If you do not like…

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Boomer Gallant, CBC, Charlottetown, PEI, Urspo, Weather PEI

Here on PEI the old saying if you do not like the weather just wait and it will be different in 20 minutes does apply. The Island being in the Gulf of St-Lawrence and facing the open Atlantic, we are subjected to winds and sea currents and their effect on the weather patterns. Storm can come and go or simply not materialize at all despite getting a warning.

We have been on the Island now for 2 weeks and the weather has been early Spring like despite the fact that we are in February and there is at least officially one more month of Winter left. This Winter has been very mild both in Ottawa and elsewhere, I really don’t mind. The weatherman in PEI is Boomer Gallant, he is on the CBC daily, wearing baseball hats and windbreakers to match.

Kevin “Boomer” Gallant is one of the most recognizable faces in Prince Edward Island. He was born and raised in Charlottetown and is in his 24th year as weather host on CBC Television’s supper-hour news program – CBC News Compass.

Along with delivering the latest weather reports, Boomer also hosts a daily segment in CBC News Compass to promote community events and fundraisers.

Apart from his work at CBC, Boomer is well known to many Maritimers for the sixteen years he spent calling harness races at the Charlottetown Driving Park.

I also believe that Boomer is a client of the famous Jungian shirt maker extraordinaire UrSpo of AZ  https://sporeflections.wordpress.com   Boomer sports his shirts.

On another topic, a dear friend of mine recently was speaking of the price of wine in restaurants. I often wonder how restaurants can charge 3 times the price of a bottle of wine you can find at the Liquor store. Now remember if you see on the wine list a price of $30 dollars for a wine bottle it does not mean it is worth it or is any good, it is just the restaurant profit margin. In Canada price of beer, wine and spirits is dictated by Governmental bodies and tightly controlled, it is also heavily taxed. So a bottle of wine imported from Italy at a cost of $7 dollars arrives on the shelf of the Government Liquor Store at $16 dollars, the restaurant in turn will sell it for $48 dollars. People think of this must be good wine because it is expensive. NO it is still a $7 dollar bottle of wine which means it is a good table wine nothing more.

I find that you cannot put a dollar value on wine or liquor based on the price in the store because the price is subject to a strong mark-up. Better to read up in trade magazines what is said about the wine and its producer, read the critic and see if it is a good year or a bad one for such and such a wine  and don’t forget the most important, do you like it? If not it is not worth anything.

The same applies to Scotch, in many Steak house and other restaurants, half-ounce of Single Malt Scotch sells for $10 to $20 dollars, this is a total rip-off but the owners are appealing to the snob factor and they know how their clients fall for it. I remember a time when a drink was 2 ounces minimum, to maximize profits it is now only half ounce servings and the price has gone up substantially. Price has nothing to do with quality, maybe that is why so many restaurants are struggling to keep their clientele.

Often people put the wrong emphasis on the wrong thing, value on material goods in our consumer society, we are pre-conditioned by marketers to think that you must do this to achieve life goals. Success is defined by material goods, cars you drive and flashy knick knacks, real estate, etc. Canadian Banks love to tell you that you need a minimum of $1 million dollars in savings alone just to retire at 65. Given the personal average debt of Canadians, most do not even have $2000 dollars in an account and have personal debts they cannot repay, so how will they retire if ever.

It is best to put value on personal growth, education, friends, focusing on what matters in life, like good health and peace of mind.