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The
Squamidian Report – Oct. 15 / 22
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#1064 From Nova Scotia Sus From Russ The Ontarion
Hey There, The tail end of renovations can, and do, become very frustrating. Why? Because almost everything is done except for those pesky little details such as finishing up the plumbing. And without said plumbing being finished, the bathroom sinks are not usable. And thats where we found ourselves this past week. The old sinks and vanity tops had been left in place for that very reason, so we could use them. That comes in very handy when it comes to little thing we take for granted like brushing of teeth or simply washing of hands. But, last week the old vanity tops and built in sinks (the kind that were popular 40 years ago) had to be removed in order for the new tops to be installed. That was fine but it left us with no sinks or taps. The new ones were sitting right there but need a plumber for the installation there of. Said plumber was supposed to turn up on Tuesday but didn’t and there is / was nothing we could do about it. If we were to complain, well, the plumber would probably not turn up at all. Also frustrating in the fact that not that many years ago I could have and would have done most of that kind of stuff myself years ago, but partly because we have to go through proper channels and partly because my old used and abused body simply can’t accomplish much hanging up side down inside a bathroom vanity, we are at the mercies of the various trades. Thankfully, this is the last reno we plan to do! The plumber did eventually turn up and got the sinks installed and the taps and drains hooked up. Now we don’t have to brush our teeth at the kitchen sink, or wash our hands there. Things are getting back to normal, stress levels are going down. Did I mention the new tile and glass shower in our ensuite bathroom seems almost big enough for 6 people. I’m just glad that I don’t know 6 people that I’d want to shower with.
* The seemingly endless hot dry weather we have been having (not a good thing this time of year) gave me a late season opportunity to take the little Harley into the dealer down in the city for its 16,000k service. That meant heading out at 7:30 Thursday morning while it was still chilly and the sun barely lighting the sky but that was ok. The ride into the city was quite nice, well, nice until I got to the Upper Levels highway which runs through North and West Vancouver. Traffic is alway the pits along there, so heavy it may as well be one big long parking lot. Once at the Harley dealer I had to kill about 5 hours (if you have time to kill, bore it to death) because the 16K service is a big one, where they check over everything and extract as much money from me as they can. The ride in was refreshingly cool, the ride home was down right hot with another 25 C day. But, now that is out of the way. The bike is ready for whatever more riding I can do this season as well as ready for next season. At some point in the near future the weather will change and the bike will get tucked away and my riding season will be over. That too is life. * Sometimes you have to reach way back in your musical memories in order to come up with a song to do. But just because its from way back there doesn’t mean its not a good song. It is. This one is an old Hank Williams tune called ‘Your Cheating Heart’ and yes, some of you will roll your eyes thinking its from the dregs of country music but in fact its from the beginnings of country music when times were much more simple and tougher, live music was, well, live, and those early performers put their hearts and souls into it. Just pretend you are in some smoky Honky Tonk in some backward little town somewhere. Enjoy. Your
Cheating
Heart doug **** From Nova Scotia Sus
Friday Sept. 23rd, 2022. Sorry I missed the Squamdian l had a very good excuse. Fiona in all its fury hit us hard. We spent the day tying down anything that might move, set up and tested the propane camp stove, filled all our buckets with water for flushing and washing, lots of feed and water for chicks tied all doors and locked the windows, a good supply of food, tested the two generators, gas jugs full and used lots of bungie cords to tie down tarps so there was nowhere the wind could get in. By 5pm it was raining steadily and no wind as yet. By 8:15 strong winds and heavy rains. And then the power went out. We decided to move to the downstairs bedroom when the noise from wind whippin the house became scary. Not much sleep listening to gusts of winds. I pictured the storm moving in circles, first away and then striking with force. By morning and first light we saw the damage. Trees down everywhere uprooted and leaning toppled on each other tangled in the power lines. The rain was still coming in torrents and the wind had only lessoned some. We decided to venture out to check on chickens and buildings. We didn't get far. There were trees down everywhere you looked and not safe to be out in that wind. By late afternoon things had quieted down. Two spruce trees had landed