Sir Isaac Newton, the English mathematician and scientist (1642 – 1727) is credited with the ‘discovery of the law of gravity’, mythically because he watched an apple fall from a tree to the ground.
I did not need an apple to bonk me on the head to discover something perhaps very significant within the climate change issue. I’m seriously wondering if Climate Barbie (AKA Catherine McKenna) our very own Canadian lady of perpetual superior wisdom and part-time world travelling Minister of Environment and Climate Change, would be interested in my discovery.
A week or two ago, we had a major snowstorm, not an unexpected event in the history of Kitimat. But it was about then that a series of seemingly unrelated events combined in sequence to provide my very important discovery in the relativity field.
Last week, a gigantic DoK snowblower ground to a halt on my street, with a badly clogged chute, about three houses down from me.
I had been waiting for the blower to come by and fill my front yard with another four or five feet of packed snow from the pile down the centre of our street, because I needed to ‘go to the store on a vital errand’.
I became impatient with the delay and decided to duck sharply out of my driveway and skillfully navigate the narrow opening to the street end. Bad mistake — for I became maddeningly hung up with the front of my truck firmly in the centre snowbank and the centre-rear portion up on the driveway snow bank. I’ll not repeat my language, or what happened … just too embarrassing!
But, this led to the realization that my tires were not really fit to carry me through a hard snowy Kitimat winter. Just a day or so later, another major snowstorm warning came around – 40-50 centimetres of snow was to fall on Kitimat over two of three days.
I reluctantly booked an appointment to get $1,500 worth of good new snow tires on my truck, and to duck the need to depart my house early to make the 8 a.m. appointment (with the looming warning of 25 centimeters of snow overnight) I took the truck in Tuesday night and left the keys.
Lo and behold, Wednesday morning dawned, brightly – raining, but no snow. There it is – how to prevent snow storms, spend $1,500 at the truck dealership and problem solved.
It’s an expensive solution, but the Liberal feds appear to have plenty of money. I’ll send Ms. McKenna a copy of this column…
On a totally unrelated topic, “No news is good news” is an old familiar mantra.
I believe there are times however when even bad news, like say even a death, comes across to many people as really, really good news.
I fully expect a very good chunk of the population of North America joins me in welcoming the recent news that one of the most-evil and personally-very-nasty criminals of our lifetime – Charles Manson – finally bit the dust in Corcoran State Prison in Bakersfield, California.
Manson successfully ducked a death penalty when California’s Supreme Court revoked that method of disposing of cretins like Manson, by ruling it was unconstitutional in April, 1972, a decision that saved 105 prisoners on death row in that state, including Manson and the assassin of Robert F. Kennedy, Sirhan Sirhan.
Manson was subsequently re-sentenced to nine life sentences. I guess he has only served one, so far. Now what for other Manson victims? I’d guess it’s case closed!
Now, as I understand it the death penalty remains an option in California, with clemency possibly provided by the governor, while it is simply a mish-mash banned/permitted across the rest of the country.
The Manson murders and trials of Manson and his ‘family cult’ were highlights of the early 70s – and applications for parole by the leader and his cohorts seemed boringly repetitive since.
I was wondering if Helter Skelter tours in Los Angeles will peter out with his passing.
These tours, the bright idea of a man named Scott Michaels, began about eight years ago.
He gave them roughly once a week guiding people around the sites of the Manson Family murders.
Frequently the macabre tours were sell-outs in advance!
Clients are mostly middle-age adults who were children during the murder spree.
ahewitson@telus.net