Here and There in the Sunshine

That wasn’t the way we had it scripted.

First playoff game in nine years and the Leafs served up a stinker. They started well enough, showing some early energy and getting rewarded with a 1-0 lead, courtesy of a goal by JVR.

Then the roof fell in. Boston out-played us, out-hit us and out-chanced us. Toronto forgot how to block shots and forgot how to win the little battles along the boards. They also forgot how to execute line changes and paid the price for it.

The result was a 4-1 loss in game one.

The bright side is there’s always game 2 and if the Leafs can return to the basics that got them to the playoffs – hard-nosed hockey blended with a liberal dash of speed – they can still bounce back in this series.

They better. Don‘t the players know I called them to win in six?

*

The beautiful weather is back, unless you live in Manitoba, where they just got bombed with another 25 centimetres of white stuff.

My old friend Fred posted a pic of the snow coming down in Portage la Prairie and I told him it was two thousand degrees down here. I never heard back.

But in southern Ontario people are outside enjoying the weather. Me too, but nice weather means longer hours working, which means two things: more money (a welcome change) and a perpetually sore lower back.

Just a reminder to myself that I’m getting too old for this crap.

*

Speaking of new careers, I’ve been thinking a lot about getting a new one. This one sure aint working too well for me.

I get a kick out of helping people, but with the exception of waiting tables it’s been there, done that with the service industry. I’ve gone through the menu at Durham College but nothing is jumping out at me just yet.

I think I’ll try to get a job with the Pan Am Games in 2015. Maybe I’ll be inspired by all the greatness around me.

*

The fine weather has also brought the summer cars out from their winter hiding places. Two things have occurred to me: Camaros seem to be losing ground at the top of the pony car heap, and yellow is the new red.

The Oshawa-made (for now) and wildly popular Chevrolet Camaro has been the dominant domestic sports car on the streets of Durham Region since its re-introduction a few years ago. Now? I’m not so sure. I am seeing way more Chargers out here than Camaros or Mustangs.  Blasphemous, I know. But that’s what I’m seeing.

I’m also noticing a ton of yellow cars on the roads these days. Back in the day red was the colour you chose if you wanted your ride to go faster. Fire-engine, candy-apple, whatever. Red was always guaranteed to help your car go at least five miles per hour faster. Yellow? You had to have some serious chutzpa to drive a yellow car.

Today yellow cars are all over the road. And you know what? They do go faster.

*

Spring has brought the birds back and our feathered friends have been in fine form. I wake up to sparrows chirping, by mid-morning the cardinals are singing and the sea gulls are squawking and by late afternoon the starlings are …wresting in the dirt and fighting to the death?

That was the case the other day when I was sitting in KFC waiting for my order. Out the window I see two male starlings fighting over territory (read: females) and it looked like a couple of UFC scrappers on crack.  The two were rolling over and over, pecking each other in the head all the way. It was impossible to tell which one was winning.

‘Till one got top position and started raining hammer blows with his beak on his rival’s head. I thought I was going to have to run out and break up this fight, else one starling would be chirping his last. Fortunately the loser broke free and managed to fly away, his pride in tatters and his chance of getting the girl gone. But alive, to chirp another day.

He’ll be back tomorrow or the next to try again. Think about it. The sounds you hear every day – the chirping of the birds, the croaking of the frogs, the grunts of the deer, the buzz of a billion bugs – those are the sounds of the natural world, all trying desperately to get laid.

I can relate.