The Squamidian Report – Jan. 7 / 17
Issue #763
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Well now, after a cold summer followed by a cold and very wet fall the
west coast is in the grip of what people in other parts of the country
would call a 'good old fashion' winter. There has been numerous
snowstorms, bitter cold weather and everything in between. Even those
of us who spent most of our lives back east have found this to be a bit
on the cold side, especially when that Arctic Outflow wind picks up and
drives the windchill down to -25 or so. During those outflow days the
sky is cloudless and the sun is bright but there sure isn't any warmth
in it. The night sky's are incredible but its a tad on the chilly side
to spend much time standing out there star gazing. Those same winds had
forced the gondola to shut down for both New years Day and the
following Monday. When we could finally go back up last Tuesday the
winds were still too strong and too cold for us to do our usual walk.
By Wednesday we were finally able to head out onto the trails and tromp
our way through the trees along the top of the ridge.
An interesting side effect to the cold and snow and ice is the fact
that road salt, or ice melt salt or whatever you want to call the stuff
has become rather scarce and is in big demand. There has been stories
of low-lifes stealing salt from peoples garages and from store lots. We
had stocked up on safety salt several years ago and still have a good
supply tucked away in our garage so keeping our steep driveway clear
and safe has not been a problem. Different story down in the city where
everyone including the city ran out. Special shipments were brought in
by the city, for the city. They have been able to keep the main streets
and highways clear but most of the side streets are glare ice. People
are complaining that Vancouver has done a dismal job of dealing with
'winter' but its not just Vancouver's fault. Many of the side streets
are choked with parked cars to the point where the plow trucks and salt
trucks can't get down them. (We were having that very problem on our
street here a few years ago until the Muni gave in to my constant
complaints and mandated parking down one side only, just a half measure
as far as I'm concerned but better than nothing). Another problem
everywhere and especially in the city is the fact that very few
sidewalks have been cleared, be they private or public. The bylaws
require residents to clear their walks but that just doesn't seem to be
happening. A TV news crew went out to one of the most affluent sections
of Vancouver where almost no sidewalks had been cleared and knocked on
door to interview the home owners. These are multi-million dollar homes
and not a single resident that answered their door gave a damn about
the bylaw or their sidewalks.
In an attempt to help city residents clear their walkways and
driveways, Vancouver decided to 'share' some of their latest salt
shipment. The city residents have not been able to purchase salt
anywhere as every supplier had run out long ago. The idea was to dump a
load of road salt at each fire station where residents could come and
pick up 1 pail full each. Well, would you believe that lead to the
'salt riots of 2017'. At many location the police had to be called.
Fights broke out, some greedy jerks even tried to load their pickup
trucks. It was insanity. Makes one wonder what would happen if that big
earth quake we keep getting warned about were to happen and food or
water were to become scarce. Humanity at its worse.
Another side effect of the cold has been the fact that for the first
time in 2 decades people in the city have been able to skate on some of
their local ponds and lakes. Those bodies of water have frozen hard
enough to be safe. Amazing. Of course people have been skating on the
side streets all over the city so there really isn't much need for the
ice on the lakes. And, get this, many of my biker friends in the city
have tended to pride themselves on the fact that they could ride most
of the winter. Well, this winter that ain't happening, all their bikes
have been parked since late October due to the weather.
Another side effect of the brutal cold is how dry the air is. At times
the humidity has dropped below 20% and thats not good for the house or
us. We have some cracks opening up because the woodwork is drying out.
And its really not good for wooden musical instruments. Drying out can
do major damage. I've been keeping my guitar in its case along with a
small moisture source and a humidity gauge. As well I have a humidifier
running in the room the guitar is in and its a battle to keep the
humidity level even close to where it should be. We used to have two
room humidifiers but one of them packed it in last year. It was one of
those types that have an internal filter that is actually a wick but
the filter gets hard and stops wicking making the unit useless. So, I
checked on line and our local CTC was showing one unit that is the same
as our other, good unit in stock. Our other unit, the one that works
very well, is one of those ultra sonic types that does not use a filter
and sends a nice mist into the air. We popped down to CTC but could not
find their unit on the shelf where all the other ones were. I had
written down the model and stock number and asked a clerk to find it.
It was still in the stock room, and on at half price just like the web
site said. No idea why it would be hidden and on sale, perhaps one of
their employees had hidden it for themselves but we bought it and its
currently pumping badly needed moisture into the air. Always
strikes me as funny that we live in a rain forest and have trouble
keeping our humidity levels up even close to where they should be.
