Issue #967
Including:

From Russ

The Ontarion

Hi All,

Well now, here we are in December. How could this year go so fast and so slow at the same time? Very puzzling! Oh well, putting perceived relativity aside, this passage of time brings us to the inescapable fact that we are just 2 issues of this letter away from or Christmas addition, which for anyone counting, will be #969. You probably have already figured out where I’m going with this…. Yup, Saturday December 19 will be the one and to that end we need as many of you as possible to send in your story, your composition, your message, to be included in that Squid. If you don’t like crowds, send it in for the 12^th, the week before. That would do as well. I have immense respect and admiration for Greg and Russ who have faithfully contributed to this letter and I know they feel as I do that it is always so wonderful when someone else contributes, and to those ‘someone’s’, a very big thank you. Keep it up. To those we never hear from, get off your butt and take a few minutes, type up your contribution and send it in to me. I need those emails by the Thursday before a given issue in order to have time to put everything together so now you know. Lets make the next 2 issues memorable, especially the 19^th but making both the 12^th and the 19^th memorable would be really memorable.

On a somewhat related line, most don’t know this but that link at the top of these emails, the one that reads ‘Online Versions Of This And Past Issues’ takes you to just that, access to ALL the past issues. The link takes you to a page on my web site with a table, each cell in the table contains a year, from 2002 up to the present. Click on a year and you will go to a table containing all the issue dates for that year. Click on a date and you will be presented with that particular issue. This may well be of no interest to most, but it can be quite interesting when curious about what may have been going on at some point in the past.

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And now for something completely different…. I’m going to talk about a musical group I’ve been following on YouTube for the last year, called the Foxes & Fossils. I came across them while combing the net for possible songs to do. That’s how I find ‘new to me’ material. Here’s the thing about this group, band, whatever you want to call them, they are incredible. It’s made up a several members of a souther country/rock band called the Mustangs, and a couple of very young ladies, one of them being the daughter of the Mustangs’ lead singer, the other her friend. Now here’s where it gets interesting. They got together just over 10 years ago when the girls (the foxes) were just 15. The lead from the Mustangs, Tim, got his daughter Sammie, and her friend Maggie, together along with some of the band members. The sound that came out of the two girls blew everyone away. Their voices and their harmonies are beyond description. The first gig they did was recorded/videoed and some of their songs from that gig turn up on YouTube dated July 2010. You’d never know that was their first, they are so tight and so musical. Then, over the next few years there are videos of them doing more performances and they just kept getting better if that were even possible. There is a break for a few years as the girls went off to college and then the vids start up again whenever the girls were available. Now, over the last year, they have been recording and posting vids that they have done in their home studio and if you want to hear harmony, they are just plain out of this world. The band members are top notch instrumentalist and all of them add their voices. For more info, and to do yourself a favor, check out their web site and YouTube channel, both linked below. You’ll be as blown away as I am. If you only listen to 1of their songs/videos, listen to their latest one. It came out about 3 weeks ago and is a cover of ‘Telling Me Lies’. Maggie starts off solo and then Sammies comes in with her harmony. Its beyond stunning how good it is. They then switch lead and first harmony and it stays beyond stunning, continuing to build as it becomes 3-part harmony. One word of warning… you WILL be hooked.

Their web site.
Foxes & Fossils

Their YouTube channel.
Foxes & Fossils

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And now for this week’s home grown musical diversion…. A song written by Townes Van Zandt called ‘Snowin On Ratone’. I figured it would be fitting seeing as how we are sinking toward winter and some areas of the country have, have had, or will soon have snow, and in the song, part of the lyrics say “It’s snowin on Raton”. Snow being snow and Ratone being a mountain pass between Colorado and New Mexico. My version sounds no where near how the original would sound if you were to stumble across it. In fact, you’d probably not realize they were supposed to be the same song but that’s ok, sometimes I do things my own way. Enjoy.

Snowin’ On Ratone

doug

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From Russ

"Have you fallen lately?"

That little sign, “Have you fallen lately?” at the registration desk of the local hospital always confuses me. I could answer both ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Like all 4 letter words, the word “fall” is a dirty- little- pelt!

“fall” is a verb, but “fallen” is a noun as are ‘fell’ and ‘falling’ (sometimes). The GAGE CANADIAN DICTIONARY lists no less than 19 ways something may be falling, has fallen or fell. My favourite version is #2 come down suddenly from an erect position: He fell on his knees.

With my lack-of-balance issues, I frequently do just that, but instead of going down to my knees – I simply bend-them-quickly, and like a chimpanzee, I remain sort of upright. In this ‘half-crouch’ I can regain/retain my balance. (as long as someone hands me a banana).

