The Squamidian Report – Oct. 13 / 18
 

Issue #855
Including:
From Russ
The Ontarion

Hi All,

This is one of those weeks where there is not really a lot happening. I guess thats a good thing in some ways. Sort of like “no news is good news”. I did have to make a short notice dental appointment because an old tooth has started to fall apart. Well, all my teeth are ‘old’ when it comes right down to it so to be more accurate, its the fillings and crowns that are ‘old’. In fact, the crown that has been on that tooth since who know when is probably older than the nice young dentist that we have been dealing with for the last while. Turns out that the structure under the very old crown is starting to crumble and all the dentist can do for now, after inspecting and diagnosing is to put in a proposal to our insurance company and then proceed based on what they say. I have a real problem with the fact that health insurance bureaucrats dictate to health professionals what they can do and how they must do it. Anyway, in a few weeks from now the old crown will be jack hammered off, the tooth built back up (may need a root canal) and a shiny new crown will be installed. If the new one lasts as long as the old one, I won’t actually have to worry much about it going forward.

Then there is the fact that I’m writhing this on Thursday as I sit here waiting for a home inspector to come and thoroughly check and record everything about our house. You see, we have a neighbor behind us that is a total pain in the butt, has managed to tick off everyone around, and is now intending to build a garage or coach house or some such thing in his back yard but needs to blast some of the rock in order to make his structure fit. Its the same rock most of our houses around here sit on. The blasting company that will be doing the blasting is required to have all the homes within a given distance checked, videoed and otherwise recorded so that any damage or future damage may be assessed. We actually went through this before, shortly after we moved here when that tall house beside us was going to be built. They had to blast and therefore had to log the condition of all the neighboring houses. It went fine and I don’t expect any issues or damage and the neighbor having the work done is obviously paying or it all and there isn’t much we could do about it if we wanted to.

Having said that, we’d love to be able to do something about it, as would all the neighbors. You see, the guy having the blasting done is not at all liked by any of the neighbors and we’d all like to stop him from proceeding with his project. We can’t stop the blasting because he doesn’t need a permit for that (not sure how that can be but it is that way around here). He will need one in order to build and will at the time require all the adjoining neighbors to sign off on his request. Like thats ever going to happen. All the late night noise the neighborhood has had to put up with, all the bright outdoor lights at night that have been shining in everyone’s windows, and so on, will come back to haunt him. Should be interesting.
doug
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From Russ

Trying hard to refrain from sitting as much as possible, my story today will not be long, nor about cop stuff. Rather, I’d like to share a short story of a winter vacation many years ago, which relates to a current event.
 
We were spending the month of February in a small hotel located in the north end of the Gulf of Mexico the so-called ‘panhandle’, in a resort town named Panama City Beach.  We had purposely booked this hotel as they had the cheapest of the cheapest rates in town. Why were the rates so cheap? you ask. I’ll tell you; the area had been hit by a hurricane in the previous Fall, which had destroyed the white-sandy beach, and most of the hotels on the waterfront. Ours had withstood the ‘storm surge’, but had the large windows facing the water blown out. The damage was being repaired, but some units (ours in particular) remained “open to the wind” for some two months. Meanwhile, the seabirds took advantage of the open windows to make their nests. Some nested in the window-mounted AC/heater units, leaving behind a mess....and ‘more’!
 
Each unit had been completely refurnished with new beds, carpets, dressers, etc., but the AC/heaters were “still working”, so they were neglected. The month of Feb. had been unusually cold that winter in Florida, so we had turned the heat on in the unit most nights.
 
Returning home to Ont. in early March, my dear wife (Bobbie) brought home more than she’d taken down to Florida.  She developed a breathing problem which we thought was pneumonia, but a lung specialist determined she had “something foreign” growing in one lung. It scared the Hell out of us! What was this foreign thing??  How do we get rid of it?? Where had it come from?? You guessed it. It had come from the AC/heater, and was a ‘bug’ kindly left there by the seabirds! It took a long time and lots of treatments to ‘clear’ the ailment.
 
