Canadian customs

I am so glad that I live in this country, and in this part of the country.  There is no war, no hurricanes, no earthquakes.  And even on a day like today, when it is stormy and windy and cold, I can look out my window and see the town crew picking up my garbage.  In many countries people live IN the garbage we toss away - as it is the good stuff for them.  Canada is great.

One custom that is prevalent at this time of year, but I doubt is limited to Canadians only, is when driving down a road and the person in the passenger seat starts yelling "deer, Deer, DEER!!!" and the driver immediately stamps on the brake and cranks the steering wheel toward the opposite ditch cursing violently.  If you hit the deer, misery!  If you miss, then the rest of the trip is spent recounting various deer experiences no matter if the trip is one km or 1000. 

Murray has had a few deer experiences.  He has claimed that he doesn't hit them, they run into him.  Our most recent encounter has me believing him.  It was that twilight time of night, when it is too dark to see far, but too light for the headlights to be very bright.  The above mentioned custom occurred, and Murray did crank the wheel AWAY from the deer.  But the deer kept turning INTO the van.  The more he tried to turn away, the more the stupid deer turned toward us.  Eventually the van came to a halt and the deer sped away, we were lucky this time.  Which is good.  Our 2002 van has over 185,000 km on it, it has a few dents and scrapes, paint peels and rust is emerging in several places, the tires are bald, the shocks need replacing, and there is a rattle in the back which is likely a broken strut.  If we so much as break a headlight SGI will write it off.  They'd probably charge us to tow it away.  But it is worth a million dollars to us.  And, we still have it, relatively intact.  It gets me where I am going which all that I look for in transportation.

/bye