The Squamidian Report – Oct. 29 / 16
Issue #753
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Just in case you were wondering, yes, it is still raining here. Based
on the forecast, it will have rained every day for all of October with
the exception of 2 days at the beginning of the month. Thats a tad on
the wet side. Even if this month had been November it would have been
considered a tad on the wet side. Our Novembers are often very rainy
with rain on most days, but not usually all of them. We had a November
a few years ago where it rained on all but the very last day and
everyone was disappointed because after putting up with endless days of
rain, we didn't get a perfect record of none-stop rain. It was like
running a whole marathon race only to trip and stumble right before the
finish line. But like I said, we will have missed 2 days of rain during
October so I guess thats not even close to a perfect record. Bummer.
I took my little Ford Ranger to the dealer the other day. It had a
couple of safety recalls against it, both being the air bags. I had
gotten letters from Ford a few times over the past couple of years that
told me there was a pending recall on the air bags, and that they would
inform me when replacements were available. Then, last week I got one
that scolded me for not having taking the vehicle in to have the recall
satisfied. So, I went in and made the appointment. The service guy told
me that the driver's side air bags come in packs of three, and the
passenger side come in packs of one. That struck me as funny, because
it indicates that there are three times more driver's sides in these
vehicles than passenger sides. I'm pretty sure my truck has an equal
number of sides, one driver's and one passenger's. Anyway, on the day
of the appointment I dropped the truck off and told the service guy I'd
just wander around for a while as the service would only take an hour
or so and therefor there was no point in going home and then coming
back, which I'd need a ride to do. Out of curiosity I decided to check
out the new pickups, at both the Ford dealer and across the street at
the Toyota dealer. And just to clarify, I have no intention of dealing
my little old 2004 Ranger. Besides brakes and oil, its never cost me a
cent and purrs like a kitten. And more important, I like that truck,
its comfortable, has a good upright seating position and everything
works just fine.
All the new trucks have all the newest high tech thing that we are not
supposed to be able to live without. All you'd have to do is shell out
45 or 50 THOUSAND dollars. Right, I'm going to spend that kind of money
on a vehicle that would get most of its use during the winter while
mine and runs just fine, AND, fits in my garage. All the new trucks are
way bigger than the little Ranger. No one seems to make a nice small
pickup anymore. Sure, Toyota has a small truck when compared to their
big Tundra model, but it way bigger and longer than mine. Ford's trucks
are the size of medieval castles. No thanks. Even if you could drive a
new truck off the lot for under 50G, in ten years from now it would be
a ten year old truck. In ten years from now my Ranger will only be
twenty-four. If necessary, I could spend a thousand bucks a year on
repairs and maintenance on the Ranger and still be forty grand ahead. I
think I'll go that route. Until such time as the trusty little Ranger
(which by the way is actually a Mazda outfitted with a Ford logo) were
to totally let me down, I'll continue with it. At some point it
probably will need some attention to the 4X4 system, perhaps a seal or
two, some seat covers and so on but after such things the truck would
be just like new, except for the faded silver paint which look more
like a dull grey these days but thats ok too.
Much more important will be to replace 'the wife's' car at some point
in the next few years. Its our main vehicle and has a lot of number of
miles on it. But thats somewhere down the road and we are in no hurry.
There, I just wrote my column without actually saying anything of value
what so ever.
doug
****
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
I’m sitting here in the office trembling in the cold October air! I
know that if I were to move that switch on the top of the thermostat to
the “Heat” position that I could eliminate this situation but then,
that would cost me money and with hydro and gas prices the way they
are, I’d rather put on a sweater or sweatshirt. I guess I’m just
becoming a tad miserly in my retirement years. I think it’s time
someone booted the fat ass of our female premiere out of office. That
would be a good start but then she’d still be leaving the rest of the
Liberal crooks in Queen’s Park to continue her dastardly mismanagement
of our tax money so we’d still have the problems we’re faced with in
this province! Somebody please tell me when the next election is due so
I can start my Conservative campaigning all over again! Maybe this time
the taxpayers of Ontario will wise up and pick a party that gives a
shit about the citizens of Ontario rather than big business! That
certainly isn’t happening on the Federal level but we’ve still got a
few years to go with Justin “Trumpdeau” in power! Just seems he thinks
he’s running a dictatorship rather than a democracy here in Canada and
I doubt he’ll change his ways before the end of his term in office. Oh
well, maybe he and President Trump will make a good pair!
