The fifth-last day of October should be cold, rainy, and brisk. Forecasters should be warning of frost and the need for snowsuits under Halloween costumes next week. Instead it was 22 Celsius and partly sunny – shorts weather.
I hate wearing pants. As soon as the weather starts to turn in April, on go the shorts. Normally I can get a good 4-5 months of shorts weather before I have to put pants back on. But it’s October 27 and I am officially over the six month mark of not wearing pants (except for one day but that experience required it.)
Climate change is real. Deniers be dammed. My kids’ kids will pay for this extended summer weather I know. Still, the last gasp of summer today was grand. Even though I was stuck in the office for part of the day, the windows were open and the warm breeze blew in.
Driving around, there are still nice fall colours, and I had the windows in the van down to enjoy it. Some days are not that bad at all.
A guy I used to know was a brilliant artist. Give the guy an airbrush and you could see the magic that flowed. Give him a pen, and cartoons would spring to life. He used to say that art is when some people liked a work, and some didn’t. The art was in that people had different reactions to it. That is me paraphrasing it as its been nearly 20 years since I last talked to him.
My Wanderings column this week focused on trans youth, and how some jurisdictions are restricting their rights to use the name and pronoun of their choosing. I guess this was art. Normally I don’t get any responses to my work. I am okay with the vacuum of zero comments. This column received two comments – one negative, the other positive. I will paraphrase again, and also obfuscate the sources.
Negative – “I thought you were a conservative. I can’t believe you would print such trash in your column. I am disappointed in you.”
Positive – “Kudos to you. Without allies like you, I don’t know where our youth would be…. thank you for not dancing around the issue.”
I am not upset with the negative comments, as I don’t give a flying fuck if people dislike me or what I write. I am honoured by the positive comment because I have never considered myself an ally. I am just trying to be a decent person and wish more people would do the same.
One of my favourite sayings is on a sign over our door – “The Mountains are calling, and I must go.” Tomorrow is a trek to see some waterfalls and fall colours. I look forward to it.
Three things…
Something to read – I am a fan of Sarah Knight’s books, in-part because of the directness of what she writes. She now has a substack and I thought this was interesting – enjoy!
Something to watch – Youngest kid has gotten into watching old episodes of the Red Green Show (Thank you Pluto TV). One of his favourite segments is “Adventures with Bill.” Here is one of my favourite clips.
Something to listen to – A high school friend who was into Brit-pop music introduced me to Pulp way back in 1994. Watching the movie Trainspotting (surprisingly not about trains btw) added to that interest. I like Mile End, I like Common People. It was difficult to choose which to link, so I flipped a coin and went with… Common People.
The last word… and this goes not just for racism but all the other discriminatory “isms” too!
Racism isn’t born, folks, it’s taught. – Denis Leary
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