Summer’s just around the corner
Oh, what to do this summer?
The goose-hunting season is now going full tilt in every Cree community on both sides of the James and Hudson bays. Every community has emptied out, leaving lonely stragglers to fend for themselves.
In times like these, local businesses often have different schedules posted or announced on-air – that is, if anyone is around at the local radio station. Calling the band offices, local schools and regional organizations are a hit-or-miss situation. The shelves in the stores are bare, with large signs that say “Goose Break specials!” in the flour and lard sections. The rare, extremely bored cashier is hard to find and often has to be yelled at because their iPods are on full blast and they can’t hear a word you’re shouting.
Hopefully this summer will be kind on the skin and heat waves not hot enough to complain about. If only there were a Dairy Queen in every community – that would be perfect. What gets me about a good old DQ sundae is that the amount of ice cream in your average serving is astronomical. The hazards of eating ice cream and driving at the same time are right up there with texting with both hands while driving. Yes, both are downright dangerous! I can’t wait for the ice-cream stand to start running around again.
Another great thing about summer is that there are flocks of students eager to take over your job while you’re on holiday. However, if you read the fine print on the summer student program, you can’t use them to replace you while you are on holiday so that is a no-no. Lately, the first questions asked by summer students are: What’s the password for the wi-fi? When is coffee break? Can I go now? When is payday? Sometimes lame excuses come into play, like the common cold, aches-and-pains and the seven-hour stomach bug that usually occurs on Fridays. But hey, when you’re young and healthy, your body is able to take all the punishment it can.
For me, my aches-and-pains appear when a good fishing day comes up and my doctor advises me to get more fresh air into my aging system. Fishing is the recreational hobby that surpasses all other summer activities, except for sunbathing on a windy day. Not that I sunbathe a lot, I get enough on my left side as I drive around, but it’s those lovely evenings with a setting sun that get my mojo going. Not to mention a rising moon soon afterwards. The television – a major source of heat and boredom killing during the long winter months – is silent as nature takes its place. Just can’t wait for summer.
Back to the present – it seems that this is an ordinary spring, with the snow and ice hanging around longer than the past two decades. It may seem to us that climate change has taken a break, but not for those in western Canada, where nary a snowfall or raindrop has been felt for some time now. Forest fires seem to be on Mother Nature’s agenda for the west. I’m hoping that for this summer nothing extraordinary will happen so we can get what we wanted all along – a perfect spring and summer.
I, for one, am planning nothing special, except that all goes well with fishing and berry picking. Get a tan everyone!