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=>Issue #999<=

Including:

From Nova Scotia Sus

From Russ

The Ontarion

Well now,

Get ready for the big 1000 next week, because face it, you would be pretty hard pressed to convince anyone that you forgot. And speaking of forgotting, don’t forget to get those stories in a day or so early so I have time to process them and put it all together.

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BC is burning. Its been over a month since the last drop of rain fell and there is no rain in the long range forecast. The worst of the heat has moved east a bit, so the coastal areas including around here are a bit more comfortable. The 42c temperatures which were incredibly uncomfortable have been replaced by 28’s and 30’s and that sort of thing. Normally, temperatures in the high 20’s and low 30’s would be considered way too hot but after the 40’s, they are something we can live with. Luckily, and knock on wood, the coastal areas have escaped the smoke from the forest fires. We have milky whiteish skies but not the brown chocking air that the Interior is dealing with.

But get this, along with the fires and the fire risk, the brain dead arsonist are out there. Many of the ‘human caused’ fires are the result of some idiot(s) purposely starting the fires. Even within the cities people are finding fires that have been lit and left to spread. One method is to light a candle and let it burn down like a slow motion fuse. That way the idiot can make a get-away before the fire grows big enough to be noticed. Another issue is the morons who are flying drones near newly started fires in order to get those ‘cool’ videos. The air response has to be grounded until the drone is gone, giving the fire extra time to spread. How stupid can people get? Thats a dumb question because people continue to prove that there is no limit to stupidity. I’ll leave it at that because I’m starting to steam just thinking about it.

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Well now, we’ve got another double header for the musical section of this letter. I’ve come up with an old Everly Brothers number called ‘Let It Be Me’. It’s a song most of you will remember as it has been covered by quite a few performers over the years. My audio version has lots of harmony in it as per usual, and per how this song wants to be done. My video version is just the bare-bones rendition the way I’d be doing it if I were doing it live. To be clear, I was obviously ‘live’ when I did the audio version but that can’t be reproduced in public as I’d need more of me than I currently have. Anyway, take the time to listen, you might enjoy it. As for our big event next week, well, I’ve got another double header and it’s about as Canadian as I could come up with (and no, its not the national anthem, it’s an old folk song).

Audio Version
Let It Be Me

Small Format Video Version
Let It Be Me

doug

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From Nova Scotia Sus

Reading about the town of Wiarton being all dug up made me think about the state of our nearest town, Pictou. I guess because of the pandemic they thought it was a good time to totally destroy the main street replacing all the pipes, water and sewage. No tourists, meant no time like the present to rip and tear. I'm sure it all was necessary and the businesses were suffering anyway. Also soon our De Coste entertainment centre will be expanding in all directions and that will be a 2 year project. The town of Pictou is located on Pictou Harbour off the Northumberland Strait and has been mostly a tourist town. Its main tourist attraction is the replica of the Ship Hector that arrived with settlers from Scotland in 1773. It took 10 years to build on site with many tourists seeing the progress of wooden ship building. When it was finally finished we all had watched the christening and launch from land to sea. Now after many years it has been pulled from the waters needing a complete overhaul. So for the time being Pictou will not be a tourist destination. We even avoid the downtown with so much construction going on. We look forward to a time when Pictou looks beautiful again and has so much to offer.

Its a good thing we enjoy our home and gardens so much. The gardens are coming along with rain when it is needed. We had a big wind storm come through that bent our corn over. I was able to stand them back up by mounding soil around their stocks. Luckily that worked. Right now the strawberry fields near us are booming and also it looks like a good blueberry season coming up. Our high bush plants are loaded. The weather is cooperating with lots of sunshine and enough rain.

Now we have lots of reasons for contributing to the Squamidian. How amazing is that we are one away from number 1000. We all appreciate the effort you have put in over the years Doug. I hope we can all show our appreciation next week.

Sus

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From Russ

The Wedding.

Have you ever enjoyed a 'perfect day'? They are rare indeed! Saturday, July 10th, 2021 was their "perfect wedding day" - although ominous rain clouds threatened, the sky soon turned a perfect blue, the welcome sun came out hot - sending us to seek shade, or burn! We are assembled on a large, well-groomed, healthy green expanse of cool grass, in Nithville, the back yard of the home of Ken Sellers and Sonja Brubacher. It was to be a "small wedding, attended by some family and friends" - as it turned out, a crowd of about one hundred guests (twenty, being Brubacher's - relatives of the bride), were in attendance! We won't attempt to name them, as I might leave someone out - but Doug and Sue were 'notable' by their absents. We missed you guys. BC is one hell of a long walk from here.