Enough Canadian politics for this week! We’ve got the next occasion
“Halloween” to look forward to in the coming week and I wonder how many
couples will dress up as Trump and Hillary? Not many likely here north
of the 49th parallel but I’ll bet they’ll be popular costumes in the
States.
Well, I managed to mow the lawn for the last
time on Wednesday and I hope it was the last time for this year. Still
have some patio furniture and other outdoor summer stuff to put away
but that won’t take more than a couple of hours. I’m going to wait for
the weather to warm up a tad before doing that last bit of work. I took
the opportunity on lawn mowing day to disconnect the three garden hoses
I have on either end of the house, two on the back tap and one in the
garage. I always disconnect them and use my air hose to blow the excess
water out of them so they don’t split from freezing over the winter. I
used to put them in the shed for the winter but for the last two years
I figured “Why bother when the residual water in them will freeze in
the shed the same as it would if I left them hanging on the walls of
the house!” SO, now I leave them put and it saves me a bit of labor! I
did move the snow blower into the garage from the shed just in case we
get the blast of winter that the Farmer’s Almanac is predicting for
this year. The only other job that crops up this time of year is the
winterizing of the gas powered tools and vehicles that need
“Stabilizer” mixed with the fuel that’s still in their tanks. The MGB
is the biggie when it comes to that so I make sure the tank is full and
add about 8 oz of “Stabilizer” to the fuel, then run the motor for 10
minutes and shut if off for the storage season. This keeps the
carburetor from forming a waxy substance in the float chamber and jets.
Nothing worse in a classic car than gummy gook in the carburetor! The
lawn mower, whipper- snipper and anything else that sits with gas in it
over the winter benefit from conditioner in the tank. It’s best to run
each power tool for a couple of minutes once you’ve put the conditioner
in the gas. This allows the mixture to fill the fuel system and
prevents problems in the spring. Some people change the oil in these
tools in the fall but I usually wait till spring so they aren’t sitting
with fresh oil over the winter and possibly having moisture settle in
the fresh oil, no sense in that! You’d just be best to change it again
in the spring anyway to rid the crankcase of the watered down oil! With
all of this prep work done; I have little to do but wait for the snow
season to arrive so I can get out with the blower. It’s the one outdoor
activity that I don’t mind doing in the winter. Well, now that I’ve
managed to move my fingers enough to warm them up, I think I’ll nip
down and get a nice cup of hot tea to warm up the rest of me!
YUP! It worked, the tea did the trick and even my toes are warm again.
Amazing how a hot cup of liquid helps the entire body warm up isn’t it?
With that said, the only other item I have to complete soon is the
installation of my winter tires on the Jeep. I’ve been advised by a
tire guy that I should replace my winter tires once the tread depth
reaches 3/32nds of an inch. I checked two of my tires the other day and
they are both showing 4/32nds on the center tread. I figure I’ll get
one more winter out of them before having to invest around $700.00 in a
new set! I do not like running my vehicle with poor tires on it but as
long as these winter ones don’t slip and slide all over the place come
our first snowfall, I’ll hopefully make it through this winter before
having to make the move to a new set. I don’t put many kilometers on in
an entire year so I’m sure distance wise the snows will make it through
the next five or six months and then I’ll scrap them!
They said on the news that parts of Ontario have had snow over the past
couple of days but that’s been in the northern districts around
Georgian Bay. I hope we’re safe for a while yet but you never know!
Guess we’ll just have to take whatever comes our way. Each year I say,
“It can stay sunny and warm till Christmas and then get nice!” however,
that is never the case and likely won’t be the case this year. LOL! It
looks like the “climate change” problem isn’t all that definite after
all. On the other hand, who the hell knows? Like I said, we’ll just
have to take what comes!
That’s about it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
You cannot unsay a cruel word!
****
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.
|