The Squamidian Report – Jan. 27 / 07
Issue # 244
Also in this issue:
From Judy & Brian
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Well, this has been a nice quiet week here, with the house all to myself. Kinda’ like the days when the wife was still in Audit. All I had to do was drag myself home from work, plop down on the couch and vegetate in front of the TV until I got hungry enough to crack open a can of beans. Then after a peaceful evening of doing absolutely nothing I would turn in. I could stay up as long as I wanted, no problem. Of course, I only wanted to stay up till about 9 or so but that’s not the point. The point is, I could have stayed up later if I’d wanted too. But now my bachelor week is over. I pick the wife up at the airport this afternoon.
*
Believe it or not, the high winter tides are playing havoc with down town construction. Pretty well any kind of construction requires digging into the ground and therein lies the problem. High tide blocks the normal flow of groundwater as it works its way through the soil down to the sea. Down town is not very high above sea level and when the tide is in and high, the groundwater gets backed up to the point where the drainage ditches can’t flow. That means groundwater level is only about a foot below the surface. So when we need to dig for footings or service trenches, we are digging in water. To make it worse, we can only pump for short periods and then only with permission from the fish and game people.
For one thing, when we try to pump a hole down enough to work in it, the reduced hydraulic pressure in the surrounding soils causes things like hydro poles to lean and roads to crack. So we have to keep our pumping to a very minimum. And then the fish people come and check for sediments and dirt in the ditches and get quite upset if we have dirtied the ditches. Can’t win. So we take days and days to do what could be done in a few hours in the dry summer when the groundwater levels are much lower and the area has had time to do it’s summer firm-up. We go through load after load of drain-rock and truck away load after load of mud. No wonder things cost so much to build around here.
The groundwater level also explains why there are no basements under any homes or buildings down in the lowlands. You simply couldn’t dig a basement and if you did you wouldn’t be able to keep it pumped out. Pretty well everything down town and in the surrounding low lands is built on a floating slab, a pad of gravel that is intended to carry the weight of the building. A lot of older buildings and homes are simply sitting on the mud and float as best they can. Some do fine, others not so good. A lot of newer buildings have cracked concrete floor slabs and other problems. Comes with the territory I guess. Sure am glad our home is up on solid Garibaldi bedrock.
doug
****
A bit dated but the facts are there nonetheless.
Subject: Article from the UK Sunday Telegraph - TRIBUTE TO CANADA
This is a good read - funny how it took someone in England to put it into words...
Sunday Telegraph Article From today's UK wires: Salute to a brave and modest nation.
Kevin Myers, The Sunday Telegraph LONDON - Until the deaths last week of four Canadian soldiers accidentally killed by a U.S. warplane in Afghanistan, probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops were deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will now bury its dead, just as the rest of the world as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does. It seems that Canada's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored. Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again. That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with the United States, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions: It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved. Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy. Almost 10% of Canada's entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle. Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, its unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular Memory as somehow or other the work of the "British." The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and the fourth-largest air force in the world. The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated - a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity. So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and Christopher Plummer, British. It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers. Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of the world's peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peacekeepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia. Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular on-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia, in which out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit. So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan? Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac, Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun. It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost. This week, four more grieving Canadian families knew that cost all too tragically well.
****
Hello
everyone!
Stepping
outside the door over the past few days has been a move for the brave. We’ve
been having the coldest weather of our winter so far. It’s a real shocker after starting out with quite bearable fall
type weather for the first 8 weeks of winter. Oh well the snow and cold had to
show up sometime. Now we’ll know what to wear when venturing outside for any
reason from here on in. I’m just happy in the knowledge that winter is more
than half over. Looking forward to the upcoming spring sure does make one feel
better. I went out to the shed the other day and managed to dig my way in deep
enough to expose my motorcycle. I did so to place the new cover on my bike that
Adam had given me for my birthday. I am happy to say it fits like a glove. At
least the cover will keep the other goods I have piled on top of the bike from
scratching my paint. I want my Suzuki to be shiny as new when I bring it out
for next riding season. Adam and I watch the motorcycle building shows that
have become popular on TV and it keeps our imaginations buzzing with trips we
could take on our machines this upcoming summer. My style of machine isn’t
designed for long distance riding but I’m willing to take the sore bum for a
ride of 100 kms or so. It’s a lot of fun cruising both in the city and out in
the countryside.
Oh well,
I guess I can wait a few more months to get back to riding. I’m still enjoying
the fun of driving the 4x4 Jeep in the snow. I’m amazed at the control it gives
me when I compare it to the slipping and sliding of the other vehicles around
me. Makes me feel very happy that we bought the Jeep. Carole and I both remark
often how much more secure we feel when traveling in this weather.
*
I had a
little bit of a trip back in time this afternoon. We were watching TV and came
across a cartoon show named after it’s main character “Gerald McBoing Boing”. I
hadn’t thought about this series since I was a young boy. We used to watch
Gerald back in the mid and late fifty’s. Gerald was a young boy who
communicated by making sound effects with his mouth rather than talking with
words. It seemed that everyone in the cartoon could easily understand his
series of noises but his father. It was a lot of fun trying to figure out what
he was saying. I know I always thought I knew what he was saying but when
you’re a kid, you have great imaginations and I guess it was fun too. Anyway,
it WAS fun to look back on the cartoons of yesteryear. It made me think of the
political correctness of television today. The cartoons of the 60’s and 70’s
and even 80’s are considered too violent for today’s politically correct
society. It’s hard to imagine that the Road Runner/Coyote adventures could
trigger violent actions that would ban the broadcast of same. Any responsible
parent should easily be able to explain the difference between a cartoon and
reality to their children. I think it’s just the lazy attitude of today’s young
spoiled parents that’s the problem, not the bad influence of such cartoons. I
think they should get off their lazy asses and teach their kids the manners and
behavior that our parents put a lot of effort into teaching us when we were
kids. I can’t remember ever mimicking the violence of the cartoons I watched as
a kid. It’s easy, TV = fantasy…….. our actions as kids or adults = reality! How
hard can it be?
*
Well
albeit that this was a short edition I think I’ll call it a day. Thanks for
tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next time in The
Ontarion Report.
Bye for now… Greg
PS:
Something To Think About>
What was
your favourite cartoon back when you were a kid? Um….? That is, IF you had TV
when you were a kid! LOL!
PPS: I
guess I shouldn’t generalize about the laziness of today’s young parents. Let’s
just say “Many” of today’s young parents don’t seem to put much effort into
guiding their kids in the art of manners and good behavior.
****
The Family and the Squamidian sites:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/ and http://www.thedougsite.ca
Have a good one..
the
doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.