The Squamidian Report – July 19 / 03
Also in this issue:
A note from Traveling Carol
The Ontarion
Hi All,
First of all, I want to thank everyone for the kind words. We all seem to be ‘pet people’ so we can all understand losing a pet is part of owning a pet. It was heart warming to hear all the great pet stories. I liked the mental picture of Tara’s cats not ‘speaking’ to her when they are ticked with her. Kind of makes you realize there is a whole lot more going on in their heads than we may think. Also kind of makes you wonder whether they live in our world or we do a poor job living in theirs.
And I’d like to welcome Traveling Carol’s friend Anita to the mailing list. Now we have a reader in Calgary.
We did the tourist thing again and this time went up to Whistler where we paid the highway robbery gouge the tourist prices and rode up the gondola to the top of Whistler Mountain. It is about the only way Sue will ever make it up into the alpine high country. The ride is quite long, starting at about 2500 feet and climbing up to over 6000 feet.
At that altitude you can feel the density difference in the air. The air tastes delicious. There is still lots of snow up there and it was quite windy so we all wished we had brought along jackets. There are hiking trails that lead away from the cable house area. Had we been dressed for it we could have spent hours exploring. The north facing slopes and bowls are a magnet for snowboarders and they are all over the place. Kind of strange standing there in short sleeves watching someone go past on a snowboard.
There is a restaurant up there and a gift shop (fleece every cent out of the tourists that they can). The price for a small cup of coffee in there was about $4.50 so we did without. I can’t imagine having a meal there.
Parked at the maintenance shed are those track cats that are used to groom the slopes. They are really cool. Each track is about 6 ft wide and 12 ft long on each side so they can work on slopes too steep to walk on. There are foot rests half way up the front wind shield so the driver and co-pilot can brace themselves as the work.
We could see the weather closing in, blowing in from the coast so we headed back down. Mountain weather can change instantly. By the time we were half way down it was raining pretty good. Glad the gondolas are glass enclosed. Open chairs would have been a bummer.
For anyone interested, there is a web cam up there pointing sometimes at the gondola head and restaurant, sometimes at other things up there.
http://www.whistler.com/webcam/
Behind the houses across the street from us is the Mashiter Creek. However, the word ‘behind’ is a bit misleading. It is in a very steep, rugged ravine that is almost hidden by the thick tree growth. Very few of the people living in the houses across the street have ever tried to find a way down to the creek. Creek is also a bit misleading, it’s a small raging river.
There is an access point at the end of The Boulevard where you can climb down to the creek. Once down there you are in a canyon with vertical rock sides that are perhaps a hundred feet high. Supposedly, there is a waterfall that’s about 50 ft high just up stream from there. I couldn’t find any way of working my way up stream. You can’t walk in the rolling water, it is washing over moss-covered rocks and spilling into pools. You can’t follow along the top of the ravine, as you can’t get there due to side ravines.
A short distance down stream there is a spot where the Mashiter spills over a cliff about 20 ft high. I couldn’t actually get to this falls but I could get close enough to see it. The creek falls into a boiling pool at the bottom the heads out of sight around a bend in the rock walls. I couldn’t even take a GPS shot down in there as it is completely boxed in, blocking out the signal line to any satellites. It’s hard to believe that just outside our doors is terrain that is too rugged to walk through.
Very few homes here on the west coast have air conditioning. It is not really needed because although it can get quite hot, there is seldom any humidity to make the heat uncomfortable. And it tends to cool right off as soon as the sun drops below the mountains. So everyone just has their doors and windows open. No screens, as there are hardly any bugs.
We do have a lot of birds though. A little mountain chickadee came in through the deck door and crashed around in the house for a few minutes. I caught up with the poor thing as it was sitting rather dazed on my computer desk. I slid my finger under it, which forced it to climb on and hang on. Then I could carry it outside.
Once out side it sat there for a while, still dazed. It blinked a lot and just looked around. After about 5 minutes it seemed to recover and ‘noticed’ me. There was a surprised look on its face, and then it flew away.
****
Hi Everyone,
We have finally
made our way to Doug & Sue’s place.
It was nice to see our friends in Calgary. Al’s big disappointment was the fact the bobsled run at Olympic
park was closed for repairs. We did get
to stand where the ski jumpers pushed off from during the 87 Olympics – you
couldn’t pay me enough to attempt that.
Anyway our purpose for being there was to visit, not sight see, and I
did a lot of catching up. When we left
on Tuesday my friend Carole came with me in our car and Al drove with her
husband, Dave towards Banff by a back roads way Dave knows. They took us on a little used very scenic
road and up a mountain for a bird’s eye view of Banff. (I even picked up a rock from the mountain
to give to Greg for his pond – if I ever see said pond) We went on to Lake Louise after our picnic
lunch and parted around 6 when we headed north towards our motel at
Saskatchewan Crossing. Wednesday we
stopped at the Athabasca Glacier in the Columbian Ice fields. It was a steep hike up but we stood on the
glacier. We also stopped at a couple of
waterfalls along the way to Jasper. I
wish we had traveled that way in 94 because the scenery was too breathtaking to
describe. At Jasper we took a tram up to the 7500-foot level on Whistlers
Mountain (not to be confused with Whistler B.C.) It is the longest and highest tramway in the world. We started the climb to the top of the
mountain but Al’s shin’s cramped on him.
