It was our habit to mark the end of winter right around March 7 or Marc h 8. In other words, the weekend just past.
Call it an idiot-syncrasy. A silly habit. Or plain old wishful thinking. Our reason then, and still is, it’s right about now we start getting those whiffs of “spring is in the air.” As much as we love winter, we also love all the other seasons. So we like to think early March is a good enough time to start saying goodbye to winter.
Of course, with climate change and all that, these years instead of the old, “Canada is six months of winter, and four more months of bad skating,” we seem to be getting later and later starts to winter. For us, we start counting winter days when we actually get serious snow. Usually some time in December. And we stop counting winter when the good ol’ Edmonton Boat Show comes around. Which years ago used to be just after the first week in March. Our March 7-8 mentioned above. Oh, well!
For various reasons, the show has pushed dates back. Next week, starting on Thursday, March 19 and ending on Sunday, four huge halls full of toys and joys will begin in Edmonton at the Expo Centre.
As for counting the start of spring, well, anything -5 C or above is good enough in our books. So never mind the calendar. We’re already there.
This wasn’t exactly the kind of year we were all expecting for ice fishing.
Maybe it was all those hopes and prayers for a good snowfall to put moisture back in the ground for forests, crops, hayfields and our rivers and lakes. This time they worked!
Unfortunately. along with heavy snow often comes “flood ice.” That’s when heavy snow weighs down ice, and water underneath the ice creeps through holes and cracks and forms another layer of thin, dangerous ice on top.
The end result became hardly any ice huts on Lesser Slave Lake until the past few weeks. As of last week, there were about 45 huts. That’s well down from what we now see as a usual 100-120 huts this time of year at Joussard, the most popular spot on the lake.
Ice fishing season ends March 31 and huts have to be off the ice.
Canadian celebrity Kevin O’Leary, formerly of CBC show Dragon’s Den, and now America’s Shark Tank, fancies himself a Bad Boy.
If you have ever seen him on any show, or on one of his frequent news appearances, he always has comments with a bite. He also plays a villain in the movie Marty Supreme.
And now he wants to be, of course, a Really, Really Bad Boy in an upcoming James Bond movie!
Kevin says the villains in the latest shows haven’t really been that bad. He says he can bring a whole lot more evil to the role. Hmmm! Narco cartel boss, North Korea master mind, evil Russian warlord, nefarious American politician, by themselves or all rolled into one?
Sure, many people see O’Leary as a mouthy gas bag and not much more. So how would it look if he stole the Goodyear Blimp and crashed it into Daytona Speedway? Nah! Too simple! Kind of appropriate for Kevin, but too simple. Let’s see if he comes up with something himself. Although blowing up the Daytona 500 could be just an opening scene.
According to a Globe and Mail report, “I’ve made it very vocal that I intend to be the next bad guy in the Bond movie,” Kevin says. “They’re simply not bad enough. I can do a much better job.”
The “Buying Machine” known as the stock market is in full swing. It’s called a Buying Machine because no matter what happens, there are always people telling the rest of us, “Now is a great time to be buying.”
Real estate going through the roof? Buy now before it gets too expensive! Stocks are crashing? Wow, what a great opportunity. Snap up as much as you can! Wars everywhere? Get your gold before it’s all gone!
One has to ask, if the end of the world is coming and they are telling you to buy, who the heck are you going to sell to after the end? No matter. One has to be positive.
As expected, the war in Iran is supposed to be another opportunity. So, it wasn’t very hard at all for your columnist to find experts, ready to reveal their picks in case the world doesn’t end tomorrow.
Canadian, and in particular, Alberta oil companies.
In order of best earnings margins, meaning if oil goes up, they should benefit the most: Tamarack Valley, Headwater Exploration, Baytex Energy, Parex Resources, Canadian Natural Resources, Strathcona Resources, Athabasca Oil.
Just so you know, any time someone is saying “Now is a good time to buy,” somebody else has to be selling. So convince yourself, those sellers think they have made enough. Now they want somebody else to “have a turn.” Yup! For sure that is what happens.
Or is it more along the same line as, “There has to be winners at the casino. If everybody lost, they would close their doors.”
“One of my uncles was watching a big boxing match with me that I had streaming. He says, “Sure. Ten million dollars the champ is getting. You know for that kind of money, I’d fight him too.”
Yeah, right! As if anybody is going to pay 200 bucks to watch a 60-year old guy with a beer belly get hit in the face once and start to cry. – borrowed from Larry Miller
We all know days are getting longer!
But have you given any thought that next week, on March 20, it is the Spring Equinox. That’s when days and nights are the same in length. As in fact, they are right about now. After March 20 of course, days become longer than nights, all the way to June 21.