The Squamidian Report – Apr. 8 / 17
Issue #776
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
According to CBC, the west coast has and is still enduring the
dreariest winter since just after the second world war. There have been
colder individual days, and wetter individual days but the constant
below normal cold and above normal overcast and precipitation just
keeps on going. It basically started to rain and or snow during the
first week of October and with the exception of a very few rare days
here and there it has not stopped. Its still raining with no end in
sight. Its still snowing in the mountains and on the highway passes.
The only bright side is that there is an incredible snowpack up in the
hills that could very well be there all summer. What we would think of
as 'spring' is over a month late, soon to be two months late. A real
bummer.
And so, riding season is also late. I'd normally have the bike on the
road by the first week of March. That sure didn't happen this year. I
did however put the insurance back on last weekend in order to take
advantage of one single day, that being last Sunday. It didn't rain
that day. Strange but true. I made up my mind that I'd ride down to
Horseshoe Bay to my riding clubs morning get-together. Which I did. I
left here with the temperature somewhere around +3. Needless to say I
was bundled up. The ride was quite nice and by the time I got home
about noon it had warmed up all the way to +6. It was sure nice to get
out on the old Harley. After sitting for 6 months she started up
instantly and ran perfectly. Normally the bike gets parked and
stored for about 4 months but this winter started a month early and
like I said, doesn't seem to know it has warn out its welcome. Anyway,
I had that one nice ride and now the bike is parked again, waiting for
some glimpse of the sun. There had been a rumor that the sun could
possibly make another short appearance one day this coming week, but
that seems to be slipping away. We shall see. I won't hold my breath.
An unwanted spring-time 'appearance' is the somewhat late early season
pollen. The alders are pumping it out big time. A month or more late
but big time and they are hard at it. Oh well. Here again there is a
bright side although that is admittedly stretching it a bit, the
constant cold rain tends to wash the pollen down off the trees and into
the ground. Normally it would be blown on the wind and spread into all
the eyes and noses it could find like some fiendish entity bent on
making life miserable. Well, the jokes on it. We are having to endure a
much reduced allergy attack because we are having to endure the lack of
spring.
On a different note, I've been invited back to play at the Gondola's
anniversary party again. I had been invited to and played at last
year's 2nd anniversary and this will be their 3rd anniversary. This
year the event falls on May 13, a Saturday, and like last year the
afternoon is booked up with several bands. I'm not a band, I'm just me.
So, they have given me the first time slot again which works out quite
nicely. I get to do my thing and then the loud, energetic bands do
theirs. Last year the music was staged out on the big deck. It was a
warm, almost hot, day. This year who knows. Its just over a month away
and the way its going it may have to be an indoor affair. Fingers
crossed for outdoors because there is more room out there and the
acoustics are way, way, better. One could almost say the outdoor
acoustics sound almost natural.
And one last thought, April Fools Day will never fall on a Friday the 13th. Ever!
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello Everyone!
Ok Ok, who’s the wise guy who sent all that snow our way on Thursday
night? I hope you got a laugh out of it because I sure didn’t! It’s
just darned fortunate for you that it all melted by Friday morning so I
didn’t have to break out the blower one more time! I’m writing this a
little early because I won’t be around my computer again until after
Saturday. Carole and I are heading north on Friday afternoon to attend
a concert by one of my favourite music entertainers, Gordon Lightfoot.
He is appearing at Casino Rama in Orillia Ontario, his hometown. We
went to hear and see Lightfoot at The Centre In The Square in Kitchener
many years ago and consider ourselves fortunate to be able to see one
of Canada’s GREAT talents one more time before he or mother nature
decides it’s time for him to pack it in for good. He’s been through a
great deal of health problems over the past 10 years or so and is lucky
to be alive, let alone still performing! I have always liked his music
and now that I’ve mentioned that, Doug’s style is reminiscent of Gord’s
early years with the simplicity of his unplugged guitar and basic
harmonies! We’re looking forward to hearing Lightfoot once again and
will be staying the night after the concert in Orillia. With the show
ending late in the evening we don’t feel like driving that three hours
or more back to Kitchener after dark! We might just take a little time
to tour around Orillia before heading home on Saturday.
