Living with Canucks: Thanks

Well, Thanksgiving rolls around once again in Canada. It doesn't seem like a year ago that I was giving thanks to Nutella on Mt Indefatigable, this weekend was once again fuelled by Nutella, but with boosts of gels and chocolate covered raisins - so thanks to them.
Saturday was a spin out on the road bike, chasing packs of tri bar riders. Then Sunday was a super muddy ride on the mtb along Sulphur Springs with Brad. The blurry shot below shows that winter is arriving in K country too...

Although, typical to its changable form, the weather soon cleared up, and once out of the trees most of the snow had melted off the open slopes and the sky blued up to remind us what summer looked like....There probably wont be too many more weeks of mountain biking to be had, as when Brina and I went for a Thanksgiving day hike today (Monday), Moose mountain (a bit of a mtb mecca) was really getting covered in its winter coat.

The obligatory 'lovey dovey' holiday shot shows Moose Mt in the background, trails getting a bit slippery for the bikes.
I'm not too sure about Thanksgiving here yet, as it seems to be on a different day to the Yanks' Thanksgiving, and so is giving thanks for something a bit different? (I think). Thanks for the harvest etc... (as opposed to America where they seem to be directly Thanking the Natives who showed the Pilgrims how to survive the winter - before the Pilgrims proceeded to slaughter all of the Natives - sounds like the Yankee way) - I may be way off with my history here, but hey, what do I know, I'm only a Social Studies teacher!!!!! So the Canadians seem to have Thanksgiving where in England we'd have 'harvest festival'. Well, the Canucks get a way better deal, a days holiday, feasting, drinking - whereas harvest festival back in the motherland means you get to take a can of baked beans down to the local church for the elderly congregation before heading back to math class.
There was no Thanks given to the student chappie who showed up on my doorstep yesterday though.. He assured me he wasn't selling anything, but just wanted to give me a free 4 month subscription to the Calgary Herald (newspaper; if you really hadn't figured it out). "Totally free?" I quizzed, "Absolutely" he responded earnestly, whilst shuffling an overflowing file of loose papers. "So I just get the paper for free?" I checked. "Completely free" he assured me again. "Great" I smiled and was going to close the door and nearly gave him a "Happy Thanksgiving" to boot.... "But.." now here it comes, "But I just need your signature and method of payment here sir" the spotty, increasingly irritating student persisted. "Method of payment?!?!" I asked rather loudly (the neighbours kids playing in the garden looked frightened) "but you told me it was free!!!!". "Well, it is free sir" the barefaced liar was still trying to convince me. "No it isn't" my contradictory tone becoming nothing more than a hiss. "It's free, but you have to pay for the weekends" the student blurted, losing his cheery, positive sales demeanour. "Well I don't want it then" I rapidly told him, only to be given such a look of scorn. The little shit was trying to give me a right old guilt trip for not cashing out. "Look mate" I tried to explain, seriously loosing my patience, "If I want to buy something I'll go to the shops, if I'm at home you can assume I don't want to buy anything". The door slammed too. I would like to have added here a; "now piss off" but I've not grown into that grumpy old git - yet.

But to all of you non - door to door salesmen, have a great Thanksgiving (although it's just October 8th to most of you), and make sure you get out before the weather comes.