Musing

9C/48F, light hazy cloud, neighbourhood abuzz early - landscapers scramble, people rush; preparing lawns, preparing soil, preparing flower beds, preparing trailers, campers etc. for weekend work & play

does the week end Saturday night or Sunday night, or Friday ?

this Victoria Day [Monday holiday commemorates longest reign of shortest queen, Victoria], Canadian ritual at its finest; yesterday the keenest campers sprinted to mountain campgrounds to secure the best spots to tent, park etc. . . tires humming but nothing compared to about noon today when traffic volumes leaving cities for playgrounds produce gridlock & road rage

campers it will be a weekend of chopping wood & pitching tents followed by sore backs & cold beer; for those who plant & landscape new yards meanwhile, it will be a weekend of sore backs & cold beer

for retailers of plants & shrubs & flowers, it is more like Christmas; ending their days with sore backs & cold beer

when the weekend is over, sore backs & campfire stories will dominate water cooler talk; the rituals of spring, Canadians repeating these things only to complain afterward about how bad the traffic was or how expensive the plants & shrubs are, how good the yard looks, what a great time the kids had . . . intermingled with stories of sore backs & cold beer

some folks will get out for some golf, swing too hard looking for mid-season form the first time out; they will end their rounds with sore backs & cold beer

the diminutive Queen of England, Victoria, who among other things granted Canadians independence from British rule, could never have imagined the tradition her birthday celebration has spawned; while she might have imagined citizens & visitors to Alberta or Lake Louise or who would travel the Marquis of Lorne Trail marveling at places named for her family members . . . but she never would have guessed that our long holiday weekend celebrations would involve

sore backs & cold beer

the week ends when the weekend ends, weary, one way or another we will all be weakened by Monday night

drive safe & sober

Mark
342,516

P.S. small step or giant leap ? conversion purged bad & duplicate addresses – as of this morning there are 4621 active addresses on the musing distribution list; each time I have made a significant change to format or distribution process for musings it is a little disconcerting at first; each time it seemed the numbers shrank, but then grew again; responses have rarely been predictable