Fast-forward to October 2018.
HURRICANE MICHAEL SLAMS INTO PANAMA CITY BEACH!!
Billed as “the worst storm to hit Mainland Florida...EVER in the history of hurricanes”
 
Watching the TV newscasts, and the pictures of the total devastation of Panama City Beach....our little three story hotel was most likely washed away by the 5 Metre storm surge. (washed away everything but my fond memories of our winter vacation in the “top of the Panhandle”)
 
Your old friend, Uncle Russ.
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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!
It’s October 13th and this marks the one-year anniversary for my heart surgery! WOW did that year go by quickly! Guess I can stop thinking it’s not going to last and be very happy that I’ve made it past the first hurdle. From here on in, it’s going to be just like the first 68 years, I hope! LOL! Just got to accept the hand I’ve been re-dealt and get on with normal living! Time to Put the worries behind me and get on with life as it comes!
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Speaking of life, we had a bit of a reality shocker last weekend when Carole, Adam and I went to Niagara Falls NY for the day on Saturday. We had just crossed the border on the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara and took our usual route down Pine Avenue toward Military Road where we usually spend the day shopping and looking around before having a nice dinner and heading home. We were about half way down Pine Ave when we decided to stop at McDonalds for a quick bite. Adam and I stayed in the Jeep while Carole ran into Mickey D’s. We sat in the parking lot right out in front of the main entrance. There was a young male employee cleaning up at the open door and he was watching some kids out front of the restaurant. They were about 50 feet from him at the time. Three of them were on bicycles and two were on foot. We just watched their antics as they kicked one of the bikes and were looking like they might be in a disagreement with each other. There were three black kids about 13 years old and a couple of white kids the same age. One of the black kids had a back pack on and after being there on the corner for a few minutes we watched as he removed the backpack and reached into it. The other kids watched and said something to him. When he withdrew his hand from the pack, he pulled out a silver handgun and held it behind his back. Two of the kids started walking away and the McDonald’s employee walked over to the group and said something to them and then returned to his spot at the front door. Just then the manager appeared at the entrance and told the employee to go back inside.

Adam and I were in total shock to see this scary event happening right in front of our eyes. We kept watching as we waited for Carole to emerge from the restaurant. After a couple of minutes, a police car pulled up to the front of the McDonald’s and a female cop got out. She slowly and calmly walked up to the group of kids. The handgun had disappeared once again and the officer asked to see the kids back pack. He allowed her to take a look inside and as we watched, she reached into the pack and pulled the handgun out. As she did this, three more police cars arrived on scene. Carole finally came out of the restaurant and back to the Jeep. We urged here to hurry up and get into the car. At this point we explained to her what had transpired and we decided to leave the parking lot before any violence took place. Afterwards we talked about the situation and figured we had done the safest thing by leaving when we did! It was hard to believe that a kid that young would be brandishing a handgun in public like that! We figured that there must have been a problem with these kids inside the McDonald’s before we arrived. Of course it’s only guesswork on our part but we could imagine these kids having been asked to leave the restaurant and heaven only knows what the kid with the handgun might have done had the police not arrived to diffuse the situation. What is this world coming to when young kids or anyone else think they can carry a weapon in public in broad daylight? It’s becoming a sick world when this sort of thing happens right before your eyes! It was a frightening incident even for us sitting only a few meters away from such a happening! Thank God nobody was hurt or killed by this young troublemaker! I know that we are not immune to such happenings here in Canada but with the liberal gun laws that exist in the States it seems that just anybody at anytime can produce a handgun if they get upset about something. This leads me to believe it would be a mistake to even honk your car horn at a careless driver when we’re in the States! You wouldn’t just be risking getting “The Finger” you’d be taking a chance on being shot! Makes one think twice about crossing the border for a simple shopping day in the US. Pretty darned scary indeed!
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Well, they finally released more information on the deadly explosion that happened in our neighbourhood a few weeks ago. The police have disclosed that the woman found dead in the back yard of the home destroyed by that explosion was dead before the explosion. They have also said that the woman’s husband has been charged with first-degree murder in the case. He’s also been charged with several other arson related charges. When the explosion happened, there was a feeling of something strange about the whole incident. Thoughts of a drug related situation arose in my mind. There have been several drug lab explosions and fires in KW over the past 10 years and this could have been another such incident. At the time, I had thoughts of this guy killing his wife and setting the explosion to cover up the murder. I figured he might have accidentally gotten caught in the explosion himself while setting it off for the cover up. Looks like my thoughts were right or not far off the truth! It’ll be interesting indeed to hear the actual facts in the case once they are made public. The accused is still in hospital in Hamilton recovering from his burns etc. Just goes to show you, you never know who is living next door to you or what is going on in your neighbour’s house! It can happen in any area of any city and your neighbourhood could be next!  I guess it pays to be nice to one’s neighbours and also a good idea not to get involved with them other than just waving and saying hello! You never know when you might piss off the wrong guy! Yikes! Might be time to move to a rural property with no neighbours! LOL!

That’s about all I have on my mind 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>
Aren’t you glad you don’t live in Calgary?
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Have a good one..
the doug
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The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.