Canadians Get Looney; Heat Wave Continues (may be too technical for younger readers)

There were two interesting bits of Canada v. America this week. First, the "looney," which is the Canadian dollar, (There is a picture of a Loon on it.) was suddenly worth as much as an American Dollar. What does this mean? Well, according to ABC News, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said a weak U.S. dollar was the cause of the loonie briefly reaching parity with U.S. currency for the first time in 31 years.

"The real story here is the rather dramatic decline in the U.S. currency in recent days and as a result the Canadian dollar is up significantly," Flaherty told reporters. He said he'd just had a conversation with Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge, to discuss the implications of a Canadian dollar even in value to a U.S. dollar.

At 10:58 a.m. EDT, the loonie rose as high as $1.0004 US before closing at the end of the trading day at 99.87 cents US -- up 1.37 cents US from Wednesday."

I read and read lots of news stories about what this means, (Its a big news story here!) and the basic idea is that Canadian shoppers dont have to head south to US outlet stores anymore, In Canada, I can use American money to buy stuff, but you cannot do that in the US. That could change. A Canadian Looney rising means the US dollar is falling. A lot of Americans who know more about this stuff than you and me, blame George Bush. Personally, I dont give him any credit. He ain't no economist.

Here is the other thing:

Check out the forecast for the weekend in Montreal:

Friday Sep 21: Sunny, 10% chance of precipitation. Winds 5mph from ESE. Humidity 75% Sunrise: 6:39 AM
79 °F; Evening: Clear, 20% chance of precipitation. Winds 9mph from SSE. Humidity 84% Sunset: 6:54 PM

Los Angeles, CA
Tomorrow's Forecast (FRI): Rain, Chance of Precip: 54% Wind: 10 mph
Dewpoint: 54° High 74 with a low of 58.

Here on the shores of the St. Lawrence river, the Montreal area has been experiencing a heat wave with temps in the 80s, and Friday is the first day of Fall. The first question everyone in LA asks me is "How cold is it there now?" I tell 'em, "Walk outside."

So Friday morning, when the rain begins to fall across the LA basin, I'll be wearing a t-shirt and shorts. And some excellent sunglasses I got at Pep Boys.