The Squamidian Report – Feb. 1 / 14
Issue #610
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Groundhog day is tomorrow which means we will be told we are in for
either 6 more weeks of winter, or, another month and a half of winter.
Both hypothetical choices are just fine with me. The west coast has
been enjoying a good old fashion 'west coast winter' which means mild
and down right nice. Don't believe the news reports indicating endless
fog and that kind of thing. We've had days of sunshine and days of
normal temperatures with even some above normal temps. Heck, we've had
sunny days with +10 or 12 at times. Its all I can do to keep from
getting the bike out but I'll remain strong and resist the temptation.
For one thing, there is a lot of salt on the roads because it gets down
to near freezing at night and in this part of the world that means
black ice. Don't want to ride a bike on that stuff, and due to the
salt, the roads tend to stay wet with salt brine all day long even
under clear sunny skies. Salt brine is hard on bike chrome and other
parts that don't have rust protection and I sure wouldn't want to have
to wash the bike after each ride. So, I'll wait another month.
The fog that the weather stations and news stations has been talking
about tends to occur along the river-ways and in tight valleys that
don't have any air circulation to flush them. It also occurs over the
Straight of Georgia and often works its way into the mouth of Howe
Sound giving us a very spectacular silver curtain that can often hide
parts of Bowen Island leaving the rest of the island in the clear.
Commuters in the city have certainly had to deal with fog during their
daily morning drive but again that is near and at the coast, and, the
fog usually burns off my mid morning. Up this way its been spectacular
although we could almost complain that its been too dry. There is
certainly not as much snow up in the mountains as there was in the past
few years, but they were unusually heavy snow years. But, like all good
things, it did come to an end and we have now had a few days of that
needed rain, or at least some showers.
During the clear weather we had enjoyed and are again enjoying, we had
some spectacular star gazing. Our winter night sky here can be
incredibly clear and dark making those stars really stand out. With
Jupiter high in the early night sky and the Andromeda galaxy fairly
high as well along with the usual winter constellations like Orion and
the Pleiades and so on, and many of our visually brightest stars, there
is no shortage of eye candy for anyone willing to stand out on the deck
and look upward.
You may recall I talked a bit about the Vancouver Motorcycle Show a
week ago... well, something there had caught my eye, and the eye of
several of my friends who were with me as we trudged from display to
display. I say 'trudged' because for the most part we were a bit
disappointed with the show in general. Anyway, something I've been
wishing existed for a long time is a ¾ helmet fitted with some kind of
bar or guard across the lower face like a football helmet in order to
give some mechanical protection for the face of the wearer, the way a
full-face helmet does but without the bulk and without impeding vision.
We were checking out a riding gear distributor's display and I lamented
to the rep working the display that no one makes a ¾ helmet with a face
guard. He said as of this year they do and he had one on display. So,
we all checked it out and it looked interesting. The guard snaps off
and on making for ease of putting the helmet on and for removing the
helmet. There is a built-in, internal sun visor as well as an external
full-face clear visor. So, the helmet can be worn as a ¾, or a ¾ with
guard in place, or, when the full-face shield is pulled down and
sitting against the matching grove in the chin bar, a full-face, or
several variations there-of. Interesting. However, like with so many
other things at the show, the displays were by the distributors, not
dealers and so we could not purchase one of these helmets. I asked
where I could get one and he said any dealer or bike shop that handles
that make. Turned out he knows the owner of our local Yamaha dealer who
can bring those helmets in, and gave me the part number for the helmet.
I went in last Saturday and ordered one through Diamond Head Yamaha
here in Squamish. It came in on Wednesday. I wish our mail service was
that fast.
Obviously, I won't be able to try the helmet out under riding
conditions for a month yet but there are several features that look
like they will be nice. The fit is good, the padding can be removed for
cleaning and the way the face guard and visors work it looks like they
will enhance both safety and riding pleasure. Fitting our U-Clear com
system into the helmet shouldn't be too much trouble so all is good. I
won't know how the helmet is for wind noise and buffeting until me or
one of my friends can test it on the highway. Full-face helmets are
notorious for wind noise and for being loud in general, and face
shields on some helmets can cause buffeting when in the 'up' position.
