The Squamidian Report – March 19 / 16
Online Version
Issue #721
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Its been a week of contrasts, weather wise. Thats one of the nice
things about living in a 3D part of the world. Its different seasons at
different altitudes, hence the contrasts. Last Sunday and the following
night were quite rainy down here, and very snowy up above. On Monday
morning I headed up to do my usual morning walk along the ridge. I knew
from the web cam that it had snowed quite a bit and therefore figured I
wouldn't need my crampons as I'd be slugging it along through nice
fresh snow. I also didn't figure I'd need my snowshoes, because, well,
I didn't really think that one out very well. I got up there and was a
bit blown away by how much new snow had come down. A lot. So, I headed
over to the train head and out toward the ridge. The first couple of
hundred feet weren't too bad, perhaps half a foot deep because that
section is under the trees. Once I got out from under the trees, the
snow was up to my knees. It had obviously snowed that much where I'd
just been but the snow that had fallen there was still in the trees.
The trees were full of nice big snow bombs waiting for unsuspecting
hikers. As I continued along through the knee deep snow I soon realized
that if I kept going I would exhaust myself long before I made around
and back. The prudent thing to do was to head back to the lodge. Before
heading to the trail I had chatted with the lift attendant and a couple
of the guys that were clearing the snow from the deck area. When I
returned much sooner than expected, they asked why I was back so soon.
I told them there was no way I could walk that trail because I hadn't
thought to bring my snowshoes. One of them asked if I'd like to borrow
a pair from the rental department's storage room. I said “sure” and we
headed in and grabbed a pair of snowshoes. I headed back out onto the
trail and basically broke the trail for anyone else heading out there.
Once the trail has be packed by someone on snowshoes it becomes
walkable for others without them. The snow was remarkably deep most of
the way and I was pretty pooped by the time I got back but I'd have
never made with just boots. I'm just not that strong. I handed in my
borrowed shoes and headed into the lodge where I ran into some people
we often see there and had a coffee with them.
It snowed another 10 or so inches that night. I did remember to bring
my own snowshoes the next morning and broke the trail again. I'm often
the first person out on that trail and breaking trail after a night of
snow makes sense. Then I went home and pulled the cover off the Harley
and checked it over and stuck the registration sticker onto the license
plate. I waited until Wednesday to take the bike out for its first toot
of the season as while it was still snowing up top on Tuesday, it had
been rain down here. Wednesday had dawned clear and sunny and by noon
the temps were in the low teens so that was a good time to do the first
ride. It was quite nice. I've been back and forth to Horseshoe Bay on
the bike and its a good start to the riding season. This weekend and
the first part of next week aren't looking all that good but at some
point the sun will return and the bike will get put to good use.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
St Paddy’s Day is already in the books and from what I gather it was a
lot quieter in Waterloo than in past years on the day. Usually there is
a hoard of students that gathers on Ezra St near WLU and they have been
known to reach near riot conditions on St Paddy’s Day. Well, this year
the City of Waterloo decided not to issue permits for the big day for
use on Ezra St and the University decided not to sanction the event. So
this meant that the students were on their own to behave properly
during the gathering. They were warned by Regional Police, the Fire
Dept and the City By-Law officers that there would be strict
enforcement of the rules against drinking on the street, excessive
noise and public drunkenness. This had the city and the police thinking
that there would not be much of a turn out to the event this year.
Well, they were wrong but from all accounts on the news, the young
folks of the universities turned out in droves but were well behaved
for the most part. There was of course drinking but as long as they
stayed on their residential properties, ie: no closer to the street
than their front lawns, they were within legal bounds and were only
approached by the authorities when something or someone appeared to be
overstepping those bounds. I have no doubt there were a few tickets
issued for public drunkenness and most likely one or two for public
urination as per usual but in situations such as mob celebrations, not
to many people even notice when someone dangles there pee-pee in the
bushes. From what I recall, at 11am on Thursday the 17th, the police
had only made one confiscation of a couple of kegs of beer from a house
around the corner from Ezra’s party bash. The mistake the students make
is to charge for the beer issued from kegs. What they should be doing
is taking up a collection before hand to pay for the kegs and then
issue red wristbands to all who make donations so they can drink “Free”
just by showing the wristbands on the day of the event! That way one
guy or girl can purchase the beer and everybody drinks without showing
that money is changing hands! Guess it’s too much to expect that
university students would be smart enough to come up with a plan to
accomplish this! Oh well, maybe next year they’ll figure out how to
cover up their deed and avoid losing their booze to the cops!
The main problem arose other years when a couple of thousand
out-of-towners showed up uninvited to the festivities and caused all
kinds of trouble and then went home. This left the local students on
the hook to take the blame for the mess and trouble! I guess it’s
difficult to filter the outsiders from the legitimate local students
when they all look like they belong! Even WLU nametags can easily be
faked so issuing these to students would not be of much help. Maybe the
authorities have to start scanning hand stamps with ultraviolet lights
or some other form of modern scientific device for identity. I know,
how about injecting each legit student with an electronic implant so
they can be tracked and GPS’d by the authorities for such events? Can
you say “Big Brother Is Watching!”? Either that or make it mandatory
that anyone that wishes to attend the event must be naked in order to
drink! Would that work or would it just make for more fun on Ezra St? I
think it would put an end to the revelry unless of course St Patrick’s
Day happened to be a warm sunny one for a change! LOL! Oh well, when it
comes right down to it, everyone that’s of age has the right to drink
alcohol while celebrating St Patrick’s Day as long as they don’t do it
in a public location so the best the authorities can do is police the
event just as they have been doing and hope for the best! Some day
those students will mature and realize that their fun days are over and
the rest of their lives will be filled with aging, hard work, marriage,
kids and more hard work and more aging and eventually illness and
death! I’m sure that in there somewhere there’s still the opportunity
for more fun but the other stuff takes priority!
That’s 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>
As I age, I talk to myself, because there are times when I need someone to agree with me!
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Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.
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