The Squamidian Report – June 21 / 14
Issue #630
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Sorry, but there is just not much to write about this week. Nothing new
has happened. Sure, we are enjoying the gondola pretty well every day.
Heck, both of us and Kyra are pretty well on first name basis with most
of the staff at the gondola now but thats probably normal I
guess. I'm getting out on the bike almost every day, life on the
west coast is unfolding just the way it should be doing, but there just
isn't anything new or exciting to talk about so I'll keep it nice and
short.
Lets see, there's currently a bear wandering around our neighborhood
these day. And on that line, the neighbors left some empty bear-spray
cans laying on their front yard. (They do a lot of hiking up in the
mountains and tend to carry bear-spray with them.) Willow sniffed the
cans and one of them had a bit of residue left on the nozzle. I guess
Willow got some up her nose because she spent the next hour standing on
her head trying to rub it out of her nose on the grass.
And what else, oh, Kyra, being a typical two and a half year old, loves
picture books with stories in them. I was poking around on YouTube,
looking for some old Ian Tyson songs. He never did videos or even very
much live recordings so many of his available songs have still-pictures
that change, like book pages, to go along with the music. Kyra was
delighted with these, calling them picture-songs and has me asked
several times to play her a picture-song on the computer. Cool.
Like I said, very short. Oh well, you get what you pay for. Next week I might not write anything at all.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Good to be back again and smilin’ about the great weather we’ve had for
the past few weeks. I say this only a few days after that big nasty
storm from the US hit southern Ontario. The Kitchener area was very
lucky indeed not to have been whacked by a tornado or two like other
parts of Ontario. Here in Kitchener, at least our end of the city only
experienced a few brief rain showers and very little lightening. The
wind had been quite gusty all day but I worked outside on the lawn and
gardens most of the day without feeling more than a few drops of rain.
Guess we were the lucky ones in this part of the province. Actually,
there were a few trees that toppled in Waterloo in the strong winds
they had up that way and parts of that city were without power for a
couple of hours from downed wires. I think there was one large tree
that fell over onto a house in the old section of Kitchener near St
Mary’s Hospital but did little or no damage. I think I’ve said this
before but I’m still curious as to whether or not we would be covered
by insurance if our house was hit by a tornado. I must make a point of
calling our insurance soon and asking about that! It’s a long shot but
one never knows what Mother Nature may surprise us with when the
weather is acting so strangely these days.
Over the winter, we had both of our rain barrels suffer some damage
from the extreme cold. The one suffered a large split up one side of
the barrel and the other barrel suffered a split lid ring that holds
the screen on the top to filter out the debris from the shingles. It’s
still in place and the ring is still holding the screen in place for
now so I’m just going to leave that barrel the way it is for the rest
of the summer. I went up to St Jacob’s this afternoon and purchased a
new barrel to replace the split one and found that the price has
doubled since I bought the last ones 12 years ago. Can you imagine
that? Of all the nerve, charging more for a barrel than they did 12
years ago! LOL! Oh well, I guess inflation hits everything in life that
has to do with money! LOL! I paid $10.00 each for the first set and
today’s price was exactly $20.00 for the new one. I guess I should just
be happy that the fellow didn’t charge me any tax on the $20.00!
Hahahahaa…… I hope the taxman doesn’t read this Ontarion and come after
me for the GST! Or go after the barrel sales people for not charging
GST on the barrels! It’s nice to know that there is still one thing in
life that isn’t taxed …. YET! Anyway, I managed to install the new tap
in the barrel and fit a new screen on the hole I cut in the lid of the
new barrel as well. Now all I have to do is finish revamping the eves
trough so it will reach around the corner from where the original
barrel sat. I moved it from it’s old place on the walkway at the side
of the house to a spot just around the corner about two feet so the
walkway is now clear of the former obstruction caused by the old
barrel’s location. Why I didn’t put it around the corner in the first
place I’ll never know. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 isn’t it!
With the gardens flourishing like they have been, I haven’t had even a
moment to spend working on my wooden toys. I guess they’ll have to be a
wintertime project. The lawn has needed mowing at least three times a
week and with the number of shrubs that have needed removal after dying
in this past dastardly winter the outdoor work has kept us both busy.
As I said last week, I still have a tree to cut down and another half
dead variegated “whatchamacallit” to dig out of another corner garden
there’s still a couple of challenges left. Not to mention all the rest
of the shrubs and trees in the gardens are now in need of trimming.
That in it’s self is another two-day job for sure! It’s no wonder
there’s a fortune to be made in selling “Yard Waste” bags! I’ve
been through three bundles of them already this year and I’m sure I’ll
have to pick up a couple more bundles before the summer’s over.
Oh well, that’s the price we all have to pay for wanting our yards to look their best!
That’s about all 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>
Did the unions of Ontario make a mistake by supporting the Liberal Party in our new majority government?
Guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens to Ontario Jobs with the Liberal’s in control.
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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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