Hi, Guest
02-06-2007, 02:28 PM
Okay so I headed up to Wiarton this past week as the winner of the Fan 590's "Live Like A Legend, Live like Wiarton Willie" contest.
My first clue that this would be an interesting experience was when I hit the highway 6 & 10 junction on the drive up and the weather started to go in the toilet with some snow covered sections of road....
and then I hit Hepworth and everything went as white as a laundry commercial, blowing & drifting snow and I'm going "Nokians, now I test thee" they passed, but I felt like I was riding a razor's edge.
Thursday night was a "meet the media night" because the weather had gone into the hole, it was sparsely attended (Total number was pegged at about 90 between dignitaries & media) but I made my way around the room being introduced and found myself easily getting into the spirit of the thing (while consuming copious amounts off spirits natch :P)
Friday morning I'm up at half past six having gotten almost nil for sleep as the room I'm occupying has mental heating controls that go up during the night (When I woke up the indicated temp was 27C in the room) I'm getting into the white tux and marvelling how well it fits me considering how few measurements I was able to give them, but then I notice something missing according to the tag that came with the suit I'm supposed to have a purple shawl to help ward off the cold. So I go out to meet the owners of the B&B who are taking me to the event and they dig up a black overcoat for me (for which I am eternally grateful)
We get to the prediction site and its started snowing again, I just make it onto a slippery platform as my name is called (at this point, I'm fearing doing a Chevy Chase and landing on my ass in front of the cameras) They bring Willie out and its at this point I should mention that this Willie is all of ten months old and has very little experience with crowds, so the poor thing is bouncing around in its cage like its on crack and gets close to taking off the nose of the mayor of Wiarton as she's 'talking" to him :D as Willie predicts an early spring I'm wondering "what next"?
First a reporter from The Star talks to me for a few minutes, I explain who I am and how I got there along with what I do for a living, I found out today that she butchered my occupation, being called a "paralegal" is an insult to a community legal worker such as myself, since community legal workers are supervised by lawyers and work for the poorest citizens in Ontario for no fee from them. Paralegals by contrast have no supervision and are solely motivated by profit -sigh-
Next is breakfast which while nearly cold is delicious. Afterwards I go wandering, do the tourist thing and pick up some pins as souvenirs and wander past where the local radio crew has me on (Now bear in mind these guys, The Bear 106 IIRC) are hardly "big time" and came across to me as kinda scary (In contrast CFRB was also there and they showed zero interest in what we were doing just a few feet away from them)
Afterwards I go back to the Bed & Breakfast (The Bay View B&B on Sauble Beach, wonderful place) and do some stuff while awaiting my afternoon duties as "Minister of Marmots" along with the other nine members of Willie's "Shadow Cabinet"
First was a stop at a local old age home to help present awards to the residents along with the other cabinet members and the Wiarton Willie mascot. Then the Mayor, the Wiarton Willie mascot and I make several stops presenting birthday greetings to children whose birthdays fall on Feb 2 and helping to present medals to Special Olympic atheletes.
Then return to the B&B as the weather worsens, but I'm bound & determined to get dinner and catch the Luba Goy (of Royal Canadian Air Farce) appearance I also won tickets to (funny story, after the ceremony I had my picture taken with her and she was saying how they managed to bung up her tuxedo, giving her a jacket with overlong arms while the person she was traveling with, CBC's chief meteorologist had a tux jacket with the sleeves way too short... Methinks I can guess what happened there)
Anyways, the concert was fantastic, the opening act was a local band whose name escapes me and though they hardly played "happy" music, it was still entertaining. Luba was terrific, though she kept making cracks about a stagehand who had been rude to her while she was trying to find a working mic :D
After the concert, the snow had let up and I made my way back to the B&B, hopping in the jacuzzi tub to warm up and relax, day one done and day two yet to come.
I'll stop here for now and add day two when I get time to type it up.
My first clue that this would be an interesting experience was when I hit the highway 6 & 10 junction on the drive up and the weather started to go in the toilet with some snow covered sections of road....
and then I hit Hepworth and everything went as white as a laundry commercial, blowing & drifting snow and I'm going "Nokians, now I test thee" they passed, but I felt like I was riding a razor's edge.
Thursday night was a "meet the media night" because the weather had gone into the hole, it was sparsely attended (Total number was pegged at about 90 between dignitaries & media) but I made my way around the room being introduced and found myself easily getting into the spirit of the thing (while consuming copious amounts off spirits natch :P)
Friday morning I'm up at half past six having gotten almost nil for sleep as the room I'm occupying has mental heating controls that go up during the night (When I woke up the indicated temp was 27C in the room) I'm getting into the white tux and marvelling how well it fits me considering how few measurements I was able to give them, but then I notice something missing according to the tag that came with the suit I'm supposed to have a purple shawl to help ward off the cold. So I go out to meet the owners of the B&B who are taking me to the event and they dig up a black overcoat for me (for which I am eternally grateful)
We get to the prediction site and its started snowing again, I just make it onto a slippery platform as my name is called (at this point, I'm fearing doing a Chevy Chase and landing on my ass in front of the cameras) They bring Willie out and its at this point I should mention that this Willie is all of ten months old and has very little experience with crowds, so the poor thing is bouncing around in its cage like its on crack and gets close to taking off the nose of the mayor of Wiarton as she's 'talking" to him :D as Willie predicts an early spring I'm wondering "what next"?
First a reporter from The Star talks to me for a few minutes, I explain who I am and how I got there along with what I do for a living, I found out today that she butchered my occupation, being called a "paralegal" is an insult to a community legal worker such as myself, since community legal workers are supervised by lawyers and work for the poorest citizens in Ontario for no fee from them. Paralegals by contrast have no supervision and are solely motivated by profit -sigh-
Next is breakfast which while nearly cold is delicious. Afterwards I go wandering, do the tourist thing and pick up some pins as souvenirs and wander past where the local radio crew has me on (Now bear in mind these guys, The Bear 106 IIRC) are hardly "big time" and came across to me as kinda scary (In contrast CFRB was also there and they showed zero interest in what we were doing just a few feet away from them)
Afterwards I go back to the Bed & Breakfast (The Bay View B&B on Sauble Beach, wonderful place) and do some stuff while awaiting my afternoon duties as "Minister of Marmots" along with the other nine members of Willie's "Shadow Cabinet"
First was a stop at a local old age home to help present awards to the residents along with the other cabinet members and the Wiarton Willie mascot. Then the Mayor, the Wiarton Willie mascot and I make several stops presenting birthday greetings to children whose birthdays fall on Feb 2 and helping to present medals to Special Olympic atheletes.
Then return to the B&B as the weather worsens, but I'm bound & determined to get dinner and catch the Luba Goy (of Royal Canadian Air Farce) appearance I also won tickets to (funny story, after the ceremony I had my picture taken with her and she was saying how they managed to bung up her tuxedo, giving her a jacket with overlong arms while the person she was traveling with, CBC's chief meteorologist had a tux jacket with the sleeves way too short... Methinks I can guess what happened there)
Anyways, the concert was fantastic, the opening act was a local band whose name escapes me and though they hardly played "happy" music, it was still entertaining. Luba was terrific, though she kept making cracks about a stagehand who had been rude to her while she was trying to find a working mic :D
After the concert, the snow had let up and I made my way back to the B&B, hopping in the jacuzzi tub to warm up and relax, day one done and day two yet to come.
I'll stop here for now and add day two when I get time to type it up.