The Squamidian Report – July 13 / 13
Issue
#581
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Pretty uneventful around here lately. No big storms or floods or other calamities like whats been happening in so many other places around the country. So, not much to talk about. We did have a mother bear and her two cubs wandering around on our street yesterday morning. Good thing ‘the wife’ brought the bird feeder in the night before. We often forget to bring it in at night and so far it hasn’t been found by the bears but if we’d left it out that night I’m sure it would have been torn to shreds and the bears would have been all over our back deck. Then I would have had something to write about.
We've got Kyra here right now, she's been here for a week and will be here for another week. Thats great for us. However, there are little kid toys all over that back deck that the baby bears would have had all sorts of fun with. There is probably bits of spilled and dropped food particles spread around as well so I think we got off lucky. Having Kyra here is one of the reasons there isn't very much to write about. Life is quiet and sedate without any excitement or adventures, the way it must be when an ankle-biter is around. But, there isn't much material to share. Oh, here's something.... I've now had 3 ripe blueberries from my blueberry patch. The rest are still quite a ways away from ripening. Just like the last 3 years, local fruit and berries are way behind due to the 'now normally cold' springs and early summers we've been having.
The only other thing I can think of is that I had to wash the bike. It got good and dirty due to being caught in a downpour. My riding group had done a run up past Pemberton last Sunday. Had a great ride, but on the way back down we ran into the only thunderstorm in BC. It was sitting right over the Whistler valley area and must have been stuck there. Running into it was like going though a curtain. It was sudden downpour, raining so hard we could barely see. Lightning was hitting quite close, close enough to almost lift us out of our bike seats. We had no choice but to keep riding until we could find a safe place to pull off the highway. We could then put on rain gear and clear our visors. As we left the Whistler area we rode out of the storm and it was sunny and dry the rest of the way down. We seem to be able to find rain when we ride, so much so that even is none is forecast, we will find some. We've got such a reputation for causing rain when we ride that local farmers now pay us to stay away if they don't need rain, or pay us to ride by if they do. The Okanagan is no longer desert thanks to us, it is a lush green valley. Just kidding, but just barely. And thats all I've got.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
July is well underway and things are looking up weather-wise! Looks like we’re in for some sunshine without rain for at least a few days. The long range report says we’re in for sunshine with only small percentages of possible rain on some of the days. I guess we have to expect some rain to keep things green and growing. Wouldn’t want the grass to stop growing! Otherwise, what would I do without any grass to mow? LOL!
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Speaking of things at annoy me, while watching the news about a week ago it was reported that Ontario (ie: The Liberal Government) has been spending incredible amounts of our money on incredibly stupid deals without even checking with it’s constituents and when I think about it I get ticked off to no end! Apparently we here in Ontario have a huge glut of electricity that we can’t use as fast as it’s being made. The Liberal Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli in his wisdom and typical Liberal fashion has decided to GIVE this extra energy to our neighbours to the south for FREE! Now, the question that immediately popped into my head was “Why doesn’t he turn this “Glut” onto lower rates for the taxpayers of Ontario in stead of giving it to the USA? What the hell is wrong with this guy anyway? Here we are as the people supplying our tax dollars to run this province, listening to the Liberals bitch about not being able to afford so many worth while projects that would benefit the people of Ontario and we find them giving away a resource that they could be selling to the States if even at a nominal rate that would bring real dollars other than the ones they yank out of our pockets to the coffers of the province! What kind of management of our resources and tax funds are we witnessing here anyway? What a bonehead move by the Liberals once again! With us being subjected to the new “Smart Meters” and being billed extra fees for using our electricity at peek times I’d say this Energy Minister should have his head read! Why are we paying premium fees for using energy at normal times of the day and week when we have enough of it to allow our government to be GIVING it away to a foreign country? Isn’t it time this government started putting our own citizens first? This was one situation that ticked me off but there are others! The second part of this story is the energy production reduction scheme that this guy has come up with as well. The Energy Minister’s office (Mr Chiarelli) decided that we needed to reduce the production of electrical power as well as start giving it away so he came up with the idea of paying the owners of the Bruce Nuclear facility to stop producing power. He has worked out a deal with these owners, who, by the way are a foreign country (England) in which Ontario will pay them $1,000,000.00 per day for every day they shut down one of their reactors! So far there have been 42 days of shut down this year so that makes $42,000,000.00 paid out for nothing! They have also made a deal to pay them one million a day to vent the steam the reactors produce to drive the turbines that produce electrical power into the air! This little deal has so far this year cost the taxpayers of Ontario an additional $30,000,000.00 making a total of seventy two million paid out for nothing! Then you have to consider the fact that what they’ve already given away has amounted to many millions of dollars likely equaling the same amount that’s gone up in smoke or should I say steam with this asinine move by the Liberals! Even with this series of events reported on the national news, the Liberals don’t seem to even bat an eye when questioned about the wisdom of such mismanagement of our taxpayer’s dollars! If you or I were in charge of such a budget as the energy minister is wasting, we’d be fired on the spot! In the business world such a move would spell disaster but apparently the business of running our province has no limits to the amount of mismanagement that goes on! I’m only one voice but I thank you for allowing me this venue to vent my frustrations!
When the questions were put to the Minister of Energy as to why he’s doing what he’s doing, he simply said, “It’s the most efficient way to handle the situation!” and he walked away from the reporters. Surely to hell the “Premier of Ontario” is involved in such huge decisions and I like to think that someone within Chiarelli’s party there is at least one person that thinks like I do and would put these questions to him in a caucus meeting? One would think that these supposedly intelligent governors of our province could come up with a better solution than giving our energy away for nothing! I guess there’s always the next election to fix this mess! That is, IF the voters even remember what these jerks have done to us in JUST the past year!
That’s it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
The next time you look up and see a fluffy white cloud drifting in a clear blue sky it may be one of the Bruce clouds of steam in the form of Hundred Dollar Bills!
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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.