The Squamidian Report – May 31 / 14
Issue #627
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Bin ridin' the bike since mid March this season and I've just now
gotten around to giving it a good bath. Funny how things change. With
my first Harley I somehow managed to do a full wash and shine every
1,000 k or less. It seemed like I was spending more time washing the
darn thing than riding it. Part of why I spent so much time washing it
was that it was a black bike and black tends to show every little speck
of dust and dirt and I wanted that bike to shine all the time. Now,
with the blue Harley, I just never seem to get around to washing it.
I'd rather ride than scrub, and washing the bike is very hard on my bad
shoulders leaving them aching for days. The blue can get pretty dirty
before it gets overly embarrassing and thats about the time I finally
get out the hose and the cleaning products. So, one day this week when
it was too rainy to go up the Gondola and too wet to ride I gave in and
cleaned up the bike. We've had a lot of quite nice weather although our
temperatures are still struggling to get all the way up to 'normal',
and we've had our share of wet weather. Its not the wet that makes the
bike dirty, its the wet roads. You'd think that rain would wash the
dirt off the roads and anything riding or driving on a wet road would
get cleaner but somehow it doesn’t work that way.
I've reached to point of mental tranquility where I no longer feel
guilty about riding a dirty bike, and no longer feel embarrassed when
parking it beside shinny sparkling bikes who's owners try to pretend
they don't know me. It is what it is. If its nice out, I'm riding, not
scrubbing, and if its not so nice out, well, I'm easily distracted. So,
the Harley may be clean and shinny right now but don't get used to it.
*
Willow, 'The Wife's' dog, has a best friend. Actually
she has many good dog friends but she has a very best friend, a young
Shepard named Danny. Danny is about a year old and was a puppy of about
10 weeks when they met. Willow LOVES puppies and whenever she meets
one, she wants to mother it. From the beginning Willow figured Danny
was her puppy and Danny figured Willow was her mother. Their
relationship has grown ever since. We normally meet Danny and her
person every morning on our walk and the two dogs great each other and
then play or just hang out in the dog park before we all continue on
our walk. There is an interesting dynamic between the two dogs. There
is a tenderness that is quite amazing. At times they will play like
young dogs but Willow soon tires and lets Danny do all the running.
Other times they will just sit together. Being dogs, they tend to pee
on things, leaving dog messages or marking territory. An interesting
thing about them peeing is that Danny will never pee over top of a
Willow pee. Danny respects Willow's authority and while she is now
bigger than Willow, she won't challenge her and has no need to do so.
Danny had been absent for the last two weeks because her people were
away and she was away with them. We did our normal walk each day and
when we'd get to the dog park, Willow would stand at the gate, watching
and waiting for Danny. Danny's people finally got home and brought her
to the park on Thursday morning. Willow spotted Danny coming up the
street and Danny spotted Willow. Both dogs pulled on their leashes as
hard as they could to get to each other. When they did, they reared up
onto their hind legs and literally gave each other a big hug. After
that, they walked shoulder to shoulder to the park where Willow let
Danny do most of the running. Its nice when even dogs can have a
'very best friend'.
doug
****
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone and Happy 38th Birthday to our son Adam!
I most certainly do remember what I was doing on this day in 1976 and
for sure remember what Carole was doing as well! KW Hospital was her
motel for the day and she had been in most of the night enjoying the
labour aspect of pregnancy. I had been told the night before that there
was nothing I could do while Carole prepared for the birth of our son
so I headed home for a good night’s sleep. The hospital called me and
woke me out of a sound sleep at around 9am. Being anxious to attend the
birth of our son I headed up to the hospital and was on “standby” until
the big moment at 10:34am! Adam was born and Carole was resting well
after a busy and not so quiet night. She had done a splendid job of
helping me make a lovely baby boy and now the mothering and raising of
our boy had begun!
