Issue #944
Including:

From Russ

The Ontarion

Hi All,

We are all stressed, we are all going through a lot, perhaps almost more than we can handle at times. What we don’t need is things that shouldn’t be happening but are and are adding to that stress level big time. Well, that’s whats been eating at me for the last couple of weeks, basically, unnecessary stupidity, on the part of the gondola. Now I’m ready to talk about it. A lot of companies are finding they have to do certain things, move in certain new directions in order to deal with the pandemic and it’s ramifications. Some companies however are using the pandemic as an excuse to do things they might not have gotten away with under normal conditions. The gondola, to be more precise, upper management, falls into that category. It started with us being kicked out. Yup, told to leave and that we were no longer welcome. Now let me explain….

When they reopened a couple of weeks ago things were obviously different in order to achieve distancing. For starters, the retail section was gone. It had been removed to make room for the restaurant to expand. No problem if you ignore the fact that it was the retail workers who were the heart and sole of the place. They acted as the ambassadors who welcomed guest and answered questions. Oh well, perhaps this would be a temporary measure until things could return to normal. And yes, I complained about that. Within a few days they were able to open the Upper Lodge so customers could come in out of the weather, find a place to sit and enjoy a coffee or just relax. The main deck was the same, a few picnic tables scattered about for customers to use. Then, one morning we went in and found our ‘usual’ table and chairs but this time there was a ‘guard station’ in the middle of the hallway. There was no one around so we walked in and sat down. After a while the new food and beverage manager came over to talk to us. This in itself was strange because this guy had never once even acknowledged us. He had taken over this department back in the winter but unlike everyone else there, had never showed the slightest inclination toward being friendly with customers. He basically told us that the whole of the Upper Lodge and Upper deck were now under his jurisdiction and part of his restaurant, and that the restaurant is not open to the public until 10:30 and that we were no longer permitted to be in his restaurant and must leave and should not come back. We were to restrict ourselves to the picnic tables in the lower plaza, an area just below the Lodge where the kid’s areas and playgrounds were. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. We were shocked and speechless. To add to it, the couple we normally meet for coffee up there have mobility issues and could not get to the plaza area, and, with the west coast weather were are having, no one would go to that area.

When we got back down to the base area we had all come to the same conclusion, we were done. Our daily destination had been removed from our lives. As we walked out I ran into one of the senior managers, I told her we were done as we left. I told her I’d like to discuss what was happening but for now we were done. She stood there with her face grey and her jaw open.

That evening I wrote a long and concise email to her and the general manager. Two days later I got a phone call from the GM asking if I’d be open to meeting with him, and stating he’d like to clear things up as quickly as possible. Ok. So, this past Wednesday morning we met in his office. We talked for over an hour. I explained how they have managed to alienate not just us but any customer who might be up there either before the restaurant opened, and or any customer who didn’t want to go into a restaurant in the first place, or simply wanted to come in out of the cold or rain. With the new changes that had turned the Lodge and deck into an exclusive dining experience, there was no where for normal gondola users to go and that manager had made it very clear that if you weren’t one of his customers, you weren’t welcome. Young mothers with small kids now had no where to go, people with mobility issues had no where to go. The local community now had no where to go if they weren't there to go hiking. We discussed several other issues that their poorly thought out procedures and changes had caused. Now, I’ve learned over the last few years that the GM is just that, a GM, and had a tendency to say what he thought we wanted to hear, and to gloss over things, be evasive and so on. I could however tell by watching his face that the concerns I was bringing were things that hadn’t been thought out at all and that he was indeed listening. He seemed truly concerned with how we were treated and how their plans would be effecting the locals, the very customer base they depended on during slow times. He said our issues and our conversation would be the main topic at their Thursday morning weekly managers meeting. He also said he would keep me appraised of what was going on. He also knew that we had had enough, we were in fact ‘done’ with the place and would no longer be the supporters we were known to be in the community. We left it at that.

