OK, I really LOVE Canadians... BUT...

[Rum&aLime]

To preface: My wonderful wife is of French-Canadian heritage. Her family is delightful. I've met many, many fine, friendly Canadians over the years...

I tried to go to the beach today.

It's been FAR too long since I've been, and the past few weeks at work have been more than a little stressful. I have been looking forward to playing hooky for an hour to go see the ocean. I live in a little Florida town, with an OK beach -- nothing spectacular, but it IS a beach, so I consider myself pretty lucky most days. But not today.

When I arrived at the beach parking lot, there was not one (1) open space. On a weekday afternoon at around 1:30. As I drove through the lot twice ( which took 20 minutes), I counted at least THIRTY Ontario and Quebec license plates! I skulked back to my cave...er, office...throughly disgruntled.

PLEASE, for the love of God! Won't SOME of them go HOME ALREADY?

I feel better now. Thanks for listening.

-Paul

[Wino you know]

PLEASE, for the love of God! Won't SOME of them go HOME ALREADY?

I feel better now. Thanks for listening.

-Paul

I'm guessing you're origianlly from Memphis?

[NanaBabe]

To preface: My wonderful wife is of French-Canadian heritage. Her family is delightful. I've met many, many fine, friendly Canadians over the years...

I tried to go to the beach today.

It's been FAR too long since I've been, and the past few weeks at work have been more than a little stressful. I have been looking forward to playing hooky for an hour to go see the ocean. I live in a little Florida town, with an OK beach -- nothing spectacular, but it IS a beach, so I consider myself pretty lucky most days. But not today.

When I arrived at the beach parking lot, there was not one (1) open space. On a weekday afternoon at around 1:30. As I drove through the lot twice ( which took 20 minutes), I counted at least THIRTY Ontario and Quebec license plates! I skulked back to my cave...er, office...throughly disgruntled.

PLEASE, for the love of God! Won't SOME of them go HOME ALREADY?

I feel better now. Thanks for listening.

-Paul

I feel your pain, but you think YOU have it bad??? The Toronto Blue Jays spring train in my little town. We are so small we have one each McD's, Wendy's, Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut. One High School, one middle school, no big box stores, no mall, one zip code, one post office.

[Rum&aLime]

PLEASE, for the love of God! Won't SOME of them go HOME ALREADY?

I feel better now. Thanks for listening.

-Paul

I'm guessing you're origianlly from Memphis?

No such luck...and I suppose I may be being a bit hypocritical, since I am admittedly not a native Floridian, but it's not like there are battalions of Florida residents flocking to Montreal every June and taking up precious space at...um...whatever there is in Montreal that locals like to do during the summer.

The next town over has a special section of their beach parking lot for residents only; no resident sticker = ticket. I used to look at that and think, "How pretentious!" Now I'm wondering if it's not such a bad idea.

Wow...is this week over yet? At this rate, I'll be cursing at teenagers for playing their radios too loud and accidentially voting for Pat Buchanan before long! I need 500 cc of rum and 90 db of Buffett...STAT!

-Paul

[Snowparrot]

I feel your pain!

In Quebec City (and even Montreal) in the summer, you can hardly move without tripping over gaggles of Americans oohing and ahhing about the "oldness" and "foreignness" of everything. And about that amazingly un-American French!

And right now, in British Columbia, thousands and thousands of Americans have invaded the ski hills for some strange republican (small r, you note) festival called Presidents' Week! Can't they just celebrate Carnival/Mardi Gras like sensible folks (that'd be the ones in Quebec City)?

Enjoy the fine Florida weather. I'll be shovelling snow for a few weeks yet.


P.S. I love my rum with lime, and if I weren't at work, I'd be having some.

[RinglingRingling]

To preface: My wonderful wife is of French-Canadian heritage. Her family is delightful. I've met many, many fine, friendly Canadians over the years...

I tried to go to the beach today.

It's been FAR too long since I've been, and the past few weeks at work have been more than a little stressful. I have been looking forward to playing hooky for an hour to go see the ocean. I live in a little Florida town, with an OK beach -- nothing spectacular, but it IS a beach, so I consider myself pretty lucky most days. But not today.

