The Squamidian Report – June 17 / 17
Issue #786
Including:
From Lorne
The Ontarion
Hi All,
I spent several frustration hours trying to get my FTP program to
connect to my web hosting server. A week or so ago I found I could not
upload anything to my web site including these newsletters. I had
gotten an Email from my hosting company saying that they had updated
the security protocol and that customers should go the host's site, and
then log into their account section for details on any changes needed
to the customer's FTP program or account settings in order to take
advantage of the updates. I did all that I was instructed to do and
figured that all was well. Then, a few days after that, I lost the
ability to upload to my web site. They had stated that access would
soon be lost until all necessary changes had been entered and I had
figured I had done everything. Anyway, like I said, I found myself
unable to upload to my site. On a couple occasions I dug though the
host's help pages and instruction pages but found that they tended to
simply take me around and around in big confusing circles. Then I spent
almost an hour on hold on the phone trying to talk to a tech support
person. Obviously I'm not the only customer that couldn't make their
updated system work. I eventually gave up and went back to sifting
through the help pages. After trying many different setting etc in my
FTP program, again, I must have inadvertently hit the right combination
of settings and host info because, at least for now, I'm able to upload
again. It leaves me wondering why they must make things so convoluted
and then make the instructions and help sections so baffling. Based on
how long I spent on hold on the phone, I'm probably not the only
customer wondering the same thing.
Well, as some of you know, we have a house full of back east visitors.
They've been here for just over a week and they head for home early
next week. Time flies. Everyone has had their wheels run off as we try
to check off all the things they want to do or see on their list. The
gondola has been visited quite a few times and will continue to be a
daily activity until they leave. We did a short road trip up past
Pemberton to the end of pavement. We did a nice ocean cruise that was
an easy 45 minutes over to the Sunshine Coast and the same back. As
walk-on passengers we didn't have to get off the boat so we could watch
the docking procedure from the comfort of the seating lounge. There was
one silly thing that happened at the time. When all the vehicles left
the ferry there was one left parked on the car deck. They called over
the PA system in an unsuccessful attempt to find the owners and were
worried that the owners had driven on and then walked off, forgetting
that they had in fact driven on. Apparently, as hard as it is to
believe, that can happen. Then, the crew came upon a couple up on the
top deck standing there looking at the scenery. They turned out
to be the owners of the car. Hard to fathom how some can be so
oblivious to whats going on around them. They had held up the ferry and
caused it to be running late for the return run. Silly tourists.
Our visitors have had lots of exposer to Ryan's two little girls so
thats a good thing. Lorne was excited to see several of Jupiter's moons
through my scope and thats also a good thing. The weather has been
so-so, could have been better, certainly could have been a lot worse.
So I guess thats a good thing too.
Getting back to the gondola, one of the things high one their 'to do'
list was walk the 1.6km Panorama Ridge Trail. And they did this past
Friday. It took a while but thats ok. I took some pics as proof incase
there are any doubters out there. Rather than embed them in this letter
I've uploaded them to a page on my web site (now that I seem to have
access again). They can be seen by following this link...
Lorne & Cindy on the Chief Overlook.
doug
****
From Lorne
Once again back in BC. My 1st time was in 1947 when my wife
Vivyan, my brother Howard and I ventured out in my 1933 Plymouth,
although not to the coast. The 2nd time was in my brother Russell's new
1965 Mercury convertible when we did get to the pacific. Since then
flew here many times, the last 3 enjoying the newly created mountain
trails reached by the Sea to Sky Gondola. Each year hiking the
Panoramic trail about 1 mile in distance but with the hills and valleys
along the way making it much longer. Each of the 20 cars carry up to 6
persons a distance of 2 KM to an elevation of approx. 3,000 ft. to the
Summit Lodge that conveniently offers comfortable seating with great
views, lunches, full meals, a bar and entertainment, on occasion
supplied by doug. From our 1st visit till the time of writing, I have
been up 29 times which translates to a total of 120 KM. We found time
to visit Horseshoe Bay where we boarded a BC ferry to Gibson on the
Sunshine Coast and back, up through the Squamish River valley and up to
Whistler, Pemberton and into the grizzly bear country beyond. I could
go on about many interesting events and happenings such as the
abundance of snow above the tree line on all mountain peaks. As
with the most recent trips here, I am accompanied by friend Cindy and
daughter Gale as chaperone. Also this has given us an opportunity to
again visit my West Coast great granddaughters, Kyra and Olivia and
their mother Lauren. In closing, I wan't to thank Doug and Sue
for being such gracious hosts providing us with food and shelter during
our visit.
