The Squamidian Report – Oct. 8 / 16
Issue #750
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Its a good thing Greg has lots to write about because I sure don't.
This early November weather just won't give up so we've been fairly
limited in what we can do around here.
Case in point: for two or three weeks now a section of Highway 99 has
been closed. Some of you have been there, most have not. Its part of
that scenic drive north of Lillooet, the part that is never paved
because they can't keep the roadway in place long enough to make paving
worth while. Its that section thats about a 3.5 hr ride or drive north
from here, near the top end of the highway where it T's into 97 just
north of Cache Creek. We've had a cool wet year and that has most
likely contributed to the current condition. The roadway is notched
into the side of the steep Fraser River canyon and the area is know as
the Ten Mile Slide because thats what it does, it just keeps on
slumping downward toward the river that is chiseling away at the bank a
thousand feet below. This happens on a regular basis, will stabilize
for a while, then slump again. For this current slide, the roadway has
finally stopped creeping downward and the engineers have decided to
open one lane to alternating traffic. They have yet to determine if
they can build the road back up or what to do. Its been a problem since
the highway was built and will continue being a problem for a long
while to come. And its a problem because there are no real alternate
routes besides going a hundred miles out of your way. The rough logging
roads and gravel trails that do bypass the area are not well suited for
'normal' traffic.
And there will be other blocked roads and power outages as well because
we seem to be well into the November storm season, with cold wet storms
pumping in off the ocean one after the other. As I write this major
parts of the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island are in the dark due to
power lines being taken down by trees that have blown over, a typical
late November occurrence. Makes it a bit hard to put any late season
miles on the bike. The poor thing just sits in the garage waiting out
the weather. At least it has a garage to sit in. Listening to the rain
pound on our roof makes one very happy to have said roof. It also makes
one very happy to not be somewhere 'out there' on a bike trip. Or, on
that bike trip and camping instead of staying in motels. Now wouldn't
that be a bummer, hunkered down in a damp tent, with damp or wet gear
and no way to even get a camp fire going to warm up from and to dry out
a sleeping bag. No matter, we are old enough and wise enough not to get
into that pickle in the first place. If I were out on a bike trip I'd
be running up a motel bill as I waited for suitable, safe riding
conditions to return, assuming they ever do this year. But, I'm not out
there, I'm in here listening to that rain on the roof and trying rather
unsuccessfully to come up with anything worth while to write about.
Oh, apparently its a long weekend. Us retired people don't get long
weekends or any holidays or days off for that matter. What a rip-off.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Well here we are in the throws of October and one would think we’d had
enough cool evenings to get the leaves turning colour. Well, no such
luck! Today I took the hard top off the MG and Carole and I headed out
for a “fall” cruise to see and photograph some of the lovely autumn
foliage. We took a lovely leisurely drive north through Waterloo to
Elora using the back roads. We wound our way over to Fergus and on up
to Orangeville. From Orangeville we headed north into the Hockley
Valley, which is of course famous for it’s fall colours! We were
totally looking forward to seeing all the amazing colours of this time
of year on what was a beautiful sunny blue-sky day. The temperature of
the day was perfect for tee shirt/topless driving in the MG or any
other convertible vehicle so we figured we’d catch a few rays of
sunshine and of course take a few dozen pictures along the way. Well,
as it turned out the leaves have only barely begun to turn colour even
in the low-lying areas that are usually the first to change. We were
quite surprised to see that most of the trees are still as green as
green can be with very little indication of fall at all. I guess
they’ll just take their own sweet time changing. We’ve got quite a few
colourful trees in the Kitchener area so we figured that up in the
Hockley area they’d at least be keeping up with KW. No such luck! We
drove through the entire valley area and wound up on Hwy 89 after
taking as many gravel and dirt twisty windy back bush roads as we
possibly could find. In fact, we actually had no idea where the heck we
were at times. Finally we emerged after an hour or more in those maze
like roads to wind up on Airport Road North of Hwy 9. From there I knew
where we were and had my bearings back. We traveled west through
Shelburne and on towards Mount Forest. Before hitting that neck of the
woods, I decided to turn south and drive through Grand Valley along the
beginnings of the Grand River. What a beautiful drive that is! In fact,
the entire drive was just amazing even if it was a tad colourless!
I’m sure if we repeat the same route in a week or so things will be
completely different colour wise. The weather people are predicting a
much colder weekend and into next week although it’ll likely warm up
again later in the week. Just a few cold nights will make quite a
difference I’m sure and then, we’ll try it again. We made our way back
down onto Hwy 9 I believe it was and stopped in Arthur Ontario for a
“Rollo” ice cream cone treat. The weather was actually quite warm and
sitting around 25c. I believe we passed a business sign that had a temp
displayed in old-fashioned degrees F and it read 75F. Now that’s
warm for an October day! Tomorrow is the opening day of Oktoberfest and
that usually means rain rain and more rain for at least the next 10
days. However, this year may just be the exception if we can count on
the predictions of the weather people! I’d say, “Weather man” but both
sexes are predicting the weather on TV these days so one has to be
politically correct! The ice cream cone was a welcome treat after
baking in the hot sun for the previous few hours. I’m not complaining
of course but it did get quite warm during the drive. After leaving
Arthur we headed through the back roads toward Hwy 86 and Waterloo
Region. We were about 25km from Elmira and I noticed our gas gauge was
reading E for Effort! LOL! I decided to take a detour from our route
and drive into Drayton to get some gas. I was sure we would not make it
all the way to Elmira before running out of gas so Drayton was the
closest town. I thought I remembered that there was a gas station just
over the river to the west of downtown Drayton. I was right but upon
our arrival in Drayton I discovered that the gas station (the only one
in Drayton) was located on the west side of the river that runs through
town and the bridge over the river was not there! There was a huge
construction crew on what used to be the bridge and they were in the
midst of building a new one! Consequently, I could see the gas bar but
could not get to it for fuel. Carole asked a local resident who was
walking her kids if there was another station in Drayton. She replied
that the one over the bridge was the only one in town and we’d have to
take a 10km detour around the concession on the edge of town to get to
it if we wanted gas. We figured we had no choice so off we went with
our fingers crossed that we’d make it on the fumes left in our tank!
