Issue #953
Including:

From Russ

The Ontarion

Hi All,

Had the strangest thing happen the other day. I actually thought that the transmission on my nice new truck was going south. That nice new truck, the one I bought back in February. I’ve put just under 8,000 clicks on it without so much as a hiccup and then out of the blue it suddenly seemed like it was headed for some sort of catastrophic failure. We have a relatively steep driveway, nothing compared to some driveways around here but impressive by flat land drives. Normally, I hit the garage door opener about 2 houses down the street when returning home. There seems to be a sweat spot there, just as I drive over the catch basins, where the doors respond to the opener signal. Any further away and they won’t open, any closer and they won’t respond until I get right to my driveway. Don’t know why but thats how it is. Anyway, that day the street was busy with some kids out playing on it and a few parked cars etc so I didn’t hit the opener button until I was right at the driveway. I pulled on and partway up where I stopped to wait for the door to open. Once it did, I took my foot off the brake and onto the throttle. Instead of pulling smoothly forward as expected, the truck didn’t move. There was a chattering feel and sound and a light flashed on the dash display.

Yikes! I let off the gas, pulled the shifter into ‘R’ and backed down onto the street where I put it in ‘D’ and drove up and into the garage with no problem. So, puzzled and concerned, I backed back out and part way down the drive where I tried it again. Same thing, the truck just chattered. I aborted this second attempt and headed back down into town to the Toyota dealer to have a worried word with them. The service person was just as puzzled as I was and even the service manager didn’t have an answer so they asked if I could leave it with them. We then dove home so ‘The Wife’ could get her car to pick me up in and back down we went to drop off the truck. In the old days they would have simply driven us home in the courtesy car but that kind of thing no longer happens. They said they’d call once they had a chance to check it out.

The phone range about mid afternoon. The service person said there was nothing wrong with the vehicle and in fact is was doing what it was supposed to do, she would explain it all to me when I got there. So, down we went, a bit concerned about what the explanation might be. The service person had printed off some sheets explaining the safety systems on this vehicle so she could better explain it all to me. Turned out the truck was doing exactly what it should do under those particular conditions, because, it turns out this truck has something called ‘hill start assist’. Never heard of it. Apparently, if you come to a stop on a steep hill, when you lift your foot off the brake, the various safety systems work together to trigger the brakes, via the ABS system, to hold the vehicle from rolling backward. (You may recall from the second paragraph that I had put the truck in ‘R’ to back down the drive, which let it do just that). Turns out this truck has all sorts of safety systems that I don’t understand or don’t know about. I had read the whole manual (yes, I’m one of those people who do that) but I didn’t pick up on this kind of thing because all these systems are referred to by acronyms such as ‘TVAC, VSC, TRAC,’ and so on, and my eye just glaze over when I come across pages of letters that are supposed to stand for real words. So, aside from leaning a few things and feeling a bit silly, there was no harm done. They didn’t charge me for checking out the truck, and they hadn’t identified the issue as a none-issue when talking to them because they didn’t know without checking the vehicle what systems it has onboard. And, because it was a customer complaint, they had to check it out, I guess. Anyway, all is well and the chattering doesn’t hurt anything. It’s supposed to do that, in that situation.

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For the last month or so, and going forward for quite some time, both Jupiter and Saturn have been very visible in the south east starting from before it’s totally dark. They move westward as the night goes on. Each evening as we go forward they will be a bit higher and a bit more west, making viewing even easier. Through a good pair of binoculars or a modest scope, Jupiter’s four visible-to-us moons are little sparkles. Saturn is on enough of an angle from our perspective to make her rings stand out nicely. So, get out there and enjoy. You don’t even need total darkness so a bit of light pollution won’t ruin your experience. And, if you are a nighthawk, Mars climbs out of the east by about midnight and Venus is above the eastern horizon just before dawn if you are up that early.

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Well now, just to show how cruel and inconsiderate I can be, I’ve got another music video for you. I did an audio version of this a while back but I’m only posting the video version this time. You could find the audio with all it’s harmonies etc on my web site if you wanted to poke around. This is the old Lovin’ Spoonful song from about 1967 or so called Never Going Back. As I would have stated when I did the audio version, it’s a song that almost no one remembers but oh well. I apparently did and do because, well, just because. So, check it out. Its kind of an anti-love song where the lyrics are about not going anywhere that his X might be or might have been. Actually kind of a fun song when you think about it.

Never Going Back

doug

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From Russ

Fools rush in - - -

“----where angels fear to tread”.

Interpretation: I am the “fool”, and the ‘fear to tread’ is the Brubacher Family Tree. I slept on it (or more correctly “couldn’t sleep” on it), and came up with the conclusion, DON’T GO THERE ! I never knew I had so many relatives on the Brubacher side! You are certainly not backward when it comes to ‘punch-in-em- out’! You are makin’ em faster than I can ‘hang-em-on the tree! Yesterday I was told, there’s another one due any day!

