HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-01-12, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012. PAGE 5.
I’m a double-edged, multi-tasking (some
would call it obsessive-compulsive) kind
of guy. I love doing two things at once
because I hate wasting time. If I’m going to be
stuck in a line-up at the bank, I take along a
yo-yo. If I get caught in traffic jam I rat-a-tat
the drum solo from “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” on
the steering wheel with my thumbs. Even for
short ferry rides I carry more gear than a
Sherpa for Martha Stewart – food, magazines,
my diary, a harmonica – even an inflatable
pillow for naps.
When I heard about canicross my first
thought was: this is for me.
Canicross? The latest exercise craze.
Apparently it began with some anonymous
dog-sledder in Lapland looking for a way to
exercise his doggy cohorts in the summer,
snowless months. What he or she came up
with is, essentially one-on-one dog-sledding
minus the sleigh.
Oh yeah – and instead of holding the reins,
the human portion of the equation (formerly
the sled driver) is lashed to the dog by a
harness.
You’re familiar with walking the dog? This
is running the dog. Fido picks the trail and sets
the pace. Your assignment is to keep up and
stay vertical.
Oh, and in order to keep your hands free for
balance (and to make it extra interesting) Fido
is attached to your crotch.
Pretty much. The canicross harness fits
around your waist and loops about your upper
thighs, terminating in a snap buckle in front of
your…front. The buckle attaches to about six
feet of leash, the other end of which clips to
the dog’s collar. All you have to say is “Go!” –
and you are officially canicrossing.
Canicross is pretty green as sports go.
Historians have traced it back to its
Scandinavian origins in the early 1970s.
Within a decade it had spread south to France,
where the world’s first canicross meet was
held in Paris in 1982. Since then it has
blossomed, eventually hopping the Atlantic to
take seed in eastern Canada and parts of the
U.S.
I know – you’re asking yourself why
would anyone willingly attach themselves
to a dog and let it drag them through
the bush.
Because in this hectic, stress-heavy world
we’re stuck with, where people fumble with
their Blackberrys even as the waiter is handing
out menus; where parents text their offspring
on the bus because it saves time – in our world,
canicross is the very essence of multi-tasking.
It enables you to take care of two chores at
once: your dog gets exercise – and you get a
seriouscardiovascular workout.
How perfect is that? I’ve got a dog and I’ve
got a gym membership. But there are not
enough hours in my day to walk my dog and
toddle downtown to the gym. With canicross, I
don’t have to.
I ordered the starter kit. It includes the
human harness (they call it a hands-free belt) –
for $52 and a pooch harness (they call it a
Shorty Ripstop Sport Harness) – for $34. I
donned the belt, attached a long leash to it and
clipped the other end of the leash to my dog,
Homer.
“Go!” I said.
I don’t speak fluent canine and Homer is a
critter of few barks, but I’m quite certain his
response was the dog equivalent of “Huh?”
Homer cocked his head, looked at me
sideways, wagged his tail and sat down.
Homer (he is named after the donut-driven
Homer of Springfield, not the Greek) is a
Bearded Collie. He has never been a ball of
fire, nor is he the Einstein of his breed – but he
knows bedrock Stupid when he sees it. For the
next hour we stumbled around the
neighbourhood together; Homer sniffing,
peeing, pausing briefly to scratch and then
onwards to sniff and pee and scratch some
more.
Homer, I mean. I merely followed behind, a
flunky biped, tethered to my dog by $86 worth
of clearly superfluous yuppie gear.
Garrison Keillor famously said: “Dogs come
when you call; cats take a message and get
back to you.” Mr. K. never met Homer, who is
unmoved by the command “Come!” Nor does
he respond to “Mush!”
Anybody want to buy a barely-used
canicross starter kit?
Arthur
Black
Other Views A-mushing we shall go – not
With all of this talk about appeals in
the local news as of late, one would
think the only appeal necessary
would be the appeal for common sense in the
world of municipal politics.
Unfortunately I, and probably every other
reporter in Huron County, was right in saying
that it would divide the county when it came to
the lawsuit launched by several area
municipalities suggesting that there should be
four fewer representatives at the Huron County
Council table.
Discussions at the Jan. 4 Huron County
Council meeting certainly would suggest that
not many from one side of the argument are
heading out for a post-meeting beer with those
on the other side of the argument with the
negative energy hanging around those
meetings.
And while the official appeal of the decision
will be heard on Jan. 31, the issue of cost has
come up at the county level and one doesn’t
need to be an accountant to figure that the
numbers aren’t looking good.
First, both sides are on the hook for legal
representation from late last year that resulted
in the decision to eliminate four Huron County
councillors. Now, the winning side is appealing
Huron County for its legal costs, a claim that
side is entitled to make.
So now, the losing side (Huron East, Central
Huron, North Huron, South Huron and Huron
County itself) could be on the hook for their
legal costs, as well as the other side’s legal
costs because they came out on the wrong side
of the judge’s decision.
Now Central Huron and Huron East have
launched their own appeal of the decision, with
the costs to be paid by taxpayer dollars from
those two municipalities.
In a decision made at the Jan. 4 meeting,
Huron County, which is now officially
governed by Justice Kelly-Anne Gorman’s
decision of late last year, is forced to pay to
defend against its bylaw.
