15 Reasons I’m happy it’s Canada Day

1. I got to wake up at whatever time I wanted. No ringing alarm clock at 5:45 a.m!

2. For the first time since March, I had NO items on my to-do list.

3. I lolled in bed and read not one but TWO newspapers.

4. This is the one day in the year Glenfiddich can sport his Canada Day scarf.

5. I had Kawartha Dairies ice cream (the best in the country, if not the world) for breakfast.

6. I stood outside in the morning sunlight and talked over the garden fence about flowers and bird feeders and her pond with my neighbour Mary.

7. I got to wear whatever I felt like and my shoes didn’t even have to match.

8. We watched the Canada Day celebrations from Parliament Hill and enjoyed seeing the Queen in festive red and white, the smartly dressed parading soldiers, the precision flying, thousands of happy, cheerful people and Stephen Harper not embarrassing the country - for once.

9. I took the dog for a long walk during which he got to sniff other dogs while I exchanged pleasantries with the owners. As a bonus, we saw the subway trains rushing and grinding beneath our feet as we stood on the bridge over Yonge Street and one of us whirled and twirled and lept into the air and barked and didn’t even get scolded.

10. I started Fraser Simpson’s annual giant Canada Day cryptic crossword puzzle in the Globe and Mail and didn’t feel guilty because I was neglecting something more important. (What SHOULD be more important than a cryptic crossword puzzle?)

11. I changed my telephone greeting at school to inform callers that I would be out of the office until the end of August.

12. There’s only one more sleep until Toby and I can go to the zoo and see the tigers and monkeys and lions. But we don’t want them to roar – any of them.

13. The neighbourhood is tranquil and the lawns and gardens are lush and green because of all rain and warm weather we have had this spring.

14. I exchanged Canada Day greetings with my friend Angie who lives in Australia and who often sends me little messages that make me smile but that I don’t normally take the time to respond to properly.

15. I wrote my first blog entry in a month and a half.

I wish every day were Canada Day.