Issue #949
Including:

From Kyra & Olivia

From Russ

The Ontarion

Hi All,

I finally figured out why it gets so hot in the summer. Summer is BBQ season and each and every one of those BBQ’s are pumping out massive amounts of BTU’s, heating up the air and everything else. That, my friends, is why its so hot and where the heat actually comes from. So there!

Had trouble getting to sleep a few nights ago because it was so friggin’ hot. Even with all the windows open the house was still taking a long time to cool down after a scorcher of a day. So, I figured I may as well have one last look at the NEOWISE comet before its orbit takes it too far away to be seen. I did get that last view although it wasn’t great. The half moon was shining very brightly and that tends to wash out the sky, and, out idiot neighbor behind us purposely leave his garish bright outdoor lights on all night in order to bug everyone on the street. Those lights can be blinding to anyone’s night vision but if anyone requests of them to turn them out at night, they simply turn on more lights. I guess every subdivision has someone like that. Anyway, the comet is leaving us as it heads back out and away from us and the sun making it no longer a naked eye object. At least not where the sky is washed out by moon and idiot lights, but its still visible through binoculars etc. Its not near as bright as it was a week ago due to distance and angle, and its tail is pretty dim now. Won’t be long before it can only be seem via big scopes, and then after that it will be gone for 65,000 years or so.

Kinda makes you (or at least me) wonder what it will be like here on Earth when the comet comes back around again. The last time it was here, the closest thing to humans as we know them, would have been basic hunter-gatherers using crude stone tools. On the next pass we could well be back to that level of existence again, or perhaps not even here anymore. That could go in two ways, either we will have caused our own extinction, or, we may have forced ourselves to have to evacuate and move on. If we are no longer here to see the comet, the world will have healed itself quite well and there would be very little evidence that we had ever been here. If we are still here and are in fact doing ok, there is no way of imagining what we, our civilization, or the world would look like. If we’ve managed to keep it together and have advanced steadily as a technological species, Earth might simply be where we come back to for vacation, just for old times sake. I’d like to think that’s our future but somehow I won’t hold my breath. We may be incredibly clever but we are not very smart and there is a real difference. So, I don’t know who, or what, gets to see the comet when it comes back but by then Polaris won’t even be our North star. It won’t have been for about 55,000 years, just as it wasn’t the last time the comet paid us a visit.

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I’ve posted another of my little videos. I guess I could be calling them ‘bare bones’ as that truly is what they are. Just me and my guitar. One take, not frills. Just like I’d sound and look if I were doing a gig. Its my way of keeping myself in gig-able form as there is certainly very little demand for any kind of live music these days and what little there is, is a bit strange. But its fun to do and no one is under any pressure to watch them so its all good. This video of a song is called ‘Long Black Vail’, an old number thats been around for years, and has be done by many various performers over the years. The lyrics are from the viewpoint of a dead lover who 10 years earlier had refused to defend himself after being charged with murder because the woman he had been with was his best friend’s wife. So, follow this link if you’d like. No pressure.

Long Black Vail

doug

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From Kyra

Tomorrow Wendell and Nancy are coming over for coffee. Today we went swimming in our neighbors swimming pool. It is deep, but I can stand up in it. We stayed there for almost the whole entire afternoon. It had a heater in it and the water was nice and warm. I wish I stayed longer cause it was really nice. I saw their playhouse and I looked in it and it was cool and I looked in it and there was four chairs. I went under water a few times and I pretended that I was a diver. My friend Alex was a mermaid. The water was so warm and nice. Today is July the 30.

Kyra

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From Olivia

Hi, my name is Olivia and when I’m a teenager I’m going to be a superstar. My sister’s name is Kyra and my mom’s name is Lauren, my dad’s name is Ryan and well I’m at my grandma and grandpa’s house. My sister is playing a game with cards.

Olivia

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From Russ

Haven’t been able to lace up the shoe on my left foot for about 2 weeks. Finally got to see the doctor yesterday. On our previous (phone) appointment, he suspected a blood clot, and ordered an ultrasound. The ultrasound found no blood clot (GOOD!), but the doc read the u/s pictures and found a cist (sp?) behind my left knee.

“We could drain it”, he said, “but these things come and go – let’s see what happens later, and if it flares up again we’ll take that step”. This appointment took place, not in his office, but outside the clinic.

He asked me where my car was parked and we (Greg’s truck) were so close to the door that “DOCTORS ONLY” used, that he performed what he called. “Roadside medicine” right in the truck! This was at 8:45AM before the clinic was open to the public. Now I ask you; “How may doctors would do an examination in a parking lot?”

And now for the good news: We could hear the unmistakable rumble of the Harley’s for some time before they finally rolled into my driveway here in Point Clark. Two tough-looking bikers and a pretty dark-haired girl dismounted and started up the ramp. As they got closer I recognized the males as Tim Brubacher and Gary Brubacher (Lorne’s sons/my nephews) and the ‘broad” was Evelyn, Gary’s friend. We knew they were coming as they’d texted my Greg while we were still in Kincardine getting groceries, etc. We sat on the deck (trying to get some shade under the sun umbrella because the sun was some hot), and had a really nice, but short visit. While Tim and Gary were helping Greg with some heavy lifting project, Ev and I had a short but sweet visit where she told me all about the problems working in a “Mental Hospital” during this ‘Pandemic’. God Bless these “front-line workers”. WE don’t know the half of it! The strain they are under is ‘inhumane’!

Thanks again, Tim and Gary – you really made my day!!

PS

Now, if Doug rolled into my drive with his Harley – I’d flip-out!!

Your old Uncle Russ.

PPS

Ev brought both Greg and I a jar of her ‘home-made’ apple-butter.