Anyone who knows anything about politics
in the area, knows that while a good chunk of
their tax dollars stay within their home
municipality a fair portion of their tax dollars
are forwarded to Huron County for county-
wide services, such as maintenance on county
roads, ambulance services and legal costs.
So coming full circle, after the Jan. 4
decision, it can conceivably be reasoned that
taxpayers in Huron East and Central Huron are
essentially funding both sides of a lawsuit.
With tax dollars being forwarded to Huron
County, they go into the general tax levy and
are to be dispersed however Huron County
Council sees fit, whether it’s for roads,
healthcare or social services; even lawsuits, if
Huron County is forced to defend one of its
bylaws in court.
And, as Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh
Reeve Ben Van Diepenbeek pointed out at the
Jan. 4 meeting, the appeal process could go on
forever.
If Huron East and Central Huron are
successful in their appeal and council grows by
four representatives once again, there is
nothing stopping the losing side from further
appealing that decision.
Van Diepenbeek said the process could go on
for years. Sadly, he could be right.
Both sides seem very committed to their
point of view as to what is right and wrong
about Gorman’s decision and neither side
seems ready to give up without a fight.
As right or wrong as the appeal may be,
we’ll all just have to sit and watch with our
wallets handy.
High stakes politics
Ifigured that I’d wait a week to write about
my New Year’s resolution because, to be
honest, usually that’s about how long it
takes me to forget it.
Every year I want to say the same things that
I’d imagine many other people want to; they
want to lose weight or live healthier, save more
money and invest better or take more time
enjoying life.
The latter has never really been a problem
for me, but, with the new year upon me, I
decided that it was time to decide what I was
going to do to change.
At first I thought I’d start eating healthier
food and start cutting out unhealthy foods out
of my diet.
Unfortunately for me, fate had other plans.
Fate, donning the guise of my girlfriend’s
sister and father, saw fit (pun definitely
intended) to give me a deep fryer for
Christmas.
Deep fryers and I have a long, tragic history.
I’ve worked at so many different restaurants
that made use of a deep fryer that, through my
own experimentation during late-night shifts,
I’ve discovered dozens of amazing
concoctions.
I also had one while I was at school in
Brantford (and this is where the tragic
part comes in) that, unfortunately, didn’t
survive one long night of deep-frying
experimentation with nearly a dozen of my
closest friends.
Stories are still told of that day and how
people couldn’t sleep due to the amount of
deep fried food they had ingested.
So, suffice to say, healthy eating, while
something I still plan on doing, obviously
can’t be my resolution, not while I’m enjoying
the culinary creations of a deep fryer.
My next idea was to get out more and enjoy
the great outdoors.
I wanted to try and pry myself away from
the screens, the electronics and the
automobiles and enjoy more time absorbing
nature on my deck.
Unfortunately, between some new video
games that came from Ashleigh, a new
portable screen that came of my own accord
and the absolutely wacky and zany weather
we’ve been facing this winter, outside doesn’t
seem to be a safe bet.
Next, I wanted to try and join some
organized sports.
As much fun as it is refereeing sports
(statements like that are why I wish there was
a “sarcastic” font), I’d much rather be playing
them.
Unfortunately for me, the erratic scheduling
of both sports and news events, and
the occasional work weekend, really get
in the way of me finding a team I can
play on.
That said, I have every intention of trying to
join a soccer team this year and trying to get
some enjoyable exercise.
Of course that’s several months away and, as
many people know, resolutions often don’t last
several days, let alone months.
I thought I’d say to heck with resolutions.
The idea had crossed my mind before; to
decide not to participate in the whole
resolution gig, but then I realized how
absolutely ludicrous the idea is.
To decide to do something different for a
year, or for the rest of your life, as part of
celebrating the dawning of a new year is a
pretty silly idea. We shouldn’t need to pick a
special date to decide to change, we should
just do it.
I do understand the logic of waiting until
after the celebrations and the family events to
live healthier and eat better, but, beyond that it
is silly to take a special event and tie some
kind of decision to it that can be made at any
time.
As a matter of fact, the only thing sillier than
making a resolution is resolving to say how
silly they are.
That’s what those people who say they don’t
want to participate in the social contract that
the new year’s resolution are doing.
They are resolving to not make a resolution
themselves.
Whether it’s the first time they’ve done it or
it’s the third decade they’ve claimed this, they
are making, or upholding, a resolution just as
much as anyone who says they’re going to
start biking to work.
So saying no to the resolution game isn’t
really feasible since saying no is a resolution
in itself.
So what am I going to do?
Well, to put it simply, I’m going to
do my best. I’m going to try and eat healthier
when the opportunity presents itself. I’m
going to try and act healthier and walk
when possible. I’m going to enjoy the
outdoors, even if it is from my deck and
involving very little physical activity. Most
importantly, I’m going to try and enjoy life
more.
That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop doing
what should be done to do what I want to do.
It might mean that, or it might just mean I find
a more fun way to do things. Instead of
walking, walk with music, instead of
shovelling snow, shovel... with music... well I
guess adding music to a lot of things could
make it more fun.
Either way, that’s what I resolve, to do my
best to be better.
Good luck tracking that one.
Of course, it really doesn’t matter what my
resolution is, what yours is, if you happen to
believe what the doomsayers are saying.
There will be no 2013 for us to look back
and declare whether we succeeded in our
resolutions or not.
Shawn
Loughlin
Shawn’s Sense
Denny
Scott
Denny’s Den
Resolutions for the new year