The ceremony was to start at 4:00PM in the centre of this huge lawn, under an archway made with 'split-rail' fencing adorned with flowers. The 'minister' who was to perform the wedding was 'bang-on time', taking his position facing the huge audience - smiling - pacing - looking at his watch, pacing nervously, until Mr. Ken Sellers (the groom) arrived about one-half hour late! Ken then 'took-over' from the minister - nervously pacing - smiling - more pacing, waving and shouting to special friends in the crowd, checking the time - while 100 guests standing in a semi-circle facing poor ken, noisily awaited for the arrival of Sonja Brubacher (the bride) and her entourage.

It is now 5:15PM. A hush! - all eyes turn toward the house - a loud cheer is raised – It's her! Ken freezes. He stares at his 'bride-to-be' - eyes wide open, as though he'd never before seen her look this beautiful! Sonja looks simply 'radiant' in her long, white, lace gown". She is 'on-the-arm' of her dad (Wayne), who will reluctantly 'give his only daughter to Ken this day. He's not so radiant., but still very handsome.

Now, we see the flower girl (Gabrielle, age two-and-one-half), she is the sweetest child ever seen - in her pure- white- lace dress, holding arm's full of fresh-cut flowers, walking with 'determination' toward the maid of honour, upon whom she immediately tries to 'unload' her many flowers! Here comes the ring bearer (sorry, didn't catch his name), a boy about the same age and size as Gabby, seriously trying to keep up with her; holding a ring-box in each of his clutched, little hands. He walks directly to Ken and tries to give him the ring-boxes. Ken quietly, and gently explains,

"Not yet - hang onto them - we'll let you know when to hand them to us"

Soon, the boy gets bored and decides to leave - Mr. Sellers (father of the groom), attempts to coral him, but the boy is too quick for him and breaks away - still clutching the ring-boxes! The maid of honour quickly hands her flowers to Sonja and takes off at 'high speed', and soon brings the boy back - rings intact! (Thank God! Much muted laughter from the crowd).

Time: 6:00PM. Minister takes control. He introduces himself as the preacher of a mennonite church, and neighbour of Ken and Sonja's. He makes his short but sweet religious, wedding service, then Sonja is asked to 'place the ring on Ken's finger', and repeat her vows. But now the ring-bearer doesn't want to give up his treasures, making Sonja a little 'peeved' (nervous?), but quickly regains her 'cool Prof. demeanor' - repeating her vows and reading her 'prepared' notes. Next, Ken is asked to do the same thing. He 'survives' repeating his vows, but naturally has not prepared anything to say! He's not accustomed to speak to a large crowd as is Sonja - he's very nervous, emotional, tearful, half crying, half laughing, but, finally calms down enough to get out the words,

"I love you, Sonja" (the rest of his pledge we didn't get, but we all knew he was very sincere). Now, both Sonja and Ken are tearful. Seemingly, in an attempt to ease the tension, Gabrielle crawls under Sonja's wedding gown and disappears! (We burst into laughter). There, Gabby remains until the minister announces in a loud voice,

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce - 'wife and husband' - Mrs. Sonja, and Mr. Ken Sellers". (or words to that affect) Everybody cheers, claps, shouts, and makes a 'bunch' of happy noises! Over all the noise, we here a 'loud-speaker',

"The food will be a little late - please come and get some snacks or hor d'oeuvres, cold, non-alchoholic drinks available. Meanwhile, enjoy live music and dancing for anyone who can dance on 'long grass"

Later, we learned Ken did all the delicious BBQ-ing for one hundred hungry people! Thanks to you, and all who helped put on a great party today! To some of us, it was a "bitter-sweet" event - saying goodby to five and one-half nice, people. I hugged him long, and hard. This was likely the last time we brothers will meet (live) again. Was that a tear I saw in his brown eyes? Through my 'blurry eyes' I watched him turn and walk away. I regret I was unable to say a final farewell to the remaining four and one-half - so, will do so now. Goodby Eva, Sylvia, Sonja, Ken, and Gabrielle - love you.

Now, the sun is setting - with son, Greg at the wheel, we three (Bettie riding in back seat, which is most uncomfortable), are heading west toward our homes in "Ontario's West Coast", Bruce County, 140 Km's away. It's a 2 hour drive - we're still looking into the setting sun at 10:00 PM. The 'after-glow is gorgeous! Something most fitting for the end of this "perfect day" - a 180 degree view of the 'painted' sky! God's work!