There, 1 down and just 51 more to go for 2017.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone and welcome to the first edition of The Ontarion Report
for the year 2017! I’m not sure this years columns will be any more
interesting or should I say less boring than any other year but I’ll
give it the ol’ college try! For the past six months or more I haven’t
lost interest in playing on my computer but I simply haven’t been
spending much time at the keyboard other than on the days I sit down to
write my Ontarion Report. Guess it’s like anything else, one can drift
away from things that they get used to doing and sometimes find other
newer activities to draw their attention. Oh well, that doesn’t mean
I’ve forgotten how to use the computer, just that I don’t get to spend
as much time at the keyboard.
The one thing that I don’t miss about playing on the computer is the
ads that tend to suck you in to wasting time. I’m referring to such ads
as the one that I actually got sucked into watching today just before
getting started on this column. Last week, I had the battery die in our
Jeep and decided to go get a new one. I spent $120.00 plus tax on a new
battery from Battery Supply on Lawrence Ave in Kitchener. I’ve been
buying my batteries there for many years and they are usually the best
deal in town. I was actually a little shocked when I was charged that
much for my new battery this time. They usually cost me around the $60
to $80.00 mark just as I had paid for the new battery for the MGB back
in the spring. I have no idea why the sudden jump in price but when you
need a new one, you need a new one!
As I sat at the computer today, I came across an ad from some guy in
South Carolina who claimed to have a method of restoring your old or
dead batteries to “NEW” condition by using his simple and extremely
cheap home remedy. He claimed to have found a way of restoring life to
any battery by simply using a few items you or any homeowner will have
lying around their kitchen or garage. He claimed that if you took the
time, “just a few short minutes” to quote his tag line, to watch his
short video that he would teach anyone and everyone to rejuvenate any
dead battery by using his method of taking a few short steps back to
“NEW” condition! He said that in no time at all, you would be able to
recondition any dead battery back to life for mere pennies. He talked
about how he discovered his method and the history of how he was able
to talk his friend who came up with the idea in the first place into
teaching the world how to easy it is to never have to buy a new battery
again! All the while I was watching and listening to this guy tell me
about his discovery I was anticipating him getting to the damned point
and actually telling me his method of rejuvenation as he had promised
at the beginning of his spiel! I watched and listened for 15 minutes as
he repeatedly patted himself on the back and bragged about his great
discovery that would save the general public thousands of dollars over
the span of their lifetime and how the battery manufacturers were going
to shut him down because of their fear of losing hundreds of millions
of dollars once his secret method of restoring old batteries got out! I
watched with skepticism but figured that I’d already put in too much
time listening to his blurb to stop at that point. Another 5 minutes of
his blabbering and finally he stated that his instructional course on
how to simply bring life back to old worn out batteries would only cost
the consumer $299.99! At that point I realized that all this time he’d
been leading up to selling his course in book form and had no intention
of telling his listeners the secret method during this vocal
presentation! What a pile of crap this guy was spouting and at that
point I was wishing I hadn’t wasted my time listening to such a line of
BS and I felt like crawling into the computer and bashing him right in
the nose! After being sucked into his line of crap I was most certainly
not going to send him any amount of money for what would most likely
turn out to be a pig in a poke! I’m sure if I’d have spent another 15
minutes listening to the remainder of his speech the price of the
“Course” would have come down to only three easy payments of $50.00 per
for the book but the shipping would have of course been added to the
cost of his bogus sales pitch!
Now, I could be wrong and this gentleman might have discovered a
miracle cure for all your dead batteries but I think I’d be just as
safe investing in ocean front property in Arizona as spending good hard
earned money on an item who’s only real use would be to hang on the
wall of the proverbial out house!
When I get drawn into wasting my time on such double dealing ads as
this one it does little harm but I gotta say it’s damned infuriating
when I realize I’ve been sucked in by a carnival barker selling snake
oil! Guess this can be chalked up to the old adage “Live and learn!”
Today I’ve definitely learned a good lesson and I hope by passing on my
lesson to all of you I’ve prevented some of you from wasting your time
on such online ads only to come to the same conclusion I have!
Well, that’s about it 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>
Today a man knocked on my door and asked me for a small donation
towards the local swimming pool, so I gave him a glass of water!
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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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