We are a funny lot up here in Canada. No sooner do we get that summer heat that we've been aching for, then we're complaining about the hot hazy humid dog days.

And it's these hot days that bring out the grumpiest in Pigdump. Thank goodness it's just a brief hot snap, eh? Heh heh.

Anyway, time to get some little niggly things off my chest (and you know how THAT can hurt!) Like grocery checkout lines for starters. This just makes me spit: I'm behind someone who has put all their sundries on the conveyor belt, when all of a sudden she says, "Oops, I forgot something." She runs back through the store, clearly doing the rest of her shopping - I guess she was just saving her place in line. So while the cashier and I are waiting, the cashier already checking through the first wave of the frickin woman's stuff, she rushes back with a pantload of stuff, barely apologizing for holding up our lives.

People who do that should have to carry everyone's groceries out to the car, and pay for their groceries, oh and come and wash our windows at home too.

And what about those damn garbage strikers, hmm? Yep, I was quiet about them during the strike because it wasn't hot hazy and humid and dog day-like, don't you know. Well now, I WILL be grumpy about them even though they're back picking up the garbage. Sort of...you see after a month or so of no collection, I happily put my recycling out on my pick-up day. Guess what? They didn't come. Then this week when it was garbage pick-up day, they didn't come. I called the inside worker who had been on strike for over a month, and she told me, "Oh, they're back-logged. You can always take your garbage to the dump, but there's a fee..."

I'm not kidding.

And since it's hot and steamy, of course I'm thinking about ice...hockey that is. (Didn't I say that Canadians are nutty-butty?) I'm tired of hearing about the losing battle Canadian hockey fans are fighting with Commissioner Bettman. Let's face it, Jimmy Blackberry is NEVER going to have a team in Gary Bettman's NHL. Jimmy is reported to be a bit of a dink. Oh sure, he can run a company that is always in the Forbes' Top 100 list. He's innovative and makes money hand-over-fist. But he's a dink. Apparently. And goodness knows, the NHL would prefer to have buddy buddy good old boys in the club rather than Jimmy the Dink Blackberry. Buddies who spend time in jail are such better owners than dinks who have passion and would throw money at them.

And what I love best about that story is that every day the NHL owners and Bettman communicate from the courtrooms in Arizona, they're using a little gizmo called a Blackberry. I love that.

See? We can be peppy on a grumpy day!

Thanks and good luck.

Please don't sue me.