A Long Back Cast

Fox with a big one. Wolfie is impressed!   Today is June 21st, the longest day of the year and the so-called beginning of summer, although the local weather sure doesn't feel like summer. It's a great paradox because just as summer is officially here, the days will begin shortening on the slow march toward December 21, the winter solstice.  For me, I mark the beginning of summer with the opening of the bass fishing season which is the last weekend of June.  The post-spawn bass are ravenous and the angling results are usually good early in the season -- sometimes even spectacular right off the dock, as my grandsons discovered last year.  Most of my bass fishing over the years has been at the family cottage. Our daughter and her husband bought the place on Black Lake from my parents about 15 years ago. They have renovated it over the years from a simple summer-only cottage into a four-season lake house that can accommodate our extended family. It is a beautiful propert...

                                                       Iconic Canadian R&D Institution on Death's Door The Shirleys Bay Campus The large building in the centre is the CSA's David Florida      Laboratory, recently closed. This facility performed pre-flight testing on most of Canada's satellites before space launch. While shopping recently I bumped into Lynell Wight, a former work colleague at the Communications Research Centre (CRC) who always has the scoop, and she asked me if I had heard the latest news. Now retired, she spent her whole career working in senior administrative positions including for the Director General (before there was a president), and for several of the research vice presidents. What she told me was shocking, but not unpredictable. Our old employer is in the process of axing another 100 positions and th...