on our house and two more on the chicken pen but no real damage as they fell with all their soft boughs. We had parked our cars on our landing that is away from trees. So the cars had no damage although they were trapped with blow downs all around. To our surprise the satellite dishes were intact. Sunday the sun came out and so did the chainsaws. Zane (My brother) had a crew show up to help. They all had to park on the road as the lane was impassable. Perfectly healthy trees had come down. We have 3 houses in our subdivision with many out buildings. Over the next week we have cleared up mostly around our places. A rescue unit of men showed up to cut around the downed wires and free them up for the power company. They also handed out jugs of water. The lane is now passable with low hanging wires. Oct. 4th there were 7 power trucks on our road repairing lines. We were so excited and gave them the thumbs up. Coming home was disappointing since they had been called away to an emergency. We keep very busy during daylight hours and retire early when darkness comes. Lots to do lugging water, woodstove for cooking, quite a different lifestyle. Our power finally came on this past Saturday, 15 days after the storm. It will take years to get to all the trees. When I look around I see a different landscape that we will get used to. Thank goodness we are all safe. Sus ****
From Russ
Purrrrr.......purrrr It has stopped raining (for the moment), the sun is shining (for the moment), and it's 10 C - I should be out riding my 3-wheeler but, here I am writing my column for the Weekly Newsletter (now that's dedication!) Halloween is just around the corner so I thought about black cats, pumpkins and witches. There is no shortage of cats in the world - counting strays and pets there is an estimated 720 Million (who's counting?)and people made pets of them as early as 7,500 BC (that's 9,500 years ago!) "Don't disturb me, I need 14 - 16 hours of sleep per day - and that's 70% of my life" said Creme Puff, who lived 38 years, and even made it into the Guinness Book of Records! Mrs. Clark, our neighbour in Delevew (near Centreville), had a blue-eyed, white cat - it was deaf as a post (most are) their deafness is caused by an anomaly in their genetic make-up. How can we test the privates of a cat without touching it? Rule-of-thumb says "Red cats are mostly boys - three-coloured cats are almost always girls". (kind of a useless Rule - when it applies to only a few colours, don't you think?) Ever have a cat lick your eyelids? I have - and it 'hurts'! A cat's tongue is equipped with tiny spikes which are curved and have U-shaped cavities. As she licks herself (as she seems to always be doing ), her saliva is passed onto the fur and down to the skin. Why does she do this? They say, "The saliva provides important cooling" (Yeah, but that doesn't answer the question, why was she licking my eyelids?) Maybe she is tasting my salt? Ever heard it said, "You can never own a cat - the cat owns you" How sweet she is as she rubs against you - she must truly love you - Yes? No! So what's going on here? Cats apparently have scent glands in their cheeks, paws, and flanks, and as they 'lovingly' rub against you, they leave a 'message' for other cats, "I claim ownership of this human, so back off - she/he belongs to me!" What fun! Ever notice how your cat behaves when you provide her with some "catnip"? The fragrance of this weed has an "intoxicating effect". Just like you and I, cats love the euphoric experience of "uppers" Is she in a good 'mood' today? Is it safe to tease her? How can we tell what kind of mood she's in? The answer lies with her whiskers; if they hang down - relaxed, she's 'satisfied' with life as is. But if they are facing straight ahead - stand back - she's 'angry'! I once owned a 'pure-bread' Poodle. He cost me $1000.00 15 years ago - to protect my 'investment' I had him micro-chipped. No need to have your cat micro-chipped - each cat's nose-print is as unique as a human's finger-print! "The cat's meow" When she meows, she's 'talking' to you. Communication with other cats takes place via body language. But, when two males are 'arguing' about who will get to breed a female in 'heat' - they scream, howl, yell and growl - putting a 'Banshee' to shame! You may argue, "There's no such thing as a bad cat - only a bored cat" A bored cat will claw your curtains to shreds, tear the arms of your stuffed furniture, dump the fish-bowl, and make such a mess, you want to beat the kids and sell the cat! If "Sweetie pie" is left alone all day, while you are at work, or play - she'll get bored! Solution? Make her a toy. As kids, we always had a cat, and to keep her attention we made a 'wind-up" cat's toy out of a wooden spool, a pencil (without the eraser), and a 'safe' piece of a wooden matchstick, and a stout elastic band. After winding same, place it on a carpeted floor, and watch it 'creep' along. True, it won't creep all day, but the cat will have fun 'swatting' the toy, and playing with it as she would a live mouse. PS for details on making one or more of these 'creepers' ask any man over 75. An