The Squamidian Report – Oct. 11 / 14
Issue #646
Including:
From Lorne
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Guess what, my bike turned 90,000 kilometers this past week. That
sounds like a lot but actually its not if you figure that the bike was
bought new in the spring of 2010 and then spread those kilometers over
that many riding seasons. When you think of it that way its actually a
pretty poor showing. We did really good the first few seasons but we've
been tied down so much over the last few that there has not been much
of an opportunity to do any good road trips. Oh well, maybe next year.
Interestingly, I've just had a new back tire installed. I tend to get
about 30k out of each one and just as I reached the 90k, the old rear
tire was warn out. I'd been running the Dunlop American Elite tires
after the original OEM tire (Dunlop 407) was warn out and the Elites
are pretty good but like the OEM tire they tended to scallop along the
sidewalls, making for a very loud snow tire type of howling at highway
speeds. Motorcycle tires have a softer rubber compound on their
shoulders to give extra grip when leaning through the corners, but this
softer rubber tends to wear easily and unevenly on the big heavy bikes.
When my front tire needed replacing last fall I had the local Yamaha
dealer install a Michelin Commander 2. He has now installed the rear
tire version of that tire on the rear and it will be interesting to see
how they hold up. I'll let you know in another 30 thousand kilometers.
While I was at the Yamaha dealer waiting to have the tire installed, a
tractor-trailer pulled in with crates of snowmobiles on board. He had
started out from Winnipeg and had made delivery’s at several dealers in
BC. There was 5 crated units left on his trainer and 4 of them were
intended for this particular dealer. As they were being unloaded I
asked the driver where the last unit was going and he said Comox, over
on Vancouver Island. That meant he had to catch a ferry from Horseshoe
Bay over to Nanaimo. I asked what that would cost and he said about
$1100. each way. That's just ridiculous, I've touched on the impossibly
high ferry costs before and this just points it out again. How can
anyone afford to take the ferries for business or pleasure when one
almost empty truck is charged that kind of money to make the crossing.
Now this is cool but has nothing to do with ferry prices but does
involve motorcycle tires because we occasionally go there on the bike
and the bike is carried by its tires.... we got an Email from the
Gondola people informing us and congratulating us because we were on
their 'frequent flyer' list, the list of users who have ridden up and
down the gondola a high number of times. They informed us that there
will be prizes at the end of the summer pass season for the persons in
various categories who have been up the most times, and to encourage us
to get up there as much as possible before the summer season ends in
order to get our attendance numbers up as high as possible. We will
both be well over 100 visits by then, we are almost there now and the
season doesn't end until November 2nd. They went on to inquire as to if
we'd be willing to share our story and a little bit about ourselves etc
for their advertising blog. Sounds like fun.
And just for your info, the summer passes are good till November 2nd,
then, the gondola will be shut down for 3 weeks for maintenance. After
that, it will be the winter season. We have full year passes to we are
good to go. Winter passes are and have been available for a while now
for those who don't have one but want one. It should be incredible up
there in the winter, and they will have snowshoe rentals and other
winter activities available. They will be running on reduced hours
during the winter (bummer) but this is their first year in operation
and they are still figuring things out. Next year's summer season
starts on April 1st. Just thought you'd like to know.
doug
****
From Lorne
We have just come through one of the most trying times.
Friday we found there was no land phone but displaying 'line is not
available' then worst of all ,no incoming emails. No phone,
as we know it and nothing on line. And a rainy day as
well. Even the TV was momentarily down because of a fallen
tree limb. Thankfully Gail was here when it all happened and gave
me a crash course on how to operate a cel phone. We
contacted Bell and was told by an offshore person that if the phone
problem is within we are looking at at least $100 . If
outside, their responsibility . If we agree to those
conditions, a service person will be here between 5 and 9 PM Sat.
So we spent the night almost cut off from the world around us.
