Column No. 100
I was delighted to see at least three people read my columns and responded with corrections of factual errors I have made.
In a column about the Monarchy I incorrectly stated Australia had become a republic. In fact, a 1999 referendum to become a republic was defeated with 54.87% of Australian voters against the proposal. Since that time support for a republic has actually lessened. My memory failed me on this one.
Summerland Coun. Richard Barkwill was kind enough to point out the water pipes under Giants Head Road, south of Gartrell Road are already separated. This would lessen the imperative to replace them before paving, but in my opinion the aging pipes should be upgraded before the road is re-surfaced.
Readers should keep in mind I have a limited research budget, ($0) and no editorial oversight.
As this is my 100th column, I reflected on other topics I got wrong personally or in print. My charming wife reminds me, my writing a column does not indicate I am smart, it just means I have an opinion.
What I got wrong as far as I can remember.
The big one is the COVID pandemic. March 17 of 2020 was the day Dr. Henry first implemented restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus. March 15, was the day of the Summerland Curling Club endof-season appreciation dinner for volunteers.
If I remember correctly, the club expected about 30 attendees, but only half showed up out of fear of infection. Lots of food left over. To my way of thinking, the virus was mostly a continent distant. We live in a small town far away from international travellers.
My fellow curlers were obviously overreacting. My charming wife and I ate the leftover Chinese takeout food for the rest of the week, which is a bit ironic. Here we are, thousands of COVID infections and deaths later, and still no end in sight.
When the District of Summerland introduced the rolling cart system for waste collection I wrote I was not a fan. My elderly mother’s driveway is about 90 yards uphill. Leaving bags of garbage and recycling at the bottom of the drive is a lot easier than wrangling carts up and down.
I have since figured out a way of trundling the carts by hanging out the driver’s window of my car. So, it works. To this day, I am actually like a kid, as I watch the waste truck grab and empty the carts. It is ingenious.
Driving by the what appeared to be empty skateparks in Peachland and Oliver, I thought spending more than $600,000 on Summerland’s skate park would be an under-utilized boondoggle.
I figured the days of skateboards had long passed as I wrote in 2019. In fact, our new skatepark has been a huge success, albeit not with skateboards, but with scooters, inline skaters and bicycles. My fellow coffee geezers still think the $600,000 (partly funded by vehicle gas tax rebates) would have been better spent on pothole repairs.
Finally, the election of Mr. Trump. (I have an extremely poor record of predicting election results. The worst being my personal defeat in the 2015 Summerland vote, missing council by 45 votes.)
I thought Mr. Trump, reality show host, a serial liar, (faults too many to mention here because of space limitations) would lose to Ms. Clinton, a seasoned politician with cabinet level experience with her only flaw being mishandling of her classified e-mails. How biting, given Trump’s boxes of classified documents stolen from the White House, poorly stored in his private club.
It is a good thing I am not in charge of anything important.