empty paper bag placed on the floor will also become a 'toy'. Do you have an empty cardboard box? Place some 'treats' on the floor, cover them with the upturned box through which you have cut holes large enough for your cat's front legs to pass through, and she'll work on this for hours, until she can't 'feel' or smell any more treats. No need to purchase any expensive toys - your cat's entertainment is limited only by your imagination! Oh, yes - there are lots of clean leaves available this Season - scoop-up a bunch of dry leaves, fill a cardboard box about half-full, and just watch how she will role around, hide, attack, jump, etc. Note: The a/m ideas are for the indoor cat. The outdoors is a cat's "hunting ground" she'll bring home mice, dead birds, and other critters to show you what a 'great hunter' she really is! And finally, to clear up a few things about our pet cats, are black cats witches? No. Do cats really have nine lives? No. You probably have never seen one, but some cats have nine tails! Please support this statement as true. Russ. **** The Ontarion
Hello everyone! I’m slowly healing from last week’s fall in the garage and hopefully will be back to abnormal as usual soon! Not many people can say they’ve survived as many bad head-injury falls as I have over the past few years but with a little luck I won’t have to lay claim to any more such happenings! Speaking of good luck, today October 13th, We are celebrating the 5th anniversary of my open heart by-pass surgery! Once again I’m so very grateful to all of the nurses and doctors that participated in my surgery and recovery during the past 5 years! Without them, my run as a member of the writing staff of the Squamidian would have come to an end much quicker! Hopefully their work will allow me to continue to write my contributions for many more years to come! God bless all of the medical staff we so highly depend on every day of our lives! With the onset of the coming of the new variants that are heading out way from Europe we will continue to depend on the medical professionals to keep this country safe and reduce and even eradicate this terrible virus that some careless lab worker has unleashed upon the world! Let’s all play our part in stopping the spread and continue to follow the safe guidelines set out for us by the medical professionals! * To lighten the load for this week’s write-up, I’d like to make Doug a little jealous by telling him at this point that I’ve just finished a lovely slice of Blueberry pie and Ice cream! MMMMMmmmmm! Since I’m not a pumpkin pie eater at all, Blueberry is number one in my book with Apple coming in a close second! This time of year each year of course is filled with all kinds of apple pie and delicious food stuffs with the celebration of Oktoberfest being so big here in the Region! All of the German clubs showing their stuff every night on the news, we can’t help but garner a liking for such foods a cabbage rolls and schnitzel and all the great deserts of the German society we have in this area! I myself Love Cabbage Rolls and all the other great foods that are in the news this time of year! Carole being the great cook that she is makes all of these dishes throughout the year, not just during the weeks of Oktoberfest celebrations! So far this year we haven’t heard too much about the rise in drinking and driving such as we usually do during the month of October! Hopefully there won’t be any large number of problems with that this year! Unfortunately most years the Oktoberfest celebrations bring on an excess of drinking and driving as well as other criminal activities! Speaking of criminal activities, the sad news broke last night that two more police officers from the South Simcoe Police Force were shot and killed during a response to a domestic dispute just south of Barrie Ontario! It seems that it is becoming the thing to shoot Police officers during the course of their duties hear in Ontario and other Canadian areas! It makes one wonder just where all of these handguns are coming from! Most likely they are being brought into Canada from the United States! On the lighter side of things, we had a wonderful dinner for Thanks Giving last Monday and of course the turkey sandwiches for a couple of days after were nothing to sneeze at! I sincerely hope that all of you Squid members enjoyed that occasion as much as we did here in our household! One of the most notable happenings this time of year is the turning colour of the leaves! It’s particularly notable right here in Kitchener. There is no need to take a drive up north this year to see the wonderful colours as it seems that we have an over abundance of beautiful colourful sites right here in our own city. I’m just hoping that the weather turns warm for a while yet. I know We’d all love to experience the sites and smells of a lovely “Indian Summer” before the snow and winter set in! Or, shall I say an “Indigenous Summer”? don’t want to offend anybody with the wrong terminology now do we? Well, that’s about all 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 ****
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