I learned something at Canadian Tire!

Most Canadians know how hard it can be to find someone to help you at Canadian Tire, but as I discovered this week, the people they do have there sometimes know stuff that I don't. I'm not much of a handyman; I know there are lots of people who know more about fixing stuff than I do; I just didn't know Canadian Tire hired those people.

I was trying to pick out a replacement flapper for one of my toilets and I had a couple questions. While I was talking to an employee (who seemed to be in a rush to stop talking to me), he told me that if a flapper leaves black marks on my hands, it's rotting through and needs replacement. I'd already confirmed that the toilet is leaking by putting some food colouring in the tank and then checking the colour of the water in the bowl a while later, and this confirmed it's leaking. But now that I know this thing about the black marks, I have extra confirmation that it's leaking.

Good job Canadian Tire! Now go and hire more of these people.

Snowing

I woke up this morning and saw snow on the ground, and I couldn't help but smile. This seems to happen every year when the first snowfall happens. (Technically, we have had some snow earlier this fall, but those light dustings barely count. This one might not last either, but it's more significant than the others we've had.)

But why do I smile when this means there are months of cold weather coming up? Maybe I like cold weather with snow more than somewhat cold weather without snow (which is how it's been for most of the last month or two). Maybe I'm looking forward to skiing. Maybe it's because a snowy landscape is more beautiful than the brown landscape I've been looking at lately. Maybe it's just a different kind of beauty, one I haven't seen in several months (except that one day in Banff at the end of August). Maybe it's because anticipating bad times is sometimes worse than experiencing bad times. (The cold weather made me anticipate winter. Now the snow makes me feel like winter is here.)

Unfortunately, I'm sure my happiness about this weather won't last. Hopefully I'll enjoy it today anyway.

Why it's great not having cable

I haven't seen a single American election commercial on TV, but I still get to watch them make fun of the candidates on Saturday Night Live.