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MITCHELL’S MUSINGS: The promise of spring?

Another week of rain and cloudy skies broken up by the odd sight of blue sky…
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Glenn Mitchell

Another week of rain and cloudy skies broken up by the odd sight of blue sky and slightly warmer temperatures with the promise of spring…..yeah, promises, promises.

Add that to a pretty impressive first round of the National Hockey League playoffs and yours truly is not exactly getting to the spring chores in the back 40, not to mention the front 40.

The other day the crews came around and scooped up the neighbour’s branches and I thought what a great service that is and, boy, wouldn’t it have been great if I actually got my act together and took advantage of that same great service? And when did that darn neighbour accomplish that task while I wasn’t looking anyway?

Then again I’m challenged just to get the garbage out on a weekly basis and the recycling on a biweekly basis, another pair of services I’m very grateful for and we should, on occasion, take a moment to imagine if we personally had to dispose of this stuff on a regular basis ourselves? It helps with the gratitude factor, even though I know we pay for it.

So, after all that, I’ll have to get up to the dump myself with my branches and clippings sometime in the foreseeable future.

Actually I was up at the dump, or whatever they call the dump these days, and speaking of not getting to spring chores and such, I know they may have to wait until the rain stops to fill potholes on Birnie Road but it’s getting ridiculous (see story on page A7).

And also likely due to the rain and such, not to mention the amount of snow and plowing etc. this past winter, it seems like potholes are the rule rather than the exception everywhere, not just at the dump.

It makes driving much more of an adventure as you try to miss the little, and not so little, buggers….

…….oh well, even though, our spring hasn’t exactly lived up to expectations it could always be worse.

One, we always get less rain than the Coast, although I think we’re starting to feel a kinship like never before based on the last two months, and two, at least we’re not the Toronto Blue Jays.

Although if you’re a fan, like yours truly, you’re feeling the pain.

What gives?

Are they really as bad as their record, three wins and 12 losses at this writing, or do you just call this a slow start?

Actually slow start is more than a little bit of an understatement as if this keeps up they’ll be out of playoff contention well before the time our 150th birthday celebrations get underway on July 1.

I don’t think we’re missing Edwin Encarnacion that much but then again maybe we are….

….However, for the long-suffering Toronto sports fans the Leafs and the Raptors are still in the playoff hunt as of this writing and ironically, at this point anyway, the Leafs are in better shape as they stand toe to toe with the powerful Washington Capitals.

And to think that the Leafs are a rookie-laden team bodes well for the future of hockey in Hogtown and we’ll hear about it every night on TSN.

If they happen to get by Washington somehow prepare for a media onslaught of massive proportions.

Happy spring everyone, assuming we get there one day.