the clouds
and thought, “It will rain again.” No sooner do I finish that thought, the first
drops began to fall. I managed to cover up the BBQ, the wind and rain started
and I barely made it back into the house without being drenched—and I carried
my little pail with the kitchen scraps with me.
Actually, I had in mind to check the trap I
set out in my garden. Yesterday I found one nice red tomato, but I wanted it to
ripen one more day on the vine. This morning I saw another rabbit in the yard.
When I went to the garden to pick my red tomato, it was half-eaten. I picked it
anyway and ate the left over piece. Now the trap is waiting for the little
bugger.
Sitting in the house watching the rain
gives one an opportunity to contemplate things. The other day I read a poem.
The person who rode it called it a poem, but I thought it was crap. Nothing rhymed;
in fact, the whole thing had no rhyme or reason. Just a bunch of words that
didn’t make any sense put into sentences that didn’t make any sense, either.
Apparently, it is called ‘Modernist’ poetry. Another award-winning ‘Poem’ I
read was just a cute little story written in what is called ‘Stanza’. Each
short sentence gets its own line. It was cute but in my mind not a poem, just a
short story.
Perhaps I’m old fashioned. I don’t like
change. My motto is: If it isn’t broken don’t fix it. Why change just for the
sake of change? Makes no sense to me. I don’t follow trends, because I’m not a
sheep. Just because everyone does it or wears it doesn’t mean I have to. My
wife calls me stubborn. I’ve been looking for a thin jacket (they used to call
them ‘lumber jack jackets’), no nylon and no liner. I have one hanging in my
closet, but it is a bit frayed and I wear it only in the yard. I’ve been
looking for a long time but can’t find one that looks like my old one. When I
find one I might like it is either made from nylon and you’ll sweat to death in
it, or it has a liner (I have one of those already), or it is designed in such
a way I wouldn’t want to be seen dead in it. The other day I found one that was
almost what I sought. A little long and too many visible pockets, but it had no
liner. I almost bought it until I saw the price: $200.00 on sale. I dropped it
like a hot potato. I told me wife, I wouldn’t pay more than $25 bucks for it,
and even then I would have second thoughts. It wasn’t even what I was looking
for, just close to it. “It’s a designer jacket,” my wife said. For me, that is
no reason to pay big bucks. “Designer, Shminer,” I said. Why would I want to
pay lots of money for something some gay guy dreamed up when he was high on
something?
I bought a pair of jeans. The looked like
my old ones, the comfortable ones, but they were not the same. They call them
hip-huggers. What the hell is the reason for that? They look okay, but when I
walk, I have the feeling they’ll be sliding down my hips, past my knees and
down to my ankles. They are unbelievable uncomfortable. “You’d better get used
to them,” my wife said. “Because that’s all you find these days.” “It seems
they are trying to save on material,” I said. “What other reason would there be
to design something like this?” On top of everything, they are too long. I’m
shrinking. I used to buy 32 inches in leg length, now I have to buy the 30-inch
ones and they are still scraping the floor. AAGGHH I want to scream. What is
wrong with people? Doesn’t anyone have a mind anymore? Do they have to do and
eat and wear what some jerk somewhere in who knows where comes up with? What is
the big attraction of buying and wearing jeans with holes in them, or the front
totally ripped, or the cuffs frayed? In fact, the jeans I bought had frayed
bottoms. “It’s the style,” my wife says. I’ve thrown better-looking jeans into
the garbage, because I don’t want to wear them even in the yard or garden.
There is no worse feeling then having your kneecaps pop out of the holes in your
jeans and have dirt falling in when you kneel down.
Are people really that crazy? The lines at
Tim Horton are getting longer because people ‘need’ their coffee fix. They need
to eat popcorn and nachos when they go to the movies. They wear their glasses
on top of their head instead over their eyes because it looks cool. Everyone
these days seems to get a tattoo. And what’s with those girl’s piercing their
tongue and putting a pearl through it, and those rings through their lips,
nose, and brows? Some of them can’t even talk properly anymore. Or a dozen
rings in their ears? Guys do it too. The farmers put a ring through a bull’s
nose and then they attach a stick to control the bull.
I could go on, but I get weary. Maybe it’s
a sign of old age to resist change. Young people get bored easily and they are
looking for ways to find themselves, whatever that means. They are easily
influenced. They want to be different from their parents. They want to do their
own thing when in reality they are all the same. They don’t realize that they
are not doing their own thing but they are following the herd. They see it on
TV or in magazines or in the movies and they copy it. We were probably no
different, we just don’t remember.
Let’s hope the sun makes an appearance soon.
I’m in a gloomy mood.
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