(nine months from now you will not have a new sibling to share
the inheritance) Sat afternoon shone clear and promising as
the service truck arrived (early) He checked the small cob webbed
Bell box outside the house and pronounced your problem is not internal.
He is now a decent chap who is installing a temporary over head line at
least 7 feet above ground from a box near the st. corner ,through the
bush and connected to the above mentioned box. 'This
temporary line may remain for some time, perhaps even spring'.
The original is under ground. Eighty years ago this could not
have happened to me or you. We just did not have the $100.
Lorne
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Last week I told you about the obnoxious neighbour we have living
across the street. I said I would tell you the follow up saga of this
rude person come this week. Well, I’ve decided not to waste any more
ink of effort on this loser so, please forgive me if I got you all
wound up for another episode but he’s not worth my time or yours!
Here’s a tidbit of information that might just come in handy at some
point in your driving experiences of the future. Today I figured I’d
take the Jeep out to what I found to be the best car wash for the money
in these parts. As I entered the lot of the car wash building I was
passing the “Free” vacuum area and decided to clean the interior before
having the vehicle washed. So I pulled up to the clean up area and
started to vacuum the flooring of the Jeep. I found the buzzer annoying
as I cleaned the driver’s side floor so I reached up and pulled the
ignition key slightly out of the steering column, just enough to stop
the buzzer. I continued to vacuum all of the floors and mats and as I
finished the last one on the passenger side, I figured I might as well
vacuum off the arm rests to clear them of dust etc that tends to gather
there each week. As I did so I guess I must have bumped the electric
“lock” button on one of the doors. Now normally this would not lock all
of the doors in the vehicle as long as the key in the ignition was
pushed all the way into the switch. However, since I had pulled the key
partially out of the ignition to silence the buzzer, this move negated
this feature and all four of the doors and the tailgate of course
locked as I bumped the “Lock” switch on the passenger door. Of course
as I finished vacuuming the last of the dust out of that armrest, I
closed the door! Well, don’tcha know that I was immediately locked out
of my vehicle!!!!! SHUCKS! Now what the heck do I do? I’m 10km from
home and the only other key that will unlock the doors of the Jeep! The
carwash attendant was kind enough to let me use his telephone since I’m
the only guy in Canada and maybe the world that doesn’t own a cell
phone! I called Adam knowing he’d be getting out of work at about that
time and since he’d be passing the carwash on his way home from work in
Guelph maybe he would be kind enough to bring me his mother’s set of
car keys. Of course, I got his “Voice Mail”! So, I left him a message
asking him to come rescue me. I figured he’d be about a half hour so
the carwash guy lent me a chair to sit outside and await his arrival.
Luckily it only took about 20 minutes until Adam arrived. Of course he
hadn’t passed our house on his way home so I just jumped in his truck
and he drove me home to get the keys. As we drove toward my place, I
explained to him how I had tried a trick I had learned from the
Internet to try to get out of my predicament. I had read on line that
if you lock your keys in your car, you can phone your wife wherever she
is and ask her to press the “unlock” button on her key fob while you
hold the phone next to the vehicle that’s locked and “PRESTO” the
vehicle will unlock! This should save you having to have anyone come to
your location just to open your car. However, as I have found out, not
everything you read on line is TRUE! In this instance what I read of
course was NOT TRUE and it didn’t work! Oh well, that’s the tidbit of
information that I want to pass on to you this week. Don’t believe
everything you read on the Net! As it turned out, I was lucky that Adam
was handy to be able to pick me up to go get Carole’s keys and
consequently save my day! Upon our return to the Jeep location I was
able to open the vehicle and finish getting the car washed! I now have
a clean vehicle and a lesson well learned! When you get out of your
vehicle no matter for what reason, TAKE YOUR KEYS OUT OF THE IGNITION
AND PUT THEM IN YOUR POCKET!
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 roar that you hear when you place a seashell next to your ear is
not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins
in your ear!
****
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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