I know we all gripe about the weather, and at last count there were three million variations of that tired old joke about waiting five minutes and it will change, but I suspect that Port aux Basques is slowly turning into the new Arctic. There is a 17 degree differential between East End and Searston today (June 28). In the Codroy Valley it’s 28 degrees and nobody is inside. There’s even a warm breeze to keep the bugs away. At least my flowers are beautiful and my lawn is growing at the speed of light, but it still feels too nasty to go outside most days. My dog is suffering because I don’t want to go out in the wind and rain even when he needs to go potty. Perhaps it’s my poor blood. I see others walking around in shorts and t-shirts and wonder if they’re made of sterner stuff than I am. If so, can you please share your secret? I used to be a letter carrier in Halifax for a few years. I remember lugging a 50 pound satchel stuffed to the brim on a 9 km route during a 40 degree heat wave. I prefer that weather. Here if it goes above 20 degrees I worry that most of the residents won’t survive. “Hot day,” said a pedestrian to me last week. I was wearing a sweater and a plaid coat that was also lined. I had on my favourite pair of jeans. They were wearing a t-shirt and shorts. We were both suffering, but for different reasons. Out west some fires are projected to burn into the winter, which is almost impossible to wrap my mind around, even after viewing the photos and watching the video footage. I saw a survey (not my favourite ‘source’ of anything) that said something along the lines of 70+ per cent of Canadians attribute all the fires this year to climate change. Meanwhile the heavily subsidized oil companies are laying people off while still raking in the taxpayer cash. Nice grift if you can swing it. I’ve seen more backyard gardens around town than ever before as people try growing their own food to offset the poor quality and high price of vegetables at the local grocery stores. I hope they’re having better results than me. I’ve killed both pepper plants the neighbour gave me, but there’s still a glimmer of hope for the strawberries if they can withstand a week of wind and rain. Somewhere out there, yet another vlogger who couldn’t find this province on a map is using AI to dramatize the Titan submersible imploding so that they can monetize their YouTube channel once their view counts get high enough. All of this nonsense is no doubt Trudeau’s fault. That was sarcasm, in case you missed it. Have we all gone mad or is it just me?
Rosalyn Roy is the National Newspaper Award winner of the 2022 Bob Levin Award for Short Feature, published by the National Post (Sept. 24, 2022).