And now back to Mount Pleasant

After some time away Geraldine files an update from Mount Pleasant. She highlights events from Mount Pleasant’s Groundhog Day Festival.  Annually the good citizens congregate to witness the forecasting skills of Mount Pleasant Patricia  and to have some fun during the dog days of February. The finale is a dinner at the Convention Center, during which community members are expected to enliven the attendees with anecdotes, quotes, and stories of an uplifting nature.

Conrad Laverty, Chair, Mount Pleasant, Transportation Authority commented about avoiding procrastination saying “If you have to eat a frog, do it first thing in the morning, if you have to eat two frogs, eat the big one first”.

The Chief of Police, Larry Quong took over the mike. He is impressed by a recent provincial edict, extending happy hour from ten PM to two AM, marveling that a government could have that much control over our citizens’ state of mind.

On a rural sojourn, Kevin Doyle, Executive, of the City’s United Way, reported on a road side advertisement — Free Range Chickens. His question, what is a Range Chicken and why are they free?

Kumar Nandakumar, Mount Pleasant Credit Union Finance Manager, took  to the podium, talking  about  a sure sign of inclusion and diversity.  He was taken  by  three ladies walking in a park,  resplendent in their traditional clothing. The day was cold. Their hands were encased in the very popular and distinctive Canadian red mitts with white maple leaves festooning the palms.

Rebecca Waldowski is the editor of the Mount Pleasant Observer. She addressed the audience concerning Canada’s capacity to innovate. In particular plaudits go to our country’s inventors of the Wonderbra and addition of a plastic cup to the more traditional jock strap.

From the podium Joyce Featherwell, a Director of the Mount Pleasant Community Foundation, lamented the recent passing of Dave Broadfoot, one of Canada’s premium comedians. Her story of choice– when Sergeant Renfrew, a favorite Broadfoot character, said there was tinkle on his phone; Captain Tinkle was calling from Mountie Headquarters on Ottawa.

Nancy Holmes, FDC University’s Chancellor, advanced this quotation by Dr. Evdokia  Anagnostouere,  “There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other is wings”.

Then Celine Langlois, owner of Tours Surs les Bonbon spoke about two often heard expressions. One is “to tell you the truth” and the second “to be perfectly honest”. By inference does this mean that the rest of the time the speaker is not telling the truth or not being perfectly honest?

Then Thad Fagerheim addressed the assembly. Thad is a third generation owner of  Fegerheim’s Feed and Seed. Canada’s government officials are now taking an aggressive approach to enforcing Made In Canada labeling regulations, restricting usage to a certain domestic percentage and above before using the label. Thad envisions Canadian Labeling Police inspecting his custom seed packages made up of seeds from around the world. In the same news release he read that Revenue Canada has identified a new income stream by applying copyright regulations to Canadians using the red maple leaf in any fashion.

Geraldine drew the evening to a close. Mount Pleasant Patricia  did not see a shadow. Further Patricia is not a groundhog but an equally nocturnal and seldom seen animal living most of a life underground called a Potoroo. This was her inaugural gig as a climatologist. She and family are recent arrivals from Australia.