The Squamidian Report – Jan. 3 / 15
Issue #658
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Welcome to next year....
Ever notice how hard it is to keep track of what day it is this time of
year? Can't seem to tell if its Saturday or Sunday or some unknown
weekday. Mind you, when you are retired it really doesn't matter what
day it is but knowing seems to keep you anchored a bit. Otherwise its
more like mental mass confusion, and the tendency to forget to put the
garbage out on the appropriate day.
Here's a sign of the times that has nothing to do with what day it
might be, how many countless thousands and thousands of digital
pictures were taken during the Christmas season and through out the
preceding year? Unlike in 'the old days' when each picture cost money
to take and develop and was then carefully placed in a binder or folder
for future generations to view, digital pictures end up on some hard
drive, forgotten and doomed to become unreadable in just a few short
years. Pictures taken on film were taken carefully. Digital pictures
are more like a net being cast out in hopes of perhaps catching a good
one. However, most people never bother to delete the countless 'bad'
pictures, the ones that are out of focus or poorly framed and so on.
What is so very sad is that of all the uncountable pictures taken,
almost none will survive. Digital media is simply not very permanent.
Smart phones, inexpensive digital cameras and social media sites
currently host or store billions of virtually useless pictures, all of
which are simply expendable and throw away. Very few people bother to
get their few, special pictures printed on to high quality photo paper
using photo quality inks in order to preserve these records of 'now'
for the future. We can look through old picture albums to see glimpses
of the generations that came before, but there will be very little
available from this digital era for future generations to see. Quite
sad when you think about it.
Moving on to other none-permanent things... we've now had four Arctic
Outflow episodes this fall and early winter on the west coast. We
usually only get just one or two each winter. The Outflows set up when
the Arctic high pressure builds over the Interior and the extremely
cold air spills out through the valley to the sea. The winds whip up
and the sky is usually clear. Its a bit of a reminder of how winter
could feel at times back home. The locals are usually in shock. One
very real down-side is that the high winds can shut down the gondola.
It can not run when the winds or gusts exceed certain predetermined
speeds. There are some ridge sections where it can really get blowing.
Anyway, early this week we had clear crisp sunny outflow weather but
the howling winds forced the gondola to close. Bummer. They finally
have some nice snow up there and this being the week it was, they would
be busy every day they could be open. Thats life. But, the high winds
only kept them closed for one day and once we were able to get back up
there it was like a winter wonderland. Not much snow but enough make it
look very nice.
Incidentally, as of New Years Eve, 'The Wife' had been up there 125
times and I was at 139 times. In fact, our way of celebrating the new
year was to go up just before dusk to watch the sun go down. Bight
orange and pink sunset with low clouds over the Strait of Georgia and
the mountains of Vancouver Island poking up through said low clouds.
Pretty nice. The three-quarter moon was high over the mountain behind
us and the air was crisp and very clear. Obviously and to be expected,
lots of others had the same idea. It was great.
And then on Friday morning I dropped 'The Wife' off at YVR for an early
flight and was back in Squamish by 7am. Needless to say there wasn't
too many traffic problems heading in and the commuters were all headed
south bound as I headed north on the way back home. Heck, I had the
road to myself most of the time. As much as 'The Dog' loves car rides,
she hates when we drop someone off at the airport and gets quite
stressed when she realizes where we are going. On the other hand she
loves the flip-side, when we pick someone up and so has that to look
forward to in a week.
