The Squamidian Report – Aug. 21 / 10

 

Issue #430

 

Including:

A Note From Carol

The Ontarion

 

Hi All,

 

Well now, for starter, we’ve had a couple of rather hot weeks. In fact, on August 14 Squamish recorded the highest temperature in all of Canada. It hit 37 C that day. Dozens of records were broken all across the province on several days in a row. Luckily for us, there was no humidity. We very seldom get any humidity here and when we do, it is so low that only the locals even notice it. It has now cooled off along the coast but it is still very dry. The Interior of the province is still desperately hot and dry with vast areas burning. Rain is definitely needed, and lots of it.

 

Berry crops seem to like the weather this year. My blueberries are just now coming to an end. I think I’ve had more berries this season than in the last 4 or 5 seasons put together. The local blackberries are abundant as well. They are the ones that hang like grapes from vicious, thorny brambles that can inflict serious injury to anyone foolish enough to go near them. Our cold wet spring and early summer gave the berry crops a good wet start although everything was a month late. Then it turned dry so the berries could ripen without getting wet. Blackberries tend to get moldy if they get wet when ripe.

 

We have a great picking spot where the blackberries are abundant and the picking is easy. It’s the edge of the parking lot at the small landscape company that I work for on occasion. It is private property so there is no competition from the general picking public and the few who do pick there can’t keep up with the berries as they ripen. So we have berries in the freezer for next winter enjoyment.

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A good friend of mine lives way over in the Kootenay’s near Nelson. They had lived just up the street from us but moved away just over a year ago. He’s the guy I used to go riding with. Anyway, we decided to have lunch together last Monday so we met at a restaurant in Princeton that is within a couple of kilometer of being the same distance for each of us. Its 364 k from my place and 362 from his. That makes for a nice morning ride. Once lunch was over we decided to just keep on riding, so we did, for the next couple of days. By the time I got home on Wednesday evening I had put on another 1835 kilometers. Big Blue is now just a few clicks short of hitting the big 20,000 mark.

 

As usual, I’ve posted the pictures etc to my web site. They can be seen at:

http://www.thedougsite.net/HD-rides/B&d1.htm

 

As you know from ‘The Wife’s’ note last week, she has a dog. Now that her dog Willow lives here, it has a web page. What else would you expect? So, if you want to see pictures of her etc, just click on over.

Willow’s web page:

http://www.thedougsite.net/Pictures/Willow/Willow1.htm

 

doug

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A Note From Carol

 

We thought we would not be able to make it up to Dorothy’s cottage this year.  Usually we know months in advance when our trip will be but this year the times offered just didn’t fit in with our schedule.  Nick was not happy about this since he has loved his time at the cottage each year since he was about 4.  A week ago Tuesday, as he and I were lamenting the fact we would miss our time up North, Dorothy called to say the cottage was suddenly available.  Dorothy was anxious for us to use her cottage as she always has some jobs that need taking care of that her children & grandchildren just won’t, or can’t do.  Our calendar was clear until the following Tuesday, Beth could arrange other babysitting for Vivvy and Nathan is still living here so he could look after the cat.  Al, Cameron, Duncan, Nick & I packed up and headed north on the Thursday afternoon.  We had to be back Monday evening but we were getting our cottage break.  Normally we notify any family members when we have the cottage in case some can join us.  With the short notice we didn’t even think of contacting Ewan, James etc. until it was too late.  We enjoyed having the three boys to ourselves for a change.  Our only bad weather was Saturday evening when Cam had to don his bathing suit to finish barbecuing our dinner.  Al was very happy to hand that job over to him.

 

You may recall that the meteor shower was slated for that Thursday night.  Doug mentioned that he wasn’t able to watch the sky because of smoke haze from forest fires.  We had a perfect night for star gazing.  There wasn’t a cloud in sight and the moon was a mere sliver.  Duncan counted the most shooting stars, over 50, before we all called it a night.  The cottage is on Carling Bay, north of Perry Sound, with virtually no light pollution.  The amazing thing was there were No Mosquitoes!  Never before have we been able to stay out doors much at night without drenching ourselves in insect repellent.  We were bug free our whole time north, in fact we have been bug free for much of the summer.  Not that I’m complaining but does anyone know why there have been so few mosquitoes this year?  Jackie says she has also enjoyed a bug free year at Fernglen Inn.  Jackie and Jim were able to join us at the cottage for about 6 hours on Sunday.  Jim had never been before and loved the view, the water (perfect swimming temperature), the kayak and the whole relaxing package.  Jackie tells me there is a very nice lake about 5km from their place and should we ever be able to afford a family cottage it would be the perfect location for her.  One has the same relaxing, cottage feel when visiting Sus in Nova Scotia.  Perhaps it is just the time away from demands and daily grind that make holidays so appealing.