Thanks Ev – we’ll sure enjoy spreading that on our morning toast!

Same old Uncle Russ.

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

Here we are again at the end of another week of summer and man have we had summer weather! It’s been gorgeous out but incredibly hot for sure. I’ve been working on whatever I can think of to be out of the house these past weeks. I love the warm weather and can handle the heat too! Is it just me or does the sun feel more intense to many of you as well? They say we are becoming the sun belt of the north! Last night on the CTV weather they called us the great sun north instead of the Great White North! LOL! Maybe we’re trading weather with Florida! As long as we’re not taking on their foolishness with regard to the Covid 19 problem, I can handle the weather! LOL! This is indeed great weather for cruising in a convertible for sure. Carole and I were out for a drive in the MG the other day and wound up driving to Stratford and that area for a while. It was a warm day but as long as we were moving the breeze was keeping us cool. However, when we stopped at even a traffic light we’d start to cook very quickly! While out on our cruise we spent some time on the back country roads and being out of the city got us thinking about maybe purchasing a couple of acres of land and maybe building a house out of the city. We didn’t see any country lots or land for sale that might suit our needs. If anyone of the Squamidian readers knows of a country plot of land for sale that might suit, please don’t be shy, drop me a note and give me the particulars. We wouldn’t want to be too far from Kitchener because our doctors and most of the important medical connections are here in KW. However, we would be open to any opportunity that might arise for sure!

I’m sure it would be lovely to make that sort of move to the countryside, even this late in our lives. It’s time to consider a move out of the city and I’d love to spend my days puttering around on my plot of land mowing my two or so acres by riding a riding lawn mower instead of pushing one like I have to here in town! I have memories of mowing the lawn at our home in Linwood on my riding mower/tractor! It was great fun and didn’t of course seem like such a chore as it does now! We don’t want a farm, just an acre or three or so and of course for the right price! It would also be a challenge to have to clean out this house and move everything to another home no matter where it might be but, what the heck, we’ve done it a few times in our married life so, why quit now! Hahahaha……!

What the heck, we might even entertain the thought of having a few chickens if we had the room for them! Can you imagine being able to pick your own fresh eggs a few times a week? I know that Nova Scotia Sus enjoys here rural property as she has proclaimed many times in her submissions to the Squid however I don’t think we’re up for a move to the Maritimes this late in life but, you never know! LOL!

It would be one heck of a drive to see our doctors if we moved that far away from KW! LOL! I do think not more than 25kms out of KW would be the max but like I said, we’d consider anything that might do the trick! We were talking about this some and Carole would like a nice bungalow with no stairs to climb 10 times a day! I agree with that idea but my submission would be anything that has at least a triple garage attached to the house and room on the property for another garage/work shop that could house another 4 vehicles so I could add to the collection! LOL! I guess that idea would require a lotto win for sure! Sounds like fun doesn’t it? Better get checking my latest tickets if I want that idea to come true! Here I go again with all these thoughts whirling through my feeble old brain! It’s always fun to dream and imagine how things could be! I’m sure you all know by now how much of a dreamer I’ve been all my life so why change now?

With that said, I’ve been eyeballing Old classic pickup trucks again over the past few days. Carole pointed out a beautiful old (about a ’53 GMC) pickup truck in a parking lot in Stratford the other day during our drive and of course that got me thinking again about having another old truck! Just another one of my dreams! Like Groucho Marx used to say, “I can dream, can’t I?” as he rolled his big eyeballs around looking toward the sky and wiggling his trademark big cigar! Of course half of our readers likely don’t even know who Groucho Marx was, so, there’s something or someone you can take a moment to look up on Google!

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Getting back to some semblance of reality, I spent some time a couple of days ago using Adam’s pressure washer to clean the dark crime of time off the eves troughs on the house. We’ve been in this house for 22 years now and the troughs have never been cleaned on the outside! I’ve of course climbed onto the roof every year and cleaned the leaves etc out of the eves but never washed the outside of them. So it was with great results that the pressure washer did the job on the dirt of the outer side of the troughs. It made an amazing difference but it was hard to stop at that point. So, I decided to wash the stamped concrete walkway that leads to the back of the house as well. Then, there’s always the siding on the upper half of the house that needs cleaning as well. With the siding being a beige colour, it collects the dirt quite a bit. One pass of the pressure spray (1800 psi) and I had a clean spot that made the rest of the siding look terribly dirty so of course the rest of the upper half of the house had to be done. The rest of that day was spent washing the siding. Most of it was accomplished that same day but there is enough area to this size of house that I had to spend a second day finishing the cleaning job. Luckily the pressure washer makes quick work of such a massive job. It would have been a week’s work or more to have to do the washing of the siding with a bucket and a brush! Thank goodness for modern inventions such as the pressure washer! Now the outside of the house looks shiny and new again!

Speaking of being shiny and new, our printed concrete driveway has lost it’s luster over the years. I have cleaned and resealed the concrete once over the years we’ve lived in this house but that “Do it yourself” attempt didn’t last more than a couple of years so it’s time to have a professional do the job for us this time. I contacted another retired Waterloo Firefighter who knew of a fellow that does that sort of work and he has agreed to clean and reseal our concrete driveway, walkways and porch but is so busy it will take a couple of weeks before he can come and do it! He did Carole’s brother’s driveway a couple of weeks ago and it looks amazing and just like new! I can’t wait to see how our concrete turn’s out when he has it finished! I’m sure it’ll bring a new lustre to the whole property! Between that and the pressure washing job on the siding the place will be shinier than a new penny as they say!

Well, I think that’s about all I have 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>
While you’re busy staying home these Covid days, maybe thank your garbage man and your letter carrier for their dedication to their jobs!

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