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Issue #1165

Including:

Note: All contributions are placed in that the order they arrived in.

The Ontarion

Nova Scotia Sus

Russ

Carol

Doug

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From Greg - The Ontarion

Hello everyone,

Adam and I attended this years british car show in Burlington on Sunday! The day was incredibly hot so we were only able to walk around for about two hours!

There were many MGBs and classic Minis to admire and most years several are for sale! This year we only saw two for sale! Just interesting to know what they cost these days! When I had our MGB appraised for insurance when it was finished 8 years ago, it surprised us when they told us the insurance value!

It’s turned into a good investment for sure!

Most of the MGs at the show were not nearly as well finished as ours!

It’s too bad I couldn’t take ours and enter this years show!

It most definitely would have been a winning entry!

Oh well, maybe next year!

The show was the highlight of the week!

It would have been more enjoyable on a cooler day though!

It was good to get home and enjoy the air conditioning! The air conditioning in Adam’s truck was sure nice during the 1 1/2 hour drive too! I’d be amazed if anybody drives a car these days that doesn’t have AC for summer and heated seats for winter! These are the two most necessary features on today's vehicles for sure! When I first started to own vehicles we had 4/60 AC…… that was 4 windows open and 60 miles per hour! LOL!

In fact, do they even make vehicles these days without these features? I think NOT!

I remember buying a 1988 GMC truck and paying to have AC installed in my new (two year old) pickup!

Anybody that owns a classic vehicle should have AC installed if they drive it in the summer time! That’s when most folks drive their collector cars. That is unless it’s a convertible! Our MGB of course doesn’t need AC!

Just driving with the top down is fresh air enough!

Hopefully, we’ll get it back on the road again next year since this year I couldn’t drive again yet! Hopefully I’ll be driving again next year!

That’s about it for this week folks! Thanks for tuning in this week!

All the best to our readers…. Bye for now… Greg

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From Nova Scotia Sus

Things sure are busy around here. This is our third day of hiring a couple of guys to help clean up the mess of downed trees from the results of the hurricane we had a few years ago. We made the decision to spend some money. It's looking pretty good now. They are professionals with a chipper, and tractor with digging abilities so the stumps are being removed as well.

The weather is not much help what with 30 degree temperatures for a couple of days now. We decided to keep the team going for two more days. We were getting tired of looking at fallen trees and dead standing trees. There will be more lawn to mow but that's okay. We were worried about forest fires and even what we are doing would not be enough to stop it.

Take Care everyone

Sus

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From Russ

Something to crow about!

Just returned from my first ride of the day, it feels like summer, temp 28C, no wind, blue skies; the renters and visitors have all but departed Point Clark for another season. The songbirds have gone south, leaving only the winter birds; haven't seen a Robin since early September when they 'flocked-off' leaving behind those who know they can't make the trip south, and are choosing to risk spending the winter here with me. Nearly ran over a Robin today - it scolded me, then ran under some bushes beside the road. Good luck Rob!

You'd expect it would be silent here on the shores of beautiful Lake Huron - but no, it's quite noisy!! What/who has the nerve to 'shatter the silence? They arrive in a small group of about six, all cawing at the same time while driving lesser birds away, claiming this, their sole territory. They are native to North America, and thriving nicely, thank you, eating just about anything dead or alive! They are known to rob the nests of songbirds, eating the eggs, or young birds without feeling a 'morsel of guilt'! They are migratory birds and therefore protected by Federal Statute. As with most migratory birds crows are known carriers of West Nile Virus.

Everything has a purpose in Nature even crows! They eat carrion thereby helping to clean our streets and lawns of dead animals and birds. But then, isn't that what Turkey Vultures and Raves do? Some animals are not above eating the dead either - Skunks, Possums, and even Foxes if they are hungry enough!

Crows have another use; in language - "as the crow flies", in a straight line; in, or by the shortest way. "Eat crow", be forced to do something very disagreeable and humiliating. "Have a crow to pick with", have a complaint or criticism against; having something unpleasant to talk over with. And what would we call a steel bar, used as a lever if we didn't have crows?

