The Squamidian Report – May 30 / 15
 
Online Version
Issue #679

Including:
The Ontarion

Hi All,

This will bore most of you but too bad, its about a technical problem I've been having for several weeks now in sending out this newsletter. I have the Squamidian recipients as a 'group' in my contact list and when its time to mail out this letter I simply type the name of the group into the 'To' box and all the addresses are put there by the program, just like magic. However, at some point in about mid April that stopped working. I would get an error message saying that there were too many addresses in my list and that the server could not recognize the addresses in the list. That made no sense at all. For one thing, an Email group can contain several times the number of addresses that my groups contain. The work-around was easy but a pain in the butt and my butt really doesn't need any more paining. All I had to do to bypass this glitch was to log into my Webmail page on my Internet carrier's site and use that system to send the letter. I did that for several weeks but finally got tired of it, it works but its cumbersome and inconvenient. So, when it came time to send out last weeks addition I called the Shaw tech support. The guy on the other end was a bit baffled. He checked to see if my address was being blocked, it wasn't. He also could not figure out why I could send through Webmail but not through my computer's Email program. Then he confessed that Shaw had updated it's spam filtering system in mid April and that the update was causing all sorts of problems. Why he didn't say that in the first place is beyond me because it would have saved a lot of time on the phone. Anyway, he still didn't know if that was the problem but put me on hold while he talked to someone higher up. He came back with a puzzling solution, apparently my password was not strong enough to satisfy the new spam filter ??? and so I must change my password to one that fit their criteria. Ok, fine. So, I needed a password with a minimum of 9 characters, a mix of letters and numbers and at least one 'special character' that was not a letter or number, and one or more letter, but not all, must be in upper case. No problem but big hassle. I came up with a password that qualified and then had to change it in everything that accessed my Email. Much to my surprise it seems to be working, assuming that you got last week's and this email from me. If you didn't, let me know. Better still, don't let me know. I'm getting too old for butt paining hassles.

Now this next topic has nothing to do with spam and everything to do with spiders and Kyra's excellent observational skills. We were all hanging out on the deck and in the back yard when she spotted a clump of baby spiders. I have no idea how she knew what they were because at this point they had just hatched and were all in a very tight small blob. As she watched, the clump grew as the little guys started to spread out a bit. There were hundreds of them, tiny, perfect little spiders. She was fascinated. They would spread out then all run back into the tight clump formation. She talked to them for quite a while, including asking where their mommy was as she was quite concerned about them.

Here is a link to some pictures of her and her spiders, and granny's writeup:
http://www.thedougsite.net/Pictures/Kyra/Spiders/BabySpiders.html

Oh, this past Thursday I did a little ride to Lillooet for lunch. Nothing to do with spiders what so ever, just a nice 400k round trip motorcycle day ride. My old Harley likes a good run and so do I so I headed out, not really sure where I would turn around but when I got to Pemberton it was too nice to turn around and if I had done so I'd have been home by noon so there was no point, I kept on going. The Duffy is always a fun ride that takes a lot of attention and care. It can be a bit frustrating if you get stuck behind someone who is white-knuckling along but otherwise, both fun and a challenge. Its always hot in Lillooet and this time was no different. It was hot. If you didn't know, Lillooet is on the west bank of the Fraser River, in the hot dry Fraser Canyon. As you drop down off the Duffy and enter the village, there is a 'Welcome to Lillooet' sign that say's “Lillooet, 2,500 people, 15 last names.” I thought that was kind of funny.

The ride back was marred by having to sit, stopped, for 3/4hr while a road crew fixed the railing on one of the single lane wooden bridges. I had the same stop at the same bridge, twice, last summer. What happens is drivers approach the bridge way too fast, are surprised by the 90 degree turn onto the slippery wooden surface, hit it at an angle, and slide into the railing. There was already a couple of vehicles stopped when I got there, including another bike that was at the front of the line so I pulled out around the other vehicles and pulled in beside the other bike. We started up a nice conversation and turns out he is an airline pilot. He lives just north of Toronto and flies out of Pearson, often in to Vancouver. He had never motorcycled the BC highways before and since his parents have moved to the Okanagan, he had his bike shipped out and now when he has a few days off, he goes riding. His intention is to explore as many of our scenic roads as possible. He's also been working on his wife to let them relocate to out here. Where have I heard that line before ? :)

doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

Here we are at the end of not only another week but another month as well. It’s getting so the days are just flying by and that makes the weeks seem to do the same.

