There was an airplane flying over the high Arctic – it had a pilot and five other souls aboard.
There was Prime Minister Stephen Harper and three Boy Scouts he’d brought along for a photo op of the Federal Government displaying sovereignty over the northern-most parts of the Great White North.
The other passenger was Barrack Obama – who had hitched a ride on the flight so he could check out what he had come to call “The New Frontier”. It seems that since the polar ice cap had been melting away – well lo and behold – wouldn’t you know what happened but that as the ice retreated the world was somewhat surprised to see the word “Alaska” superimposed in bright orange neon letters on all of the US satellite imagery wherever the ice used to be.
I guess having the ice out of the way makes it possible to get to a bunch of newly discovered oil and mineral wealth.
But that’s all another story for another time – because more pressing problems were about to show up.
The plane’s engine quit.
The pilot quickly took charge of the situation – telling everyone where to find the parachutes. Unfortunately, due to government cutbacks, there weren’t enough chutes to go around.
There were six passengers but only four parachutes.
The pilot ordered that, following the women and children first rule, three of the chutes would go to the Boy Scouts; and as pilot he was prepared to go down with the plane. So that left one parachute for the two politicians.
Obama piped up right away and stated his case. “I am the leader of the free world. So I should get a chute.”
Everybody bought his logic. They handed him a parachute, he strapped it on and jumped to safety.
As the three Boy Scouts were getting the remaining chutes sorted out Harper comes out with, “Hey! I’m the Brains of Canada. I should get a chute too!”
So he grabs one from one of the Boy Scouts, puts it on and jumps out of the plane.
The pilot was beside himself with anger. “How could he do that? Now we have to figure out which one of you boys doesn’t get to live.”
“Don’t worry,” said the kid whose back Harper ripped the pack from. “Brains of Canada took my knapsack.”
*****
The snow that’s falling outside doesn’t impress me much. I can understand they want the white stuff until the end of the ski season – but why can’t it rain down here and snow only up there?
At least I didn’t swap out the snow tires yet.
I do want the warm weather to become consistent enough I can procrastinate on getting to the yard work one day without losing all opportunity to get at it before Easter. Gardening is supposed to be good for one’s attitude – so I am anxious to get started.
*****
I came across another of those songs that stick in your head forever. Happy by Pharryll Williams. This thing has me even doing a little skip and dance from time to time.
The so-called “official version” on You Tube plays for a little over four minutes. No need to keep hitting replay though because there are other You Tube versions that play several versions of videos that Williams made – totaling over an hour of Happy.
So if you see me wandering around wearing ear buds and with a really silly smile on my face you might want to consider giving me a whack on the side of head.