Spring is a little early this year

In our local newspaper, The Colonist, a story warning us that ocean waves are getting bigger. According to the report, monitoring buoys in the Pacific Ocean have been measuring wave heights since the '70's, and wonder of wonders, they have being getting bigger and bigger. Quick. Time to sell off your oceanside property before it's too late. Gee. How long have we had oceans on this planet? I don't have much of a memory for numbers, but five or six billion years sounds about right, give or take a few hundred mill. So, leaving aside the natural skepticism that comes of learning how the Global Warming crowd has fudged, distorted and skewed the temperature measurements in order to promote the cap and trade swindle, how do these researchers from Oregon expect us to take them seriously when the sample is of a period of thirty years out of billions of years. Has it never occurred to these people that they are putting the name of science in disrepute? But of course, science, like everything else has become politicized in the last few decades. For proof, pick up a 1950's copy of Scientific American and compare it to a current copy. Back then actual scientists wrote the articles, describing in detail the work they were doing. Difficult going for the non-scientist, but definitely worth the trouble. Today's articles are written by hacks who are well versed in the practice of preconceptual science. That's a type of science where the conclusions come first and the evidence, when there is any, is kneaded and folded until it produces the desired result.

Ironically (and in keeping with my theory that God is a bit of a joker) our winter in Lotus Land has been exceptionally mild. We had a cold snap in November and at the same time our mountain areas had record snowfalls for the date. But since then it's been warm. Most of December was warm and wet. We call that the pineapple express in these parts. Since the middle of January it's been cloudy and mild. So far no snow in Victoria. And no snow in Cypress Bowl, one of the venues for the Winter Olympics. During one of those warm, rainy days it all washed away. Meanwhile, the eastern seaboard is all snowed in.

Robin Red Breast is the folkloric harbinger of spring in the rest of Canada, but here in Victoria it's the herring run. Selkirk trestle is lined with anglers dangling their herring jigs in the channel. Other signs: our cherry trees are blossoming, the street musicians are beginning to appear on street corners and the population of panhandlers and street vendors begin to proliferate. Sadly, the number and quality of street musicians has declined over the last several years while the number of panhandlers, 'homeless', and sidewalk drug dealers has increased. Could there be a causation to go with the correlation? God is in his heaven looking down with amusement at all our antics. I don't think he even minds that much that some of us blame him for the trouble we get ourselves into.