The Squamidian Report – Nov. 28 / 09
Issue # 392
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Every once in a while I check out Google Earth again (not to be confused with Google Maps) just to see what has been added or changed. This time I got a pleasant surprise. The Squamish / Whistler corridor has been displayed in high def for some time now but the photography was so dark that you couldn’t make anything out. They have now replaced that data with pictures that are much lighter and clearer. Don’t know why it took them till just recently to replace the picture(s) in their database. The new one is dated April 4/09 but it only just now began showing in their program. However, it is there now and quite interesting to check out. Being early April the leaves are not on the trees yet, and there is still a fair amount of snow in the high country. Even more interesting is what ‘we’ appear to be up to.
Ryan had picked up his Sportster near the end of March and he kept it at our place for several weeks until riding could be done on a regular basis. So, April 4 was a sunny Saturday and my truck is sitting out on the driveway. Ryan’s car is sitting in the parking spot at the front of our lot. The reason my truck would be sitting out side of the garage would be to let us get the bikes out past it. Normally the truck is parked inside. So far the evidence points to the possibility that we are out for an early season ride.
Now if that is the case we just might be able to spot ourselves somewhere on the highway in or south of Squamish. There would not be too many bikes out yet and the only riding direction available to us would be south. We would still encounter late winter conditions and temperatures if we tried to ride north into the mountains. So on my computer screen I followed along the streets that lead down out of the Highlands and onto #99 at Mamquam Rd. Low and behold, there are two bikes heading south just north of the Mamquam River Bridge. The coordinates of that location are approximately: 49-43-46.6 N by 123-08-25.5 W. Because of the sun angle you can’t get a very good look at the bikes but you can see their shadow and while circumstantial, the evidence sure fits. The lead bike is the smaller of the two, the other bike is sitting in the staggered formation that we tend to ride in and judging from its shadow it has a faring and a tour-pac.
So even though this is pure conjecture on my part, it sure looks like Ryan and I are headed out, we have just been on the highway for a couple of minutes and are rumbling in a southerly direction so we can enjoy a Saturday morning ride. I say morning because the direction that the shadows are in indicates that the sun is still in the east. Now is that cool or what?
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The company I work for is rebuilding a section of street in an old run-down section of town for a customer who wants to put an addition on to his business building. The town is making the business upgrade the street as well as the existing underground services and install new services. The problem for us is that all of down town is very close to sea level and we are installing underground duct banks and vaults as well as drain piping etc. This particular old section is out near the estuary and when the tide comes in, the ditches fill up. They only drain when the tide is out. That means that water table is right under the surface.
The concrete vaults that hydro and the phone company and the cable company insist on being put in place require holes about 2.5 meters deep. That puts us almost 2.5 meters below high tide as well as well below low tide. The soil is mostly shmoo mixed with logs and silt. The silt is sticky and gooey enough that it will actually hold back the water for a short time but it is only about 2.5 meters deep. Under it is coarse sand that permits the flow of water. So when we dig down to the required depth we get water shooting up from the bottom of the hole. If we haven’t punctured the bottom of the silt, the water pressure will push the layer of silt up into a dome, which then ruptures, and the hole floods.
So we do a lot of pumping and use a lot of drain rock. But all the pumping in the world can’t keep up with the water and if the tide is in there is no where to pump the water to so it can make for some frustrating times. Basically, it is like we are trying to dig a hole in the bottom of a boat. Just does not work very well.
doug
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Hello everyone!
It’s getting colder each day and I guess we’ll be up
to our knees in white stuff in about ten days or so. That’s what Dave MacDonald
says anyway. I guess we’ve had a pretty good run of warmer than usual weather
for November. I think we had about 10” of snow this time last year. I was able
to get out on the weekend for a ride and I’m sure it’ll be the last one for
this year. I enjoyed a run up country for about two hours and by the time I was
heading home it was getting a little bit nippy. With the proper riding clothing
it’s still enjoyable as long as it’s dry out. We actually had a sunny afternoon
that day and it felt like spring for the first couple of hours. Oh well, I
guess the cold stuff has to come sometime.
