The Squamidian Report – May 23 / 15
 
Issue #678

Including:
The Ontarion

Hi All,

Its a good thing we live on a quiet street. One day this past week, the day Kyra went home for a couple of days, we somehow left the front door wide open, for a couple of hours, with no one home. Some had gone out via the front door, I went out though the garage. No one thought to look back or do the usual mental checklist in their heads. Away we all went, Kyra and Lauren in their car, us on the bike. We met up at the gondola in order to go up and enjoy a bit of the morning then they headed on back to the city and we headed home. As we walked into the  house we noticed the door, wide open. Needless to say we checked the whole house and found nothing missing or disturbed. Now, you ask, where was the dog during all of this??. Well, she prefers to stay out on the back deck whenever we are going to be away for a relatively short time. In fact trying to get her to come into the house can be down right difficult. So, she was out there. Had she been in the house she'd probably have never even noticed the open door. She's have simply slept the whole time, thats what she does. Had she noticed the open door she'd have been out wandering the neighborhood looking for us, or looking for someone who might feed her in the event we forgot to come home. That seems to be her biggest concern in life, where will her next meal come from if we somehow were to crap out and not fulfill our people duties. Anyway, we now double check that the door is properly closed when we leave.  Oh, a few days later I discovered that the truck doors had been left unlocked for who knows how long. Its not parked in the garage this time of year, its sitting sadly and lonely out at the street.

On our way to the gondola that day, Kyra made an interesting observation that was based on her '3-year-old' knowledge base and information processing abilities. A few days earlier there had been thunderstorms passing through the area. The thunder intrigued and delighted her, she didn't want it to stop. On the other hand, it terrified Willow, stressing her to the point of panting loudly and shaking uncontrollably. We told Kyra that Willow was afraid of the thunder because she could not understand what it was, and that Willow was scared. Now, back to heading to the gondola, they were following us, we on the bike, they in their car. My bike is a typical Harley, when sitting at a traffic light it tends to vibrate and shake. Kyra, who notices everything, made the observation that “grandpa's motorcycle is scared”. To her, the bike shaking looked very much like Willow shaking. I take full credit for her observational skills. :)

A few days later we had another round of thunderstorms pass through the area. This time there was a very big bright rainbow that appeared to be sprouting from the area just to the south east of us, between us and the Indian Arm pass. The rainbow lasted a good ¾ of an hour. During the whole time it never rained at our place at all. Thats the way thunderstorms in the mountains can be. Very selective as to where they rain upon, leaving  the surrounding areas dry. Of course they do that back in farm country as well, soaking one field and missing the one right beside it. However, the rainbow was quite spectacular. Kyra was throughly entertained.

doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

May is turning out to be a much nicer month than we expected. It still hasn’t rained but the sun has been shining most every day and the temps have been a wide range of very hot to luke warm during the day. It’s been as low as freezing over night on a couple of occasions but the few snow flakes that have fallen in some areas of Southern Ontario haven’t amounted to any sort of accumulation. I guess that’s a good thing! I figure the weed suppressant that is mixed in with the fertilizer I put on the lawn a couple of weeks ago is doing its job after all. I have only had to dig up a few dandelions since last week and the number of new ones popping up is getting to be less and less. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that this year’s crop will pass us by for the most part! The lawn is a beautiful lush green colour and looks like a million bucks, no brown spots like I had to contend with the last couple of years and that makes both me and Carole very happy! Now if we’d only get a nice long soaking rainfall to water the lawns it would be a bonus indeed! Not expecting rain until next Monday and Tuesday so I hope the lawn doesn’t burn in the meantime. I’m sure with this good start we’ll have a lawn to be proud of this summer!

Most days around 6pm we like to sit in the family room and start off the evening after supper by watching the local news and come 7pm we watch Wheel of Fortune and then Jeopardy. This past week the winner of Jeopardy every night has been a very bright fellow from Squamish BC. We’ve just been wondering if by any chance Doug and Sue might know this fellow Canadian. His name is Andrew Haringer and he’s been doing very well for himself. So far in a total of five nights on the show he’s managed to accumulate winnings that total I believe $97,000.00. I haven’t watched Jeopardy since Wednesday evening so I’m not sure if he’s still the winning player. He may have been defeated by now but he sure was on a roll this past week or more. It seemed that he and Alex Trebec hit it off well since they are both from Canada. It was a bit of a surprise to see a Canadian on an American game show and especially one from a town that we all have a connection with in Doug and Sue! I hope he’s still winning and keeps it up for a good long run! I also hope he’s aware that a Canadian can apply to get all of the taxes he’ll have to pay on his winnings back once he’s paid them to the US Gov’t. I forget the name of the company that helps Canadians get the tax rebate but I’m sure he’ll be able to look it up on the net once he gets home. We found this out when we were in Vegas a few years ago, they told us right at the casinos when we were playing. We didn’t win enough to have to worry about applying for a rebate but it was interesting to know that such a rebate service is available! Good Luck to Andrew Haringer after all I hope he wins a PILE!

