Green paint and other good things

Here in the Near North April and even early May can be pretty dry.The huge overlay of winter snow melts off, but that is not enough to start things growing. For that you need rain, and we often don't get rain for weeks at a time. April showers, forsooth! "April showers bring May flowers" is like a cruel joke imported from a different climactic zone.

Eventually, the rain does come, and in dramatic fashion the first really good rain turns things green *immediately.*   It is like green paint is falling from the sky.

Today, May 1, the green paint has fallen.

Yesterday, I had another pleasant experience, a surprise. You should know that North Bay does not have a Starbucks. The coffee market is absolutely dominated by Tim Horton's, a coffee/donut/sandwich chain that makes reasonable but hardly inspiring coffee. We do, however, have a good coffee shop called Twiggs. I discovered yesterday that I had missed the opening of the second Twiggs near the University. My wife and I sat around there and it was very pleasant. For one thing, there were young people, maybe even university students, not just old-timers like us. (North Bay has a rather elderly population these days.) And they were not dressed like they were just back from hockey practice. In other words, it looked like we were in a university town. Which in fact North Bay is.

I should be fair and mentioned that the wearing of hockey arena clothing that is so common in North Bay is not just a matter of a deficient fashion sense. Given what the weather is like here during most of the school year, hockey arena clothing is a sensible choice. But it's nice to see something else when the good weather finally rolls in. See my remarks on green paint.

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