I’ll begin this week by letting you in a little bit on my recent vacation. You see, our family has sure taken advantage of this camper. I’m not sure how many different spots we’ve been to, but this past weekend we were at Rainbow Beach just outside Dauphin, Manitoba. It’s an underrated spot. The individual camping sites are big (which is a bonus for us rookie back-up the camper people), there is a generous supply of firewood (at no cost as compared to Clear Lake’s $8 per conservative bundle), the beach is sandy, and the water is very nice. There is a good mix of seasonal people, folks with kids, retired couples, etc. I wouldn’t say it caters to one particular age group, but the playground in the middle of numerous sites is excellent for those of us with young children, as we can watch them without actually going with them.
The only downfall came on Friday night, our first evening at the site. The first thing we usually do when we pull up is fog for mosquitoes as it makes life setting up a little more enjoyable. Within minutes, the park police showed up and two gentlemen quickly jumped out of the vehicle. Ordinarily, I break a law and I know right away what the question is, but this time I was genuinely clueless. The man says, “We have a complaint that you fogged for mosquitoes.” I answered, “Yes.” He continues, “It’s illegal to fog for mosquitoes in Manitoba Provincial Parks, so I will have to request you not do it again although I don’t blame you. I would like to fog myself.” Immediately, I remember Jenn fogging and a grumpy old timer in the campsite next door shooting over a weird glare. Therefore, it was no mystery as to where the complaint came from. Oh well. I thought to myself, hmmm I guess we’d rather die by West Nile than from malathion. I guess it’s a choice that individual is allowed to make. But, then by the third night of camping it hits me again. The folks next door have spent exactly 0 minutes outside their camper the entire weekend. I suppose….because the mosquitoes are so bad. Full credit goes to the conservation officer/park attendant (not sure of his official title) for doing his job, and at the same time not being bullish about it.
We went fishing, and I really feel for Jenn’s (my wife) dad. He’s the only fishermen on the boat, and the only person who doesn’t get to really hold the rod. He has to do all the ‘not so fun stuff’ like baiting, unhooking the fish, gutting it, etc. Anyway, Matthew (our nine year old) caught 4 pickerel. Two were keepers, one was too small, and another got off the hook just as we were about to put him in the net. The rest of us caught 0. Nice work.
A person I respect a great deal said to me recently when it comes to camping, “Why do you work so hard for 50 weeks in the year just so you can pretend to be homeless for the other 2?”
I encourage readers to send me emails to mikestackhouse@ hotmail.com and I really appreciate kind words. In fact, I sometimes email myself kind words just to keep the spirit up! In all seriousness, I got one from an individual that took issue (rightfully so) to my insinuation that Regina police were busy fighting ‘real’ crime and didn’t have the time to issue tickets for texting or cell phone use while driving. The emailer pointed out a situation at a crosswalk on Broadway near Mohawk and SIGN in which she narrowly avoided a tragedy as she and her young family attempted to go from one side of the street to the other and the reason for this near mishap was a clueless driver on a cellphone. The last thing I wish to hear is a driver causing a horrible accident while using a phone. I guess it probably is up there with drunk driving, which I have zero tolerance for. My point was that more and more we are finding ourselves getting legislated to death, but when someone emails me a near brush with death I guess I’m left throwing my hands up and saying as a society we need these laws because we just aren’t responsible enough to get by without them, and that’s a sad commentary on our society.
Further to the person’s email, I am going to assume this absent minded driver may have caused the same near mishap even if a cellphone wasn’t involved. I’m sure anyone reading this article can relate to the crosswalks on Broadway (the one mentioned above and the other near McDonald’s and the library) and having a situation where they’ve almost hit a pedestrian, been a pedestrian who was almost hit, or watched a pedestrian get almost hit. Unfortunately, I can recollect tragedies that were more than ‘almost’ at the crosswalk near McDonald’s/library. As drivers, we need to be way more alert. Please keep that in mind.
If using a cellphone/texting warrants a traffic ticket, I’m wondering if eating fast food should be considered in the same boat. What about drinking coffee? That is hazardous because if one spilled piping hot coffee on one’s lap, something terribly unpredictable could happen to the vehicle.
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