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Your weekend weather

By: Doug Speirs

Posted: 07/7/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

As the New York Yankees' legendary manager/catcher Yogi Berra pithily put it in the early 1960s after watching Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris wallop back-to-back home runs: "It's déj vu all over again!"

I'm starting with that quotation today because when you read our Official Winnipeg Folk Festival Weekend Weather Forecast, you're going to have an eerie feeling you've read it before.

Because, technically speaking, you read it last year and the year before. Because there is apparently some (bad word) provincial law that makes rain mandatory during folk fest and the Red River Ex.

What would a Folk Fest be without a little rain? It would be awesome, probably, but we aren't going to find out this year because our friends at Environment Canada say there's an excellent chance all you roots music fanatics are going to get a little mud on your Birkenstock sandals today.

Cue some heart-rending bluegrass tunes, because the weather office says you can expect a mix of sun and clouds today with a 30 per cent chance of showers in the afternoon, a risk of a thunderstorm and a sweat-inducing daytime high of 30 C, up from the normal high of 26 C at this mellow time of year.

Fortunately, your tie-dye T-shirts, macramé vests, dashikis and man skirts will dry out Sunday, when the outlook calls for nothing but sun and a high of 27 C. Not that you care, dude, but the rest of the week looks, well, totally awesome, with the exception of Tuesday, when there's a 30 per cent chance of more rain. The end of the week will see blast-furnace highs in the low 30s.

Don't despair, folkies. You know you would not be able to get your groove on unless you were simultaneously squishing some honest Manitoba gumbo through your toes while, after visiting the beer tent, waiting for the porta-potties in a lineup that moves slower than airport luggage.

For those of you who don't plan to get your folk on, there are lots of options.

On Sunday, you and your best friend can head to Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for Dog Day.

Your pooch can enjoy activities such as being harnessed to an aboriginal travois, savouring biscuits made in the fort's stone oven or dressing up in a traditional Métis dog blanket, while you, the owner, learn about the important role dogs played in the fur trade. To fetch more info, call 785-6050.

On Monday night, we should all head over to Rumor's Comedy Club to see a top-notch roster of local comics, including Big Daddy Tazz, perform a benefit show for comedy icon Mike MacDonald, who is gravely ill with hepatitis C. Tickets are $10 at Rumor's (just call 488-4520).

So don't sing the blues, folk fans. Yes, you might get a little damp today, but it's all about keeping a positive attitude, because as Yogi Berra once said: "Ninety per cent of the game is half mental."

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 7, 2012 A2

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