Mille miles, quel que kilometres - pardon?

sunny, brilliant day...temps minus 3

someone asked recently and I forgot to say that the temperatures I post are celcius. So, zero is freezing. I remember when Canada switched over to the metric from the Imperial system - back in the early 80's. I'd just started with CBC Radio - my first job on air, hosting the morning show in Thunder Bay. I loved it. Learned the craft from people who loved radio, and respected the audience.

For the first year or so we gave everything in both metric and imperial...temperatures, distances, weights. Quite helpful. But then came the dreaded day when were were mandated to stop, and to just give everything in metric. I was only about 22 or 23, and even I had difficulty making that transition. I still think in both metric and imperial. I have no idea what a gram is. But then I don't really know what an ounce is either. A kilometer I'm OK with...miles are beginning to fade. Everything seems so far away when we travel to the states. A sign will say something is 50 miles away - but it takes us almost an hour. It's so faaaaar. Are we there yet? I realize I read miles but thing kilometers.

And while I'm good with kilometers, a meter baffles me as do centimeters. I'm 72 inches tall, but have no idea how many centimeters.

This is not an unusual situation in Quebec. Most kids - especially anglos who tend to learn both french and english - spend a few years mixing the two languages. So they'll say to their parents, 'Can I ferme le light?' 'Can I have a chien?' And now throw metric and imperial into the mix and it, yet again, is no wonder Canada doesn't rule the world. No one understands us. Least of all, ourselves.

Love your comments about Little, Brown. I'm extraordinarily happy.

And did 2,000 words today...up to 16,000. My goal is to hit 25,000 by the end of the week. Perhaps, a tiny voice says, I should spend more time worried about quality than quantity. But this system has worked so far, why change?

Off to see if Michael would like to take Trudy for a walk up the road. We try now to do two kilometers a day. Perhaps one day we'll be bold and try for two miles.

Speak to you tomorrow.