The Squamidian Report – Nov. 29 / 03

 

Also in this issue:

 A Note From Karin

The South Etobicoke Update
The Ontarion

 

Hi All,

 

I’ll start off by welcoming Bob and Joan, friends of Greg and Carol to our newsletter. Joan is also a friend of Sue and holds a similar position with the same corporation, but in the central location. Small world. Bob is, well, Bob.

 

By west coast standards, last Sunday and into this week was a big winter event. They declared that Vancouver has now had it’s first major snow storm of the season with a whole whopping 2 cm of the stuff. That’s enough to send all the locals skidding into the ditches and each other. Problem is, some of the ditches are hundreds of feet deep around here. Us ‘imports’ shake our heads in disbelief (at the drivers, not the ditches).

 

We took Yogi out to Murin Park, just south of Squamish for a walk. He likes to go for a dip in the lake any time of the year. The park is very peaceful now that we are out of tourist season but it sure looked cold with the snow coming down. Yogi decided to go in for his usual dip, snow and all. I have posted some pictures on my web sites for anyone who knows our dog or the park or is just curious. On my site, go to the ‘Pictures’ link, then on the pictures page, click the link near the bottom called ‘Looks cold’.

 

I’m showing 2 web site addresses at the bottom of this letter now. The first one is for dial-up connections. The code is simple and the site is kept to a minimum. The second one is the normal one. If you use the normal site and the frame isn’t showing the links, just refresh that frame by right clicking in it and choosing ‘Refresh’.

 

Anyway, I digress. The kind of snow we get here is the sticky packing snow that kids love. However, when you drive on it, it turns to white ice. The highway both north and south of us turned into one big icy parking lot. All the traffic heading back to Van from Whistler on Sunday ended up spending hours sitting on the road going nowhere fast. Ewan has been visiting friends in Van and tried to come up to Squamish to see us. They got as far as Britannia Beach and that was it. I would have driven down to there but the highway was plugged with stopped cars. They made it back to the city OK.

 

The line between fall and winter was at about Furry Creak, south of Britannia. From there on up there has been about 6 or 8 inches of snow in each wave of weather that has come through. The usual location of the ‘winter line’ is just north of Squamish at Alice Lake. I’ve had to shovel the driveway more often this week than all of last winter put together.

 

However, Monday was bright and clear, in between weather fronts. I drove Sue to the airport for her flight to Calgary. The view of the coastal mountains from there was breathtaking. I had arraigned with Ewan that I would pick him up at the Park Royal mall in West Van on my way back from the airport. He now had the opportunity to ride up the highway in sunlight instead of a snowstorm. We dropped his stuff off at our place and then went on up to Whistler for lunch. Tourists like to go to Whistler for lunch. We didn’t stay too long up there as the weather was starting to close in again. Once back down to the Squamish area, we stopped at the Eagle viewing place and he was able to take pictures of a dozen or so of the birds.

 

Back in Onterrible it is rain that can shut down the construction sites. Out here nobody seems to notice rain but snow shuts down the sites so I had most of this week off. That worked out well. Friday was a non-stop down pour here and we were working in the mud. Lots of fun. Whistler was just about shut down by the heavy snow. The backcountry is again under an avalanche warning, there is a lot of snow up there.

 

Anyway, it rained so hard of Friday that as we worked in the mud my oilskin rain hat soaked right through. There was water running down my face. I went into the work cloths store today and bought one of those rain hats that the guys out on the fishing boats use. They look like miss shapen tires. When I got it home I noticed there was a tear in the rubber. I took it back, no problem getting a replacement but as I left the store I notice the clerk put the damaged one back on the shelf.

 

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Hi Doug,

 

Just a quick hello to thank you for another great Squamidian. Thanks for sharing.

Also, I was reading an article in The Age, which I thought might be of interest to your readers. It is a tad long, but I think it is worth reading as it shows another side of Australian life.

Have a good one...

 

Karin 

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/26/1069825841929.html

 

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Sus got tied up doing other stuff!