Thats all for now.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
We had a nice quiet evening watching movies on New Year’s Eve. It was
like being in the Century Theatre on College St in Kitchener on a
Saturday afternoon! The reason for the comparison is that we watched a
couple of science fiction movies just like the ones we used to see in
that theatre when I was a kid. I distinctly remember watching “Rodan”
at The Century one Saturday afternoon and when I exited into the
sunlight, my brother was nowhere in sight. I was 8 years old and waited
in front of the show for another few hours until my father pulled up in
his ’54 Buick looking for me. Apparently my older brother and his buddy
had forgotten that they had me along with them and decided to walk home
without me. When my dad finally asked him where I was he freaked out
and told dad he’d left me at the show. Luckily I had the enough sense
to stay put and not try to find my way home alone. Anyway, back to the
point of all this: This past Thursday evening (New Years Eve) Adam came
over for supper and brought along a couple of new versions of classic
horror movies. The first one we watched was the new “Godzilla” movie
and it was very much like watching the classic but with the new methods
of production used in movie making today, it was a very realistic and
scary movie indeed! I would recommend it to anyone with a penchant for
“Monster” movies. The second one we watched was another very well done
edition of the “Planet Of The Apes” series! Once again the modern
production of such science fiction beauties is so much more realistic.
They no longer have the actors wearing funny fur costumes that at best
look like a well-made Halloween costume. The movies of today of course
have all the technical production methods in a separate “short” movie
showing how they do all the special effects for the filming of the main
movie right on the disc. It’s very interesting to watch the background
of production on the set as they film the movie. The actors just wear
tight fitting leotard type one piece suits with electronic sensors
attached to the suit and also have special sensing “dots” on their
faces. These sensors pick up every movement made by the actors and
every facial movement and these are transferred to a computer. The
computer wizards then us a special program that transform the actors on
film into life like furry Apes with actual facial features of real
apes. The only part of the actor that you see on screen in the final
production is their eyes. It’s also amazing how you can recognize the
person playing a particular ape by their eyes. I guess when you see an
actor on screen for so many years; you don’t realize that their eyes
are a very unique and recognizable feature! The only other recognizable
feature of course is the actor’s voice as well! Remember way back when
the first “Planet Of The Apes” movies came out and how everybody knew
immediately that “Roddy McDowell” was in the ape suit playing the main
character just by hearing the sound of his voice? Well, the Ape movies
of today are the same only the actors, with the aid of computerization
at least now look like real apes!
It sure is different nowadays spending New Year’s Eve at home watching
movies and eating snacks and not having to worry about driving home
drunk! Especially since we haven’t been drinkers in many years! When I
think of how many New Year’s eves we did just that and never got caught
by the police or even had a minor accident it astounds me! Of course
back in those days, the number of vehicles that were on the roads of KW
was much lower than in these modern times. Most times we would be
driving home after 1pm and might have seen two or three cars between
our party place and home. When thinking back and talking about those
times, we both said we do miss that party atmosphere somewhat but at
our age now, it’s definitely healthier and more sensible to abstain
from the booze and spend New Years Eve at home! Besides, it’d be a
challenge to find a place that would cater to a couple of old folks
like us by playing our kind of music let alone allow actual real
dancing to such music! LOL! It’s hard to remember the last time we
actually attended a “Dance” with live music that didn’t puncture your
eardrums or at least set them ringing for the next day or two! In the
days of my early youth, my folks had such places as “Rosalind Grove”
out on old Hwy 8 that finally became the K Mart of my late teens and
early adult years and then “LuLu’s” Monster nightclub that has since
evaporated. When we were teenagers and young adults there was any
number of dancing establishments around KW but they’ve long since
vanished into thin air as well. Guess maybe Bingeman’s is the only
venue that still hosts dine and dance style New Year’s Eve parties for
the public these days. Maybe we’ll have to get a group of friends
together next year and give Bingeman’s a try, after all, there’s
nothing saying that one has to consume alcohol to have a good time!
Good food and good company are most certainly enough to make for an
enjoyable evening! We’ll have to give that some thought!
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>
Back to the jobs list of my youth: I studied for a long time to become a Doctor but found I just didn’t have the patience!
PPS: I was just thinking, if I had been unfortunate enough to have been
stopped by the Kitchener Police back in my youth for drinking and
driving, I might have met Uncle Russ much sooner!
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Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
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