It's a bit bleak in my neighbourhood these days. The ice has gone from the rink, so now if you want to skate you've got to have wheels.
But I was still glad to be able to spend some time by the lake this weekend, feel the cool fresh wind in my face, give thanks that I'm still standing.
And prepare for the crucial week ahead.
About a week ago I ran a picture of Andrew Scheer grinning and chuckling during a debate on the Coronavirus, no doubt thinking that he could use the medical emergency to try to destroy Justin Trudeau.
But of course it's not easy to do that, not when Trudeau and his team are doing such a great job.
But on Sunday after receiving a draft of the government's emergency aid plan, he thought he saw a way to hurt Trudeau, and went for it like a spider goes for a fly.
Donald Trump has always been a lousy president, a corrupt vulgar man who has debased himself and his country over and over again.
He has failed his country in its hour of need. Never has dumb seemed so dangerous.
And this is nothing less than attempted genocide.
He has had to weather one crisis after another. His wife is sick with Covid-19, and he must take care of their children alone, while under self-isolation.
But from that little office he is still governing this country.
Still communicating with other world leaders.
There are few worse ways to die than with a bad case of pneumonia, gasping for every small breath of air, a burning pain in your chest, your panicked eyes bulging out of your head.
But it's the way most Covid-19 patients die, and why ventilators that can pump oxygen into their damaged lungs are so important.
Unfortunately however, there may not be enough breathing machines for everyone.
Nobody seems to have prepared for a monster like this one...
The great Canadian cartoonist Michael de Adder drew that one seventeen years ago, during the SARS outbreak. But it works just as well today.
For it reflects what many people all over Canada are feeling about the latest killer virus, Covid-19, as it keeps ramping up.
Shock. Fear. Panic. Stunned confusion. Madness.
But as for me, I just hope Canadians can be made to understand one of the biggest lessons of SARS:
Protect our hospitals and health workers, or watch a pandemic turn into a living nightmare.
The railway blockades have been a real test of Canada's character, a measure of its Canadian values.
With most favouring compromise and negotiation over the use of force.
While others screamed for native blood.
Includiing our monstrous Cons, who tried to use the crisis for crass political purposes.
I have always had trouble taking Peter MacKay seriously.
I've always thought of him as a wannabe Margaret Thatcher, who couldn't quite pull it off.
There is a reason I call him Dumbo.
And of course, this doesn't make him look any smarter.
I must admit that for a while the situation looked bleak. The country was in an uproar, convulsing in a spasm of late winter madness.
Mohawk protesters were trying to set fire to trains, Andrew Scheer and other racists were having a field day.
And all over Canada angry old Cons were screaming at Justin Trudeau.
"Arrest them, send in the army, shoot them!!!!"
And looking like maniacs.