Thanks for inviting us to your wedding, Sonja - may you, Ken and Gabrielle, as well as Eva, Sylvia, Wayne, and the chickens continue to enjoy life in your new home in a new province - New Brunswick - and may God bless.

Russell.

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

With number 1000 creeping closer and closer I’m steadily running out of subjects to talk about! LOL! I Guess there will always be something to talk about but it just seems to be a little more difficult to scrape the bottom of the barrel each week! Oh well, I’m not completely out of thoughts for the Ontarion yet but Lord knows that sometimes writers get what is called “writer’s block” but I call it hitting the wall some weeks when I run short of thoughts. This week I’ve had thoughts of the Covid problem once again and I have an opinion about how the federal government and PM Trudeau are handling the situation. They are talking about opening up the Canada US border within another week or so and maybe less! I understand they are under pressure from the border towns to do so so that the businesses can get back to making money from the “Cross Border” shoppers but, in my opinion this would be a huge mistake indeed! Right now, according to last night’s news reports, the US is suffering from a surge in many more Covid cases opening up! They are falling way behind in their vaccinations and are allowing their large parties and sports events to surge once again. This is causing thousands and thousands more Covid cases to happen and with this happening south of the 49th parallel I don’t feel it would be wise for the Canadian government to open up the border and invite the Americans to cross and spread the Covid once again here in Canada! The world is just starting to get a handle on beating this dreaded virus and now they want to open things up more including many borders! Doing so would be a huge mistake and that’s not only my opinion!

Does our federal government not listen to their own expert medical teams when it comes to making these decisions? I guess not! I for one will stay put and keep on practicing the health guidelines until there are no more signs of Covid problems throughout the world but especially here in North America! The Americans seem to be dumb asses when it comes to handling this dire situation and now the Canadian Feds are beginning to cave in to the pressures of their mentality! This will only cause the Covid situation here in Canada to go backward, not forward! I’ve started to see signs around KW that say “No more Lockdowns” Planted on peoples lawns! This to me is a dreaded mistake if we don’t keep the lockdowns in place for at least another few months! How do these “NO MASKERS” think we’ve managed to reduce the amount of Covid cases here in Canada so far? It most certainly isn’t from going out bare-faced and ignoring the social distancing rules! In my opinion these careless “NO MASKERS” are the people that have kept the virus spreading over the past year and a half and every one of them should be fined through our tax system to help pay for the huge cost of fighting this virus! I guess I’ve said enough for this week about the virus situation so it’s time to change the subject once again!

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On another note, our weather has been totally strange so far this summer, hasn’t it? We’ve had more than our fare share of rain since the summer months started and it isn’t over yet. They are forecasting more rain over the next week! I’m looking forward to the next set of sunny days that they keep promising in their forecasts and that don’t seem to be happening! Adam is getting tired of having to mow the lawn every second day and I can’t say that I blame him. The grass is growing like the wild fires out west and there’s no stopping that from happening until all this rain lets up! LOL! I guess we need the water so the rain is a good thing in that respect! Too bad we can’t flip a switch and send the rain from here to BC and the fire ravaged western provinces! They sure could use a hand putting out those deadly fires and so could the western States!

I’ve just read the latest weather report for southern Ontario and they are saying we are in for severe thunder storms tonight and possibly several tornados throughout the next 24 hours! Lucky for KW they are not supposed to happen in our region but a tad further north in the southern Georgian Bay area as well as the eastern shores of Lake Huron. I hope that Uncle Russ has battened down the hatches of his home so these storms don’t adversely affect him! I’m sure he’s used to weathering such bad storms, living on the eastern shore of Lake Huron like he does! This Climate Change situation is getting out of hand as well and there isn’t much we can do to stop it from happening! I guess cleaning up the air pollution is the most effective way of clearing up the climate change along with all forms of pollution we as a society create! It’s a long road we must face along with the Virus problem of the world so every time you think of dropping that empty pop container or not picking up after your dog, DON’T DO IT! As they say, every little bit helps!

It just boils down to behaving ourselves and doing the right thing in the years to come if we want to have a healthy world to hand down to our children!

So, Change your habits and do your share to save this beautiful world we live in!

That’s all I have for this week! Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to number 1000 and all your submissions next week!

Bye for now… Greg

PS: Something To Think About>

Get those fingers dancing on the keyboard and send a good story in to Doug so we can make the upcoming #1000 the best Squamidian ever!

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Take Care And Be Safe
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.