Re: [Paddlewise] Paradise Lost

From: Tim Shuff <tim_at_adventurekayakmag.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 10:11:24 -0500
> Tim has just had an article published in the local Times Colonist called
> "Letter to Paradise," where he rather tongue-in-cheek -- well, maybe he is
> actually very serious -- writes to us here, back in the west, decrying a
> whole range of irksome things, like the cold winters, humid summers, swarms
> of critters back east, and of course, leaving BC.
> 
> With all the wind and rain of late, I'm not so sure this is paradise. At
> least Tim gets to make snowmen while I just keep trying to keep the leaves
> off the drain covers.

Thanks for the reminder, Doug, that Victoria gets its share of wind and
rain. We have had some beautiful sunny weather here lately - great for
paddling in between occasional breaks to scrape ice off paddles and decks.
And today we are having a real rain storm, just like my old West Coast home.
You9re right that the article was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, somewhat
serious. I was indulging a western bias, but my alter ego is composing a
letter about the unsung pleasures of life in Ontario, ice paddling, etc. for
the poor folks back here who9ve been brainwashed to think they live in an
ugly province and have not spent enough time on the shores of Georgian Bay
or Lake Superior to see otherwise. What I didn9t mention in the article is
that I9ve done plenty of paddling down by Leslie Spit in the Toronto
Harbour, where the shoreline is all made of landfill. If you roll until
you9re dizzy and then squint really hard, the broken concrete telephone
poles and twisted rebar that make up the shoreline begin to look just like
cedar logs and bull kelp! So I9m really doing just fine in the East.
;-)

Tim Shuff
Editor
www.adventurekayakmag.com
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Received on Wed Nov 19 2003 - 07:10:51 PST

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