The Squamidian Report –
March 26 / 11
Issue #461
Including:
Winter
The Ontarion
Hi All,
I guess most of us saw that extra bright full moon last weekend. If you happened to be driving toward it while it was still relatively low on the horizon, it was almost like looking into the headlight of a locomotive. Quite interesting. Something it did very nicely out here was illuminate the snowpack on the mountains. Our mountains glowed brightly as they stood out against the night sky. Saturn appeared close by the moon, just off to the north side from our prospective but as with any full moon, the sky was pretty well washed out making less bright objects hard if not impossible to see. From a sky-gazing point of view, a moonlit sky is the wrong time to try to see anything. Most objects are quite faint and require full night vision to be seen. Night vision requires darkness, not the glaring light of a full or even partial moon. Even proper viewing of the moon requires darkness. The correct and most interesting moon viewing is when it shows as a small crescent. Under those conditions, it is not blinding your night vision and the shadows cast from the lunar mountains create interesting contrasts. So, if you want to look at the moon, by all means do so when it is full or near full. But if you want to ‘see’ the moon, do so when it is a quarter or less.
Well, it’s almost a month late but it is here now. I’m talking about good old allergy season. Because our spring is several weeks late, everything is starting to pollinate at the same time. Normally it would be the alder trees starting first, sometime in early February and then the other stuff would get started in early March. But this year winter just dragged on and on. The alders did not get started until just this past week, a good 6 or 8 weeks late. And now of course the other early and not so early stuff is doing its thing. End results, itchy eyes, runny nose, and sneezing. So, for anyone interested in a good stock tip, invest in Kleenex because I’ll be using so much of the stuff over the next month or so that their market value will sore to lunar heights.
I’m just glad I don’t live in Vancouver where the streets are now lined with blossoming trees, the parks are alive with flowers. The resultant pollen would drive me nuts, even more nuts than I am driven to now. I guess its a good thing that we are slipping back into wetter weather as that will wash some of the pollen out of the air. The coming wetter weather is also why I have not put the bike on the road yet. I’ll let this next system pass and once it does, my biking season will start. Lots of others have had their bikes out for weeks but I’m getting soft in my old age and don’t really see a need to be out riding when conditions are not at their best.
Oh, here’s something bizarre. I am still dealing with the fact that I can not hear properly. My ears have still not cleared up. After trying some stuff that the doctor at the walk-in clinic prescribed, there was no change at all. Still almost deaf in one ear and about half volume in the other. So I made an appointment with our family doctor and had to wait almost two weeks to get in and see him. As usual, he really didn’t have much time to spend listening to the complaints of a middle aged white male. We just don’t carry much political weight when it comes to using the medical system. He wasn’t interested at all in how or why I couldn’t hear. He just looked in one ear and told me that the tubes that let the pressure equalize were blocked. Then he told me to take vitamin C and chew gum. That was it… out he went in a hurry to see other, more important patients. So, here I am, still almost deaf and hoping that at some point my ears clear themselves because there is no help out there for me, I’m on my own. And for what its worth, I’ve run into this same thing before when dealing with other problems, us old farts just don’t count any more. The medical system does not have time or recourses to waist on us.
Oh, here’s something bizarre. I am still dealing with the fact that I can not hear properly. My ears have still not cleared up. After trying some stuff that the doctor at the walk-in clinic prescribed, there was no change at all. Still almost deaf in one ear and about half volume in the other. So I made an appointment with our family doctor and had to wait almost two weeks to get in and see him. As usual, he really didn’t have much time to spend listening to the complaints of a middle aged white male. We just don’t carry much political weight when it comes to using the medical system. He wasn’t interested at all in how or why I couldn’t hear. He just looked in one ear and told me that the tubes that let the pressure equalize were blocked. Then he told me to take vitamin C and chew gum. That was it… out he went in a hurry to see other, more important patients. So, here I am, still almost deaf and hoping that at some point my ears clear themselves because there is no help out there for me, I’m on my own. And for what its worth, I’ve run into this same thing before when dealing with other problems, us old farts just don’t count any more. The medical system does not have time or recourses to waist on us.
doug
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Winter
Starting just after mid-night Wed., Mar, 23, it started to rain, then snow as the temperature dropped from + 4 to -11, 20 hours later. By morning there was about 5 - 6 inches of heavy stuff. As it kept snowing I kept putting off blowing, but it kept falling all day with a cold East wind. By 6.30 PM it began easing so I fired up the Harley and pushed and blew stuff still slosh on the bottom and the top 10+ inches of soft but rapidly freezing whitish snow. I wore my new snowmobile suit and needed it. Wonder what the robins think after arriving in 13+ weather a few days ago.