 

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The South Etobicoke Update

Well, I may have to rename my column something that covers a broader geographical area than just Etobicoke since Jim and I are about to expand our empire!  :)

We had an offer accepted on a townhouse in Orillia. Financing will be finalized next week so as long as the home inspection doesn't unearth any nasty surprises, we'll be closing at the end of December. There is already a tenant in place so the property will cashflow right out of the gate. Our first investment property--hooray!

As you may recall, Jim and I started this summer getting into investment real estate. We've spent the past few months getting educated and spending time with other investors and professionals in the business. I find it fascinating and exciting and can't believe how much I've learned in a short time. I also find that I'm applying a lot of what I've learned in my day job (managing a large advertising graphics studio) to the analysis part of the real
estate business. Good exercise for my brain.

We are also working on a deal for a duplex that would close late January. And in February I'll be investing some of my RRSPs into a second mortgage on a property in the Barrie area--for a much better rate than my mutual funds are giving me.

So I've rambled on long enough about real estate. You'll have to bear with me as I'm quite excited about our first closing. Other things going on these days...I celebrated 32 years on planet Earth earlier this month. Other November birthday wishes can go out to my nephew, Nicholas; my uncle, Gary; and my grandma's second-in-command, Cindy.

My birthday request to my folks was for them to come to me and let me cook dinner. So Mom, Al, Grandpa, Grandma and Cindy came down on a Sunday afternoon for a nice meal. Small problem was that within minutes after arriving, I broke my grandma's finger when an open window came crashing down on it! So poor Grandma and Grandpa and Jim had to spend a couple of hours at the hospital getting exrayed and patched up. That's one birthday neither Grandma nor I will soon forget.

Other than that, our life is pretty much same old same old. I finished my second baking class, Art of Breads, and won't resume until the new year. We spend a couple hours each weekend taking the dog for a nice long walk. We're still working out regularly (okay, a little less regularly) and aiming to stay in shape.

I've been enjoying reading the reports from all the Squamidian contributors. I hope Karin will forward some more updates from Jennifer in Germany. I really enjoyed reading about her impressions of the trip. And I hope Judy forwards more writings from Sheri. I also hope to see some updates in the near future from some of the readership to let us know what's up with them...Ewan?...Tara?...Alison?

That's enough from me for today. Have a great week everyone!

Jackie
Food for thought...

"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must
set yourself on fire."  - Reggie Leach

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THE ONTARION REPORT

 

November 28, 2003

 

Hi everyone! Brrrrrrrrrrrrr it sure is one of those soggy wet cccccold early winter days, or is it late fall? No matter it’s crappy out regardless. I don’t want to harp about the weather every week but it’s hard to refrain from it when I look outside. If there’s one thing that’s really nice about being retired it’s the fact that one has the choice of staying inside when it’s lousy out. However, I do have a couple more projects to complete today if I so choose. Carole and I went out yesterday and purchased a huge wreath for the front of our house. I am going to hang it on the front peak of the garage centered between the big doors. Since Carole decided not to put the “Icicle” lights around the eaves of the house it does look a little plain. So she thought the large wreath thing would be nice. I’m going to wait a bit to see if the rain lets up before venturing out to hang it. Supposed to be sunny Monday so I might just wait till then.

 

The second job that I have is to install a flagpole in the back yard. That’s right, a flagpole! Just before I left the Fire Dept the Deputy Chief offered me the old flagpole from the front of HQ station in Waterloo. I thought it might be a nice piece of history to have so I accepted. I didn’t get around to picking it up for the first month I was off. I figured I had lots of time for that. The Chief and Deputy took me out to lunch about 2 months later as a personal gesture. We had a nice meal at the Ali Baba in Waterloo. During our conversation the Deputy told me that he was sorry but he had to renege on his flagpole offer. He told me that there were a few other employees that had complained that they should have been given a chance to bid on the flagpole.

