the recession has officially hit Yellowknife

While I have grown tired -- and somewhat cynical -- of all this recession talk (because we all know the rich are somehow going to get richer off this whole sub-prime mortgage/foreclosure/cheap real estate thing that's been happening) I must say, I'm starting to become a firm believer.

No, not because the jobless rate keeps rising, or because stimulus packages are being hefted out by any country with a conscience or even because the NBA salary cap is said to be dropping in 2010.

Nope. I am becoming a believer because even Mother Nature is taking heed, and as a result has given us the saddest freekin summer I can remember here in Yellowknife. The living poor in the capital city, who should be enjoying the one month where it actually pays to live here, have had to paddle through some pathetic, drizzly, cloudy and windy autumn weather this summer, when it should be skin-singing hot.

Case in point: I wore a toque when I hit the batting cage with a friend of mine today.

Yes, friends. A toque. A god-damned, motherfucking winter toque in the middle of July.

The mercury hit a whopping 8 degrees today, when it really should be non-stop, unabashed sun and summer in Yellowknife. People should be outdoors biking, walking and smiling their lives away this time of year, without a thought about the miserable weather and winter which beats us down most of the time.

Instead, Mother Nature is storing her coal away for the cold season, because she's even bought into all this recession mumbo jumbo.

I think we should start protesting.

I think we should get a bunch of fed-up Yellowknifers together and walk down Franklin Avenue in bikinis and bermuda shorts and demand we get at least some sort of summer.

Because, for me at least, this recession is becoming depression.