I continued and got to a great position at the top for Al to take a
picture when it started raining. By the
time I made it down to Al it was hailing (large & painful) I was OK as I had carried up my sweater with
a hood but Al was in a light t-shirt.
Both of us were soaked when we made it down to the terminal and the only
pictures Al took was from there but we were still looking down on some
mountains and the view was indescribable.
Our next stop was at Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Rockies. We made in to Clearwater that night. Michelle tells me we missed a great park
there which she and Chris had visited on there holiday around Jasper &
Banff a few weeks ago. Now would be a
good time for you to jump in and tell everyone about your trip Michelle.
We finally
arrived at our friends in Coquitlam on
Thursday after a side trip to New Westminster to tour an historic house and try
to find Al’s grandfather’s name in the Lacrosse Hall Of Fame. We went up Burnaby Mountain to see the
gorgeous rose gardens there. B.C. is a horticulturists
dream. I can’t get over the plants and
flowers that we can’t grow at home.
Yesterday our friend took us to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, the
Marine Museum, the Queen Elizabeth Gardens and a Greek restaurant. Except for the hills parts of Vancouver
reminded us a lot of T.O. The drive to Squamish was as beautiful as I
remembered but by this point we are suffering from sensory overload. We are looking forward to a couple of days
of unwinding before facing more tourist things.
Carol
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
July 17, 2003
Hey there, hope
everyone had a great week. We’ve had a real mixed bag of weather this week
ourselves. It’s been raining, drizzling, misting, sunny, warm, overcast and
downright cold here. I guess this summer is going along with the rest of the
year and presenting us with strange weather. Oh well, as long as it doesn’t
snow we’ll be happy.
Carole and I succeeded in planting all the greenery around the pond and waterfalls. I won’t bore you with the details I’ll just say that it finally looks complete. I’ll send out a couple of pictures when I get around to taking them, probably before Saturday’s publication.
I’ve had an interesting week to say the least. I’ve been working for Waterloo Nissan driving their customer shuttle vehicle around town. I start at 7:30am and drive people that are leaving their vehicles in for service to their morning destinations. I then have to pick them up when their vehicles are repaired. What a mixed bag of people I’ve met! Everyone from a math professor from the U of Waterloo that looked like a dumpy big Tim Horton’s donut baker to a lady financial wizard from some government analytical “think tank”. I don’t get too much into what they do but they seem to want to talk about what they do on the drive to work. I didn’t realize that there were so many people that talked as much as I do! LOL! They’re only in the car for 10 minutes or so just enough to scratch the surface of whatever topic comes up. Most of the time it’s the weather or complaining about the repair bill they are expecting “this time” on their Nissan product. I didn’t realize that there were so many service problems with these so called “perfectly engineered” Japanese automobiles. I guess no matter what make of car you drive there will always be flaws. I have enjoyed the job so far but I highly doubt I’d want to do it for more than the 2 weeks I’ve agreed to fill in for the regular driver this time. It seems there are too many chiefs and only one Indian, ME! The poor guy that usually does this job must have skin an inch thick. I don’t even work for these people I’m just there doing them a favor and they yell at me as if they own my soul.
One wants me do
deliver her car parts all over town in a split second and the other is
demanding the immediate delivery of customers to their place of employment. I
told them I can only go in one direction at a time so they’ll have to share my
talents equally. They don’t want to offend their paying customers who patronize
their parts sales business but the actual car buying people that are standing
in the service dept need respect as well. I guess the best they can hope for is
a little understanding on both segments parts. Most of the people that are
getting rides are happy that they don’t have to call a cab so they don’t say
much. I think the parts manager and the service manager both worry more than
they have to. It somehow all manages to get done and at the end of the day,
there have been very few complaints if any. Geeze, I’m glad I don’t work in customer
based business full time. I think I’d wind up in the loony bin for sure. This
experience is making me think back on what a different life I had in my chosen
profession. However, for the last few years of my career, even the Fire Dept
was referring to the citizens we served as “Customers”. I suppose when you look
at the taxes they paid for the service we provided we were selling a service to
them in the form of protection from disaster etc. A screwy way to look at it if
you ask me! Oh well, I only have one week and one day to complete at this job
and I’ll be back to normal. I don’t think I’ll do this particular service for
then again. I prefer to do the “Dealer Trades” where all I have to do is drive
to another city and return with a car from another dealer. At least then I
don’t have anyone tugging at me in several directions. I don’t even have to
listen to the radio during the trip if I don’t want to. It’s a nice quiet way
to spend a few hours and I get to test drive all the latest Nissan vehicles. It
actually is a cool way to spend a day and get paid for it. Well, I’d better
head off to bed I have an early start in the morning and I don’t want to be
falling asleep at the wheel. Thanks for looking in again and I’ll see you all
next week. Have a good one.
GREG.
PS: Something to Think About<
Nothing will intoxicate some people like a sip of authority!
****
Have a good one..
the
doug