The Squamidian Report – Feb. 18 / 17
Issue #769
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
For anyone who likes to keep track of things, 'The Wife' had her 500th
trip up the gondola last Monday. Thats a pretty good showing given that
she is away so much of the time. Like now. She is back in Kitchener
again. But as far as regular visitors go, she is still almost at the
top of the times 'up', perhaps in 2nd place. She will not likely ever
catch up to the person in 1st place because I've been up 150 times more
than she has. We do make good use of our passes.
That last trip up on Monday was interesting. It was Family Day here in
BC and that tends to be one of the gondola's busiest days of the year.
We know enough to get there early, do a nice walk along the ridge, have
a coffee or whatever and then get out before it gets too crazy. Well,
it got crazy all right. For starters, due to the heavy snow we had a
few days earlier the parking lot had shrunk a bit because the
snow-piles were taking up some space. So, a bit less parking available
for visitors. Then, and quite unfairly when you think about it, many of
the first people to get there were not going up to be at the gondola
but going up as a way for easy access into the back country where they
intended to do a day of back country skiing. That meant they were
taking up parking spots all day and therefore denying others of the
chance to park there. Oh well. We met some friends up there for coffee
after our walk and we all headed down about 11. By the time we were on
our way down, there were no parking spots left at all, cars were
driving up and down the rows in a hopeless attempt to find an available
spot. Cars wanting to turn in off the highway were backed up all the
way to the Shannon Falls intersection making for a very unsafe
situation. The lineup for the lift filled the whole staging area, then
out through the breezeway by the washrooms, around the outside of the
lower coffee shop, around past the customer service office and all the
way out along the parking lot to the end of where the tour buses park.
It was a good time for us to be leaving.
And now for something completely different.... Ryan had given me a
Raspberry Pi for my last birthday but I hadn't had a chance to set it
up or do anything with it until now. Incase you are not in the
information loop, a Raspberry Pi is the most basic, and small, and
inexpensive, computer you can get. Its the system that has been
developed for the third world classrooms etc so students and others can
get a computer they can use in remote areas and conditions. Its the
size of a bar of soap. Thats it. It can be run from a battery or a hand
crank but the one he gave me came with an AC adapter. You plug in a
keyboard and mouse, and plug the unit into a monitor or TV and away you
go. It uses a Linux operating system and a small SD card for memory and
hard drive space. Therefore its all solid state with no moving parts at
all. You could probably drop it from a moving camel and it would be
just fine.
As stated, I finally got around to setting it up. I've plugged it into
our TV and I'm using a USB wireless mouse and keyboard. I can sit back
on the couch and surf the net or write a letter. The installed software
with the Linux OS includes LibreOffice, the same office suite I use on
my Mac desktop. Its pretty cool. It could be considered to be a toy,
which it is not, or a very real tool for learning computer coding or
just doing computer type stuff. I'll show it to you some time if you'r
around.
By the way, I'm playing up at the gondola again this coming Wednesday
so if you are passing by, pop on up. There are certainly worse places
to spend a couple of hours.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello Everyone
Just thinking back a few years brought to mind an exiting evening I had
when I was only 6 years old. I’m not sure if any of you will remember
the Century Theatre that existed on College St in Kitchener, just off
King. It actually was attached to the rear of the S.S. Kresge store on
the corner of King and College Sts. The entrance to the theatre was
situated on a 45-degree angle to the sidewalk on College. Anyway, it
was quite a popular show to attend on Saturday afternoons. I’m not sure
how my folks allowed this to happen but my “older brother” by two years
had asked to attend a showing of a new “Monster” movie with a couple of
his friends. All three of them were only two years older than me but
they convinced my mum and dad that they were mature enough to attend
this movie without adult supervision. My mother decided to allow big
brother to attend the show as long as he promised to take me along and
keep an eye on me at all times. Well after my dad dropped us all off at
the entrance to the “Show” we stood in line for about a half hour until
the doors were opened and in we went. This was the “Premiere” showing
of the latest Monster Flick from Japan and it was called “Rodan”! For a
kid my age not to mention kids the age of my “Older Brother” this was a
very scary movie. I would have called it a Horror Flick rather than a
Monster Movie as it scared the Hell out of all of us as we screamed and
cringed in our seats while watching this giant “pterodactyl” hatch from
a monstrous egg found by Japanese coal miners some 1000 feet deep in a
mountain side. They were examining the egg shaped item when all of a
sudden it began to crack open and out came the “Thing”! The miners were
trapped below the surface and most of them perished in the strength of
the wind created by the wings of “Rodan” as it flew out of the
mineshaft. Of course it headed straight for Tokyo and would arrive to
everyone’s horror in just a matter of a few hours. The Japanese
officials were tracking “Rodan” via radar and were scrambling to form
some sort of defense of the city before his arrival. The entire movie
was nothing but shear terror and havoc from beginning to end but I
won’t tell you how it ends just in case you haven’t seen it yet! LOL!
After all, it’s only been on the market for 62 years and some of you
weren’t around for the “Premiere” so I’ll leave it up to you to find a
copy of this wonderfully scary classic movie and watch it if you dare!
After the show was over, I was told to wait in the lobby while my
brother went to the washroom. He said he would meet me at the front
door of the theatre when he was finished doing his business. I waited
and waited and waited and after about a half hour, brother Brent was a
“No Show” and there I was wondering how the heck I’d get home! I
decided to wait out on the street and see if I could spot him and his
friends. After more than an hour and many tears of loneliness my
father’s big green and white ’54 Buick LeSabre pulled up to the curb
and I heard the horn honk to catch my attention. I was never so happy
to see my dad in all of my 6 long years on this earth! I jumped into
the back seat and sobbed, “Why did Brent leave me all alone?” My dad
said, “Don’t worry, it will never happen again!” When we got home my
mum couldn’t stop hugging me and she too was in tears as she assured me
my big brother wouldn’t be attending any movies for years to come with
his friends or anyone else! He had said he thought I had walked home on
my own when he came out front of the theatre and didn’t see me waiting
where he had told me to wait. I guess I might have wandered away from
where he stood me but what the heck, the posters along the front of the
show were so cool I just had to look at them up close! Guess he didn’t
look very hard for me but that’s not the point, I was a 6 year old left
alone in downtown Kitchener and he was the big brother who was supposed
to look after me! I’m sure his beet red behind was a reminder of his
responsibilities for a few days after that Saturday night adventure!
About a week ago I was flicking through the channels on a Saturday
afternoon and lo and behold, there was “RODAN” blazing across the
screen in all his splendor with those huge wings flipping over cars and
blowing down buildings with every flap! I guess the Japanese didn’t
succeed in destroying him after all! LOL!
THE LEGEND LIVES ON!
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>
Is it wrong that only one company makes the game “Monopoly”?
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Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
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