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The
Squamidian Report – Nov. 20 / 21
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Of This And Past Issues Issue
#1017 From Carol From Russ The Ontarion
Hi All, I had intended to carry on with last week’s topic but given the weather related events of this past week out here, perhaps I should talk a bit about that. I know, the very thought of reading about weather in this letter tends to cause people’s eyes to glaze over. But before yours do, try to bare with me and hang in for a bit. As you’ve probably heard, the south western part of BC has been hit hard by an atmospheric river. Actually, a series of atmospheric rivers but this last one was the worst. Normally we tend to get 1, or perhaps 2 of those things in December. This year we’ve had 5 during September and October, and now this last one hit us in mid November. In between these intense systems we were still getting almost constant rain, just not the deluge of unimaginable volumes of rain. Heck, it has rained almost every single day since the beginning of September and things are beyond wet, after being beyond dry from last summer’s heat dome. This last atmospheric river hit early last Saturday and pumped non-stop until about noon on Monday. By then the damage was done and vast parts of the Fraser Valley were flooded. Whole towns are flooded out. Every single road and highway connecting the coastal section of the province with the rest of the world was knocked out of commission. The sections of highway that were flooded got off easy. It was the landslides that did the most damage. Slides took out bridges, road sections, railways, and so on. Hundreds of people were stranded in their vehicles when slides came down both in front of them and behind them. Hundreds spent Sunday night trapped in their cars and were rescued by the military on Monday. Hundreds more spent the next night in their cars as well because instead of the military doing the rescue, it was the RCMP. Go figure. On the Duffy, a slide had come down that forced vehicles to stop. Then another slide came down and swept at least 6 vehicles off the road and over the side of the mountain. There were casualties. Some vehicles have not yet been found and may never be if they are buried or have been swept away by the river the slide slid into. Then there is the Hurley, a high mountain summer road that can at times be used to get from Lillooet to Pemberton. No one knows how many vehicles tried to bypass the Duffy slides and headed up onto that one, a high, single lane dirt track that is a 4X4 challenge at the best of times. Its winter up in those mountains now and who knows what became of anyone who tried that route. The main highways, the #5, #3, and the TransCanada could very well be closed for months. There have been literally dozens of slides along these highways. Bridges are gone, long sections of roadway are gone. Railway lines are gone. Highway #1 out the Fraser Valley is gone in some sections as is #7 on the other side of the river. The town of Hope is totally cut off and yet has hundreds of stranded motorists are sheltering there. The supply lines are gone. Supply delays were already a problem due to the pandemic and now what transportation had been happening has been wiped out. Hundreds of loaded tractor trailer trucks are marooned on sections of the various highways with no way of going anywhere until the highways can be rebuilt. The highway that runs south into Washington State is washed out and closed, as is the rail line that runs that way. And on and on. There’s really not much else to say. CBC has been doing a fairly good job of reporting the disaster so for more, and update info, check them out. Here’s an interesting bit of info…. Vast parts of the Fraser Valley are under water. The Fraser Valley is one of the most fertile areas in North America. A large section of the valley near Abbotsford is known as the Sumas Prairie. There are hundreds of farms there that are under about 10 feet of water. That didn’t make sense until I found that the Sumas Prairie used to be Sumas Lake until about 1912 when it was drained and diked so settlers could farm the rich soil under the lake. The area has been kept dry for the last 110 years by constant pumping. There’s got to be a lesson there somewhere if we were just smart enough to learn it. As for us, we are fine. A bit shell shocked but fine. Squamish didn’t suffer any real damage, the highway up from the city seems to be ok with only a few localized flooded sections and some minor rock falls. Our house and the neighborhood we are in is way up the mountain, well above the valley, and our street is built on a solid rock ridge that couldn’t slide if it wanted too. One thing I do know, BC