Not often do I steal words from a country and western song, but fact is fact: “I have nothing on but the radio, with music playing soft and low.”
When the weather is summertime hot and sticky, I often find myself wide-awake in the middle of the night and so positioned. The fact remains that many of my articles are rattled off during the darkness of night while the shadowed half of the world supposedly sleeps.
Perhaps, too, I am stretching the truth a little more than I should, as I also have my wedding ring on the third finger of my left hand, my glasses perched precariously on the bridge of my nose, and my leather visor so cocked on my forehead that it shades my eyes from the glare of the desk lamp that is so positioned as to bounce the light off the overhead slanted white ceiling. On occasion, there is a glimmering glow from the tiny oval skylight that lights up the corner where my computer snarls, spits, and sputters out random misspellings.
This past afternoon, my son and I drove over to Walters Falls where, at the old-fashioned, friendly mill, we pick up the feed needed by our resident animals. As usual, we drove down random roads just to see what we can discover on the way back. There were several ponds that had both painted and young snapping turtles sunning themselves on rocks and logs, and a yearling deer bounded across the road in front of us.
Just as the news came on the radio reporting the shenanigans inundating the political field, I saw a brand-new proverbial outhouse, with the half moon carved in the door, tucked out back behind a trailer where a new home was obviously slated to be built. Then the idea struck me. Why could not these, as a highly subsidized “government make-work project,” not be built two storey with a ladder leading up to the upper one? Each having occupancy for one would give privacy, as well as the opportunity to sell one to each and every politician. The upper floor could be signed, just below the half moon, “For Politicians Only,” and the lower one could be equally signed “For Voters Only.”
The picture so painted would equal not less than a hundred thousand words, but fact is fact, and the truth quite obviously hurts. Is it not time that we, the taxpayers, wake up to the reality what government, municipal, provincial and federal, feel they have the right to do?
Take care, ‘cause we care.
barrie@barriehopkins.ca
519-986-4105