Muskoka
The Hours Before Yet Another Winter StormThe March Lamb Eaten By The Lion
It seems every week there are storms whipping up from the Gulf to bring hardship to beleagured Canadians, pondering
whether this is the beginning of the new globally alterede weather-normal. Actually, I get quite a laugh at all the armchair critics
these days because the winter this year isn't any where near the quality and quantity of many back to back winters when I was
growing up here in the Ontario hinterland. And I'm not an old fart either! It was always the case that winter wasn't officially over until the 24th of May weekend, and it was to be anticiapted that there
would be wintery forays even into June......that it wouldn't jar us into the realm of the twilight zone to have a few snowflakes land
on our heads even in June. I can remember many wicked storms in March and a few in April, with snow layering over the
daffodils in our front garden down on Ontario Street below the former Bracebridge high school. So now when some
hypothicating armchair general tells me that it's all the work of a declining universe and global warming, then I will remind one
and all that global warming has been around thusly for a long time.....if present weather is the barometer of change. The winters I
am writing about are from the 1960's and 70's, not ancient history. From the on-air descriptions of the newest stormfront to bring hardship upon the population, it would appear the end is upon
us. This afternoon! It must be a rating binge that makes weather prognosticators make these embellished storm claims because
frankly not one this year has measured up to the adjectives they used on the gaping-mouthed viewership, anticipating that they
should bid a speedy farewell to friends and family before the end arrives. While I always watch the daily weather updates
because I do wish to prepare for dangerous natural events, the storms they predict usually fizzle well short of the pounding we
have prepared ourselves to receive. Today we have heard so many bulletins that even taking a buzz to the corner store seems
too risky, in case the freezing rains arrive before I can get back home. Scaring the crap out of people is crappy for the local
economy.....the god fearing weather watchers with their noses pressed to the window glass to watch the grim reaper rise over
the horizon tree line. It's all about fear these days. It has become quite marketable like the time during the Cuban Missile crisis
and Cold War when folks were building bomb shelters. While this is not a denial that bad weather doesn't occur, or that global
warming isn't a fact, but a few historians have presented some pretty compelling evidence of wicked periods of weather activity
in the past.....there was an ice-age afterall. Does that ring a bell? Do we really believe we can change what nature has ultimately
in store? I'm a pretty active environmental watch-dog around here but the fear mongering is putting many folks in hiding; not
helping the planet recover. Having a respect for nature and her patterns of the past seems a worthy point of investigation......and
is this the beginning of a harsh new cycle of an ever evolving globe? How much is global warming and how much is the inevitable
march of time and evolution? We've been getting alarmist reporting of weather.......these days, more for ratings than for accuracy. The storms we have
received so far this year are run of the mill period. Inconvenient. Only in Toronto. Here in the outback of southern Central
Ontario, well, bring it on! We're not stupid enough to sign off on winter weather in February like some, and we've made it part
of our daily existence to cope with God's will. So I won't really be holing-up to avoid the predicted storm.....just watching to see
if, this time, those who predict the weather can......like horseshoes, come within a wee distance of actually predicting a real arse
kicking storm, versus the fluff-er-nutter of inclement weather that at the most chills our old bones, and makes a few of us slip
slide away. Just a cranky watcher in the woods' opinion on an otherwise spectacular March day.