Sometimes things just elude a plausible explanation.

On Friday, the OPP were conducting a RIDE program on Grey Road 17 in the township of Georgian Bluffs.  A driver entered the checkpoint at around 5:20 PM.  He didn’t leave in his own vehicle.

Officers found “signs of impairment” at the stop, and observed open liquor “readily available,” an interesting way to describe what must have been 100 cans of beer, most empty, completely filling up the front passenger side of the vehicle.  It looked to me that the whole vehicle was held together by scotch tape and best wishes.

I have to be honest, I didn’t see that coming.

The Philadelphia Eagles, betting favourites to win the Super Bowl on Sunday, were sitting at half-time with a 24-14 lead and Kansas City’s all-star quarterback Patrick Mahomes limping badly off the field with an aggravation of a high ankle sprain he suffered last week.  It just didn’t look good for the Chiefs.

Russian ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov made me spill my coffee this morning.

In a Russian-language interview, Stepanov claims that Canada is a “very dangerous place” for Russians, who he claims face racism at every turn.

I’ll admit I’m not a big Rhianna fan.  Not that I dislike her as much as I really don’t know her.  I’m aware of her success, and aware of the buzz around having a star of this magnitude headlining the vaunted Super Bowl Half-Time Show. 

I watch the half-time show because it’s the half-time show.  I think it’s probably the most watched piece of television on any Super Bowl Sunday, and that includes the game.

Renfrew Mayor Tom Sidney is encouraging members of Town Council, town staff, and residents to wear red on Monday, February 13th in support of the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Centre’s Wear Red Canada Day.

So there’s this property at the end of Sidney Avenue, owned in common by the owner of 253 Mclean Street, and now being considered for the construction of a home.

On the Official Plan for the town, the property is shown as being zoned for residential.  But on another environmental plan, part of the property falls within the boundaries of an area designated as being a natural hazard zone, as there’s a ravine situated right next to the property, and the property itself contains a negative slope leading down to this ravine.  The lot, then, gets caught in a municipal Venn diagram, with overlap of two different designations.

Renfrew Town Council’s newly created Signature Events Working Group has been busy planning for two events that appear to be trending in different directions:  The Bluegrass Festival and the Renfrew Craft Beer and Food Truck Festival.

It’s only a matter of time before an arrow pointing nowhere starts to make more sense.

Back in August it was reported that the town of Renfrew had reached an agreement with Trivitus Group to develop a piece of property along O’Brien Road across from the No Frills complex and gas station.

The development is planned to host three restaurants, one of which is reported to be a Starbucks.  The other two eateries are top secret.  Really.

Renfrew’s retail landscape is nudging progressively forward as one of the town’s more prominent strip malls begins to fill in the vacancies that have plagued the location in recent years.

I just noticed today that one complete section of the Rio Can property on O’Brien Road is fully occupied, which is awesome and, to me, a sign of good things to come.

A traffic circle.  For Renfrew.

Well how about that?

In anticipation of increased traffic flow, the Town of Renfrew has applied to the province for the $3 million in funding needed to install a traffic circle at the corner of O’Brien Road and Wrangler Street.  For locals, that’s the turn-off for Canadian Tire.