When we moved into this house in Forest Heights we decided we didn’t want a wooden deck out back after having such a huge one in the house in Linwood. We had a few of the Waterloo Fire Fighters who did concrete work on the side widen our driveway by 4’ and I also asked them to pour a pad at the side of the house to place my garden shed on. While they were at it, I had them also pour a 12’ x 25’ patio at the back of the house for our summer BBQing use. That is how I met Doug as he was the contractor that the concrete guys hired to do the excavating of the three sites. It sure has been successful to have used concrete rather than asphalt or wooden decking for the patio and the shed base and of course the driveway since the guys were able to use the same stamping pattern as the original driveway and sidewalks surrounding the house on the new pour! Of course the patio has gotten a little tarnished over the years and I haven’t cleaned if off over the past 5 years or so. So, on Thursday Carole asked me if I’d take a shot at cleaning the back patio. I looked up what sort of product I could use on the dirty and mossy green surface that had collected over the years. It really didn’t look that bad but once I finished the job we could see just how badly stained it had been! On Thursday morning I went to Home Depot and picked up a gallon of Scott’s Outdoor Cleaner solution since I didn’t think my little pressure washer was up to the job without some chemical help.

I found that the Scott’s product was a strong cleaner made specifically for what was plaguing our patio. The label said that although the solution was a very powerful cleaner, it would not harm plants in the surrounding gardens nor would it damage the lawn it might come in contact with. This seemed to be the perfect product for the purpose! I’ve never used the automatic solution feeder feature on my pressure washer so I wasn’t sure how or if it would work! The directions said to put the nozzle of the washer on light spray and to soak the patio with the water/cleaner solution and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes and to use a stiff bristled broom on the dirtier spots. I happen to have a very stiff bristled broom so I sprayed on the solution and went to work scrubbing! After about a half hour I finally finished and had what turned into a dark green foam all over the surface. I let that foam sit on the surface for another 10 minutes and then went to work blasting every square inch of the concrete with the high pressure stream of the washer. By this time my back was just killing me and my right hand was numb from the pulsing of the washer handle. The foam was turning into more foam as I blasted it and I could see the greenish guck on the concrete was flooding off the spots as I blasted. WOW! What a difference in the colour of the patio! The concrete was actually reverting back to its original colour of charcoal and gray and once again looked brand new! It was a heck of a long afternoon’s work but well worth it in the end. I took a look at the patio furniture, which was white when we bought it in Florida back in the early 80’s and had it shipped to Kitchener. It’s still in great shape but after not having cleaned it for a few years there was some staining on the fiberglass structure. I read the directions on the Scott’s Cleaner and it said it was also intended for use on patio furniture and many other surfaces. So, off I went blasting the foam onto the furniture surfaces and then reverted to the pressure setting. The dirt just melted off the furniture and it was once again amazing how dirty it really was. The whiteness that shone in the afternoon sun was incredible and again looked brand new. I’m not a Scott’s salesman but if you’re looking for a product to clean any outdoor surface such as your patio furniture, I’d recommend this one for the job, WOW does it take the dirt off! Every piece of furniture is now spotless and looking brand-new! I even used the pressure sprayer on the plastic latticework we have as a divider at one end of the patio. Even without the Scott’s applied first, the pressure washed the white right back into the latticework and brightened it just like new as well. I was amazed at the efficiency of the pressure washer and also at the ability of the Scott’s to bust the dirt off of anything I sprayed it on! Carole came out to see how I was making out and she was totally impressed with the results of an afternoons work. I hope that this big job won’t be necessary to repeat for at least a couple of years. I really feel that I did a few years work in one afternoon with this project but I’ll just have to wait and see what next year brings!

Well, I think 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>
In my many years, I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a government! – John Adams (1735-1826)                                     
                         
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Have a good one..
the doug
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