Yes, we always have something to crow about.

Russ.

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From Carol

We had a couple of life milestones reached this past week in my family; Al turned 75 and Jackie and Jim celebrated 25 years of marriage. Al always said that, when young, he didn’t think he would reach 30 and that was the only birthday that bothered him. I looked up some life expectancy numbers and he has lived beyond his life expectancy at birth. 100 years ago, in Canada, the life expectancy for men was 58.1 and for women 61.5. By 1994 those figures had jumped to 72.3 and 79 respectively. Someone born today has a life expectancy of 82.96 years. Two hundred years ago the numbers were 38 and 44, seven hundred years ago only 30 to 33. So when retirement age was set at 65 most people didn’t expect to live that long. Modern medicine and vaccines have really changed life. Many childhood deaths have been eradicated. Only 100 years ago most families had a child that didn’t reach five. Our long lives have put a strain on health care. I certainly wouldn’t have lived long enough to need the operations I had if I had only lived as long as my life expectancy at birth. Despite the aches and pains I’m glad all of us are here to enjoy Doug’s newsletter each week. I’m especially glad uncles Russel and Wayne have beat the age predictions, we plan on enjoying their input for years to come. So celebrate every occasion that presents itself. We are very lucky to live in this time and place.

Carol

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From Doug

How’s it going…..eh?

I think our summer heat is over with and thats a good thing because pretty well all the snow in our local mountains has now melted and thats not a good thing. We need that snow to keep our rivers and streams flowing. Many of the higher peaks in the southern coastal range (around here) have kept their snow year round over the years and centuries but these last couple of summers have been very hot and the winters have not produced enough snow to fully replenish what melts away. The results are bare mountains and silty rivers. Normal summer melt results in clear cold rivers water. This year the river flow has been high and the water murky. As the last of the snow melts away it brings with it the silt and mud that it washes off the newly exposed rock.

As stated, winter snowfall has been very low over the last several winters so the accumulation has not been enough to rebuild the snowpacks. Winter rainfall has been lower than normal as well so any snow high up in the mountains hasn’t been getting and storing the extra moisture from the rains. The west coast has for many centuries been a region of snow-topped mountains and rainforests. The rainforests used to have a wonderful woody aroma. Now they have no smell at all. This is not good, the forests are under threat. However, given the rate at which they are constantly being clear cut, the old, natural rainforests of the coast seem to be doomed anyway. I guess lumber is more valuable than oxygen but if the forests dry out from lack of rain and snow, we won’t have either. Funny how that works.

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As you probably know, we tend to go to the gondola on a regular basis. Face it, why not. Its here and available to us at an agreeable rate thanks to our yearly passes. (We like to call it the ‘best coffee shop in town with the worst coffee in town). You probably also know that we don’t go during the busy summer season when the place is crawling with tourist. It gets way too busy for us to endure. There is one downside to not going regularly over the summer. With the exception the full-time management staff, most of the regular employees are international kids who are working their way around the world on various kinds of visas etc. We tend to get to know many of these kids and find them interesting and generally to be fantastic examples of the young people of this world. By the beginning of summer we know many of these kids quite well. When we turn up again at the end of summer, many of these same kids have moved on. That is sad for us but great for the international kids as they continue their world travels. Currently there are almost no kids left working there. Almost all have moved on. The place feels empty and weird. The gondola is so low staff-wise that they have had to close early on a few evenings.

I assume at some point a whole new batch of world traveling kids will turn up for their time to work on the Canadian west coast. When that happens I will get to learn a lot of new names and get to know a lot of new faces. Thats always good for the old brain. Incidentally, I am known there for knowing everyone’s name and people seem to think that is some sort of accomplishment. However, if you think about it, I very seldom actually have to learn a new name. Most people have a name I already know, I just need to pull that name out of the file in my head and assign it to a new face. That is my secret way of tricking everyone into thinking I’m really smart and have a great memory.

Doug

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Have a Good One
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