Luckily, we did make it to the gas station and were able to fuel up for
the rest of the drive home. I said to Carole that I had no idea how far
we could drive once the gauge was showing “in the RED” and that some
day I’d have to test that out by having a spare gallon of gas in the
trunk and running the MG until it was out of gas. It’s actually
something that one should know about any vehicle they drive! You never
know when you will get caught short with your needle pointing “in the
RED”! I’m not one to carry a “Jerry can” in the trunk but the MG does
have one of those gas gauges that suddenly drop from reading ¼ on the
gauge to ZERO without notice! Guess I should just get used to filling
up once I see the gauge at ¼ full! Anyway, the drive from Drayton to
Elmira was approximately 30 or so km so I doubt we’d have made it to
the gas station in good ol’ ELMIRee before running out! The total drive
from Drayton to HOME was a little over 50km so Drayton was our saving
grace! We were also happy that we made the whole trip under a sunny sky
since I had taken the hardtop off and had not reinstalled the
convertible roof for the drive! The hardtop is a nice feature but then
again, so is Topless Driving. Besides, we almost never put the roof up
during the summer months anyway! Oh well, we made it home with no real
problems and the hardtop is back on the MG and ready for the next
adventure.
Just one more little adventure to tell you
about before I call it a day! We went out to do a little shopping on
Wednesday and decided to stop into Burger King on Fairway Rd for WOPPER
on “WOPPER WEDNESDAY”. We entered BK and placed our order. The order
came and I carried it to the table that Carole was sitting at. She
informed me that there wasn’t a clean table to be had so she had to
clean off her choice before sitting down. I sat down and as we looked
around, we noticed that the floor was a filthy mess and all of the
tables that weren’t occupied were a terrible mess and so were most of
the benches and chairs. It was as if the place hadn’t been cleaned in a
week! As we commented to each other about the condition of the place, a
young female employee walked by and complained out loud that a customer
had just left their refuse on the table and floor and walked out. She
begrudgingly grabbed the tray off the table and carried it past us to
the garbage bin behind our table. She was bitching out loud so everyone
within 10 feet could hear her. Carole casually said as she passed
“Well, isn’t it your job to keep the restaurant clean?” As she slammed
the papers off the tray into the overflowing garbage bin she turned to
us and said “NO! Actually it isn’t my job!” “The customers are supposed
to clean off their own tables and put the refuse in the garbage
themselves!” She was definitely snotty and obviously unhappy with her
lot in life! Carole was so ticked at the reply and this young girl’s
attitude that she decided to approach the manager and complain.
While Carole was explaining to the manager what had transpired, the
young girl was chuckling and muttering half to herself and yet loud
enough for me to hear. I finally piped up and asked her if she thought
the situation was funny! I said, “If you think it’s so funny and you’re
so unhappy here, maybe you should quit and let someone who would
appreciate the job have a place of employment!” She turned to me and
walked over to my table and said: “The customers are supposed to clean
up after themselves!” I then said: “Take a look at this place, the
floor is a disgusting mess and so are the tables! The garbage is
overflowing and if it’s not your job as an employee to keep the place
clean then whose job is it?” She said: “I couldn’t care less if the
place is a mess and if I wanted to clean up after people, I’d get a job
as a maid!” Before I could say any more, she turned and walked away to
the other end of the room. I normally don’t get this involved but her
attitude was the last straw! I got out of my seat and approached the
counter. I asked to speak to the manager as Carole had said her piece
and was standing off toward the exit. The manager asked me if she could
help me so I filled her in on exactly what the young employee had said.
The manager was flabbergasted and asked me to point out the employee. I
pointed to the culprit and said that if she didn’t care to treat
customers with more respect that she should find another job! The
manager agreed and assured me that the job of keeping the place clean
was the responsibility of every one of the employees and she would most
certainly have a talk with the girl. The manager was most apologetic
and offered us whatever we would like for free for the bad experience.
She said, “I sincerely hope you will continue to frequent BK and not
let one rude employee turn you away! I assure you this will not happen
again!”
I thanked her for listening to my comments and
declined her offer of free product. We had eaten in the same BK before
and it had never been in such poor condition. I hope the next time we
visit, if ever, that it’s in a better condition of cleanliness!
PS: I hope the snotty young girl changes her attitude while standing on the unemployment line!
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>
The best sermons are lived, not preached!
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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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