The Squamidian Report – Oct. 17 / 15
 
Issue #699

Including:
The Ontarion

Hi All,

Like so many others, we elected to vote during the advanced polls. Actually, we normally do it that way, in order to avoid the lineups and wait times so common on election day. Well, that didn't work out as planned. Usually we'd just waltz right in and cast our vote and be done, gone and on our way. This time we stood in a long slow line for over an hour. Part of that was because so many others had decided to use the advanced polls, and part was because the polling booth place was so slow. They had just one station set up and didn't seem overly concerned that people were giving up and leaving. Interestingly, the lineup consisted of a very diverse cross-section of the local population. Many were retired people and elderly, but many were young families and students. Thats good, a whole cross section of voters are voting. As for who will end up winning on Monday, my response will be the same, “God Help Us”.

We've been having some wet weather, and, some incredibly nice dry weather with the accompanying clear skies. The motorcycling has been as nice as it gets. But, thats not where I'm going with this. I've been watching the ISS go over on several evenings this week. The International Space Station kind of winds its way around the earth and so it pass over a given area numerous time during the space of a few days and then you won't see it again for a couple of weeks or so, then it will be back. I've seen been watching the station go over when at the same time several meteors have streaked by. Very cool. I've seen satellites pass much higher overhead as well. Mind you, most of the objects we see and think of as satellites are actually big peaces of space junk, usually spent booster rockets and that sort of thing. But is all pretty neat to see.

I think I'm repeating myself when I talk about the ISS etc but I'm too lazy to check through the past Squamidian issues to be sure, but, even if I am, thats ok. I may have even mentioned the really cool phone apps that are available, usually free, for this kind of thing. One app called 'ISS Spotter' shows where it is in real time, anywhere around the world, and has a forecast function that predicts when it will be visible in 'your' area and at what time it will climb above the horizon and from where, on the horizon, give its direction and when it will slip below the opposite horizon, as well as when it will slip into the earth's shadow. You see, depending on how long its been since the sun set, and therefore where the sun is in relation to where you are, the ISS my run out of the illuminating sunlight and into space darkness somewhere overhead, or if its still early night-wise so to speak, it may stay illuminated all the way across the sky.

And by the way, Saturn is still visible, low in the south west just after sunset, and Jupiter, Mars and Venus are now visible in the east just before sunrise. Now you know.

The only thing that this next thing has to do with planets is that they must have been lined up right for this to happen, the Supreme Court of Canada actually got something right. BC had brought out an anti-drinking and driving program several years ago where they would do roadside checks and if someone blew over the limit or refused to blow at all, they would get an immediate 90 day driving suspension and their vehicle would be impounded. Well a bunch of self indulging, 'entitled' victims of this brutal, rights violating program took BC to court. The case went all the way to the supreme court and the morons who had been caught drinking and driving lost. Their right to not be pulled over in a roadside check had not been violated. The program can continue to pull jerks like that off the road, making it a tiny bit safer for the rest of us and by doing that, our right to being safe is upheld. Cool.

And one last reminder, next week is #700. Get those stories in about anything and everything. We've been doing this for 13 years so surely you can come up with something.

doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!
Yes, it’s time for another edition of the Holiday Adventure!
Well, I left off last week by complaining about the cold I picked up in England and saying I hoped it’d be history by the time this week rolled around. I’m afraid it’s still got me by the throat! Not sure how much longer I can put up with this damned sore throat and more but slowly it seems to be waning. Thank goodness for strong cough syrup and Halls lozenges! They and good home cooking are keeping me strong enough to fight this thing! Maybe it’ll be gone by  this time next week. Sure hope so it’s agonizing to wake up with the same symptoms every morning. Oh well, enough about my cold for now.

Time to get on with the adventures of our European trip. When we were in the South of Ireland we visited Dublin, the home of the famous Guinness Brewery. We managed to take in the tour the first day in Dublin and like the first week of our time in Ireland the weather was perfect. We were driving a Mercedes C230 I believe it was. It was a four door sedan with a diesel engine that gave us over 60 miles per gallon of fuel. It was a high-end model worth over 40,000 pounds which equates to over $80,000.00 Cdn. It was a nice car but in my eyes, not worth the kind of money it was valued at. Anyway, we took in the brewery tour and enjoyed seeing how they make that terrible dark brew that’s world famous. We even managed to be invited to attend their inherent bar after the tour and were taught how to draw the perfect pint of Guinness from their bar taps. We each were awarded a Guinness Certificate of Merit for achieving the perfect pint of brew with the perfect head on it for bringing out the best flavor in their product. We were then allowed to sit at a bar table and enjoy the pint we had each drawn. Carole and I aren’t drinkers but to make the tour and experience complete we drank at least some of the pint just to say we did it! It’s a very strong dark beer and not to my taste but it was fun to give it a try.

