Issue #930

Including:

From Russ

From Sus

The Ontarion

Hi All,

Normally, at this time of year, we’ve already been enduring alder pollen for about 6 weeks. The local alder trees usually start to pollinate in early February or even late January depending on the weather. Not this year. The alders have barely started. Even though there is no snow in the lower elevations, there is also no spring yet.

Normally, at this time of year, I’d have already put the bike on the road. Not this year. It’s still way too cold for riding, the streets and roads are often slippery with black ice every morning, and there is sand and salt all over the roads. The bike is still covered up in the corner of the garage and will stay there for the foreseeable future.

Normally at this time of year we don’t have to deal with any Arctic Outbreaks with their howling north winds and frigged temperatures. We had to this week. Temps way below freezing, windchills way, way, below freezing. And, trees down. In fact, our power was knocked out by a tree hitting the mane feed to the area. This was in the middle of the night. By morning the house had cooled off to about 14 degrees, that wind was sucking the heat out of everything. It was early afternoon before power was restored but the winds just kept on blowing. The gondola was of course shut down due to the winds, anything over about 40km or so is deemed to be unsafe.

Then, just as the weather was starting to turn around and cooperate a bit, this virus thing hit the fan and everything, including the gondola, shut down. We went up last Monday for a coffee with our usual friends. All was ‘new-normal’ with social distancing etc. By Tuesday they were only letting pass holders go up but only those pass holders who were heading out to hike or ski or snowshoe. The lodge and offices were closed. We went up and did a nice hike, with the trail to ourselves. As of Wednesday they were closed to everyone and everything, and will stay closed for who knows how long.

We, as in all of us, now find ourselves in a very different world from what we were used to. No one knows or can know for how long this new state will be in effect. It’s not ‘business as usual’. Just try renewing your auto insurance or anything like that. But, we will all do what we must and assumably we’ll come out the other end just fine. In the mean time, hang in there.

doug

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From Russ

Spring

Spring 2020 arrives tomorrow (March 20th) and things are starting to happen in this “Summer resort” on the shores of beautiful Lake Huron.

My early Spring flowers are showing their green shoots; the Robins are here (too early, as usual) looking worried as there’s nothing for them to eat; water is pooling everywhere (my sump pump is working over-time); people are out walking their dogs - one, two, or more animals each; the gravel roads have turned to muddy pot-holes, making bike riding strenuous but I ride each day anyway, and as I plod along I can’t help but see the piles of dog poop deposited along the sides of the roads. I see a few responsible souls stooping and scooping, thank you very much, but then I find those little, clear plastic bags gently deposited back onto the roadside! Who do they think will pick them up? I used to do just that – years ago, but now, picking something up from the ground is no longer on my ‘bucket list’.

People who own cottages are beginning to occupy earlier this Season; with children out of school for March Break, and some of their parents ‘out of a job for now’, Point Clark is a safer place than some larger cities to ‘weather-out the storm’ of COVID-19.

Being fortunate enough to have Type 2 Diabetes (as opposed to Type 1), I have to look after my feet (already damaged by that dreaded disease), and my footcare Receptionist just called to say my regular appointments have been cancelled until further notice. BUMMER! But, she is authorized to give out the Home phone number of my Chiropodist to the “odd patient”. I thanked her for considering me one of the “odd ones”. Being blest with an ulcer on my heel that won’t ‘heal’, I will need footcare soon. They are trying laser and having had several sessions, it seems to be working. They cost me $30 a pop (not covered by OHIP, nor do I have private insurance), but It’s worth it if it works. I keep my toes crossed.

Was out grocery shopping yesterday and the shelves of the supermarkets were ‘super-empty’! We visited 4 stores before we found one that still had toilet paper – and it was limited to one 15 roll pkg. per customer! BUMMER! That will last me about 30 ‘orbits’.

I don’t want to close on that note, so I will ask you one question: Do you find people are much friendlier now that we are all faced with the fear of COVID 19 ?

Uncle Russ.

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From Sus

It's always so hard to lose someone you have known your whole life.

It changes everything and we all have to go through it, its the way life is.

I often think about my parents and miss having them nearby. The good memories will always be there forever. I'm so happy I was able to visit and spend some time with Lorne this past November. One evening was spent looking at old photographs. He was surprised I could recognize some of our relatives even though they were very young in the pictures. It was a very very special evening having Lorne all to myself.

We have a new kitten in our house. She loves to sit on my lap when I'm on the computer watching all the activity typing and moving the mouse. Any other time she is not interested on sitting on my lap. She is a real character who decides whether to be nice or not. She can only take so much petting and then she tries to take a nip out of you. I tried to teach her not to bite but to no avail. So she rules I guess.

