Thursday Tidbits

Posted on February 11, 2021 under Thursday Tidbits with one comment

“Love is in the air, everywhere I look around,

Love is in the air, every sight and every sound.”

Love is in The Air. John Paul Young

For the past few days, my students have been using free time to make Valentine’s Day cards. Surely you remember back in the day when you feverishly made a Valentine Card for every single student in your class and maybe even your teacher. A few of our teachers in elementary school were tyrants… the ones with “the bad habits’. You know of whom I speak! The only reason they got a card is the fear that if you didn’t give them one, you might get a ruler across your knuckles. Good job, Len. You just managed to spoil all the good vibes about Cupid. In any event, for you romantic types, there is still time to get something for someone special in your life before Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday and Valentine’s Day (February 14^th), I am planning to do a special Pillow Talk at 7:00p.m. Atlantic  (6:00 Eastern; 3:00 Pacific). Send me your favourite love songs in advance and I’ll try and sing them for you. It won’t be quite “Super Sunday” but I’m sure we’ll have fun.

Did you see the Super Bowl last Sunday? I received three different invitations to  attend a Super Bowl gathering that evening but ended up watching the game alone in my apartment. I knew that if I went to a gathering and got caught up in the game, that the following day at school would be especially long. However, there was one invitation that I did accept. I was invited to a Super Bowl brunch earlier that day. Attendees were asked to contribute some food. I was more than happy to participate. The hosts were making eggs and pancakes. I decided to add a dash of protein. You vegetarians and vegans will cringe at my choices. I made sausages, ham and cooked up some slices of steak. I even had some sweet and sour meatballs that I had made the day before.

Thirty minutes before the brunch began, I received a message from the hosts. The brunch was cancelled and rescheduled for this coming Sunday. I looked at the small mountain of meat and even a carnivore like me would have had his hands full trying to get through all of this meat solo. What to do? What to do?

I decided to invite the would be hosts to my place for brunch. They agreed. Now, there is a perfectly good reason why the brunch had been cancelled and this is one of these things unique to the north. As I have mentioned before in this space, essential services come in the form of municipal trucks. The ground is too hard, rocky and cold to install water and sewer lines. Instead, water is delivered to our houses every few days and sewage is pumped out of our abodes on a similar schedule. Now, from time to time, despite our best intentions, we run out of water or our sewage tank is full. When this happens, we have colored lights in our homes that go on when these situations arise. Our hosts noticed that their sewage light was on which forced the cancellation. If they hadn’t noticed this in time, the shit would have hit the fan… literally!

Vaccine is arriving in the village in the next week, enough to administer a first dose to every citizen who wants one. Needless to say, everyone is pleased with this news, none more so than those of us pondering travel at Spring Break. I know, I know. Governments don’t want us to go anywhere other than the bathroom these days. I will make my choice judiciously when the time comes. It’s been a long haul since arriving here on August 1^st.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Have a great weekend.

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