“Hold it already” I say!

On the bright side, (not suggesting in any way that our offspring are not ‘bright’!) I can’t thank you enough for all your help in sending me the information we need for the ‘tree’. I DO appreciate it. But the tree is now growing like a ‘weed’! I take full responsibility – it’s all my fault!

Ironically, I have contributed no children (that I know of) to the Brubacher Family Tree! Yet I am the one who has (foolishly?) taken on this ‘larger-than-life task.

“How can I help?” asked at least one of you kind souls. Thank you.

Cold cloths on my forehead would help.

A soothing lullaby would help.

Freshly-baked brownies loaded with THC would help. And before I’m too far gone, your prayers would help!

No, Rosie, I’m NOT whining, just stating the ‘facts’

The solutions to creating a Brubacher Family Tree, might be to draw it on a 4 by 8 foot sheet of drywall, or on 5 separate 8 and one-half by 11 inch (book size) sheets of paper. In both cases, the result is the same. INSANITY. Please promise you’ll visit me in hospital.

Crazy, old Unc Russ.

PS: No Rosie, I’m NOT whining – just saying how it is.

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This spot available !

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello Everyone

Looks like it’s finally going to rain a little here in KW. We’ve had as you likely know, nothing but hot and dry weather for the past month or more with little or no rain for that period. Our usually beautiful and green grass has dried out and gotten brown instead of it’s lovely and healthy look! I guess I’m going to have to fertilize it again and see if that helps at this time of year. I did that about a month ago but it didn’t seem to make any difference in the look or health of the grass. Maybe with this weeks rain the lawn will improve in condition. Sure hope so since it’s deteriorating quickly. This has been a very hot and dry season for sure this year. I heard today on the radio that the Farmer’s Almanac for this coming year has predicted a long cold and snowy winter for our part of the country! Looks like I’ll get some good use out of the snow blower this coming winter!

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About a month ago I arranged to have our concrete driveway “resealed” to bring it back to life. It’s gotten quite dry and dull looking with all the sunlight we’ve been having this year so it’s due for a rejuvenation for sure! The fellow I called to do the work finally phoned today and said as long as it doesn’t rain Friday which would be yesterday when you’re reading this, he’d be over to do the work. However, the forecast is calling for rain so he might have to put it off for another day. I guess we can wait until we get a good dry hot stretch again so he can do the work. Likely next week we’ll get a day or two like that and then he’ll show up to do the job. There’s a thousand square feet of concrete to cover so it’ll take at least a day to complete! It should bring up the property value once it’s looking like new again! I did the resealing myself about 10 years ago and it only lasted about one year before it was dull and faded once again so we figured it is time to have a professional do the job! He did my brother in law’s drive and it looks amazing so we’re looking forward to having ours done with the same product! I’m sure it’ll turn out quite well! Oh well, at this point, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a dry sunny Friday so he can get the work done this week.

Speaking of waiting for something to be done, I’m still waiting for the Mennonite fellow to call me to say he’s finished repairing my leaf blower. It’s only been two and a half months since I took it in to his repair shop for a simple part replacement and I’ve called him at least a dozen times to see if he’s gotten it working! Each time, he’s told me that he had to “Dig out the used one from his back room to locate the part he needs to fix my blower and to call him later in the following week” but then, he says the same thing again the next time I phone him! I’m getting tired of waiting for him to dig out the used part. I’m beginning to think he’s jerking me around! I’ll phone him once more tomorrow and if he hasn’t gotten it fixed by then, I think I’ll just go out and pick it up fixed or not and take it to some other repair shop. He says that he has been busy working on the repairs to equipment for his corporate accounts that get testy if he makes them wait! What the heck, am I not a customer too? He’s just lucky that I haven’t gotten a “might testy” like he says his corporate customers get! Only tomorrow’s phone call will tell the tale this time! Should be interesting!

In fact, I may just get on the phone once I’ve finished this weeks Ontarion and give him a call! What else can I do? It’s a good thing I’ve had the use of Adam’s leaf blower while mine is in his shop. I didn’t tell him that but regardless, he should have had mine fixed long ago and not treated me like a second class customer! I’m going to write up a scathing review to put on his Web site for sure once he’s finally returned my blower! There’s always something in this life to complain about but tardiness just makes things worse if you ask me! When you say you’re going to do something especially for a customer, you should keep your word and do it in a timely manner! No business owner needs bad publicity and he’s about to receive some from me this time! It’ll be the one and only item I take to Zehr Manufacturing in Millbank for repairs! That’s for sure! I’m a patient man but this has been ridiculous for sure!

That’s about it 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>
Well, we have a new leader of the PC Party of Canada so maybe this coming election we’ll have a new Prime Minister as well! Good Luck Mr O’Toole!

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