The Squamidian Report – April 12 / 14
Issue #620
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Last Sunday was our annual officer's meeting for the riding club I am
in. As per usual, the meeting was held in Nanaimo, that being a central
location for the Island chapters as well as being as convenient as can
be for the main land chapters. We have 3 CMC chapters here on the
mainland and there was a total of 12 officers who attended from the
mainland. Due to the cost of using the BC ferry system, the least
expensive way to get to Nanaimo and obviously back, was to for those
who could car-pool to do so and park in the pay lot at Horseshoe Bay,
and for me to drive to the Bay and use the pay lot as well. Then all of
us boarded as walk-on passengers. The crossing takes about an hour and
a half and is quite scenic the whole way but when one has made that
crossing many times one no longer feels the need to stand out on the
deck taking pictures or taking in the view. We found a seating area
where we could chat, catch oup on old friendships and discuss some club
business.
As we were approaching Nanaimo, perhaps still about 15 minutes out, I
spotted a fast moving powerboat approaching from the port side at a
very high speed. It was on a perpendicular course and if nothing
changed, it would intersect the nose of the ferry. Just as I spotted
the boat, the ferry horn blasted 4 times and the ferry slowed a bit.
You could feel the engines power back. There was no change in speed or
direction from the powerboat. Now some of you may recall I've mentioned
that one of my officer's is Ian, DrMucker of You Tube fame. Ian never
goes anywhere without one of his cameras, usually the one he had with
him, the one we call the 'stocker cam' because of the incredible clear
zoom capabilities it has. I think it zooms to about 2400 times with
almost no lose of clarity. I pointed out the boat and suggested to Ian
that he might want to go out on deck and get some pictures. He headed
out and the ferry blasted its horn again and really slowed, it felt
like they threw it into reverse. The powerboat never changed speed or
direction and cleared the nose of the ferry by a hundred feet or so.
Ian came back in and showed us the pictures he had taken. He had zoomed
right in and had the name of the boat, the name and model of the
outboard engines, and even the faces of the driver and passenger. I
suggested he check with the bridge crew to see if they wanted or needed
his pictures. He did, and they were quite happy to have a copy. (the
wonders of digital photography). Just after he came back an attendant
came and thanked him and said thanks to the evidence on his pics, the
coast guard would be paying a visit to that boat and it's owner very
soon. The boat owner had broken numerous marine laws and rules.
On the crossing back, he was again able to get some interesting
pictures although the subject of his shots were not actually breaking
any rules, just having fun.
As we approached Horseshoe Bay a couple of jet-ski things came zooming
out at high speed, but went out past the rear of the ferry where they
could play in the ferry's wake, racing back and forth across the wake
and using them to get airborne. So, while we saw lots of wild life on
our crossings, it was only the human kind.
'The Wife' is back. Just thought I'd let you know. Good to have her
home. The dog was sure glad to see her. I had tried to not show any
indication that something was up all Wednesday and yet I could tell she
(the dog, not the wife) was looking at me strangely, expectantly. Then
throughout the evening she (the dog, not the wife) started sticking
like glue. 'The Wife's' plane was scheduled to get in about 10:15pm or
so which meant there was no point in heading for YVR until about 9pm. I
was sitting at the computer doing stuff. At about 5 to 9 the dog got up
and started doing everything in her power to convince me we had to go.
She thundered to the door the same way she does when she is trying to
get our butts in gear at walk time. I have no idea how she could know
that we'd be heading to the airport at 9, but she sure seemed to know.
Traffic was lite and we drove in along the Sound and onto the Upper
Levels Highway. If we were headed for Ryan's we would stay on the
highway all the way to the Maple Ridge turnoff. If we are headed for
the airport we turn off at Taylor Way, which we did. As soon as the dog
saw me exit from the highway at the 'correct' interchange she began to
wine a bit until I told her to stop. She spent the time it takes to get
through down town Vancouver looking expectantly out the car window. Her
excitement grew as we neared the airport. There was only a wait of
perhaps 10 minutes for 'The Wife' to retrieve her luggage. Once we were
back at the car she (the dog, not the wife) went nuts, trying very hard
to turn herself inside out. She (the wife, not the dog) was equally
happy to see the dog but didn't turn herself inside out.
Due to the now late hour traffic in Vancouver was lite, the only real
thing to watch out for at night there is the pedestrians. They all seem
to dress in black, with hoods covering their heads and obstructing
their vision as well as having their attention on their stupid smart
phones instead of where they are going, walk anywhere and everywhere,
and step out in front of cars as well as ignore traffic lights, making
it a bit dicy. However, we got through the city quickly and up onto the
highway and home. She (the wife, not the dog, well, maybe the dog too
for all I know) looked out the next morning to green grass, flowers,
blossoms and buds. We took the dog for her walk and all is right with
the world.
doug
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
It’s good to be talking to you from a much warmer climate this week!
We’ve finally cracked the double digit Celsius mark and that means that
we may have just seen the last of this years snowfalls but don’t hold
your breath. The roadway tunnels of snow banks have all but disappeared
but the dirty gutters and boulevards are still quite obvious here in
KW. I guess it’ll take a few days and nights of April Rain to wash away
the winter grime and open up the springtime before the buds start
showing on the trees. This week we actually hit the 17c mark on
Thursday and “Man did it feel good!” The new Jeep is one sweet ride and
I must admit I’m even becoming used to having the sunroof open a crack.
