The Squamidian Report – Oct. 31 / 09
Issue #388
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Well, it came all too soon. The last motorcycle ride of the season. There are still some nice days ahead but they are few and far between now that it is the rainy season on the wet coast. And when one of those nice days does come along it could be too cool out to be enjoyable on a bike, and face it, the whole purpose of riding is for enjoyment. Riding in weather that is too cool or wet is not enjoyable. In fact it can be dangerous so at some point we simply have to put the bikes away.
So Ryan and his friend and the wife and I saddled up and did a run to Porteau Cove, then down back to town and up through Brackendale, out past the airport and back down the highway to the gas station where we topped up the tanks, poured in some stabilizer and rode the final, sad, 3 clicks on up to our place. Ryan’s bike will be stored in our garage, as he has no ‘indoor’ parking at his place.
The Sportster gets tucked into one corner of the garage and the Yamaha (yes, we still have the old girl) gets tucked into the other corner. My Electra Glide gets parked as close to the back wall as possible. We leave the batteries in the bikes and plug them into those little smart chargers that feed the battery just enough juice to keep them charged and healthy without the danger of over charging. As both the Harleys have on board computers and security systems that continually use electrical power, the batteries would slowly go down over the winter if they were not maintained. Throw a protective cover over the bikes and they are ready to wait until mid March when we can again mount up and hit the road. At this point March seems a long way off.
However, it has been a great riding season. Ryan put 21,001 kilometers on his bike and I put 17,114 on mine. Most of the difference is from that ride he did to Banff last summer and the fact that he could use his bike to go to work in Whistler whenever he was in the office. We made it up the Sunshine coast and over to the Island, we made it into the Interior several times, we had that great trip down into the States and we did many hot chocolate runs to Horseshoe Bay and Whistler. It all added up to one great season of riding. The hot dry summer sure helped, we ran into more rain down through the desert States than we ever did here on the coast. Now it is over, we can look forward to next year. In the mean time, we should see if the old dirt bikes will start. They have been neglected for a long time.
*
In the last episode, Greg mentioned Halloween and how some people prepare for it. Well, out here Halloween is a big deal. Many people go to incredible lengths to decorate their homes and yards. Towns and cities throw parties and host attractions for weeks ahead. There are fireworks displays and street parties. And on and on. On some levels it is almost as big as Christmas. I’m sure the retailers wish it were on all levels. Now is I could just find a bag of coal to give out to the little rats as they swarm our front door I’d be quite happy.
doug
****
****
BOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo……….!
HAPPY
HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!
Hope you
all have a very spooky Halloween night!
Here we
are ready to begin another “Devil’s Night” or as we used to call it when I was
a kid “Doorbell Night”. We used to go out every Doorbell Night and ring a dozen
or two around the neighbourhood. It became old hat early in the evening but it
was fun. We used to wind up just walking around the local streets in a group of
about 8 to 10 kids and looking at all the spooky looking old houses. There were
many old houses in the North Ward of Kitchener. They had to be old my mother
was born in one of them on the corner of Blucher St and Brunswick Ave in 1919
and she was OLD! She was 40 and that was ancient when we were kids. I think the
house she was born in was built about 40 years before she came along so I rest
my case! Most of the people in our neighbourhood were around my parents age and
were crotchety old grumps when it came to having their door bells rung and
finding nobody there when they answered the door. I guess when you’re old
things like that bother you more. Over the years we used to ask my mum and dad
what they did on doorbell night when they were kids and they had some good
tales to tell, especially my dad.
He was
born in 1913 in Hespler and always had lots of adventurous tales to tell us
about when he was a kid. He had a good friend by the name of Pep McKeller and
they both used to work for Panabaker’s Grocery store around the corner from my
dad’s place. They delivered groceries both on bicycle and with a horse and
wagon. Dad said that in those days nobody had fences around their back yards
and everyone of course had an out house out back. He told us about the one time
they decided to have a little fun on Devils Night and make use of the horses
from Panabaker’s store. He and Pep sneaked into the stable behind the store and
took the horses out. They had saddles for the horses as well as the wagons.
They saddled up the horses and swiped a rope from the wall of the stable. They
started at one end of my dad’s block and galloped down the back yards with the
rope strung between the two saddle horns passing on either side of each
Outhouse as they went. They of course pulled over every one of them for several
blocks and then headed back to the barn before anyone could catch them. In the
morning he said that it didn’t take long for word of the vandalism to spread
around the neighbourhood. Of course he and Pep were questioned about the
situation but it wasn’t until many years later that he finally told his dad
that he and Pep were the ones that did the dirty deed.
If he had
told grandpa Payne about it before he had moved out of the house and gotten
married my grandpa would have beaten him half to death I’m sure. Dad said he
thought his dad was still going to pop him one when he told him the truth as an
adult. Hahaha… I guess my grandpa Payne had a bit of a temper and was able to
instill a feeling of fear in the kids before they were adults that kept them in
line. To me it sounds like my dad still had a wild streak in him that provided
lots of fun as a kid that as long as my grandpa didn’t find out made for some
good times and good memories.
The only
time we got into any real trouble on Doorbell Night was the night we tossed a
bunch of tomatoes at the side of a house a few blocks away from our place and
the guy caught me as we ran from the scene of the crime. He took me home to my
folks and my brother and I had to spend the next day at his place scrubbing the
tomatoe stains off the brick wall. His house was made of grey brick so the
tomatoes made quite a mess! It took us all morning and half the afternoon to
scrub the wall several times before most of the stains were gone. That was the
first Halloween that we were NOT allowed to go out trick or treating. I guess
we deserved the punishment we got but I did think that cleaning the wall was
enough. I sure did miss that shopping bag full of candy that was usually
hanging on the post of my bed from Halloween to Christmas that year! LOL!
That’s it
for this week folks!
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>
If you
hear your doorbell ring the night before Halloween and you answer the door,
DON’T stomp of the paper bag that’s burning on your porch! Trust me you’ll be
glad you didn’t!
****
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.