Lorne
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Well, I’ve been working up to what I figured would be the final chapter
of the Vacation of a lifetime but I’m sure this will be only one of
more series of adventures still to come! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading
my account so far and I’ll try to keep this week’s edition interesting
as well!
I’ll start off by telling you that if you wish to lose some weight on
vacation try walking from one end of ROME to the other for what seemed
a never-ending trek. Actually Carole had her wristband on that counts
her steps all day long and there were days when she clocked 15,000
steps and more. It was indeed an exercise in exercise itself. I started
off the trip at a hefty 170 lbs and when we got home I stepped on the
scale and found I had lost 10 lbs and tipped the scale at only 160 lbs!
Heck, I hadn’t weighed that little since I was 11 years old and in
grade 5 at Prueter Public School. I guess you might say I was a bit of
a “porker” when I was a kid. LOL!
Well, no longer do I have to carry that moniker on my shoulders! I must
admit that I’ve gained a few of those ten pounds back since arriving
home. I think I’m hitting the 164 mark again but I like the fact that
I’m a tad lighter anyway. Speaking of walking around Rome, we found the
sites of that city so interesting that we hardly noticed all the
walking anyway. Every corner we turned brought new and amazing feasts
for the eyes! Most of the buildings that were eye-popping were either
churches or government structures. As we stepped out of one of the
little side streets onto what turned out to be one of the few four lane
thoroughfares there was an incredible site in the distance. It was
about a half mile to the south and it stood across the end of the
street we found ourselves on. It was preceded by a quadruple football
sized “Square” with a huge set of three giant fountains that were
centered with a four horsed monster chariot driven by a 12’ tall
gladiator standing at the reigns. Water gushed from the mouths a series
of huge water jugs held in the arms of several young maidens sitting at
the feet of the stallions as they galloped in mid-air! What a thrilling
sight to behold. From the rear of the square stretched an incredible
flight of stairs that reached skyward for hundreds of steps to finally
end at the government building known as “Capital Hill”. I believe it’s
actually the city hall of Rome! The building at the top of the stairs
stretched a full city block wide and was topped in the middle and at
both ends by huge glistening domes each holding aloft another giant
bronze chariot that matched the one in the center of the fountains
below! At the top of the center of the staircase stood a large marble
structure known as “The Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier” which is guarded
24 hours a day 7 days a week by Roman Centurions and is flanked by two
very large flaming torches that also burn year round.
We didn’t climb the stairs to the tomb but walked around to the right
of the base of the Capital Hill building. To the right and slightly to
the rear of the main building stood a grand cathedral. It too was at
the top of a like sized staircase and again we decided not to climb
that set of stairs on that particular day. On another day later in that
week, Adam and I were out on our own for a couple of hours while Carole
was home resting a while and we found ourselves faced by that same
staircase once again. Well, we couldn’t resist temptation and decided
to climb to the top of the stairs of the cathedral for a photo
opportunity. I must say I’ve never been bothered by heights but on this
occasion I was quite unsteady on my feet as we climbed to the top. With
no handrails to support oneself on the ascent, it was challenge for me
not to topple backward as we climbed upward! I didn’t count the number
of stairs but I’m sure it took us ten minutes to reach the top while
moving at a steady pace. Once at the top I actually felt woozy standing
on the patio in front of the church with the incredible city of Rome
stretched out at our feet! Adam took several great pictures from the
top and then we entered the cathedral for another series of amazing
photos of the interior and it’s soaring quad domed roof that was again
a couple of hundred feet from floor to ceiling. What a sight! On the
decent back to street level I was reassured by the fact that we could
at least touch our hand to the wall that edged the staircase as we
stepped down one marble step at a time until we reached the sidewalk
below. I must say I was a tad pooped after that adventure. Of course
then we had to walk for a half hour to reach our apartment once again
for an evenings rest. I was quite glad to climb the thirteen steps to
our apartment and comfort of its couch after that trek!