is in desperate need of massive amounts of federal aid, financial, equipment, man power and so on. Whether we will get enough help from the feds is hard to say because we are not that province to the east of Ontario. So, there you go, hope I didn’t bum you out. Thats how things stand for now. * We’ve got a video this week, of a song I’d forgotten about. It’s one I had written many summers ago when I used to sit out on the back deck in the evening and play my guitar. Our old, and long departed dog Willow would lay on the mat by me feet and fall asleep, snoring along to the music. Hope you enjoy it, Willow did. doug **** From Carol When my daughter, Beth, was first married Grandma Brubacher said to me that she enjoyed being a Great Grandmother and was looking forward to the time when Beth supplied her with a Great-Great-grandchild but the idea of being the Mother of a great-grandfather made her feel old. I mention this because, at 71, I don’t feel that old but being the mother of 2 daughters in their 50s makes me feel old. Last Saturday we had a party, at the Homestead, to celebrate both Jackie’s 50th and Gary’s 70th. After not having gatherings, even for special occasions, for so long it was wonderful to gather with other vaccinated family. We had not seen Jackie and Jim for a year and they had never been to our place in Wiarton so we all headed up on Sunday. On Monday they did an 11 kilometer hike on the Bruce Trail from Skinner’s Bluff to the Bruce Caves. Also Jim cleaned out the eaves and installed a webbing over them to keep out leaves in the future. On Tuesday we took them by Red Bay, our favourite swimming place, on our way to the Grotto. During the summer the Grotto has become so popular that one needs to book weeks or months ahead for a parking space or camp site. November is a great time to go with very few tourists. It was a cool but sunny day and the views were well worth the effort. We had intended to eat in Tobermory after but November is not a good time to go there as all the restaurants were closed. On Wednesday we drove the long way over to Owen Sound to show them Big Bay “the stone skipping capital of Canada”. We visited Gary and Evelyn and she served us a most delicious meal. The food deserves a five star rating. I don’t think we have been in Jackie’s company for more than three days running since she married so this time together has been special. Carol
**** From Russ Peeled onion/big ears The parking lot was filled - luckily we found a 'gimpy space' just outside the doors. Like a slow-moving river, we poured into the store - some of us using canes, some with rollators/walkers, some on battery-powered gimpy vehicles, while the 'free spirits' - always in a hurry, breathed down our various necks. Once we got our carts - it was 'bumper-to-bumper' all over the place! Pushing a 'king-size' cart (which I never use), I kept jamming my long, unwieldy cart into the heels of angry shoppers. "Sorry" , I said to the elderly girl whose galoshes I accidentally removed. (Yup - got them both!) "Sorry", I said to the man pushing a baby carriage with at least two young-ones aboard, as I caused a 'head-on'. The kids laughed. Daddy didn't. "Oopsy", I said as I rounded a blind corner - 'side-swiping' an over-loaded cart, nearly knocking it over. "Sorry -sorry". I came in to get toilet paper (which, as usual was right inside the doors), men's diapers, and furnace dust-filters which, I was told were in the farthest corner of this 'aircraft-hangar'. Zigzagging down the crowded aisles dodging kids, adults, carts, and v e r y s l ow o l d c r o c k s l i k e m e - finally finding what I was looking for. The filters were 'on sale' - I grabbed 2 pkgs. x 2 (enough for four years - what if I don't HAVE four years?) As I was leaving the filter's aisle, I noticed a number of things I've been wanting for years, and promptly stuck them into my cart. When I fought my way back to the check-outs, I studied the situation for a moment, then parked behind a lady who had very little in her cart. She looked at me - I smiled (she didn't see my friendly grin - masked, you know), and spoke a few friendly words - suddenly a 'queue-cop lady' approached asking, "Were you in the line?" What line? "That line" she scolded (knowing full-well I'd 'jumped the queue) "Sorry" I said (and this time I really meant it - I hadn't seen the extra-long line in my haste to cuddle-up to the lady with not much in her cart) "Oh no!" I exclaimed as I looked down the long line of angry shoppers, all impatient with the "long-line bottleneck" "I'm in my 93rd year - if I have to go the very end of that line, I may not live that long" (I was only kidding, she thought I was serious and directed me into a line with only one person ahead of me) I was "giddy" with delight - I could have hugged her - I tried not to look back at those angry faces. My charge came to over $200.00 - and I forgot the diapers!! Russ **** THE ONTARION REPORT Hello everyone! I’m sitting here in the office with my nice warm “Duraflame” heater keeping me warm as toast. Meanwhile, there is a nasty snow storm brewing outside according to the CTV weather report of the evening. We are expecting about 10 to 15 cm of snow tonight and tomorrow. Sounds like we’ll be able to test out the snow blower for the first time this year come morning! With the weather being a tad warmer over yesterday and today and all the previous day’s snow melted we were able to put up the remainder of our Christmas decorations. Today Adam and I got all of the outdoor lighting set up and power to them and hooked up to the timer so that the lighting goes on and off at a preset time. One of my favourite features of the decorations is a bright white light that shines up the two large trunks of our white birch tree on the front lawn. It highlights the lovely white bark on the tree almost all the way to the top of it’s branches in the night’s darkness. It was only Wednesday the 17th when the equipment and city crew members were around with the front end loader and dump trucks along with two street sweepers clearing up all the leaves so they don’t plug the street drains over the winter months. Some people complain on line about what they call a waste of tax payer’s dollars to have the city crews cleaning up the fallen leaves each year. However, I’m sure that it’s a good thing they do or the tax payers could be paying a much larger bill to have the city replacing or at least working long hours in the spring to clear out the blocked drain system or even having to replace some sections of that system due to the many blockages the winter and fall rubble could cause in the drains. So, if the leaf cleanup didn’t take place, there could be an even bigger tax burden in the spring of the year! Here’s one of those sayings Doug was asking for. The solution to this leaf problem becomes a late fall or early spring solution known as “Six of one, Half dozen of another!” Which also leads to another of those sayings i.e.: “You pay me now or pay me later!” Leading to another one: “There’s no getting around it!” And another: “So, you might as well bite the bullet now!” I think these are called “Colloquialisms” “If I’m not mistaken!” Coming up with these old gems is like “Shootin’ fish in a barrel!”, “easy as pie!” Now who ever said pie is easy? That’s a crazy one, pie ain’t easy, Pie is tasty, not easy! That’s akin to saying Pi are square……. Not so! As far as I know, Pie are round! At least any that I’ve ever seen or eaten’ were round! Speaking of Pie, Uncle Russ’s favourite pie is lemon meringue and I myself am torn between three different ones, Lemon meringue, blueberry and covered Apple Pie! If faced with all three on the same day, I’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite and would most likely wind up wanting one slice of each! Not uncle Russ though, he’d not settle for one slice, he has laid claim to eating a slice at a time until he had the whole pie gone in one sitting! I say, “Good for you Russ!’ Giver hell! Why let the rest of the pie go stale or dry out when you can enjoy it while it’s fresh! While on the subject of pie, why has nobody come up with a Christmas pie? We have pie for most other occasions so why not for Christmas? Of course we have Christmas cake better known as “Fruit Cake” so why not some sort of special pie for the occasion? If I had to come up with a flavour of pie for Christmas, I’d say “How about chocolate pie with whipped cream on top so the whipped cream would resemble all the white snow laying on the ground outside?” Make’s sense to me! If any of you have a better flavour of pie for the Festive season, let us hear it next week in you write up to the Squamidian! It would be nice to hear from more than three people one of these weekends! So, c’mon, write in next week and let us hear your favourite flavour of pie! I’m sure you all have one you like best! That’s about it for this week folks! Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to hearing from you all next week regarding your thoughts on great flavours of pie you like best! Bye for now… Greg PS: Something to Think About> Christmas shopping: On line or in person? Which do you prefer and why? PPS: I’d be particularly interested in hearing from Karl and Karen in Australia too find out what flavour of pie is popular down unda! I have visions of Kangaroo Pie or Platypus Pie or Koala Pie etc etc! LOL! Just kidding but am looking forward to hearing from K and K on the subject! ****
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