Unfortunately, I was only able to spend about 10 minutes with Carole
and baby Adam before I had to rush off to the Kitchener Court House to
meet my lawyer. He was presiding over a discovery meeting with the
lawyer for the young bonehead that had severely damaged my car and
injured my back 6 months before. The Jerk had driven his fathers
monster Ford Country Squire station wagon through a road construction
site and sped around a barrier onto the open part of Westmount Rd and
smashed smack dab into the driver’s side of our 1973 Mini! Wham! I
stopped spinning after the Mini and me were knocked 75’ from the point
of impact! I found myself in a daze and the Mini badly crushed in on
the driver’s side. Because the idiot cop failed to charge the 16 year
old with anything I had to take him to court personally to recover
compensation for the repair of our vehicle as well as the financial
repayment for my loss of sick leave to the City Of Waterloo. My back
had recovered after 6 weeks off and the Mini was back on the road but I
would have preferred not to have had to go through all that in the
first place. Anyway, the date for the court discussion to settle the
suit was that same morning that Adam was born. I figured his birth to
be a good omen and kept the appointment with my lawyer. When I got to
court, my lawyer said that all I would have had to do is phone him and
he would have postponed the meeting. However, I was there now and
figured we might as well finish the job! After only a half hour of
discussion my lawyer managed to prevent a court case from proceeding by
working out a settlement. We recovered the cost of repairing the car as
well as everything else we had asked for in the suit. All in all, it
was a great day! Since I had been told by the Dr to give Carole and the
baby a few hours to rest and get settled before visiting, I decided to
accept my lawyers invitation to lunch to celebrate both the court
victory and most of all the birth of our new son! After a lovely steak
and a couple of beers at the Crock and Block Steak House, I went home
to change and pick up my camera so I could take lots of pictures of our
new son. The rest of the day was spent with Carole and her new baby boy
and with both situations having turned out so very well, the day was a
total success!
Adam’s birthday has always been a special day for us to celebrate and
this year it’s no exception! I wish him another 38 years and more in
the future!
*
Adventure of the week:
A week ago this past Tuesday I had taken our poodle out back for his
morning lawn visit and discovered five large white thin-shelled eggs
that had been cleaned out neatly lying on our flagstone walkway by the
patio. They were the victims of some animal but I didn’t know which or
what animal! I looked at the Robin’s nest that was on top of our hose
reel about 4’ off the ground on the wall of the house. The four lovely
blue eggs that the pair of Robins had been patiently sitting on for
over a week now were totally gone! Whatever had eaten the large eggs
had obviously found the nest and cleaned it out as well! Not even a
spec of shell to be found of the Robin’s eggs! I thought maybe some cat
had done this dirty deed but my cousin said it was likely a raccoon
from the hydro right of way out back! At any rate, the perpetrator was
long gone and the eggs were history. I figured the Robins would be back
next year as they had been for the past 10 years or so to start all
over again.
This weekend on Sunday Carole was hanging out some laundry on the line
beside our garden shed and she heard some banging noises coming from
inside the shed. I looked inside the shed and figured it must have been
the wind or who knows what that made the noise. I couldn’t find a
source for the noise and went on about my business of lawn mowing.
About three hours later, I was walking to the shed to lock it up and I
heard a loud banging noise as well. Before I could open the shed, I
heard it once again and it sounded as if it was behind the shed. Now
that was strange because the shed is mounted on a concrete slab at the
side of the house and there is only about 6” of space between the shed
and the brick house wall. I stepped quietly along side the shed and
peaked behind it only to be surprised by the beady little eyes of a
very large Raccoon looking my way. He was wedged tightly between the
house and the shed and was twisted into a contorted position. There was
a part sheet of plywood between he and the bricks and that was what was
banging as he pushed on it to try to free himself. I pulled the sheet
out and that gave him a tiny bit more room. He still couldn’t get out
of the tight space. Adam and I decided to go over to his house and pick
up an extendable painters pole to try to reach the Raccoon and prod him
out of his space. I figured I could remove some boards from the fence
he was facing on the other side of the shed and he might make it out. I
called the Humane Society and they do not respond to wild animal
distress calls. The woman that answered the phone gave me a number for
Animal Rescue in Cambridge. I talked to the person that answered that
call and she told me it would be a minimum of $450.00 to send out a
person to extricate the Raccoon. I figured I could find a way for one
heck of a lot less than that. So, Adam and I went over to pick up the
pole to prod him out. By the time we got back to my place, the Raccoon
had made his way up the wall to the top of the shed and when Adam poked
his bum with a long stick, he scrambled up onto the roof. Adam yelled
that he’d chased him out onto the roof and we figured when we couldn’t
find him, the raccoon had run away. Just to be sure, we looked behind
the shed once more and damn, there he was again. He had fallen back in
behind again! I climbed up onto the roof of the shed and with the long
stick I touched his behind. He was facing in the other direction this
time and was able to run out and past Adam and cleared the back fence
in a bound to be free once again! I’m sure the little fellow won’t soon
forget the few days he spent wedged behind our shed for a while to
come! Hopefully he won’t be back!
We were happy that we found him while he was still alive and that we
were able to get him out safely, no thanks to the Humane Society!
That’s 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>
I guess Robins have no alternative but to put all their eggs in one basket! Hmmm…?
****
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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