Today we dug through 4 feet of snow to get at our carrots in the garden. Its hard to believe that the ground is not frozen under layers of seaweed and bags of leaves and 4 feet of snow. Its a lot of hard work for vegetables for dinner. We are getting some warmer days now but it will take awhile to melt all that snow. It's maple syrup time again and we just had our first run and first boil down giving us about 2 litres of finished syrup. We need our snow shoes to get to all our trees and a sled to collect the sap. Today was a beautiful day to be in the woods.

I hope you are all staying well in this difficult time with this virus threat.

Only essential services are open here and just about everything else is shut down including my shop. Hopefully keeping people away from each other will work on getting rid of the virus. Take care everyone.

Sus

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

Well, I’m sure you’re all expecting to be bombarded with info on the Covid 19 situation from everyone writing into this weeks Squid! I’m no different than everyone else in this world when it comes to keeping up to date on what’s happening. I am of course very concerned with the problem but with the many talented medical researchers we have worldwide, I’m confident that they will come up with a cure or at least a vaccine to combat the problem within the next few months. Let’s all try to have a positive frame of mind when it comes to combating this virus. We all must follow the recommended actions that will help curb the spread of the virus. Wash hands regularly, avoid crowds of people cover our mouths when coughing or sneezing and continue to practice good hygiene! With God’s help we will defeat this terrible blight that’s affecting the entire world!

I heard last night that China’s 15,000 infected patients is now reduced to 15 serious cases! If we can believe their reports on this statistic it seems that they are making headway! That’s a big IF!

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Last week on Thursday I was finally into St Mary’s Hospital to have the surgery done on my scalp to remove the two main skin cancer spots. One of the incisions was right on the top of my head and the other was on my upper left forehead. The one on top was the removal of a piece of scalp that was 2” x 1 ½” and a half inch deep. The surgeon said he had to take it almost down to my skull! OUCH! The one on the forehead was about an inch long by ¾” wide and as deep as the one on top. When all was said and done, I came home with 5 staples in the forehead and 11 staples in the top of my head. Once home, I took the doctor’s advice and went up to bed to rest for a couple of hours. I awoke two hours later to find my face covered in blood and my pillow soaked half way through with blood as well! What a mess! Carole tried to stop the bleeding by placing a thick pad on top of the one that the doctor had placed over the incisions but to no avail! So, Adam took me up to St Mary’s Hospital to the emergency dept to see if they could stop the bleeding. We sat in the Emergency dept from 6:30pm until midnight before a doctor finally came in to my resting spot to attend to my problem! In the meantime, I had to sit holding large bandages on my head with both hands. This was indeed a difficult test of my ability to hold my arms up there for such a long period of time! When he finally looked at my head, the doctor decided that the staples were not enough to close the gash in my forehead completely. He decided that I needed a further four stitches in addition to the staples to tie the wound shut! When the initial surgery was done, the doctor stuck my scalp with at least a dozen freezing needles and if you wish to feel pain, just try having that many needles stuck into your scalp! In addition to the afternoon needles etc, the emerge Doctor stuck me with 6 more freezing needles before installing the extra 4 stitches! OUCH! Again and again! With the extra stitches, he was finally able to stop the bleeding! SO, for the next 6 days I had to have heavy padding on my scalp. The surgeon said his office would contact me on Monday to tell me what time he’d be able to remove the staples from my head on Wednesday of this week. Come Monday afternoon, I still hadn’t heard from his office. So, I phoned his office and got a recording telling me that his office was then closed until this coming Monday! I assumed it was due to the Covid problem! So, I called my own family doctor’s office and arranged for one of their nurses to remove the staples on Wednesday morning. I was ticked off at the surgeon to say the least! However, come Tuesday morning, my phone rang and it was the surgeon’s secretary calling to tell me that he would be available to remove the staples on Wednesday morning at 10:20am. I guess they must have heard the message I left on their phone system on Monday saying how disappointed I was to hear that they were closed for the week! So, at that point, I phoned my family doctor’s office to cancel my appointment with them as I had finally agreed to attend the surgeon’s office to remove the staples! Consequently, I did attend the surgeon’s office on Wednesday and had him remove the staples! Once again to experience excruciating pain at the hands of this skilled doctor! OUCH! Again! I am happy to say at this point the surgery has left very fine line scars where the cutting took place! I have enough blemishes on my lovely scalp without more Frankenstein looking marks! I sent a few pictures of my head with the staples in to Doug so he’d know what I was talking about when describing the situation! In the photos, I looked like I had been in a serious motor vehicle accident with all the blood and lacerations on my scalp! I’m happy to say things are looking much better already indeed!

With that said and done, I’d like to end this with well wishes for the health and well being of all our Squamidian members when it comes to the spread of the Covid 19 virus! Please stay safe and avoid any possible contact with this virus until our medical scientists find a cure!

Bye for now … Greg

PS: Something to Think About>

Play it safe both at home or outside the house over the next few months or however long it takes.

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