I Wonder

Today has been a wondering day for me.

I wondered why I looked forward to the end of winter so that I wouldn’t have to shovel any more snow. That’s just ridiculous, because out here we get very little snow and the storms are spaced quite far apart. When it does snow, for the most part the snow is light and powdery. When the summer comes, I have to cut the lawn every five or six days without fail until the mid to late fall. The grass continues to grow throughout the summer on a regular basis and almost demands to be cut.

I wondered why I get sucked into cheering for either the Flames or the Leafs at this time of year. I am not even remotely a sports fan and I think that by and large, hockey is a sport that showcases all of the worst traits of almost any sport. It isn’t sport, it is sport entertainment and as such the league panders to whatever the common man wants to see. Of course there are wonderful aspects to the sport and who can fault a guy for making a living doing what he loves to do. You would think I wouldn’t care one way or the other about who wins the playoffs, but every year they build me up to thinking that maybe, just maybe this year. However, just when I am thinking that anything is possible, they lose the key game by blowing a 4 – 1 lead in the third period. Unbelievable!  

I wondered why that first cup of tea in the morning tastes so incredibly good. I don’t do anything differently when I make tea for the rest of the day, but somehow I can’t manage to make that perfect morning cup of tea in the afternoon. I can come close sometimes.

I wondered how the Chinese company that I ordered some goods from can mail these $1.50 items across an ocean and a continent postage paid. I was going to order them and mail one each to my daughter and a friend that live in Toronto. It would have cost me five times that to mail them from here, so I just had them shipped directly. The ones that I ordered arrived today, but I don’t think they have reached Toronto yet. It is 2000 miles farther, so it will be interesting to learn just how long it will take. It took three weeks to get here. I guess a slow boat from China takes just about 21 days.

I wondered why the neighbour on the corner just put all of that garbage in the alley. There is no way the city will pick it up in its current state. I keep thinking that they will rent a truck pretty soon and clear that shit up. I wonder what the hell they are thinking.

I wondered why the two new plastic sprinklers that I have are broken and the one I picked up at the second hand store last year is the only one working. It’s was built in the sixties and has probably been giving good reliable watering for sixty years and will for another sixty years. It must be the metal construction and attention to detail that makes the difference.

I wonder why almost every culture has tales of little people with magical powers. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of having wishes granted by some nearly invisible, irascible creature. Who hasn’t tried to find the end of a rainbow? I tried to follow monarch butterflies when I was younger because I was sure that fairies road them to check on their stores of gold. It isn’t easy to follow a butterfly when you can’t fly, and maybe that is the point. Hmmmm…I wonder.