After the tour, we headed south to find a hotel for the night. Our next destination was the Blarney Castle but of course it was too late in the day to tour the castle. We stopped in a small seaside town called Bray and stayed in a lovely “old” hotel on the shore of the Irish Sea. The next morning we drove to Blarney where we visited the famous Woolen mill and of course purchased a few of their incredible sweaters and I even picked up a couple of woolen caps that Ireland is famous for. We spent most of the day at the mill and before finding our next accommodation we located the Blarney Castle. It was raining quite hard so we decided to just find our hotel and settle in for the night. Our hotel was actually the Blarney Golf Resort. Once we had made it to our room we unpacked our essentials and headed back out to find some supper. We went back into the village and found a nice Pub/Restaurant and enjoyed a delicious hot meal after a busy day. Adam dropped us off at the front door of the hotel and went to park the car. He took some time getting back to the room and when he did come back, he had a surprise for me. He had gone to the clubhouse and arranged for he and I to play a round of golf the next morning at this famous Professional Course designed by none other than PGA’s famous John Daly the PGA’s longest driver! I was shocked to say the least and couldn’t wait to get out on the links the next morning. We teed off at 7am just after the sun came up and only one half hour before the club members were due to start their annual tournament. The pro had kindly allowed us to tee off ahead of the members even though the course was supposed to be closed to the public for the day. He said it was a favor to his valued guests. We had a terrific round of golf and managed to stay ahead of the tourney that was following us. Neither Adam nor I had played golf in a few years so we were both rusty but managed to lose only two balls in the 18 holes of the championship course. What an amazing challenge it was to play such a beautiful professional course. Of course to be on a pro course showed us what a “real” golf course is really like. The fairways were manicured like the greens on our public courses here in Canada and the greens were like putting on the surface of a pool table and were a quarter of an acre in size, I swear! Also, the greens are not easy by any means! They have so many undulations in them that it’s nearly impossible to sink one’s putt with the first shot. However we managed to sink a few in only two or three strokes.

The longest hole in Pro golf is located on this Course. It is I believe the 12th hole and is a par five 601-yard hole! We played from the pro tee blocks and Adam scored a 7 and I scored an 8 for the hole. Not bad for a couple of duffers from Kitchener! Anyway, we were totally bushed once we finished the round but we still had some hours of daylight left. We went back to the room and picked up Carole and the three of us headed back into town for another look at the Woolen Mill. Its store is so large that it takes a good few hours to see everything they offer. We wanted a whole day to tour the Blarney Castle so we waited until the next day to do that. The day we toured the castle was another beautiful sunny day and of course we wanted the weather to be nice because the main feature of the castle is climbing the 138 steps of the spiral staircase to the top of the “Keep” where the “Blarney Stone” is located in the south wall of the castle. There is a walkway around the perimeter of the castle wall and the stone is located in a hole in the walkway. You have to lie on your back and a “helper” holds onto your belt or clothing to make sure you don’t slide into the hole while laying back to where you kiss the stone when you’re hanging upside down! Kissing the Blarney Stone is supposed to give you the gift of charm and eloquence. Some of us needed the extra help of the stone and some didn’t but it never hurts to add to one’s natural abilities now does it? LOL! Of course we were enjoying the mealtimes of the days in different restaurants and pubs during the whole trip and that was part of the adventure. After seeing the castle and walking the grounds after climbing to the top and back down again we were pretty much pooped out. We had a look at the items in their gift shop and then headed back to the hotel for the evening. The next day we had to drive back up north to Belfast and find our hotel at the Belfast International Airport. This took most of the day and the next morning we were to board a flight to Charles De Gaulle Airport in France to begin our adventure in Paris.  Luckily Adam had been using his I-Phone as a GPS for the trip and we had no problems locating our accommodations or our driving routes to wherever we wanted to go. He had found a Hotel and booked a room that was literally across the road from the main terminal of the Belfast Airport. In the morning we were able to load our luggage on two carts and walk them across the road to the terminal we were departing from.
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That’s about all I can handle for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to continuing our progress next week in The Ontarion Report!

Bye for now … Greg

PS: Something To Think About>
Do Leprechaun’s really exist?
I do know that while in the South of Ireland we saw two of the most brilliant rainbows I’ve ever seen! Maybe we should have tried to find the Pot O’ Gold at the end of the rainbow? I guess we missed our chance!
Shucks!

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Have a good one..
the doug
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