When I arrived at the beach parking lot, there was not one (1) open space. On a weekday afternoon at around 1:30. As I drove through the lot twice ( which took 20 minutes), I counted at least THIRTY Ontario and Quebec license plates! I skulked back to my cave...er, office...throughly disgruntled.

PLEASE, for the love of God! Won't SOME of them go HOME ALREADY?

I feel better now. Thanks for listening.

-Paul

gonna have to put up with it until Easter...

[RinglingRingling]

PLEASE, for the love of God! Won't SOME of them go HOME ALREADY?

I feel better now. Thanks for listening.

-Paul

I'm guessing you're origianlly from Memphis?

No such luck...and I suppose I may be being a bit hypocritical, since I am admittedly not a native Floridian, but it's not like there are battalions of Florida residents flocking to Montreal every June and taking up precious space at...um...whatever there is in Montreal that locals like to do during the summer.
The next town over has a special section of their beach parking lot for residents only; no resident sticker = ticket. I used to look at that and think, "How pretentious!" Now I'm wondering if it's not such a bad idea.

Wow...is this week over yet? At this rate, I'll be cursing at teenagers for playing their radios too loud and accidentially voting for Pat Buchanan before long! I need 500 cc of rum and 90 db of Buffett...STAT!

-Paul

eat garlic-laden snails, and sneer at the Anglais-speakers... oh, and Jazz Festival.

[ToplessRideFL]

Ahhh yes .... its snowbird season.....

Over here on the west coast we have the Canadians, The Michiganders, The Ohioians and any other ians you can think of. Every year with out fail these ians migrate to Tampa Bay and clutter our beaches, pristine roads paid for by their spending, golf courses, stores and basically keep the hospitality industry afloat.....

While its a a little inconvienient... there is value. And it ends in a few months! May isnt that far away!

[Conolulu]

I just found out about all this...and have lived in Florida 20 yrs now..

The little island I moved from , well...we had no influx...Our season was Summer and it was mainly people from Georgia..

Now that I am in the Panhandle....? It's kind of funny...Someone was talking about a Shark attack last year...And they didn't say 2 "people" got killed....It was 2 "Canadians"...

Hear French spoken all over town.....

It's a whole different world on this side of the state...

[Wino you know]

Just leave us your money and go home!!!

I can understand that

[Wino you know]

I'm guessing you're origianlly from Memphis?

No such luck...[/quote]
I was just guessing. I lived in Memphis for six years, and I never saw more clannish "Yankee haters" anywhere.
As if THEY had a lot to offer the world.

The next town over has a special section of their beach parking lot for residents only; no resident sticker = ticket. I used to look at that and think, "How pretentious!" Now I'm wondering if it's not such a bad idea.

Wow...is this week over yet? At this rate, I'll be cursing at teenagers for playing their radios too loud and accidentially voting for Pat Buchanan[/quote]
-Paul[/quote]
I'm not a teenager and it wasn't an accident that I voted for Buchanan in 2000.
Try to be strong-you should have your beaches back within a very short time.
Meanwhile, I know for a fact a few good margaritas will ease the pain.

[ToplessRideFL]

Just leave us your money and go home!!!

I can understand that

no...they get value for their dollar.... something in return if you will.....

They get warm sunshine, fabuous sunsets, beautiful beaches..... no snow, no rust on their big ole caddys..... its a trade off man....

[longlinergirl]

I am from Hollywood, Fl which seemed to be the central gathering point of Canada when we were growing up. I always swore that every summer we were going to go to Canada and invade them. We went to Niagara Falls last summer and I see that Americans DO invade them every summer!!! It makes me feel good...lol. I live in Narragansett, RI now, and we have the same trouble with tourists in the summer. Small town, 10 million people. Ugh...

[AlbatrossFlyer]

they're just starting to come....

air canada just hiked their rates again to PHX, and the planes are still wayyy over sold. no cheapy fares and 3 times the summer rates....

it's amazing the numer of canuckains that are willing to pay top dollar to fly to PHX, stay at the finest resorts at 800 - 900 bucks a night, eat at the most expensive restaurants in town and then pay 250+ for 6 rounds of golf over 4 days.

