Belated Weekly Rant for June 8-14

Sorry for the break in service here, I’ve been pre-occupied. This entry covers the week of June 8-14:

I like children if they’re cooked properly.

--W. C. Fields

When did it become socially acceptable for the parents of unruly brats to inflict their squalling, squealing infants upon an entire restaurant of patrons? I may be becoming a misanthropic old curmudgeon but I begin to understand why English Men’s Clubs barred women and children. Since the day twenty years ago when a young miss was allowed to peer over the edge of a partition in St. Hubert’s Chicken and watch every bite I took I’ve become mindful of where I sit and on more than one occasion asked to be moved. I don’t pay good money to eat out while my nerves are shattered by a misbehaving imp. In my opinion parents should keep their offspring home until they’re civilized enough to behave in public; what else is take out for?

The weather? It’s forecasts like this one that leave one feeling unsettled:

Text Forecast: Issued at 3.30 PM EDT Wednesday 18 June 2008

Tonight.. Cloudy periods. 70 percent chance of showers early this evening. Wind northwest 20 km/h becoming light this evening. Low 9. Thursday.. A mix of sun and cloud. 30 percent chance of showers in the afternoon. Wind becoming west 20 km/h in the morning. High 21. UV index 8 or very high.

Thursday night.. Cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers in the evening. Wind west 20 km/h becoming light in the evening. Low 13.

Friday.. A mix of sun and cloud with 40 percent chance of showers. High 23.

Saturday.. A mix of sun and cloud with 40 percent chance of showers. Low 11. High 25.

Sunday.. A mix of sun and cloud with 40 percent chance of showers. Low 13. High 25.

Normals for the period.. Low 14. High 25.

At least I haven’t heard of any tornado watches lately.

Last Tuesday, the tenth lightnig struck anelectrical sub-station plunging the entire south-west-end of Oakville including our office into black-out. Letter carriers do not work well in the dark. Never mind some customers seem to think we’re in the dark at the best of times.

On Wednesday I accompanied a pair whose mission was to assess the viability of delivering mail to a rural mail box on one of our urban highways. Political correctness trumps common sense every time. Since when does a rural area have 3 traffic lights within one quarter mile, curbs, and traffic whizzing by at the rate of one vehicle every 3 seconds at 60 miles-per-hour. Anyone who would stop in that traffic to visit a rural mail box with a cement truck bearing down on their tail has a death wish.

Friday of this week was one of those banes of triskaidekaphobics—Friday the Thirteenth. It has also brought notoriety to the small fishing/resort town of Port Dover on the North Shore of Lake Erie ever since a local biker gang member invited his buddies to drop in for a visit back in 1981. Word has spread and that small gathering has swelled to over 150,000 closely monitored by the OPP and the media every Friday that lands on the thirteenth. Just where 150,00 HOGS find a place to park in that small village I can’t imagine but the media had a bit of fun this time round when one of my supervisors and his girlfriend arrived on their mopeds. Somehow I expect serious bikers slouching on their choppers laughed them off the streets but it’s one way to make the news.