The next day I believe it was, we set out to find the famous Trevi
Fountain that is seen in so many blockbuster Hollywood films of
yesteryear. As luck would have it, the walk to the fountain from our
flat was only about a twenty-minute jaunt. Now, in the movies, I
remember Gregory Peck and “What’s ‘er name?” riding tandem on a scooter
in front of the Trevi Fountain and stopping to toss a coin into the
water for luck. Well, the actual fountain faces a very narrow
pedestrian-only cobble stone square that other than police cruisers is
just that, pedestrian-only! The fountain is of course the real thing in
the movies but there are no scooters allowed in the square! I guess
they made an exception for MGM or the producers used what was known in
the old days as “Trick Photography” to plant the couple on the scooter
in front of the fountain! LOL! I guess anything is possible in
Hollywood. Anyway, we marveled at the beauty of this famous landmark
and made the effort to actually get to the front of the crowd and stand
on the edge of the fountain. As we stood leaning on the granite railing
that rings the fountain Carole said that I should toss a coin into the
water for good luck! So, I dug out a coin and made my wish and tossed
the coin into the rippling clear water along with the hundreds of other
coins! No sooner had I done that when I felt something touch me
on the left shoulder. I looked up at the top of the black iron lamppost
I stood beside and sure enough, there perched a huge Italian pigeon
with (I swear) a grin on his beak! He had pooped on my shoulder and of
course it had run down the sleeve of my shirt as well. Carole and Adam
both laughed and Carole exclaimed, “Now you’ll have double good luck!”
Thanks a lot pigeon! As Luck would have it, I happened to have a couple
of table napkins in my pocket and was able to clean off the bird’s good
luck bomb! Hahaha I guess it was kind of funny after all! From that
point, we decided to walk on and see more of the neighbourhood. We were
getting hungry by then and figured we’d find a place to eat. We didn’t
have to look very far as there are eateries every hundred feet in Rome.
Talk about pizza joints, there are thousands of them in that city! We
finally found our way into another square that was actually square in
shape. It was a recessed section of actual ancient ruins that was
cordoned off by a tall black cast iron fence on all four sides. As we
stood reading a marble chiseled plaque that stated what the area was
famous for, we noticed that there were a few dozen cats below among the
ruins. The marble plaque stated that this was the very site on which
Caesar was stabbed to death by 26 members of his parliament as well as
by his trusted friend Brutus! “Et tu Brute`?”
Anyway, curious about all the cats, there was a second sign further
down the block on the fence. It stated that this fenced off area was
designated by the city of Rome as a sanctuary for ferule cats who were
cared for both medically as well as fed daily by the local SPCA. As we
read this sign and thought how kind their SPCA members were, a large
black cat limped across in front of us with what appeared to be a badly
broken back leg! Someone’s not doing a very good job of the medical
part of his or her obligations to that cat! Maybe it just happened to
stub it’s paw a minute before we stopped to read the sign! Oh well, I’m
sure the cat medic found it later that day!
From that point on, we were able to find a Pizza Shop that had a few
seats inside out of the heat. We made our selection from an amazing
array of delicious slices and sat and enjoyed our lunch with a cold
drink. Of course we had another lengthy walk on the return home. Like I
said before there is so much to see in every direction that you really
don’t notice how far you’ve walked each time you’re out and about! I
think also that that was the time we saw that taxi driver and the Jeep
driver mixing it up over a road rage situation! Like I said, never a
dull moment in Rome!
I’m going to leave off at this point for now!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to continuing our “Roman Vacation” account next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
In high school my nickname was “Caesar”. Not because I ruled KCI but
because I had the barber cut my hair like Julius Caesar, inspired by
having to read “Julius Caesar” in English Literature class!
****
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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