Anchor Struck

The continent-wide cold front threatening us with massive snow AND record high tempeatures is affecting British Columbia even though CNN doesn’t include it on its maps. Living just five kilometres (three miles) from the Pacific Ocean as the seagull flies definitely moderates weather, but we’re feeling it some. I just returned from putting up some firewood and letting the dogs run some energy off. Both mutts were quite willing to come in even though they have measurable wolf DNA. It’s right at freezing with enough wind chill to make a former Marine abandon his countless outdoor projects to seek out a cup of coffee and Kahlua.

There is still enough cold weather left in March here to justify buying more Kahlua, but with less than a week of February to go we are nearly out of meteorological winter. So I need just a few more inside distractions. The Super Bowl is settled, Major League Baseball is many weeks away, the NBA is resting up from its all-star game, and I simply can’t get into hockey.

Fortunately, one of our satellite TV stations is rerunning the incomparable Northern Exposure and I found out today that my favourite episode, where Rick is fused with a falling satellite, will be aired nest week. I can read by the woodstove, but I can’t stray too far from catching the news because, as Mason Williams warned us, “I wouldn’t just watch TV, I’d keep an eye on it.”

In fact, I just learned from Marjorie Taylor Greene (bless her heart) that the red states and the blue states need a divorce. With her trademark keen logic, MGT prattled on about how everyone she talks to agrees with her. And I agree with her that she believes that everyone she talks to agrees with her.

It is a provocative topic, though. There’s a wealth of recent books that speculate how the current bitter partisanship in the U.S. will play out. One of them, Stephen Marche’s The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future, provides five scenarios that could lead to a national dissolution. Some were far-fetched and some were sketchy, but I take his point.

All that I’ve read and heard about it, however, fails to address some obvious logistical problems: military bases and corporations, for example. If the United States dissolve their union, who gets to keep those kids?

Something to ponder as we endure these last weary days of winter.