Friday morning I got another phone call from the GM. Low and behold, they are moving the restaurant area back to where it had been, the whole Upper Lodge and deck would no longer be ‘owned’ by the restaurant and the common spaces would be put back. They would be doing this over the next few days and he’d let me know when it was done. He also acknowledged the need for some sort of greeter system at the top to fill the gap left by the removal of the retail people. He told me about a situation that had enforced, in fact proved, what I had been telling them…. Thursday has started out nice and sunny. By mid morning the clouds had rolled in and the rain had started. The customers ‘at the top’ all came into the Lodge to get out of the weather. There was no where for them to go. They were not permitted in the restaurant unless they were restaurant customers. (I think the whole idea all along had been to force people into being restaurant customers). So, all these people had to sit on the floor inside the entrance doors with no where to go. There would have been a lot of piss off people sitting there. Now I await for his call early next week filling me in to what they have done and how it will restore an environment that will work for the customers. Then, we will return. They use Sue and I as a barometer of sorts and do value our suggestions and impressions. They just need to start consulting us before doing stupid things. But of course the share holders wouldn’t know us from a hole in the ground and wouldn’t care if they did. For them its just business, make a short term profit at the expense of long term stability.

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For anyone interested, this link leads to a very interesting article about the Covid virus.

Very Interesting Article About The Virus!

doug

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From Russ

Plop - plop - plop.

Sitting outside at her picnic table in the village of Ripley, Ontario, and minding her own business, she became aware of some unusual sounds coming from nearby. Looking in the direction of the sound, she saw round, black objects striking the blacktop driveway. At first she thought it was walnuts, but dropping walnuts don’t usually get up and run away! She called to her husband who was working outside; he investigated and with his wife, they found these walking little, black creatures were baby birds. They counted – one, two, three, up to eight who, after shaking off the effects of the dangerous drop, found their mother hiding behind the tree. She called to her family and altogether, they marched off never to be seen again. One problem; one chicklet was not following. It was still shaking it’s little head, trying to restore it’s senses.

Not wanting the helpless little thing to perish, the husband put on a pair of gloves (so as not to leave a ‘human’ scent), and carefully, caressing the baby, he held it close to his face in an act of tenderness.

“We can’t hold it forever”, he said. “should we take it to a vet?”

“Let’s try to find the rest of the flock” said she. But no, this was not to be. “We’ll set the baby down where we last saw the mother, in hopes she will come back for this one”.

Ducks nesting in trees? Never heard of it. But, relating the story later to some friends, they learned it must have been a Wood Duck as they build their nests in trees near water. But, their was no water where these were nesting.

Finding this incident interesting, I researched it and educated myself.

“Wood Duck” (Carolina Duck)

Nest in cavities in trees near water;

Although they are ‘waterfowl’ and have webbed feet, they also have sharp claws for perching in trees;

They feed by ‘dabbling’ or walking on land;

Eating berries, acorns and seeds, but also insects (which makes them omnivores)

Females lay between 7 to 15 white-tan eggs, incubating in 30 days.

Soon after hatching and when mother believes they’re ready, she jumps down and her brood follows(without question and regardless of the height – and you’ll find this hard to believe; may jump from height of up to 290 feet – without injury!!

Being tiny in size, when adult they are less than 2 feet long, with a wingspan of less than two-an-one-half feet across. Mallard Ducks are 3 times their size!

Had dramatically decreased in the 19th century due to deforestation, habitat destruction, and hunting. Can you imagine killing arguably the most colourful waterfowl in North America?

Beautifully coloured feathers with an iridescent sheen to them; although the females are bland, the males are remarkably colourful, the brighter the male bird the better the strain.

Vanity was responsible for the slaughter of male wood ducks, as women wanted the brightly-coloured feathers to adorn their hats!

They are migratory birds, protected by law (Migratory Bird Act)

wintering in Texas and Mexico.

Humans have not domesticated wood ducks in any way. It’s illegal to own a wood duck as a pet. Sorry Greg. But even though the injured baby walked up to you and settled down at your feet and would not leave you, thereby ‘imprinting’ on you, later in the day of the miraculous drop onto hard pavement, you cannot keep it .

The beauty of the male Wood Duck is so breath-taking I will not attempt to describe it here, and if you are interested, you will find drawings and photographs on the internet, which I accessed to write todays column.

The persons of which I write are my son, Greg, and his lovely wife Berttie of Ripley, Ontario.

PS The little duck which thought Greg was it’s mommy was never again seen to this date, probably a warm dinner for some neighbour’s cat.

Hoping you will enjoy reading my column as much as I did writing it today.