I never have been a fan of sunroofs in vehicles but as long as it
doesn’t burn my hairless bean I guess I’ll be able to put up with it!
LOL! We still have about 2’ of snow in the back yard but even it is
starting to melt away. The surface of the pond is actually showing
through in one small area. I guess that means I should be able to open
it up by June, Hahahaha…!
We had a very quiet evening on Wednesday night except for the sound of
four huge Kitchener Wilmot Hydro trucks idling beside our house. I had
just returned home about 5:00pm from a short drive to pick up our lotto
tickets for the 6/49 draw that night and I had just stepped out of the
Jeep. When, all of a sudden, there was an incredibly loud bang that I
thought had come from inside the house, like someone slamming an
eight-foot 2x4 flat on the kitchen floor! Suddenly Adam and Carole
popped out of the house and said they had just heard a loud explosion
and saw smoke drift past the kitchen window. We all went out through
the man door because there was no power on to open the electric garage
door. After a short walk to the corner of our lot we found out that
there had been a transformer that exploded in an in-ground vault across
the street from our house. It’s the same one that exploded last year
around this time. It didn’t take long for the neighbours to start
wandering out of their houses to find out what had caused their
electricity to suddenly black out. One of the guys from a couple of
houses down from our place said he had called the Hydro Co and they
were on their way. It took about a half hour before a service truck
finally showed up. The guy that phoned in the distress call met them
and showed them where the problem vault was. Of course like any other
gov’t agency they took their sweet time calling in the appropriate
number of trucks, men (or women) and equipment to handle the repair. We
watched them as they stood around discussing the situation while time
grew closer and closer to the hour Carole’s beloved “Fantasy Island” TV
show was to start. She said, “Well, I guess we won’t be watching
Fantasy Island tonight unless these guys get things fixed in the next
half hour!” We both laughed and agreed there was no chance of that
happening. It was already 7:30pm and the big bang happened at 5pm.
After two and a half hours of deciding who was going to do the work and
how many were going to watch him do it they finally put out safety
cones around the four big “work” trucks and the supervisor’s pick up
truck and it looked like they were about to lift the lid on the vault!
We decided to put a pot of water on the side burner of the BBQ (See
Doug, there is a use for those side burners after all!) and make
ourselves a pot of tea. With the house getting quite dark, we were at a
quandary as to how to spend the evening. I said, “Well Honey, I guess
we’ll just have to talk to each other!” LOL! After the laughter
subsided, I asked if she’d like to listen to me read my new book “The
Great Escape” to her by flashlight! You could have cut the silence with
a knife! SO, we both went up to the bedroom and got into our PJ’s and
then went back down stairs where I made the tea while Carole brought
out three candles and our 100 year old coal oil lamp so we’d have some
light at least in the family room. We had the fireplace (gas) on so we
would have some heat as well. We were able to put up with the smell of
the coal oil lamp for about a half hour and then decided to can that
idea. I don’t know how our ancestors ever lived past the age of 30
after breathing that toxic stink every night once the sun went down. Of
course, with no TV to watch, they likely just went to bed after supper
and had no need for the lamps to be burning late! LOL! We were actually
lost without the TV to watch and no decent light by which to read a
good book. Hell, we couldn’t even play on the i-Pad with no power to
run the computer from which it derives its signals. So Carole caught a
short snooze on the couch beside me while I sat mesmerized by the
dancing flames of the gas fireplace. We were nice and snug by the fire
but didn’t realize how hot the fireplace and the glass front of it were
getting with no power to run the internal fan to help dissipate the
heat. After a few hours I got up to turn off the fireplace and damn
near burned my fingers off when I touched the switch! It was late and
Carole decided to turn in for the night. I figured I should stay up for
a bit longer to make sure that I hadn’t created a fire hazard by
letting the fireplace get so HOT! Wouldn’t want another burning ember
related rude awakening in the middle of the night now would we?
Hahahaha…….. and this one would have been my fault and that would never
do!!!
Anyway, it was around midnight when we went up to bed and at around 2am
I was awakened by a banging noise outside. I got up and peeked out the
window and the Hydro guys were just packing up after replacing the
transformer with a new one. In the morning Carole told me that she had
looked out at the street around 1am and the 8 guys were all standing
around the back of one truck laughing and talking. After about ten
minutes, a pick up truck pulled up and the driver got out with a tray
of coffees and a box of doughnuts from Timmy’s! I guess even Hydro
workers deserve a break at 1am! Anyway, by 2am we had power once again
but by then it was too late to watch TV so I climbed back in the sack
and managed to sleep until morning.
It was quite an experience spending a night without one of the major
conveniences that we tend to take for granted in today’s modern world!
I think everyone should spend one night a year without their hydro on
just to remind us that what we take for granted can be snuffed out in
an instant and could be out for a much longer period of time than just
8 hours! A happening like this makes us think about what else could
suddenly come to an end with no control on our part to restore it!
Actually kind of makes one appreciate the modern conveniences we enjoy
every day. So next time you’re wondering what you can be thankful for,
try saying one for the Hydro Workers that keep things humming for us in
our cushy world! I hope they enjoyed that tray of Timmy’s!
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>
I’m reading a book about “Anti-Gravity” and I can’t put it down!
****
Have a good one..
the doug
http://www.thedougsite.net
The Fine Print!
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