Beach(es) Beat

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It seems like it has taken forever, but finally the sun is getting warmer, which means the snow piles are receding, which means at least we are approaching the First Day of Yuck.

The Yuck season starts on that glorious morning when the last of the snow is gone, exposing in its wake all the assorted debris that has hidden in the snow piles for the past four months. It is an eccentric treasure trove of baby bottles, half-eaten sandwiches, advertising fliers, broken hockey sticks and other debris and when people see this, their first reaction is to go "Yuck".

But apart from that this is an exhilarating time of year when all that cool fresh air puts a bounce in your step but let me issue a word of warning: Be careful where you walk lest you arrive back home with more than an extra spring in your step.

In fairness it must be mentioned that there is a positive side of Yuck. Children love it because they take their model boats and having sailing regattas in the many potholes in our streets but my old pal Sturdy Gert McCurdy has a different take on the warming trend.

Sturdy, never a girl to let cold weather get the better of her, organized a team of athletes who only jogged in sub-zero temperatures.

They called themselves the Running Noses and she says they were just rounding nicely into shape when temperatures started rising recently.

Gert will be back next year with her team and I promise to keep you all informed on developments that may occur.

On a personal note, I have some positive reports on my winter experiences. I only fell once during the cold months, but more importantly I did not lose my mittens all winter and this beats my previous record set in 1977 when I came home mittenless a mere three times.

Nowadays, mitten loss is not a big deal because I just nip down Queen Street to the La Manna store, which is operated by a pair of astute haberdashers and get properly outfitted with replacements, but back when I was a boy I was in constant hot water over those disappearing hand warmers. I had to retrace my route I took from school to home and if I returned from the search empty-handed as it were, I had to wear woolen socks on my hands for three days.

They were nice and warm, but I was always losing snowball fights because you can't pack snowballs properly while you are wearing socks on your hands.

As a result of those daily defeats, I was always coming home in a dazed and confused condition and that led to even more lectures.

And that is why I never liked winter until I was self-sufficient enough to buy my own mittens as soon as I lost them.