 

Well we are back in the real world again.  This week I had a Session meeting, planning for fall; next week we both have condo Board & Official Board meetings and half a dozen jobs for both condo & church we have been putting off to enjoy our summer.  In 2 weeks it is back-to-school for the boys and regular commitments for the rest of us.  We still have a couple of special birthday parties to attend, Eve & Ed’s “house cooling” party and of course Gale’s famous bocce ball tournament.  Enjoy the rest of your summer.

 

Carol

 

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

 

Just want to thank the few who wrote in answer to my corn on the cob article last week. Sounds like Karin and Karl have good corn in Australia as well. Makes you wonder if corn was an original plant down under or did some settlers of that vast continent import it along with them when they first landed there! I guess there are many plants and crops that weren’t native to many parts of the world but are now grown in vast quantities and consumed by the inhabitants of these interesting countries. For us here in North America I believe, if my grade 5-history memory serves me correctly corn was shown to the white settlers by the “Indians” or native inhabitants of this continent. I wonder if they knew enough to soak the cobs fully encased in their husks in water before cooking them over their open fires? It would be interesting to find a history text from back when I was in grade 5 and read up on the subject once again. I think I’m accurate when I say that was the year we learned about such things in school. I’m sure that was when we studied about the explorers that discovered Canada and it’s innermost secrets.

 

If any of you public school teachers out there care to jump in and verify my historical curiosity I’d appreciate the assistance on this one! If I’m not mistaken, the text book of that particular year for History was entitled “Our Heritage” and it was a two tone brown cover with a silhouette sketch on the front, of native inhabitants paddling in a large birch bark canoe. I really liked “History” that year but what I didn’t like was my teacher Miss Howe. She was a miserable 22-year-old witch that somehow managed to get the principle Mr. Loney (also a mean bugger) to give me the strap. I guess she freaked out when I showed up for class one day without having my homework assignment completed for the second day. She totally disregarded the note my mother had written explaining the problem and dragged me to the principal’s office. I don’t know what she said to “Loney Baloney” while I waited outside “The Office” on the bench but he called me in as she left and wouldn’t even let me open my mouth before grabbing my wrist and with a jump 2’ in the air preceding the deed, whacking the hell out of my palm with a rigid cardboard covered 2” wide curved piece of metal about 18” long. He gave me 5 good whacks on each hand and then kicked my ass as he sent me out the door and back to the witch’s den!

 

My palms were still bright red when I arrived home at lunchtime and when I told my mother what happened she wasn’t very happy. She told me to go back to school after lunch and she’d take care of “things”. Well, my mother wasn’t one to be late for or miss work EVER so when I saw her walking toward the front door of Prueter School as I sat in class that afternoon I knew she was on a mission. She took time off work to finish what Miss Howe had started and for her to do that was serious business. It wasn’t 5 minutes later Miss Howe was called on the P/A to attend “The Principal’s” office and to bring me along with her. At this point she was filling her pants as we walked beside each other to “The Office”. She turned to me just outside the office and said while rotating her fists at me like a boxer, “If you’ve gotten me in trouble young man, Boy Oh Boy!”  As I sat once again outside on the bench I could hear “Loney Baloney” hollering at the top of his lungs in what turned out to be a reaction to Miss Howe’s answer to his question “Just what is the problem here Miss Howe?” She had apparently said “To tell you the truth Mr. Loney I don’t have much patience for 11 year old boys!” To which he replied in a very loud voice, “Then what the HELL are you doing teaching grade 5?”

 

When all was said and done, he made her apologize to my mother for disregarding her note, which by the way, was a request for a personal meeting to discuss the problem I was having with the subject of the incomplete homework. Then he made her apologize to me for what I’d gone through and promise to pay more attention to my needs and those of the other “boys” in her class. For the rest of that school year she was a model teacher but you could tell it was killing her to be polite and considerate to the boys in class. I think she just gave all the boys good grades to avoid any further conflict and to avoid having to have any of us repeat her class again the next year. There was something strange about Miss Howe and we just couldn’t quite put our finger on what it was until a few years later when we were in high school. Some of the guys and girls from that grade 5 class were in my class again at KCI. Miss Howe had transferred to teaching high school and she was a “girls” phys-ed teacher. As we heard through the grape vine, she was, who’d o’ thunk it, Gay and had a real hate on for boys! I guess that was her problem all along. Of course, back in those days if you were gay, you were not very well treated by society. So Miss Howe had her personal problems as well as her professional ones and I can’t even imagine what the rest of her life was like. That’s about all there is to that chapter of my life! Oh ya, one more thing, “Loney Baloney” never did apologize for his part in the ordeal and NO I never have forgiven the mean old bugger!

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That’s it for this week!

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>

That S.O.B sure packed a wallop and that “Strap” sure did STING!

Maybe that’s what caused the arthritis in my hands today? Hmmm?

Maybe I can sue the school board? I’ll have to look into that one! LOL!

PPS: They’ll probably just say I was a brat and I deserved it! LOL!

 

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Have a good one..

the doug

http://www.thedougsite.net

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The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.