Life’s a beach!

I had planned to blog about my travels this past summer but sometimes things at home are every bit as good as anything on the road.

My buddy Dave and I have been spending a lot of time at the beach.  Late September is the best time, as the beach is deserted.  I get to run off leash as the tourist have gone, the yogis are doing paperwork and there is nothing but sunshine and the sound of the wind and the waves. Dog – I love the freedom of that deserted beach. The other thing about this time of year is that the beach is not cleaned daily, so there is some great dead stuff to roll in.  There is nothing like a good run and then a roll in a rotting carp to set the day up. Dave doesn’t seem as keen on this as I am.  But then again he’s kind of a serious guy.  I think the car smells great on the way home, but Dave mutters how he spent all that money on a car that now smells like the Belleville waterfront. BOL

Sometimes Dave doesn’t have a lot of good things to say about government – but he talks all the time how happy he is that Sandbanks Provincial Park has been protected from development:  no high rises, no hotels, no time shares, no fast food joints, no tacky tourist shops. Just water and sand for as far as we can walk. He says that there are few places left in the world where the natural beauty has not been destroyed in the name of attracting tourists. I don’t always agree with Dave but this summer I was a little shocked when we went to Banff. There were great mountains everywhere and great views. I thought I was going get to chase some fine wildlife, but we when got there Dave kept me on a leash all the time. He said there were too many tourist buses and too many cars. We left as soon as we got there because there wasn’t any room to walk on the sidewalk. I kept getting stepped on by guys with cameras who were trying to see past a hotel to see the mountains.

My buddy Dave gets really excited when he talks about how tourist come to the County because of its rural charm.  He says that there are few places like this anywhere. Then he gets really upset and starts yelling about how the County Council seems determined to to change the area so that it looks like the city. He tells me that Council would build condos right on Outlet beach if they thought it would create more tax revenue.  It gets me a little anxious when he starts yelling as we walk along the beach.

I’m more interested in dead carp than County Council; however if Dave is correct this seems to me like a dumb thing to do. Build a bunch of houses so that you can get more taxes and then you spend more on servicing these houses than is collected in taxes. But hey, I am only a dog. What do I know about municipal government? Dave seems to know about local issues, but mostly he just swears a lot about it.

It also has me worried because he says we can’t go traveling again until after the election. For some reason he thinks this is a really important year and that his vote will count. I don’t understand this whole election thing.  In my world the smartest, toughest, strongest dog gets to lead.  In the human world the person who talks the best and looks the best and promises stuff that he can’t hope to deliver gets to lead.  Seems dumb to me but Dave says that’s democracy.

Thanks, Sophie for the update (comments section). Here’s a photo of my friend Sophie.