We were down at the local Costco a few days ago and for once the place wasn’t very busy at all. While we were placing our purchases on the belt, one of the women behind the till dropped something while packing another person’s goods and she exclaimed “Oh Sugar!” and quickly looked up at us and the person for whom she was packing as if to be worried about offending us with her comment. Carole asked why she didn’t just say the word that she was thinking instead of “sugar”. The other woman behind the till quickly explained that they don’t dare use profanity or any other offensive word including any politically incorrect words or phraises.  She then went on to tell us that she was called on the carpet by her bosses because she had referred to a customer as “Honey” while checking her purchases through last week. She said she was told that the customer had written a letter to Costco Head Office saying how gravely offended she was that one of the cashiers had called her “Honey” while processing her purchases. The employee was told that “Honey” is considered a politically incorrect term to be used when referring to or responding to a customer and that she should not repeat the offense or she’d be severely dealt with. She then went on to say that all employees were then notified of the offense and told not to use such terms when addressing customers. We were both surprised when the cashier told us the details. We both thought that this was a ridiculous response by the customer when “Honey” has been considered to be a term of endearment for many years. How thin-skinned can one be to be offended by this term? Especially offended enough to take the matter to the Head Office of the company and specifically naming the employee. If you don’t like what’s been said, why not say directly to the person at the till, “Please don’t call me Honey, I think you’re being too personal! Or just be a mature adult and keep your mouth shut and let it roll off your all too critical back!

I say that offensive words are anything but terms of endearment and “Honey” isn’t one of them! I’ve noticed that since I’ve gotten older many people I deal with such as store clerks or restaurant servers tend to use such terms as “Honey, Hon, Dear, Dearie or Sweetie” and although I think they’re being a tad too familiar when they don’t even know me as a regular customer I am most certainly not offended or upset by it! In fact when Doug was here in KW last, we were out for breakfast one morning and we both commented that the waitress had called Doug “Dear” as she asked for his order and then again as she placed his plate in front of him on the table. We actually both chuckled about it and brushed it off! I did say however “Would she be calling one or both of us “Dear” if we weren’t a couple of senior citizens?” likely not! At that, Doug said it’s likely something that comes with “old age” and we both laughed and went on with our day! When someone in a position of dealing with the public in an informal atmosphere uses such terms, it’s likely out of habit formed over several years of doing so and is not meant to offend! Give ‘em a break and if you’re truly offended, don’t leave a tip!

While on a restaurant theme, I’m wondering if any of you are patrons of Boston Pizza restaurants? We’ve been to two of these establishments in the KW area and both experiences have been ones of displeasure. The first BP that we tried was one located on Ottawa St S in Kitchener. It was a month or so ago and it was just on a whim that we thought we’d try some place different. We entered and were quite readily seated in a booth. As we sat down and tried to have a conversation with each other we noticed that we literally had to yell to be able to communicate. The place was about 2/3 full of patrons and we were surprised at how incredibly noisy it was. The location of our booth was second from a corner and quite remote from the bar where one might expect some noise since after all, BP is I guess a rather large “Sports Bar” as Carole pointed out after realizing the number of flat screen TVs on the walls. When I looked around at the surrounding walls and ceiling of the place I noticed that there was a total lack of insulation in the place. The roof and ceiling was totally made of bare metal and the walls are solid brick so every sound made just bounced off these surfaces like we were sitting in a basketball court! We ordered wings for me and spaghetti for Carole and since they were both simple orders we figured we’d be served our meals in a reasonable length of time. Well, it took approximately 30 minutes for our orders to arrive and I was quite prepared to express my displeasure in the lack of prompt service but as it turned out, the person who delivered our meals was someone from the kitchen staff and not our original waitress. I figured any comment by me would just be wasted at that point and decided to see if the rest of the evening’s service improved. The wings and spaghetti were actually quite good tasting and other than the constant din of the almost unbearable noise in the place we enjoyed the food. Nobody showed up at our table to ask if we were enjoying our meal or if we needed anything else such as a refill of our water glasses. We were jostled several times by the inconsiderate patrons as well as staff members that brushed against our table as they passed down the narrow isle beside us. None of which by the way even so much as turned to excuse themselves after obviously feeling our table edge against their hips or rear ends and this was by the way, quite offensive to have to put up with. As soon as we were able to get our waitress’s attention and waited another 10 minutes after asking for our bill we paid the check and vowed that we would never set foot in that Boston Pizza again! The entire experience was one of aggravation for sure!