[CapnK]

it seems our plan of blocking off the northbound exits from the airport is finally paying off.

The beach? Yeah, the best way is to jump on 95 and go south until you see 10th Ave, head straight east. Can't miss it.

[Rum&aLime]

I'm guessing you're origianlly from Memphis?

No such luck...

I was just guessing. I lived in Memphis for six years, and I never saw more clannish "Yankee haters" anywhere.
As if THEY had a lot to offer the world.

I'm not a teenager and it wasn't an accident that I voted for Buchanan in 2000.
Try to be strong-you should have your beaches back within a very short time.
Meanwhile, I know for a fact a few good margaritas will ease the pain

Well, since I grew up in New Joisey, and my beloved spouse hails from the great state of Maine, I never really considered myself a "Yankee hater". Or an anybody hater, come to think of it.

OK, maybe they don't have to go home...but did they EACH have to bring an SUV? Couldn't some of them have carpooled?

And, while we on that subject, is the turn signal an extra cost option on cars from Canada? If so, nobody seems to have sprung for it.

I believe I will follow your sage advice on the margaritas! And, it's Friday! Things are looking up!

-Paul

[Rum&aLime]

it seems our plan of blocking off the northbound exits from the airport is finally paying off.

The beach? Yeah, the best way is to jump on 95 and go south until you see 10th Ave, head straight east. Can't miss it.

Right. Except, here in LW, they got it backwards: You can't get ON 95 North at 10th Ave.

[Rum&aLime]

I feel your pain!

In Quebec City (and even Montreal) in the summer, you can hardly move without tripping over gaggles of Americans oohing and ahhing about the "oldness" and "foreignness" of everything. And about that amazingly un-American French!

And right now, in British Columbia, thousands and thousands of Americans have invaded the ski hills for some strange republican (small r, you note) festival called Presidents' Week! Can't they just celebrate Carnival/Mardi Gras like sensible folks (that'd be the ones in Quebec City)?

Enjoy the fine Florida weather. I'll be shovelling snow for a few weeks yet.


P.S. I love my rum with lime, and if I weren't at work, I'd be having some.

Thank you for your empathy. And for taking this in the joking manner it was intended in.

-Paul

[Wino you know]

Well, since I grew up in New Joisey, and my beloved spouse hails from the great state of Maine, I never really considered myself a "Yankee hater". Or an anybody hater, come to think of it.

Nah, I'll bet you're a lot like me-you don't actually HATE anybody, but there are probably lots of people you enjoy not being around.

OK, maybe they don't have to go home...but did they EACH have to bring an SUV? Couldn't some of them have carpooled?

Hey, you don't know what true joy is until you've done your part to warm up this arctic wasteland from the comforts of your Lincoln Navigator.

And, while we on that subject, is the turn signal an extra cost option on cars from Canada? If so, nobody seems to have sprung for it.

That's not just a problem in Canada, believe me.

I believe I will follow your sage advice on the margaritas! And, it's Friday! Things are looking up!

Margaritas are a cure for the blahs, as is being in Florida (hell, LET those nudiks from up here come down there and be jealous- ).
Things are ALWAYS looking up-not only is it Friday, but summer will soon be here, and it'll be ROAD TRIP & TAILGATE TIME once again.

Cheers & beers! (And margaritas).

[Wino you know]

Just leave us your money and go home!!!

I can understand that

no...they get value for their dollar.... something in return if you will.....

They get warm sunshine, fabuous sunsets, beautiful beaches..... no snow, no rust on their big ole caddys..... its a trade off man....

THEY get great value for their dollar, but do the LOCALS get anything in return?

NOBODY loves "invading" the little latitudes more than me, but one thing that always amazes me is when some of these people spend GA-ZILLIONS of $$$$$$$$$$ getting to the warmer climates, and they go into a store, bar, cafe, or whatever, and they p^ss & moan over how they can get the same product for thirty cents less back home.

But I guess I should be thankful for those folks-they make ME look good.