Uncle Russ. (Quack, quack)

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ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

Well, it happened once again that I had a “Small World” experience today. I have a leaf blower that I purchased in Wellesley back in 1992 to use to clean driveways when I was operating my own Driveway Sealing business back then. It’s started and ran without fail ever since and I actually use it a couple of times a week and of course hundreds of times back when I was sealing driveways. I think I changed the spark plug once in all those years. About two weeks ago, it quit on me and would not start. I took it to a small engine repair shop in Kitchener but the fellow there could not fix it. As it turned out, the starter coil was shot after all these years. When I checked with the company last week they pointed me toward an “Echo” equipment repair shop in Ayr Ontario but when I checked with them, they told me that the part was no longer available. I called Echo Manufacturing in London today and the parts fellow there told me it was no longer available as well but gave me the name of a fellow in Millbank Ontario that might have a used blower for parts. His name is Steve Zehr at Zehr’s Sales and Manufacturing. They sell all sorts of lawn and farm equipment and any other piece of machinery with a small engine. The fellow in London said that Steve had all sorts of old equipment and might have a part to fix my blower.

I called Steve and he asked me to bring the blower out to him since he most likely could fix it with used parts. So, I hopped into the MG this afternoon and drove out to drop the blower off at Zehr’s Mfg. Steve met me in the shop out there and assured me that he’d get the blower working if I could leave it with him for a few days. Now to get to my point about the small world, I was walking back to my MG in the parking lot and there was a young fellow about 30 years old standing there with his dog and as I passed, the dog came to my side and the dog’s owner said hello. I was wearing a Waterloo Fire Rescue tee shirt and the young fellow said as I passed, “I work for Waterloo Fire!” I stopped and talked with him for a couple of minutes. What are the chances of that connection happening in the small town of Millbank? He told me that he’d been on the fire dept for 15 years. I didn’t know him of course since he had started on my very platoon just three years after I had retired. We chatted a bit about the different Firefighters that were on the dept when I was still working, that are still working there today. It was cool to meet someone that I would consider a “New Firefighter” if I were still on the job today. I’m not one to visit any of the stations in Waterloo since my retirement but I do see a lot of the retirees and present day members when we have the retirement banquet every spring!

With the Covid problem this year’s banquet was cancelled but hopefully there will be a banquet next spring and I’ll get to see some of the “new members” at that event, along with many of the retirees! It seems I can’t go anywhere these days without bumping into someone from my past or my past place of employment! As I said in last week’s Ontarion it’s indeed a small world and I do enjoy meeting up with people from my past! This is one of the reasons I enjoy the bi-monthly gatherings we have for the retired members from Waterloo Fire Rescue that are held at the Waterloo Legion Hall. It’s always fun to look back on the years we spent responding to the many hundreds (Actually Thousands) of emergency calls while on the job, as they say! It’s funny but this fellow that I met today said he’s still known as one of the “New Guys” at work even though he’s been on the Department for 15 years, just as I was when working even after more than the first 20 years on Waterloo Fire. I guess old habits die hard! There have been many changes to the Department since I left but we still had a lot in common when we talked about WFR (Waterloo Fire Rescue) as they call it now. It used to be Waterloo Fire Department in my day! The city has since officially changed the name to Fire Rescue.

Matt Bannister is the young fellow’s name and he asked me to drop in to Station One sometime to have a visit with he and his crew members to have a talk about how things have changed and a look at the modern equipment they use today! I think once this Covid problem has ended I might just take him up on his invitation! There are only about a dozen firefighters on the job today that were there when I was working on WFR! Most of them have retired since I did back in 2002. I had every intention of writing a book about my years in the Fire Service but I guess I just got lazy after retiring and that project was shelved for the past 18 years. When I read the book that Russ wrote and published it kind of gave me a nudge to try to get some notes down on the computer to do the same but once again, the idea was shelved! Oh well, you never know when I might rekindle the flame and start the book idea once again! You know, we retirees are so busy it’s difficult to make the time to sit and do a project such as a book! There’s always something to occupy one’s time and it seems to be more so after one retires! Just ask Russ or Doug!

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

PS: Something To Think About>
Don’t Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill, When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Life is queer with it’s twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow-

You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out-

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell just how close

You are,

It may be near when it seems so far;

So, stick to the fight

When you’re hardest hit

It’s when things seem worst that you

Must Not Quit!

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