We had a better “Indian Summer” than we did an actual
summer this year. I’ve been told that that means the tables will be turned next
year and we’ll have a blazing hot summer and a short Indian one. Sounds good to
me! This weekend will be the one where Adam and I reorganize the garage and put
the bikes away along with the MGB. Adam’s Mini Cooper also fits in the garage
with the other three vehicles for the winter. He uses the Cooper all year round
now. He used to store it during the winter months but has driven it in the snow
the last two. It’s a great little vehicle in the snow. With the weight of the
engine over the drive wheels it gives him pretty good traction in the winter. I
don’t mind leaving the Jeep out in the winter because it’s kind of what Jeeps
are all about anyway. It’s amazing having the four-wheel drive in the winter
months and its lots of fun.
Of course this winter we’ll be away to Florida for
the entire month of February. We’ve rented a condo on the Pensacola beach as I
think I’ve mentioned before and we’ll be out of the snow for at least that time
anyway. We’re looking forward to enjoying some sunshine in the middle of winter
even if that part of Florida isn’t quite as warm as the lower part of the
state. At least it’s warmer than CCCCcanada! We turned our furnace on this week
for the first time this year. With the above normal temps that November has
brought this year we managed to get by with the gas fireplace in the family
room until this week. Having to run our furnace only about 5 months out of the
year is a bonus. I don’t think I could afford to have it burning all year
round! Next year I’m going to install a new furnace since the one we have now
is original and the house was built in 1976. It’s time for a new one! I think
I’ll go with a mid efficiency furnace rather than a high efficiency one. Our
furnace is located smack dab in the middle of the basement and it would be
difficult to run the plastic vent pipes out any of the walls since the entire
basement surrounding the furnace room has finished ceilings. The best way to go
is to use mid efficiency and then I can still use the original B-vent chimney
from the old furnace. With the mid furnace we should still save a pretty good
amount on the cost of our natural gas over running the old one. Guess I really
won’t know until we install it and see what happens. That’s a project for next
summer at the earliest.
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Well, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
around here. We got all the decorations out last weekend and even put the
Christmas Tree up. It looks very nice standing in the hallway beside the
staircase to the upper bedrooms. We needed some new strings of lights for the
tree this year. We thought maybe we’d invest in a “pre lit” tree so we went out
to price them. We found that they range from $65.00 to $1,000.00 in price.
That’s right, one THOUSAND DOLLARS! We just about dropped over when we saw the
tag on the trees at the nursery on Ottawa St. Sheridan Nursery has the 8
footers for $999.00. The problem is not just the price, but I found that most
of the pre lit trees still have the shitty little lights on them that always
burn out! The least they could do is put LED lights on them so they’ll last a
few years! We decided to just invest in a few strings of LED lights for our old
tree and put it up with them on it. They are very bright and we did it all with
white lights. It looks terrific and Carole did a wonderful job of decorating it
after I installed the lights. I use to just hate it when I’d pre test each
string and then string them on the tree only to plug it in and have two strings
in the middle of the damned thing that didn’t work! Frustrating to say the
least! So, maybe now the more reliable LED’s will give us a few years of
trouble free service. Even the 7 new strings of LED’s cost us almost $100.00
but that’s still better than several hundred for a pre lit tree. When these
give up the ghost I’ll be campaigning for a 12” table top tree to replace it!
Either that or NONE at all! Thirty seven years of Christmas trees is enough for
me anyway! (or is it 60 years?)
That’s it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to talking
to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… Greg.
PS: Something To Think About>
I hear Australia is being over run by wild Camels!
Maybe we could send them our over abundance of Camel Jockeys to control them?
OOPS! Was that a tad racist? Forgive me!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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