The Squamidian Report – Sept. 20 / 14
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The Ontarion
Hi All,
Star gazing has been rather incredible lately. Well, not right now
because its cloudy and its daytime but earlier this week it had been
totally clear and very, very dry. This has been a record breaking dry
summer and dry air is stable air. Viewing the stars through cool, night
time dry air is as good as it gets. The Milky Way stands out vividly,
the early Fall constellations are as clear as they can ever be. So,
needless to say, I've been enjoying the show. The dog likes it when I
sit outside at night too. I think she thinks we are waiting for some
critter to wander through the yard.
I went to proses and upload pictures from Russ's visit to the west
coast but could only find a few on my computer. The rest must be still
on the camera (which is in Ontario right now). There will be tones on
Russ's camera but thats somewhat out of my reach. Anyway, I did find a
few of him riding the Gondola and they can be viewed at this link:
http://www.thedougsite.net/Pictures/Russ/RussVisit.html
By the way, its not just the scenery that is quite nice right now up
where the gondola takes you. Because its 'up there', the blueberry’s
have turned red, the moss has turned a fresh green, the lichen has
turned silver, other shrubs have turned orange and yellow. The greens
of the evergreen trees has subtly changed. When there are no tourists
around and the overcast is below you there is a softness, a prep for
winter that is really hard to put into words. Perhaps there's a song
there, somewhere.
This summer has been so busy and so hectic that I have not had any
opportunity at all to take my little RC planes out for some flying.
Keep in mind, that opportunity does not just mean a bit of time on my
hands, it also means the right weather conditions. I was going to say
'meteorological' conditions to fit in with the flying aspect of this
conversation but thats too big a word to use so I figured 'weather'
would suffice. Then, one day this past week we were having some badly
needed showers so I headed out to the Gondola knowing that because it
was overcast with a bit of rain, the tourists would be staying away, at
least a bit. They'd come, but probably not till noon or so. So, up I
went and did the nice scenic walk we usually do and had the whole
walkway to myself. As predicted, by the time I was headed down all the
gondola cars coming up were full but thats ok, I was headed for home.
On the way home it dawned on me that I should check out the ball field
where I had been flying my RC planes back in the spring before life got
summer time busy. The light rain had stopped and the air was still, no
wind. Thats a good thing because incredibly lite model airplanes don't
handle much wind, they just blow around like so many dried leaves.
By the time I got home it was raining again but soon after lunch the
rain stopped, or at least paused for a while. I grabbed the little
yellow Champ and the radio controller, and Willow piled in to the back
of the car and we headed back down to the field. Willow is not
permitted on the field and had to stay in the car, much to her
frustration, but thats how it is. At least she was able to come along.
There was a parks employee mowing the field when I got there but I
figured what the heck, worst he can do is kick me out. Now I had
not flown my planes in quite a while and didn't know how rusty I'd be
but my fingers seemed to remember it all and the little plane flew
beautifully. A single charge on the tiny battery that powers the motor
and the control servo's lasts about 12 to 15 minutes depending on power
settings and I flew non-stop for the whole time, doing figure eights,
touch and goes on the ball park infield, low slow passes and so on. No
crashes, none. Cool. The guy mowing the field told me that other RC
flyers use this field but they all seem to be flying planes that go
much faster and much higher, and said that my little yellow plane
appeared to be a lot more fun because you could actually enjoy watching
it, and it didn't appear to need all the pre-flight fussing that the
more sophisticated one need. And he is right, these little Styrofoam
planes are great, easy to get up and running, easy to fly and easy to
enjoy and inexpensive to own.
And on the topic of fun things to do, my riding chapter put on a
'skills day' obstacle course training session last Saturday. Thats
always an enjoyable experience and you generally come out rather tired
if you put any effort at all into practicing the tight turns and
evasion maneuvers. We had about a dozen or so bikes turn out and
everyone had a great time. Our location was the overflow parking lot
just below the Cyprus Bowl ski area above West Vancouver. As per usual
when we do this kind of thing, our friend and riding member DrMucker
shoots lots of pictures and video of the event. A tool for capturing
interesting video he has been using lately is his Phantom Quad Rotor
flying camera platform. His unit is quite sophisticated and has
on-board GPS and all sorts of high tech software that lets him focus on
what the camera is seeing. He can see what the camera sees through a
view screen attached to his controller. Anyway, he has posted a really
cool video of the event, capturing the bikes from rather interesting
angles as they do the various turns and twists. And just so you know,
it was not us who left all those skid marks on the parking lot. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCMKxLwFlFk&feature=youtu.be
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
As you likely already know, we’ve had lovely weather over the past few
days and it’s sad to think that summer is almost over! The grass is
finally filled in where there were brown spots most of the summer and
the lawn never looked better! I did the edging the other day and it’s
amazing how much more of a professional look that gives a lawn. I’ve
had so many compliments this summer over the looks of the front yard
that my head’s outgrown my hat! LOL! It’s nice to know that all the
hard work on the outside of the house is appreciated by someone other
than Carole and myself! LOL! We’ve had about a half dozen real estate
sales people either phone or knock on our door wondering if we’d be
interested in selling our home. I guess the work pays off. Now if we
could only get twice what the market value of the place is we’d be on
the move!
This is a very popular area for real estate sales and purchases. It
seams that houses that go up for sale are only on the market for no
more than two or three weeks before they’re sold. I don’t know how many
homes around this area have sold for above their asking value. We’ve
kept a few of the flyers that are put in our mail telling us how well
homes are selling and above their asking price. I guess it’s a
marketing ploy that helps get listings for sales people when a house
sells above asking! Oh well, we’re not up for selling the homestead
just yet but you never know, one of these days the urge will hit and
we’ll be the ones hoping for a buyer with an overabundance of cash
that’s willing to outbid the asking price! For now, we’re just happy to
have people admiring our efforts!
*
We took a drive out and around the Stratford area the
other day and wound up in Exeter just north of London. It’s a nice
little town with pretty much everything a person would need for
convenience. They have a great little down town area with everything
from restaurants to eye doctors to Dollar Stores. They even have a KFC
and an A & W so the junk food doesn’t take an hour’s drive to a
larger city! I didn’t realize that Exeter was as large as it is. It
even has a large Chrysler dealership and a few other car sales
lots. If you’re a drinker they’ve got both beer and LCBO stores
too! Petty much everything a man could want! If I’m not mistaken,
they’ve even got a couple of pubs in town. That might have interested
me in the old days but now that I’m in my “Old Days” for real, I have
no more need or desire to go pubbing or hit the booze stores. As long
as they have food establishments and a hardware store I’m happy. On the
other hand, I’m happy living right here in KW so the small town
atmosphere means nothing to me anyway. Just like to be observant when
we travel to small towns I’ve never seen before. We had a really
enjoyable day just driving around the countryside and taking in the
rural views. It’s amazing how far you can see when driving in that part
of Ontario where the land is as flat as a pancake. I’m sure two to
three kilometers isn’t out of the question as far as distance for
seeing goes. You can almost see the curvature of the earth at that
distance! LOL! Just kidding but it is quite a difference when compared
to just seeing across the street in our own area.
Guess 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>
Peanut oil is used for cooking in submarines because it doesn’t smoke unless it’s heated above 230F.
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Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
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