Waterloo Wellington International sets the recent snow-fall at 26 c
The reference to 'HARLEY' in Wed. note means Massey and should not be confused with that legendary 2 wheeler, even though the label would indicate otherwise.
Lorne
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Well, just when we thought we were pretty much free of “Old Man Winter” we got smacked with an early Spring snow storm! It snowed for a good twenty four hours starting on Tuesday around midnight and ending well into the evening on Wednesday. We arose on Wednesday morning to find about 6” of the stuff covering everything for as far as the eye could see. I took my sweet time getting ready to hit the front drive with the blower. I figured that if it was going to keep on snowing, I might as well let it accumulate as much as possible before heading out to clear the drive and the sidewalks. As it was it took me a good hour and then some to get everything cleared on the first go round. Going from a couple of weeks of no snow and lovely mid teen temperatures to -15c and tons of snow over night was shocker indeed. On the other hand, this is Canada and we really should know better than to think March would be anything but a mix of snow, ice and spring like days all jumbled up! As my mother used to say “If March comes in like a lamb, it’ll go out like a lion!” and this March is proof of the pudding! When we arrived on the Canadian side of the border on the third of March we were happy to see that from London to Kitchener was relatively snow free with the exception of the edges of farm fields and some piles of snow plow etchings along the roadways. We commented that we might just get some more snow before the end of the month since we were, after all, back in “The Great White North”! Well, here we are up to our shins in snow for another week or so until it melts once more! I actually had to go out Wednesday evening around 10pm for a second go round with the TORO. I figured it had stopped snowing around 8pm so if the weather man was right there would be no further flakes coming our way with this storm. I managed to get it all cleared up a second time and lo and behold, come morning the walkways were still nice and clear of snow. I really don’t think we’re out of the woods yet as far as early spring snowstorms go but we’ll just have to wait and see on that one!
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There was a sad event that I’m sure you all know took place in Listowel Ontario today. They held a joint funeral for two Perth firefighters who were killed when the roof of a “Dollar Store” in downtown Listowel collapsed on them last week. One was a Deputy Chief and the other a four year veteran of the volunteer fire dept that covers the towns of Atwood and Listowel. Being Listowel doesn’t have a full time department they are joined by surrounding volunteer departments whenever they have a major fire. This fire took place in the middle of the afternoon. A fellow was seen on the roof of the store doing some service work on the heating and air conditioning system. Suddenly a witness noticed that he was fighting a small fire on the roof. The small fire managed to get into the ceiling of the store, I imagine through the ductwork of the furnace and spread across the ceiling. The alarm was sounded and the fire dept was called to the scene. At this point according to what I’ve read in the papers the people in the store were told to evacuate along with all of the employees. The fire became a raging inferno within a few minutes of the arrival of the fire depts. From what was stated on the news and in the papers approximately two hours into the fire the Deputy Chief became aware that “someone” thought there might be “someone” still inside the building. He made his way into the burning structure accompanied by two other firefighters. Just as they entered, the roof collapsed into the store. One of the three firefighters that had entered the fire made it out to safety. Two hours later, some realized that the DC and the young firefighter were nowhere to be found. At that point they realized that they hadn’t been seen since two hours earlier when they headed in to look for the civilians suspected to still be inside. Unfortunately, they realized at this point that the two men had been lost when the roof collapsed. They were unable to retrieve the two bodies until late the following day because of the unsafe condition of the remaining structure.
Now, a couple of things come to mind when I read through the reported facts. First of all, when the fire dept first arrived on scene at this fire, did they not do an immediate initial search of the interior of the building to make sure all people were evacuated? Second, with the fire being so far progressed within the building, why would anyone especially a Deputy Chief think that someone could still be alive in such an inferno? Third and most important, why would he make the decision to enter the fire and follow through with such a decision?
Trust me, nobody could possibly be alive inside at that point in such a situation!
With the amount of years of experience that the Deputy Chief had, I find it difficult to believe that the facts reported are accurate. I’m sure that the time structure reported must be incorrect! The report of anyone still being inside the building probably came shortly after the arrival of the fire department and not two hours into the emergency, at that point it would certainly be possible that a search team would enter the structure. It’s just unfortunate that fires in volunteer areas tend to get a good hold on whatever building is burning before the firefighters arrive. With this in mind, initial search and rescue of the interior of a burning building is particularly dangerous. Unfortunately in this situation the roof had been weakened early in the fire and the timing was such that it cost two local heroes their lives!
My thoughts are with their families and friends!
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 Ontario Report!
Bye for now… GREG
PS: Something To Think About>
Have you checked and replaced the batteries in your home smoke detectors this year?
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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.