The Squamidian Report – Dec. 14 / 19

Online Version

Issue #916
Including:

From Russ
From Lorne
From Sus
The Ontarion

Hi All,

Whenever we have a clear night we end up with a cold frosty morning. Around here that means black ice which make for slippery roads. The obvious solution is to salt the roads, which they do. There’s no need to worry about salt contamination of the local water ways because they all drain directly into Howe Sound which is part of the Pacific ocean and therefor salt water. I can see Howe Sound from my deck. So, a bit of salty water in the ditches isn’t really a big deal. Sometimes they apply brine which is simply a salt water solution. That’s usually done ahead of a known upcoming ice or snow event because it dries onto the road surface and is then there when needed. Its also very corrosive. Other times they spread good old fashion rock salt. Heavy on the ‘rock’ part. Its trucked in from somewhere, stock piled and then loaded into salt spreaders and applied. Whats different here is that it’s not ground up very finely, it is spread as a coarse gravel type material.

Rather large chunks of salt end up all over the road making big crunching sounds as vehicles drive over them and crush them into smaller pieces. I was out for a walk the other morning after the salt truck had gone by and just for the fun of it picked up an assortment of small pieces to show you whats all over our roads. The more traffic that goes by, the more ground up the salt becomes and I missed getting the trophy sized one. Here’s a sample of what I did get, compared to a quarter laying beside the chunks.

Another and perhaps last song in the current series of covers I’ve been doing this fall is posted for your listening pleasure. (You have no idea how much work is required in order to have things like music available for this letter). The up-side is these little music projects are fun and they keep me ready for whenever the next time I may play in public and thats a good thing. Funny or perhaps puzzling thing though…..while I usually use a metronome when laying down the first guitar track to keep me on track timing wise, I just couldn’t make that work for this number. Everything would go off track (so to speak) right after the key change. So, at the risk of speeding up which is so common when playing live, I did this one with no timing guide. And yes, it speeds up as the song goes along but hopefully no one would have noticed if I hadn’t confessed to it being off-the-cuff, metronome free. It’s an old Waylon & Willy song. Enjoy. And by the way, I did play ‘live’ at an event at the gondola base last evening. And it went fine, as it should.

Good Hearted Woman

And lastly, don’t forget that next week is our Christmas addition. Get those compositions in so they can be included in the letter. We are all looking forward to them.

doug

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From Russ

"Sick as a dog"

“Sick as a dog” We all use this expression from time-to-time to describe feeling VERY sick! But, what’s the origin of said expression?

“It originated in Europe in the early 1700’s where it was common to call something undesirable, dirty, or in this case, eg. dirty dog.

“Diseases would travel the globe via animals such as rats, birds, and, yes, dogs. There were no veterinarians back then, so dogs who were sick got sicker and died. There was a widespread illness which was spread easily by dogs and thus, the saying was created”.

Yours truly is sick as a dog today and ‘that’s all he wrote’. Guess I’ll start taking some of that stuff that “tastes awful and it works!”

Russ.

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From Lorne

December 12 and still old Crawler '78' is sharing the side yard.

You may tire of reading about my condition. There seams to be some action. I have a consultation appointment with a heart specialist at St. Marys on Dec. 23. I also had a call to-day regarding spots they are concerned about and will make an appointment for further tests at the cancer clinic. Food does not want to stay down and am very tired constantly.

Lorne

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From Sus

My visit to Kitchener was amazing and way overdue. Thank you so much Carol for arranging a gathering of family and friends at the homestead. Time just flies by and we just don't see the people we care about enough. And what was extra special was seeing my 3 favourite uncles , hearing their stories and spending time with them. I wish them to be well as they have so much to live for.

My flight home became an adventure what with an ice storm cancelling all planes supposed to leave that night from Hamilton airport. Hugh ended up driving back to Hamilton to pick me up. The next available flight wasn't until Dec. 12th and that was out of the question! The next morning I arranged a flight out of Toronto on Air Canada.

There really is no place like home but I am so happy that I was able to connect with my family and friends again. Thanks to everyone that made it all possible.

Sus

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

Well, it’s creeping closer and closer to the big day once again isn’t it! We’re all scurrying from store to store to get all our Christmas shopping done. Some of us leave it until the last minute some shop all year but either way it gets done! I still haven’t got any of mine done but this week will bring a flurry of shopping once I get into the swing of things again. I’ll just have to get myself in gear and get moving. It shouldn’t take me more than a couple of days to complete my shopping and then I can relax for a couple of days before Santa makes his way down the chimney. After all these years I still don’t know how he manages to squeeze his way through that tiny opening in the chimney. With all the pictures you ever see of him, amazingly there is never soot on his suit from the millions of chimneys he slides down! Hmmm….? Something to think about for sure!

