To our northern neighbors....

[mjeff87]

Happy Canada Day, eh!  

[Pete M]

so what do you northerners do for a day like today anyway?  for the 4th, your neighbors to the south seem to prefer risking eyes and fingers to hear loud noises and see bright flashes of light.    drawn like moths we are... 

[PCO6]

14 minutes ago, Pete M said:

so what do you northerners do for a day like today anyway?  for the 4th, your neighbors to the south seem to prefer risking eyes and fingers to hear loud noises and see bright flashes of light.    drawn like moths we are... 

 

They make videos to explain this kind of stuff!      

 

 

"Normally" most towns have fire works displays as do the Federal and Provincial governments.   2017 was a big one as it was our 150th anniversary as a nation.    There's often speeches and entertainers.  I don't know of any that have parades but I could be wrong.    There are also a lot of families and friends BBQ's at which a little bit of beer is consumed. 

 

This year is a bit different.  COVID restrictions still exist but worse (I think) are the recent revelations regarding Indian residential school deaths. About 1,200 unmarked graves have been found in 3 towns and there will be more.   This went on for over a century but people are finally understanding it better.   It's a serious black mark on our history and some towns have cancelled their celebrations because it.   Most are going ahead but the mood will be subdued.   Many people will choose not to attend.  Lots of people light fire works on their own property mostly to entertain their kids and in some cases to piss off their neighbours.   It is "neighbours" btw.   We spell things a bit differently.  

 

I just heard our Federal Minister of Indigenous Affairs say on the radio that ... "It's hard to celebrate when your neighbours are in mourning."  I detest our Liberal government but kind of agree on this one.

[87MJTIM]

3 hours ago, PCO6 said:

It is "neighbours" btw.   We spell things a bit differently.  

 

That was part of our rebellion against Britain after the first war.  We dropped the "u" from color, flavor, neighbor, etc.  We also stopped drinking tea.  We pronounce "Z" as zee, not zed.  (That one took me a while to understand just what the heck you guys were saying.)

 

Happy Canada Day, btw.

[rokinn]

And here I thought it was a whole country celebrating my birthday because my mother was Canadian. 

 

 

 

[War_Pony89]

Poutine....fascinating, makes me thing of something else though.

 

Celebrate as best you can, I'll raise a pint your way!

[PCO6]

3 hours ago, 87MJTIM said:

 

That was part of our rebellion against Britain after the first war.  We dropped the "u" from color, flavor, neighbor, etc.  We also stopped drinking tea.  We pronounce "Z" as zee, not zed.  (That one took me a while to understand just what the heck you guys were saying.)

 

Happy Canada Day, btw.

 

It's amazing how many words are spelled differently between the US and Canada.   It's always letter or two and we certainly know what each other is saying.  It's easy for us to pick up the differences.    For example, whenever I type a word on this forum "our way" it gets underlined in red as if it's a spelling mistake.   

BTW ... I used to own a Zed-28.  

[87MJTIM]

“England and America are two countries separated by the same language.”

 

George B Shaw

[75sv1]

12 hours ago, PCO6 said:

 

It's amazing how many words are spelled differently between the US and Canada.   It's always letter or two and we certainly know what each other is saying.  It's easy for us to pick up the differences.    For example, whenever I type a word on this forum "our way" it gets underlined in red as if it's a spelling mistake.   

BTW ... I used to own a Zed-28.  

Sort of like Hoser and Hoosier? 

[PCO6]

2 hours ago, 75sv1 said:

Sort of like Hoser and Hoosier? 

 

Exactly!     I used to be the Vice Chairman of a North American car club.   The Indiana Chapter was called the "Hoosiers" and the Ontario Chapter the "Hosers".  

[gogmorgo]

Another obstacle to celebrating at least for me is this crazy heat wave. I don’t know what things are like out east where PCO6 is, but today was the first day this week we didn’t break 40°C. That’s just shy of 110°F, almost unheard of around here. One small town about 200 miles from here, Lytton BC, broke not just the highest Canadian temp record but also the highest temperature ever recorded north of the 50th parallel not just once but three days in a row this week, 46.6, 47.9, then 49.6°C... 121.3°F before getting burnt to the ground by a wildfire that gave residents maybe 15 minutes notice to evacuate.

Then last night we had a thunderstorm roll through that dropped almost no rain, and once again has me seriously concerned about this forest of standing dead pine trees surrounding my town. I am not built for this kind of heat and neither is our local wildlife. We’ve had mass fish die-offs due to seriously elevated water temps. The alpine also melted out so suddenly and quickly that ironically we’re also facing flooding problems despite everything being so dry, which also means river levels are going to be seriously low for the fall spawn unless glacier melt really kicks off this summer, which is not great for other reasons. Last summer it was cold and wet and a lot of our taller mountains never lost their snow caps. They’ve almost all melted off this week, two seasons worth of snow.

[PCO6]

What happened in Lytton yesterday was heart breaking.   We watched what was going on all week re the high temperatures but never thought that it would end like this.    It's such a beautiful area and I was encouraged to watch a former Town Mayor say today that no mater what they'll rebuild.   

 

As for South Central Ontario, it's been an odd year.   Basically cold and wet.   We're finally going camping starting on Sunday for a week.   We've had 3 trips cancelled this year due to COVID restrictions.    It's been raining all day and fairly cool and I just packed up our propane heater to take with us.  Two years ago at this time we camped at a Provincial Park in Northern Ontario.   It was sweltering and a few days after we left the park was evacuated because of a forest fire.   I can't imagine anything like that happening this year.

[gogmorgo]

The craziest part about this heat wave for me is how quickly it rolled in. I was out camping just three weeks ago and it snowed enough I was concerned about my tent collapsing. Spring had been pretty slow. I also think this is the first year I’ve had to go work outside at both -42 and +42. 

[75sv1]

On 7/2/2021 at 10:41 AM, PCO6 said:

 

Exactly!     I used to be the Vice Chairman of a North American car club.   The Indiana Chapter was called the "Hoosiers" and the Ontario Chapter the "Hosers".  

I was thinking of Bod and Doug McKenzie  at the time.