How many of you remember those “Pin-ball” machines? If you do, use your imagination, and picture me bouncing from wall-to-wall, off doorways, or anything else that doesn’t ‘give’. I’m that “ball!”.

Question: Have I fallen lately?

Answer: Yes/no.*

On a totally different note – because the snow has come and gone, and it remains like BC in Ont., my daffodils have begun to grow! Stupid flowers!

PS: Thanks for the C-D – very pleasant listening.

Uncle Russ.

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone;

I dare say, Christmas shopping is quite different this year isn’t it? With the Covid 19 happening, it sure did put a damper on things. When we are all used to going out to the malls and other stores it’s hard to resist that temptation to walk the isles of the stores we’re used to visiting this time of year! Most of the shopping will be done on line and the fun has been taken out of the shopping weeks before the holidays by this dastardly virus! Oh well, we will just have to grin and bare it this year and hope that by next Christmas it will all be over with and the world will be back to the “old normal”! The virus has made it very difficult to celebrate any occasion this year. No going out for birthday dinners and no traveling to warm destinations for the winter season! There are however still Canadians that are flying to Florida. In fact we know of a couple that we’ve known for 50 year who just celebrated their 51st anniversary and they have just flown to Florida for their annual 4 month stay in “the Sunshine State”. They sent me and e-mail to say they feel they can isolate just as well in Florida as they can here in Ontario! I guess that’s their choice but it sure isn’t mine or Carole’s!

I wouldn’t even entertain the thought of venturing to any of the US states with the condition their country is in right at the moment! We are just hoping that Bob and Jane can stay safe during their stay in Florida.

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Meanwhile back here at home in KW we are keeping busy preparing for the heavy snow that’s expected to hit our region this winter! Adam used my snow blower to clear the 20 cm of snow that we got last week and my snow blower quit driving forward at the end of his clearing. When we checked out the problem in the garage this week, we found that the drive system beneath the motor was covered with oil. As it turns out, the motor has either suffered a cracked block or there is a major leak in one of the seals on the motor. I won’t know for sure until we can take the motor all apart in the spring to diagnose the problem in the warmer weather. Luckily Adam’s snow blower was parked in my shed and we were able to get it out and put mine in place of it for the rest of the winter. We spent today servicing Adam’s blower to get it working well for the winter ahead. It’s been sitting in my shed for the past 3 years with gas in the tank that’s gone bad. So it was necessary to do an oil change and drain the gas out of the tank to prevent the carburetor from getting clogged by the old gas. It took Adam most of the day to do all that and then put the tank back on the motor, drain the oil as well and then put it all back together. Then we had to put in new oil and gas and start the blower with the new gas and carb cleaner. Once that was done, the blower refused to shift into any of the forward gears. Back into the garage we went with the blower to open the bottom panels to try to find out the problem with the gear shifter. Once opened up we found that over time the drive shaft mechanism has seized from the grease drying out! So out with the grease gun and we had to lubricate the shafts to get everything moving smoothly once again. About another hour’s work fixed that problem and then the blower is now ready to hit the snow of the coming season. Luckily I don’t have to purchase a new blower until next spring once we find out the problem with the old motor. Hopefully it will turn out to be nothing more than a blown seal! I’m not looking forward to having to spend $1600.00 or more on another Toro. Although the old Toro has been very reliable until this season which would have been it’s 16th year of operation. I guess when you look at it that way, it really doesn’t owe me anything! I guess I won’t know for sure until we get into the nitty gritty of the problem! OH well, I’m not going to worry about that until spring!

This week has been a productive one indeed with the solving of my blower problem and the clearing up of the collection of old belongings in the garage finally getting moved out. Adam placed the items pictures on line on kijiji and we’ve had some luck selling a few of the items already. Enough so that we have been able to rearrange the remainder and this enabled me to get the Jeep back into the garage for the winter months. Makes things better not having to clean the snow off the vehicle every morning before being able to drive it anywhere if we have to or want to go out somewhere, like for groceries. We really haven’t been out much other than about once a week if that often to pick up the necessities of life during the isolation of the Covid period. We’ve been staying in the house since last March due to the virus problem. So the cost of running the vehicles has been very little this year. I only put gas in the tank about once or twice a month, so that’s been a savings in itself! Like most people, we’re getting bored with the isolation but it’s the only way to stay safe in this situation.

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 week in The Ontarion Report!

Bye for now… Greg

Something To Think About>
All the money you’re saving by keeping safe at home this year!

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