My mother-in-law finds me funny. I always think this is a good thing because it makes most of my idiosyncratic behaviours easier to tolerate.

Once a week my mother-in-law comes for her ‘Granma day’, and because I like her and she likes me, it is a wonderful thing.  So, while Granma is present to make sure my children don’t follow through on their threats to cause each other various bits of physical damage, I can run errands without excessive personality management or fear of coming home to emergency vehicles.  (Actually the emergency vehicles are still a possibility as Granma has managed to break herself twice while visiting, plus has logged numerous other less significant injuries.)  The other week as I swooped in post-grocery shopping in full on indignant rant, she took it in stride with a wee smile on her face.  Me, returning from errand running, ranting is not an entirely rare occurrence.  This particular instance it was about squash.  I will completely admit to not knowing every aspect of farming, commerce, supply and demand, but why is the squash in the grocery store coming from Mexico?  We grow squash in Ontario.  Squash is content in cold storage.  Squash is good at being stored for lengths of time.  Why Mexico?  This rant came hot on the heels of another grocery store rant asking why the canned pears were coming from China and South America.  They are pears, which also grow in Ontario, and they are canned, which means they are preserved and easy to store.  Why are we getting food, that we as a province and country can provide for our selves, from elsewhere?  This does not make sense to me, and sometimes this does not make sense to me in a loud with lots of hand gestures kind of way.

My lovely mother-in-law smiles at me, suggests I need to get Rick Mercer on my side, and offers to can some pears next year.  (I really lucked out in the mother-in-law lottery.)