Arrrrrrrrrrrr!

It's a good life being a pirate on Lake Ontario. At the helm of a mighty ship, wind lashing at the sails and the lament of the albatross circling above.

Probably.

It's not so easy to imagine when you are sitting in a nice cushy sailboat with a glass of wine and a bag of Doritos. But it was quite windy. And I did get to steer.

Here is part of a song about Canadian pirates by the Canadian band the Arrogant Worms:

(NB: Saskatchewan = the Prairies)

I used to be a farmer, and I made a living fine,
I had a little stretch of land along the city line
But time went by and though I tried, the money wasn't there
And bankers came and took my land and told me "fair is fair".
I looked for every kind of job, the answer always no
"Hire you now?" they'd always laugh, "we just let twenty go!"
The government, they promised me a measly little sum
But I've got too much pride to end up just another bum.
Then I thought, who gives a damn if all the jobs are gone?
I'm gonna be a PIRATE on the river Saskatchewan!!!
Cause it's a heave-ho, hi-ho, comin' down the plains
Stealin' wheat and barley and all the other grains
It's a ho-hey, hi-hey - farmers bar yer doors
When ya see the Jolly Roger on Regina's mighty shores!

Autumn's here!

Except, of course, here it is called fall. Presumably because the leaves fall off the trees, or something. With autumn comes the eerie wonder that is Halloween. In Canada, it seems that everybody loves halloween, with its possibilities for conning people out of large amounts of confectionery and standing strange scarecrows outside your house, ie:

I tell you, they don't half give me a fright when walking home of an evening. Especially the ones that don't have any legs and seem to be a ghastly, pitiful human-terracotta hybrid.