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We’ve got plenty of activity out back since Adam gave Carole a lovely tall bird feeder as a gift a couple of months ago. It’s a tall cylinder that you fill from the top and it has several holes all around it’s sides that the different birds can feed from at the same time. We’ve got cardinals, sparrows, finches, bluebirds and blue jays all feeding from it and competing for a spot on one of the perches when it’s full. We even get squirrels hanging from it and pigging out on the flow of seeds! LOL! It’s comical to watch the antics of all the birds etc attracted to this device. Of course once it’s almost empty the attraction is lost and the popularity of it dies off, that is, until we refill it once again.

Speaking of squirrels, we have one right here that lives with Adam and me, her name is Carole. I don’t mean to be disrespectful by the term squirrel but every year in the fall Carole loves to do her canning and it’s almost a never ending process with her. She loves to can almost anything and when she comes across an idea on the internet that she hasn’t tried yet, she dives right into giving it a try if it’s something she thinks we’ll all like! Over the years we’ve always had terrific canned goods that she’s processed to see us through the winter. In fact, she’s got such a stock of her efforts on the shelving in our basement that we virtually have the pleasure of her wares all year long. One of my favourites is her pickled beets. They go with almost any type of meal and we make good use of them most nights at suppertime. This year she’s been particularly busy canning her crops. She’s done beets, pickles, beet relish, salsa, tomato sauce, whole tomatoes, pickled eggs, pickled carrots that are hot to the taste (Mmmmm) and even British style pickled onions! I may have missed a few items that Carole has on her shelves but nothing down there will go to waste for sure! We’ve on occasion forgotten some of what she’s put in her collection but eventually it gets discovered and we make good use of it in the end. I stated the other day as Carole was placing some of her latest product on the shelves that we could virtually live off her efforts for a whole year without even touching the normal grocery list! LOL! I’m sure that even some real squirrels forget where they’ve stashed their winter food supplies or exactly what they’ve squirreled away! The idea of canning food for the winter must have come from someone watching the squirrels hiding their nuts etc for the winter and thought …. Hmmm? That might just be a good idea for us to do the same and of course the rest is history! Well, that’s enough about food; I’m making myself hungry thinking about it!

One more thing that’s on my mind this week is the lack of snow in our area this year. Areas north of here and really not too far north have gotten dumped on with the white stuff. Just up along the south shore of Georgian Bay they have received 18” of snow in a steady 18 hours non-stop! I’m sure we’ll eventually get our share but right now the roads are bare and even the green lawns are showing through the little bit of snow we do have. I guess I shouldn’t complain, at least there’s nothing to shovel or use the Toro on so far. I’m sure we’ll have a white Christmas but mother nature is cutting things close!

I almost forgot to mention Carole’s latest venture. On Tuesday the 11th of December, we celebrated her birthday! Adam gave Carole a food dehydrator as a gift and now I’m sure she’ll dive into that process headfirst. We’re looking forward to having a supply of dehydrated snacks to enjoy once she gets the hang of things with her new device. I’m sure we’ll have loads of beef jerky and dehydrated fruits and other stuff to test out in the coming weeks and months. There’s always a surprise around the next corner with Carole and her cooking skills! No wonder I was overweight for the better part of my adult life! LOL! She liked to blame it on my penchant for visiting Sonny’s hamburger joint in Waterloo but her lovely cooking has I’m sure contributed to my obesity for sure! However over the past two years since my health changes, I’ve been keeping my weight down to a decent amount. I’ve been sitting in the low 160’s for two years now and feeling much better for it. Most of the foods that Carole either cooks or preserves are of the healthy kind and that makes it much easier to stay on track food wise! Like I always say I’m happy to be on the right side of the grass and hope to stay that way for many more years to come! Guess I’ll just have to stay away from those Sonny’s burgers! LOL!

Well, that’s about all I have for this week folks! I hope Lorne is doing better and hope to hear from him this week again!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>
If the family budget looks sick at the end of the month, it’s likely due to something you ate!
PPS: Something else to think about:
Never underestimate the power of a squirrel, after all, who else do you know that can climb a tree with his nuts in his mouth?

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