Cooler than usual summer weather has impacted the frozen treat business, leaving the shop empty at times when lines would normally stretch out the door.
CRAIG GLOVER/The London Free Press/QMI Agency
Folks, don’t know if this is a part of climate change from global warming, but it sure is shitty weather recently!
Roula Dereza doesn’t need a thermometer to tell her
the heat’s gone off summer: All the extra elbow room at her London
ice-cream parlour is a constant reminder.
Often jammed with customers at this time of year, with lineups stretching across its property,
the Merla-Mae ice cream shack has instead taken a licking from an unusually cool, wet summer.
“People come inside and say, ‘Oh my god, I actually get a chance to get inside here!’ said Dereza.
“Because (normally), our lineups are so busy sometimes we have all the windows open and the laneways are all packed up.”
Not so much lately, or this summer at all.
Merla-Mae’s sales are down in recent months, she said. Chalk it up to one too many days summer forgot.
Arctic air, after all, doesn’t exactly scream ice-cream.
Daytime highs this month have struggled to hit 20 C, well off the mid- to high-20s average for August.
Dereza’s not alone, frozen out of her normal business.
With the season turned on its head, chilled partly by the so-called ‘poor man’s polar vortex’ that plunged much of North America into fall-like weather in July, there are head-shakers aplenty in a region of Ontario that’s often sizzling, burnt and brown by now — not crisp, lush and green like it’s been.
In Southwestern Ontario’s farm belt, there’s fretting some crops won’t come up roses without the heat.
Along the area’s famed Great Lakes beaches, there’s room aplenty in the water.
“What’s driving the cool weather is a low-pressure system basically parked over Southern Ontario,” said Peter Kimbell, a warning preparedness meteorologist at Environment Canada.
“It’s air that has basically come from northern Canada and descended over Ontario. It would normally be over Nunavut at this time of year, or possibly over Hudson’s Bay,” he said.
Tough as that might be for some to swallow, with fall just weeks away, some are capitalizing on the twist.
“In fact, I had a customer just today who came in. She said, ‘Well, I’m not going to be getting a tan outside,’” said Dina Mansour, owner of Hollywood Tan and Spa in London.
That’s highly unusual for the Wonderland Rd. store, which offers both spray tans and tanning booths.
“Usually, it’s like a little bit of a ghost town,” Mansour said of the summer.
If you cringe at the thought of the first snow flying in only a few months, hoping for a blaze of hot stuff before fall hits, you just might get what you want as early as next weekend, Kimbell said.
“There are some hints that we could be seeing some warmth, above average temperatures — maybe even a high of 30, by next weekend.”
That’s the topping Merla-Mae is counting on, bringing those final weeks of carefree summer dates and kids celebrating their last few days of freedom before school.
“It’s amazing the way the weather affects us,” said Dereza.
Often jammed with customers at this time of year, with lineups stretching across its property,
the Merla-Mae ice cream shack has instead taken a licking from an unusually cool, wet summer.
“People come inside and say, ‘Oh my god, I actually get a chance to get inside here!’ said Dereza.
“Because (normally), our lineups are so busy sometimes we have all the windows open and the laneways are all packed up.”
Not so much lately, or this summer at all.
Merla-Mae’s sales are down in recent months, she said. Chalk it up to one too many days summer forgot.
Arctic air, after all, doesn’t exactly scream ice-cream.
Daytime highs this month have struggled to hit 20 C, well off the mid- to high-20s average for August.
Dereza’s not alone, frozen out of her normal business.
With the season turned on its head, chilled partly by the so-called ‘poor man’s polar vortex’ that plunged much of North America into fall-like weather in July, there are head-shakers aplenty in a region of Ontario that’s often sizzling, burnt and brown by now — not crisp, lush and green like it’s been.
In Southwestern Ontario’s farm belt, there’s fretting some crops won’t come up roses without the heat.
Along the area’s famed Great Lakes beaches, there’s room aplenty in the water.
“What’s driving the cool weather is a low-pressure system basically parked over Southern Ontario,” said Peter Kimbell, a warning preparedness meteorologist at Environment Canada.
“It’s air that has basically come from northern Canada and descended over Ontario. It would normally be over Nunavut at this time of year, or possibly over Hudson’s Bay,” he said.
Tough as that might be for some to swallow, with fall just weeks away, some are capitalizing on the twist.
“In fact, I had a customer just today who came in. She said, ‘Well, I’m not going to be getting a tan outside,’” said Dina Mansour, owner of Hollywood Tan and Spa in London.
That’s highly unusual for the Wonderland Rd. store, which offers both spray tans and tanning booths.
“Usually, it’s like a little bit of a ghost town,” Mansour said of the summer.
