Today is “National Cupcake Day?” So says a sign at work this morning. Huh? 
In Ontario it is… I hope you’ll buy one it’s for the SPCA!
Yeah, I thought dinky little towns had MORE curling per capita, not LESS!
He grew up in B.C. interior - they don’t have any flat land there for a curling rink - all those pointy rocky things take up the space, unlike the Prairies, which are God’s curling rink.
Last season the 'Canes went 0-for-October; this season they seem to be doing much better, only three games under .500, although they’ll have a tough time catching Kootenay for the last playoff spot—they’re picking the wrong time of year to be tanking.
The Blue Jays broke Curtis Granderson’s arm and he’s out for 10 weeks! Way to stick it to the Yankees! 
They’re having a better season, true, but nobody is surprised to see them “back to normal” lately, as it were. If they do, by some miracle, get that playoff spot, local sentiment doesn’t see them advancing very far, if at all.
Well, on the upside their goalie just set a record for most saves by a Hurricane in a season! Or maybe that’s a downside, since he’s had to face that many shots. YMMV…
I had a friend in Vancouver who’s parents were coming to visit from New Zealand. Her mother had been a big fan of Anne of Green Gables and suggested they “rent a car and go see Cavendish, PEI.” as a side trip.
:smack:
My friend’s husband, the Canadian, said it would make more sense doing it as a side trip when they went to England the following year.
“To try to give you an idea of how big Canada is, imagine half the globe. Now imagine that Canada goes from one side of half the globe to the other. Now you’re getting close.” 
My grandmother’s brother married an English girl, but died in the war. With a three year old in tow, she came to Port Arthur ON, thinking to be near her late husband’s family. My great grandmother didn’t speak English, and my own Grandmother, as much as she wanted to help her sister in law had 4 children under 5 herself. I believe my great aunt lasted about 2 years of Canadian winters and headed back to England. Her son eventually moved to Australia. In the past 10 years he and his wife have struck up a friendship with my parents, visting every few years. For all his English/Australian accent, he looks for all the world like my family and I could expect to see him eating pancakes at the Hoitoin Thunder Bay.
I’m glad your mother stuck it out in Canada!
Seriously. We cover six time zones (PST, MST, CST, EST, AST, and NST).
Because of the time differences, I once actually made a 9:00 a.m. business meeting in Toronto in the morning, left that and went to the airport, caught a flight to Vancouver, and made my 4:00 p.m. business meeting in Vancouver (i.e. 7:00 p.m. in Toronto). Needless to say, I was pretty tired by the time I got to my Vancouver hotel that night.
The beauty of the Prairies!
My mom was born in Saskatchewan, and always spoke of the wide beautiful land, the incredible sky, the birds and grasses and storms in the distance. I finally made a road trip to Edmonton in the company of friends around 15 years ago. It was amazing. We did stop and shut the cars off and feel the wind and just get drunk on the space. Also, I had to irrigate the prairie, so to speak.
On Highway 41 south from the Trans-Canada towards the Alberta/Montana border, there is a sign that says, “No services or residences, next 137 km”. If you broke down on that road in winter, you could easily die.
Yeah, winter road trips definitely take things like that into account. On our recent trip back from Prince Albert, SK, we were on a fairly small highway in bad conditions, but we were reassured by having traffic go by fairly regularly - if we managed to end up in a ditch, someone would have stopped and helped us rather than letting us freeze to death. We did have emergency stuff in the car, too - shovel and food and a blanket, winter clothes, cellphones, etc. I wouldn’t do a winter trip at night, though. Not unless I absolutely had to.
:: nods ::
When my stepfather’s English relatives came over one time to visit us in Whitby, Ontario, they wanted to see “Niagara Falls and the Rockies”. We could handle Niagara Falls no problem, but we had to do a bit of explaining about how long it would take to get to the Rockies…
Canada is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to Canada.
– With apologies to Douglas Adams
A few years ago during a snowstorm, a fellow went off the Trans Canada at the edge of town (TBay at the Terry Fox lookout). The combinaton of deep ditch, tree cover and a lot of snow resulted in his not being found until the spring, despite a lot of searching for him along his usual route. It was determined that he was pinned in his car and froze to death. The poor bastard.
A friend of mine says that during a Canadian winter, your car is not just a means of transport - it’s your life support system.
As soon as I read this bit, I knew the story would not end well. I’ve driven past that lookout a few times and it’s not a good place to go over the edge.
Here’s the road I was mentioning… and here’s the sign.
(Okay, there is bugsplatter of the Google camera lens, and you can’t actually read the sign, but that’s the one.)
I still do, every day.
BTW, you know you’re in W.Canada when you ask someone how far away something is and they tell you in time. “Oh, Calgary is about 3 hours from here…”