Over the years, Lightfoot’s music has played a part in my life just as
it has in the lives of millions of Canadians. I’m sure that most of us
have a favourite Lightfoot tune but there have been so many that I have
a hard time deciding which one I like best. I tend to gravitate toward
“The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald” simply because of its hard-hitting
authenticity! However there is the iconic hit “Sundown” that was a
monster hit in 1972 and came out on Radio the same day that I picked up
my brand new 1972 Corvette from Bennett Chev Olds in Cambridge. I spent
the summer cruising to “Sundown” in the Corvette and I’m sure Carole
remembers hearing it a few times in the Vette as well. No doubt it’ll
be one of the songs in the lineup on Friday evening at Rama! I’ll be
sure to bring you all up to date the following week in The Ontarion
Report.
It’s good to know that there are still a few of the old Big Time music
greats still alive and performing these days. So many of them have
passed away lately and of course they are getting up there in years and
Mother Nature has a way of making many of them fade away like old
soldiers. Today the world of comedy lost one of it’s greatest and in my
opinion funniest members with the announcement of the passing of Don
Rickles also known as “Mr Warmth”. Many thought he was just a crude
dude but very few people were able to get away with making people laugh
by insulting them and Rickles was the best at doing just that! I’m sure
he will be missed in the entertainment world. He may have been 90 years
old but he still had his wits about him and apparently was still
drawing a crowd whenever he was on stage. With the passing of time in
mind, I intend to take advantage of seeing such great entertainers
whenever one of them is appearing anywhere within easy travel distance
of KW. This makes me think of so many greats of the music business that
we were able to see and hear at The Glennbriar Curling Rink in
Waterloo. It is now a Home Hardware Store but I’m sure the ghosts of
many of the greats still haunt that building when the doors are locked
and the lights go out after business hours! The “Briar” was a great
place to attend concerts back in the ‘60’s! Some of the greats that I
remember seeing and hearing in that venue were Roy Orbison, Gary
Puckett And The Union Gap, Gary Lewis And The Playboys, Paul Revere And
The Raiders, Peter And Gordon and The Beach Boys! Of course there were
many more but I’d have to work at it to remember them all! The Briar
was also a roller rink that most of the high school kids attended a
couple or three times a week to socialize and of course partake of
Sonny’s hamburgers and chips next door after the evening skate was
over. So many good memories of that place that it’s a shame the
teenagers of today no longer have such a place to enjoy in KW these
days. Maybe that’d be a good business to start up once again to revive
the Teen crowd music scene here in Waterloo Region. On the other hand,
do the teens of today actually listen to music and live bands or are
most of them hooked on that crap they call Rap and electronic noise?
With the advent of electronic DJ’s most clubs nowadays don’t need the
expense of hiring live bands to entertain their patrons anymore. They
just pay one person to stand up front and scratch out a beat and noise
on a set of turntables with who cares what the name of the “tunes” are?
If you can even call them tunes! Oh well, just because that’s not my
kind of music I guess I shouldn’t knock it! I’ve always liked a song
that takes a good voice and some semblance of story line to keep one’s
attention. I’m partial to ballads and singers that can carry a tune as
well as talented musicians who actually play musical instruments! I
know that they still exist and hopefully will always be a large part of
the music scene but it’s difficult to turn on a radio and find that
sort of music these days. One has to search out a country music station
or an “Oldies” station to hear music that tells a story these days.
Maybe a good old Rock Stadium venue would go over well here in KW? It’s
too bad that Lu Lu’s went the way of the “Do Do” or is it “Dough
Dough”? LOL! It was the last of the great music scenes here in this
area and I’m sure that many people would like to see another place like
it open locally!
Anyway, that’s about all 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>
Which country in the world drinks the most alcohol?
The Answer: Belarus
In the little country of Belarus, each person over the age of 16 years
drinks an average of 4.62 gallons of alcohol every year. That’s a LOT
of booze!
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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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