If you cringe at the thought of the first snow flying in only a few months, hoping for a blaze of hot stuff before fall hits, you just might get what you want as early as next weekend, Kimbell said.
“There are some hints that we could be seeing some warmth, above average temperatures — maybe even a high of 30, by next weekend.”
That’s the topping Merla-Mae is counting on, bringing those final weeks of carefree summer dates and kids celebrating their last few days of freedom before school.
“It’s amazing the way the weather affects us,” said Dereza.
twitter.com/MeganatLFPress
BY THE NUMBERS
London-area
40%: More rainfall last month than the July average
18.3 C: Last Thursday’s high, tying the record for coldest high on Aug. 14, last seen in 1979.
85 mm: Average August rainfall
41+ mm: Amount so far this month
32.2 C: Hottest Aug. 18 in London’s history
5.6 C: Coldest Aug. 18
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
“The good news is that it will be moving out . . . this darn low-pressure system that is kind of plaguing Ontario, with its cool temperatures and showers.”
— Peter Kimbell, Environment Canada
“It’s amazing the way the weather affects us.”
— Roula Dereza, Merla-Mae ice cream parlour, London
“As much as I love the sun and the heat, in a selfish kind of way, it’s helped my business.”
— Dina Mansour, Hollywood Tan & Spa, London
http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/2014/08/17/southwestern-ontarios-summer-hot-n-stickies-have-taken-a-rare-vacation
————————————————————-
The vote for Scottish independence takes place in about a month and it’s interesting to note that younger people are all for it, while the older folk say: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”
By the same token, it’s easy to get a 20 year old to join a gang, or march off to war and get himself killed. But try and talk a 40 year old into that, and you’ve got a problem!
That’s also why car insurance rates for guys don’t start to go down until they are at least 25 years old!
It’s a little thing called “critical thinking,” boys and girls!
I watched my son get his around the age of 25, and I’m sure I didn’t get mine until the mid 30′s!
————————————-
Meanwhile, the Arabs in the U.A.E. are kind of particular about who gets in to their country!
The world’s most pierced man says he was not allowed
to enter the United Arab Emirates because of his appearance and
suspicion that he was involved in “black magic.”
Rolf Buchholz, who holds the Guinness Book of World Records for his 453 piercings on his body and has horns implanted into his head, was attempting to enter the UAE to perform at the Cirque Le Soir nightclub at Dubai’s Fairmont Hotel on Friday.
Buchholz said never got an official explanation as to why he was denied entry, but he tweeted that he told he was suspected of “black magic.”
“I have two horns. I think that was also a problem for me in Dubai,” said Buchholz.
Rolf Buchholz, who holds the Guinness Book of World Records for his 453 piercings on his body and has horns implanted into his head, was attempting to enter the UAE to perform at the Cirque Le Soir nightclub at Dubai’s Fairmont Hotel on Friday.
Buchholz said never got an official explanation as to why he was denied entry, but he tweeted that he told he was suspected of “black magic.”
“I have two horns. I think that was also a problem for me in Dubai,” said Buchholz.
http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/08/worlds-most-pierced-man-turned-away-from-dubai/378655/
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Well kids, we all know why men cheat on their wives, or girlfriends……………………, that primitive desire to spread their seed as much as possible!
Or they just don’t give a shit and will hump anything that moves.
Common wisdom was that women cheated on men as a get even for being cheated on themselves!
NOPE!
A new study has found that the ladies were just plain horny and needed a change!
(Sound familiar guys?)——————————————————
The cast of “Downton Abbey” is embracing what they’ve dubbed “water bottle-gate.”
Earlier this week, the show released promotional photos for season five, with one garnering the most attention as it showed a modern-day water bottle on the mantle behind the Earl of Grantham, who is played by Hugh Bonneville, and Lady Edith Crawley, played by Laura Carmichael.
(The show takes place in the 1920s.)
—————————————-
AND FINALLY:
Add Saskatchewan’s name to the record books — our province now boasts the biggest baseball bat in the country.
A 15.2 meter-long bat was unveiled at Battleford’s Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Saturday.
Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame president Jane Shury told CBC Edmonton that baseball had a rich history in the province.
“The very first recorded baseball game in history of the North West Territories was played in Battleford on May 31, 1879,” Shury said.
Shury added that baseball was Saskatchewan’s preferred summer pass time.
“It was a big part of culture, of not just Saskatchewan, but Alberta and Manitoba as well,” she said.
The bat eclipses the former record holding bat in Edmonton by about a third of a metre. It weighs about 900 kilograms.
The record-breaking project was started nearly two years ago by a Saskatoon company Progressive Yard Works.
The original plan was to build a baseball bat that was five metres long, but Progressive Yard Works owner Kyle Markusa decided it should be made Canadian record breaking size.
The Hall of Fame paid around $40,000 for the bat.
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