So, regardless of what the groundhog has to say, spring and riding
season are just a month away and I'll have that opportunity to test
that helmet. Several members of my riding chapter as well as some
members in another chapter are waiting for me to do a rider review
because they are also interested in these helmets. I'm looking forward
to it.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Well, here I am walking through the sugar white sand of the beach in
Florida enjoying the 28c weather while the Gulf of Mexico waves are
lapping the shoreline! What a beautiful day it is as the balmy breeze
wafts through my golden locks …………………..OK, enough of that daydreaming
stuff! Time to turn the blower around and make another pass down the
front walkway to clear its 20cm of sugar white SNOW! YUCK! How to ruin
a perfectly good mid winter dream vacation in the sunny south! Oh well,
I can dream it all over again once I’m back inside sitting in front of
the fire with my mug o’ hot chocolate and my beanbag that I just heated
in the microwave draped around my neck to ward off the two hours worth
of Arctic Vortex that has chilled me to the bone in the real world!
LOL! Sheesh I’m shivering thinking about what I’ve just said so I think
I’ll go get one of those mugs of hot chocolate right now. I’ve got to
thaw my fingers out because all this typing seams to make them feel
like they’re made of ice. How come the office is always the coldest
room in the house when it’s time to write The Ontarion? Guess it’s all
in my mind due to missing the lovely fire that’s crackling away down in
the family room right now. Well, what do you know, my dear wife just
surprised me with a nice mug of hot coffee as I was about to get up and
go down for that hot chocolate! We must be on the same wavelength of
something. We do tend to think more alike as we spend more and more
years together. I guess that’s just human nature! Speaking of the cold,
it warmed up here today to a balmy -11c and that was a blessing after
the past two weeks of temps as low as -35c and colder with the wind
chill factors figured in some nights.
We’re only one month into winter here in the great white north but this
weekend will or might bring some hope of warmer days on the horizon
once old “Wiarton Willie” makes his prediction as to the length of the
remainder of this winter. It’s unrealistic to think that spring is just
around the corner when we’re hearing on the evening news of drastic
whiteouts and multi vehicles crashes on the 401 and many other side
roads all over southern Ontario. I don’t know why they call it southern
Ontario when it feels and acts like we’re living on the Arctic Circle!
Oh well, I really can’t complain, I asked for a good snowy winter a
couple of months ago so my snow blower tune up wouldn’t go to waste and
I sure as hell got it, didn’t I! So far, the tune up has paid off in
spades and I’m not regretting a single penny of the cost of that
service! It wouldn’t do me any good anyway since we no longer have
pennies to regret. LOL! I was counting our blessings as I watched the
CTV news report at 6pm and they showed video of the 9 to 12 foot high
drifts along and across many of the roads up around the town of
Shelburne and also around Orangeville. That’s not too far from here so
the couple of feet of white stuff we’ve got on the ground isn’t
that bad after all. It might be kind of fun to take the Jeep through
some of those roads just to see if she could make it but then again, I
think I’ll just stay around KW and enjoy the News reports of others who
have it a lot snowier than us! There are enough slippery, snowy roads
here in Kitchener to challenge the Jeep as it is, no need to venture
elsewhere in these temps!
We may have falling snow to think about but at least we don’t have to
worry about 400 ton boulders breaking off mountains and thundering down
like huge bowling balls and crashing through our houses and barns like
the ones that did just that in northern Italy today! I don’t know if
any of you saw that on the Internet but take a look if you are curious
about it. What an amazing freak of nature that was. The boulders were
almost the size of the buildings they crashed into and they left
nothing but rubble behind after they struck. It was hard to believe the
huge ruts they made in the earth as they tore down the mountainside and
across the valley below. They looked like huge meteors that had crashed
into earth digging a valley of their own as they made their way across
the farmland. Luckily nobody was killed or even injured by these heavy
monsters. The land owners that lived in the houses below likely looked
up at these huge outcroppings for fifty years and never gave their
breaking loose a single thought until today. They’d better hope that
the rest of that mountain doesn’t let loose as well! It made me think
of all the huge rock faces that are around Doug and Sue’s little town.
I hope they never suffer the same fate!
Well, that’s about 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>
If Ontario has Wiarton Willie, does BC have Sammy Sasquatch?
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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.
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