Monday, March 31, 2014

The Oppenheimer Report 3/31/14

Though it is rare for us to do much travelling together in the winter, Shauna and I drove down to Orillia on Thursday night, about a one and one half hour drive south from our home in Katrine, to attend a performance of Stuart McLean’s Vinyl CafĂ©. Sometimes compared to Garrison Keillor’s The Prairie Home Companion, Mclean’s show is equally amusing and airs weekly on CBC radio (http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/vinylcafe.xml.)  Shauna and I love Vinyl Cafe, and as an early 20th anniversary gift, Shauna managed to get tickets to this sold out performance. McLean is a very witty humorist, and his delivery is excellent. His featured singer/songwriter for this show was Lynn Miles, and though I was not familiar with her work, I am now a big fan. After the show we were still buzzing with the endorphins that great humor stimulates, and we grabbed a quick bite to eat in town before heading home back up Highway 11. I didn’t think much of the light snow falling as we left Orillia, but within fifteen minutes on the road, we were in the middle of a full blown snowstorm. We drove nervously through whiteout conditions for most of the ride home. As I have said before, that particular stretch of Ontario highway is notorious for its sometimes severe winter driving conditions, and Thursday night was a textbook example. A week into spring and I experienced my first white knuckle drive of the season!

Boy, am I sick of winter! I’m sure the Maritimers are fed up as well as last week they dug out from yet another brutal blizzard. My new project, while I am incarcerated in the icy grip of March, is to re-upholster my couch with groundhog pelts. I’ve got to take this aggression out on somebody, and besides, those weather groundhogs are waaaay overpaid. All the animals around here are freaking out, and we are all ticked off that Jack Frost has not yet thrown in the towel. The locals are calling this the worst winter in 40 years, and I read that this winter has been particularly hard on the local wild life. Deer are starving, especially the fauns, and the migrating birds that have already returned probably wish they hadn’t. Friday afternoon I looked out our front window and spotted a red fox on our front lawn. It is rare that we see fox, and this one looked pretty desperate and hungry. Of course as soon as she saw it, Jasper went into convulsions, and I had to explain to her how lucky she was to be an “indoor dog.” With all the wild turkeys wandering around in the vicinity, I am surprised that fox was in need of food.

They still haven’t found that Malaysian Airlines jet and last week recovery efforts were again hampered by severe weather. Last I checked there was a rather substantial debris field showing up on radar, but so far no confirmations. As one searcher said, they have not yet located the haystack, much less the needle, although as of last week the search was narrowed to a large area four hours off the west coast of Australia. I don’t think there could be a much more remote area to search, and one is reminded how difficult this task is to carry out.  Very hard to get closure when no one knows where the plane went down. Perhaps it flew into a parallel universe.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay front man Chris Martin have separated after ten years of marriage. As they put it, they “consciously uncoupled.” Really? I thought that is something one does to train cars. The big talk and sabre rattling continue over Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, but short of trade sanctions (and are those even effective?) I don’t see anybody stepping in to change things. The Juno Awards took place last night, and just to name drop, we know two of the performers personally. My friend Tim Hicks, who is becoming a huge hit in country music circles, played in the Bachman Turner Overdrive salute, and our friend Mark Puffer was band leader for the Gord Bamford Band. Both of these guys are talented, hard-working musicians and it was good to see them play on Canada’s center stage for music.

That’s all for now. Time to go into town for my physiotherapy session. A few months ago I slipped on the ice and injured my shoulder. Just another casualty of this lovely winter. It’s almost over, right????!!

 

     -  Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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