About a month later, we were feeling like another plate of Italian food and Carole suggested we try the spaghetti at Boston Pizza one more time since she said it actually was quite tasty. I agreed to give BP’s spaghetti one more try but suggested we go to the BP up on Erb St in Waterloo. I figured maybe that one would be more enjoyable. We walked into the BP and were met by a friendly young hostess who showed us to a booth as we requested. This time the restaurant was only about half full and seemed to be quieter. As we walked to our booth we both noticed the mess on the floor all the way from the front foyer to the back corner of the room. We sat down and began to talk about the idea of this time out being a more enjoyable experience than the last however that didn’t last very long! Our waitress was a young blonde girl who seemed more interested in what was happening at the tables around us than in tending to our needs as customers. She plopped the menus on the table and said quite curtly “I’ll be right back!” and off she went! We were both quite hungry that evening and would have appreciated prompt service. However, once again, our attendant was nowhere to be seen. She finally stopped at our table on her way to one two tables away from ours and said “Have you decided what you want?” As we explained our choices to her and had a question about the order she seemed to be in another world and we had to repeat ourselves. We finally ordered a prime rib hamburger each and a side order of French fries. I had ordered mine with the works and before Carole could make her request for toppings, the waitress was gone in a puff of smoke not to be seen for another 20 minutes! There was loud laughter on the other side of the room and our waitress could be seen standing beside that crowd enjoying herself with what appeared to be a younger group of patrons. When she finally appeared at our table she only made an appearance long enough to drop off squeeze bottles of mustard, relish and ketchup and to say “Here ya go!” and once again she was gone! As we waited for our orders we began to talk about the absolute mess that was all over the floor and how unsightly it was. We watched as two different young attendants flitted about the empty tables across the isle from us spraying and cleaning off the tables. They just brushed any debris from the tables onto the floor to add to the mess already there. We finally received our orders and before Carole could ask for some mayo to go with her burger our waitress was gone! We had to wait for another 5 minutes until she appeared at the table next to ours so I could flag her down once again so Carole could ask for her mayo! She said “OK, I’ll be right back!” Once she did appear with the mayo she was gone never to return until she noticed our plates were empty and it was time for the bill! She brought a debit machine and handed it to Carole and while waiting for the machine back said “Do you want any desert?” We both said no thank you. As she stood at the end of our table I said to her “I must tell you we are not very impressed with the condition of the floor!” She looked down at the floor and said yes it’s a bit messy! I once again said to her “Don’t you make an effort to clean it so the patrons don’t have to eat their meals looking at the mess?” She looked at me and said “Oh ya, we clean it!” I again said to her “WHEN? At the end of the night?” I wasn’t surprised at her reply. She said in answer to my question “Ya, usually later after most of the people are cleared out so we’re not so busy!” I just looked Carole and we both shook our heads! Once again, I said to Carole “I sure hope you didn’t leave a tip this time either!” We agreed that this would absolutely be the last time we’d ever patronize a Boston Pizza!

By the way, after about 10 minutes, we realized we were yelling at each other to try to have a conversation. I think if they insulated their metal ceilings it would help!

We gave some thought to actually calling the management and complaining about the treatment and conditions of both franchises. However, if the atmosphere of both restaurants was that pathetic and the service that poor, we doubt complaining would do any good!

Maybe an e-mail to Jim Treliving the CEO of the company would wake the franchisees up! In the meantime, I’m just spreading the word to everyone I come in contact with that I suggest they avoid giving Boston Pizza their business!

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>
If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed!
Mark Twain (1835-1910)

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Have a good one..
the doug
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