 

So he thought he’d better give the whiners a chance and add the flagpole to the growing list of useless items that get offered up for bids each year. He told me that he’d call me when the auction was ready. Well, I got an e-mail from him 2 weeks ago and he instructed me to put in a bid by calling his secretary. I did so via e-mail and lo and behold 2 days later I got a call from her telling me I was the proud owner of a vintage flagpole. My bid of $10.11 was apparently the only bid received. When I went in to the new HQ station to pay for the pole I was told by the secretary that when she checked, the pole wasn’t even added to the list. Oh well, I guess the Deputy decided that maybe I should have the pole after all. He’ll probably claim that it was on the list and the others just missed seeing it. At any rate, I now own the flagpole. Of course you all know that a flagpole isn’t usually a small item. This one is no exception! As it turns out, it’s 24’ in length and has a 6” ball on the top. I didn’t think it would fit in the Jeep so I was up for a transport challenge. There is a roof rack on the Jeep but it’s only about 5’ long and consists of one spindly rail on either side of the roof above the doors. I managed to mount 2 blocks of Styrofoam on the roof along side one of the rails. This gave me a place to lay the pole. Now all I had to do was secure the pole somehow and drive home without lancing anyone. There was also the fear of having someone drive into the pole at my rear. I asked Carole if she had anything red that I could use as a safety flag on the pole ends. She came up with 2 huge bright red Christmas bows. So off I went to the fire hall. I took along a piece of rubber carpet underlay and wrapped the flagpole in the center. This gave me some protection against the thing scratching my roof. Once I got the pole sitting centered on the roof of the Jeep I used electrician’s “Tie Wraps” to secure it to the rack. I mounted the big red bows and off I went.

 

I decided to drive through town rather than take the Expressway. I was just hoping that other drivers would see the red bows ok. Well, I managed to make it home without taking out anyone’s back window or having a following driver spear himself in the head. The pole was hanging out approximately 10’ on either end of the Jeep roof. When I got home, I took a picture of the setup and I’ll enclose it with this weekly for Doug’s website. (Thanks Doug!) Not often you get to experience such a feet so I figured it’s worth a picture. Carole and I decided to mount the pole in the corner of our yard behind the pond. As good a spot as any for it I’d say. With the kids in this neighbourhood being a tad forward, ie: breaking glass bus shelters and throwing garbage around whenever, I’ve decided not to have a halyard (rope) on the pole. I’ll simply devise a method of securing the pole so I can drop the whole thing to change the flag. This way the kids won’t be tempted to steal it! I do think it’ll be nice to have this flagpole as a memento of my days at WFD. Unusual yes but I’ve already gotten all this conversation out of it and I’m sure there will be many more curious people ask it’s history. I mentioned to Carole that I might just have a brass plaque engraved for mounting on the pole stating the place of origin and the years of service. So 100 years from now people arriving from other planets will know its story. Now all we have to do is go out and buy a flag.

 

I’ve been reminded many times by Carole that this “Report” is supposed to be about happenings in and around Ontario. I guess I just get into my own personal experiences a little more than I watch the news. Oh well, maybe next week I’ll find something in the news worth writing about.

 

I know that you already know about the Michael Jackson thing on a national scale. So talking about that is out and on the local scene, there’s really not much happening. The elections are over, the citizens of Waterloo are still bitching about the Rim Park thing. The citizens of Kitchener are still wondering who shot JR and if there really was a conspiracy to eliminate JFK. Let me ask you this. Is there anything about Kitchener area that those of you who’ve moved away would like me to check on? Is there any point of interest or history in this area that you’d like to see in a recent photograph? I’d be glad to supply you with pictures etc of anything of interest from KW. Maybe you want a picture of the house you used to live in or the school you used to attend as a student. I very rarely run out of things to talk about but I figured maybe you would like some input as to the content of The Ontarion Report. Please let me know if you have any ideas. Otherwise, you’ll just have to put up with my choice of topics as you have in the past. Don’t be shy!

 

Once again, thanks for tuning in and have a safe week!

 

Sincerely GREG.

 

PS: I’ll send Doug a picture of the flagpole once it’s standing in place. (I know………Big Deal!)

 

PPS: Something to Think About<

No man is half as smart as he wants a woman to think he is!

 

Editor’s Note:

Greg’s flagpole picture is posted to my sites, on the ‘Greg’ page.

 

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For low speed dial-up connections, just the basics:

http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b2/

 

For high speed connections:

http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/

 

To force a frame to refresh if your browser insists on using it’s stored temp files, right click inside the frame and choose refresh. You may have to hold down the Ctrl key at the same time.

 

Have a good one..

the doug