If this is climate change, or global warming, or whatever suits your fancy, it has some people loving it, and some people maybe even hating it.
In our part of the Peace country, for whatever reason, maybe El Nino or La Nina or just change, it seems springs are cooler for longer, summers are maybe warmer, and falls are definitely warmer. Both extending longer, with cool springs stretching and warm falls extending into what we would normally call winter. We like it!
Of course, we don’t want to go overboard with dry weather, lack of snow and creeks and rivers running low. Neither do we want the extremes of rainfall we’ve seen in a few recent summers. Sure. Like that’s going to happen!
Weather people are saying northern Canada, of which we are sort of on the edge, is actually going to “warm up” even more than average warming around the rest of the planet. We have no idea if this is sort of bad, disaster bad, or holey moley, let’s starting digging tornado shelters bad.
So far, this all seems an improvement on digging vehicles out of snow banks, sliding off ice-covered roads, and suiting up like Inuit from before the end of October to the beginning of April.
In the end nothing will change in our household. We dress properly for winter, not for style but for warmth. We embrace the seasons!

We dial into our online favorite newspaper websites regularly. BBC. National Post. The Globe and Mail. Edmonton Sun. Even CBC. Many more. And our own theRegional.com and AlbertaChat.com plus this newspaper site.
We don’t get the same responses on comments the Post or Globe and Mail get. Of course, those websites have a much bigger following. But, we appreciate every comment that comes our way.
Over on the monster national sites, we have noticed these days how many people are coming right out and saying how much they hate Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It’s just about everybody! Not just a few here and there. Everybody! Well, seems like that anyway!
Meanwhile Pierre Poilievre takes a few shots. But the overwhelming disdain, if not hate for Trudeau is amazing.
For those who may not have been around when Stephen Harper was prime minister, the “hate on” for Trudeau now is pretty well the same back then, or worse than 10 or so years ago, than it was against Harper. Non- stop!

We don’t know if “pods” are a good idea for people who don’t have a place to sleep.
Pods are sort of a remedy for homeless in Drayton Valley. The idea started in Edson but that shut down.
Pods are basically just oilfield camp trailers with individual rooms. There is a homeless shelter in Drayton Valley. The pods are a separate idea but work together with that shelter. According to a Drayton Valley website, the pods are hoped to replace what is called the Community Mat program. Mat for “mattress.”
Homelessness is a growing problem in many communities. In Drayton Valley, what started out as what they thought was a good idea is turning into a real problem. It has to do with money.
Originally, the federal government kicked in dollars to buy the trailers. Then some operating money came from the province. Our understanding is, in the end, the Town of Drayton Valley is responsible for the operation. They have guaranteed money for five years.
But, there is now a wrinkle! One of the governments involved, either federal or provincial, wants “security” around the pods. The pods do not have any security or supervision right on site. Access to the rooms is through a remote control system run out of the regular shelter. People get access, show up at their room, and the shelter people unlock the door. There are video cameras on scene and drive-bys of the site by police. This isn’t deemed good enough by “funders,” Meaning either the feds or the province. So local taxpayers have to kick in another $50,000 per year for security. Ouch!
This “security” wasn’t needed at the Edson site, because the pods were attached right to the regular shelter there.
This all reminds us of the province of Alberta 40 or so years ago complaining about people with no place to sleep using the High Prairie “sort of homeless site for alcoholics” as a handy motel room. The government, which was paying most of the bills, didn’t like that.
Said the wise director at the time, “So you want us to tell somebody they can’t sleep here when its 40 below until they go out and get drunk? Are you nuts?”
In Drayton, some government is telling the local good samaritans, “Here is some money to help people in your community. But now we see you are really up and running, we are only going to give you half what you need. After we pass some new rules to make it harder for you to operate.”
Yup! Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?