The Squamidian Report – Aug. 23 / 03
Also in this issue:
Ryan
Jim and Jackie's Temagami Adventure 2003
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Sue spent the week in Whitehorse, way up there in the Yukon. She flew in on Monday, only to find that everything was closed due to it being ‘Yukon Day’. No one in the rest of the world has heard of that. So she couldn’t start her audit until Tuesday and therefore would have to rebook her flight back to Vancouver. They usually audit in teams but this time she was alone. That meant a huge workload for her as well as a huge headache when she lost the power cord for her laptop. There is nowhere in the whole Yukon where you can get an IBM power cord. Everything has to be ordered and flown in. I guess she had to ‘wing it’ on this one.
Everything is expensive there. Unless it is moose meat or local fish, it comes up from the south. As and example, if the bank decides that it needs $5 worth of pennies from the mint, the shipping cost on that coin is over $8. That means that 5 bucks costs $13.50.
However, high cost of living aside, she says it is beautiful there. This being tourist season though, Whitehorse was over run by old, fat, pushy American tourists. Busses all over the place.
We picked our first Blackberries of the season last weekend. They grow wild all over the place here. I’ve mentioned these things before but I don’t mind repeating myself. The Blackberry is a relative of the raspberry. However, where the raspberry is a tame kitten, Blackberries are wild savage lions. They are invasive, spreading fast and all over. They grow an easy 10 feet high and have huge, sharp thorns. The stalks intertwine like the brambles they are. Picking requires extreme care, if you get snagged, you cannot get free without being ripped to shreds. Plastic pop bottles with the ends cut out make great arm guards. A thick leather glove on one hand is necessary to hold the stalk as you pick with the other. The berries are large and juicy, well worth the risk of physical injury.
We take Yogi down to the Mamquam River every evening so he can puddle around in the icy water. It’s one of the few things the old dog still enjoys. Pink salmon are running right now and you can see them everywhere under the water. They glide along in large schools. When they come into a shallow area, all their backs are out of the water. They have morphed into those monster looking creatures you see on TV with the humped back and hooked jaw. Yogi walks around in the river, drinking as he goes, totally unaware of all the activity around his legs. The fish will jump right out of the water beside him, he just keeps enjoying the cold water.
There are a lot of people fishing along the bank. The fish are hard to catch as they have other things on their minds now. Some of the people keep their catch, they have purchased tags. Others just catch and release. There are also seals fishing in the deeper parts or the river. The pinks are the first run of the season. Other, larger types of salmon come in later.
We are still getting hot dry weather, rain is desperately needed. The whole province is parched. However, the dry air means very clear nights. The stars and Mars have been brilliant. There have been very nice northern light displays as well. Because of the high mountains to the north, the lights seem to shine right out of the mountaintops. The light display starts off as a glow in the sky, similar to the kind of glow the lights from a big city create on the horizon. As the glow grows in intensity, rays start to form and shoot straight up. The sky becomes a giant neon light bulb.
And now a bit about the forest fires. There is a war going on out here now. There are a thousand fires burning in BC and all but a handful are completely out of control. I’ve lost track of how many small villages have been completely wiped off the map. Small logging towns and tourist destinations have disappeared. An enemy’s bombs and missiles could not have done as complete a job.
As I write this, Kalowna and Prenticton are in the line of fire (no pun intended). Thursday evening over ten thousand Kalowna residents had to be evacuated with no notice. On Friday, another 20 thousand were evacuated. The firestorms had breached a firewall just outside the city and entered the subdivisions. These fires advance at speeds much faster than any of us could run. Burning debris is picked up by the convection winds and carried down wind for thousands of feet where these bombs then set new fires, often behind the line of men and equipment fighting the blaze. The fighting crews find themselves cut off, trapped between the flames. Water bombers and helicopters have been able to rescue everyone so far.
Fire fighting crews from the cities outside the infected areas have set up lines in Kalowna. Crews from Vancouver and surrounding cities are there. These people are trained in structure fires. They are the last line of defense for Kalona. They have ‘dug in’, determined to save the city. The winds seem to pick up at night; the battles are being fought at night. However, estimates are that about 300 homes are gone already.
The whole Okanogan Valley is shrouded in thick smoke. The only thing that may stop the fires now is the fall rains. The forests are just too dry, with too much dry fuel in them. The Okanogan fire is so bad that the other fires have taken a back seat, this one gets as much attention and recourses as can be found. Kamloops is still surrounded by fires. Chase is on evacuation alert. The list is endless.
One very unfortunate thing is that this is happening way out west, far from the politics and attention of Ottawa. If this were in Quebec, it would be a national disaster rather than a provincial problem.
One thing that is going to have to start happening to prevent more years of these fires is controlled burns. Due to pressure from the public and the logging industry, the practice of controlled burns to remove dead trees and debris has been abandoned. We have spent decades putting out fires that should have been left to burn on their own. Fire is a natural event, needed to clean out forests, creating a healthy growing environment. Healthy forests don’t burn all that well, even in a dry summer. Fires in a healthy forest are small and cool. It is the layer of dead wood on the forest floor that is making these current fires so hot and hard to put out.
The closest fire to us in near Pemberton, on Mount Curry. That is about a 2-hour drive inland from here. There is a small forest fire up on the Sunshine Coast that was started by some stupid jerk and there was a fire on Mt. Seymour in West Vancouver. Some total idiot set fire to a ski building. These people should be tied to trees that are in direct line of a fire. That would be a good deterrent for anyone who drops a cigarette butt or leaves a fire unattended.
****
The “To There & Back” Report
(15,000 km later…)
Q: What’s the first thing that goes
through a bug’s mind as it hits my windshield driving through the Prairies?
A: It’s Ass!
Emily and myself made it back in two
pieces, as expected. It is sure different driving West to East as it is East to
West! When you are driving away from Ontario you have a couple things going for
you:
a)
You are driving away from Ontario.
b)
Driving 14 hours straight is technically only driving
13 hours straight.
c)
The highways get faster and faster…
HOWEVER, when returning to Ontario you have
several factors against you:
a)
You are returning to Ontario
b)
Driving 14 hours straight is technically driving 15
hours straight! (16 hours on the prairies…)
c)
The highways get slower and slower and s-l-o-w-e-r…
d)
Gravity is very much against you in the Rockies and in
northern Ontario (My car can vouch for that!)
We had a great time out west, besides some
minor neck injuries. Emily and I both were employed over the summer in
Squamish. Actually living in an area is very much different than simply
visiting it. It was a great chance to talk to the local crowd and get their
perspective on “normal life.”
It is funny how when anything happens in Squamish
the media blows it way out of proportion. For example, this summer there was an
“incident” with some American tourists being harassed by a local Squamish gang
of troublemakers. It was all over the news and radio how this will ruin the
tourism industry in Squamish and such. In truth it was a very isolated
incident. The American campers were not randomly attacked. They were as much to
blame as the local kids. (When you poke at dog long enough, it will bite back.)
Simply put, there were idiots on both sides of the fence.
This summer I put over 15,000km on the old
car. It takes roughly 5,000km to drive out (if you’re not lost) and the same to
drive back. That means I put on over 5,000km driving into Vancouver and
Whistler for various activities. (Movies, shopping and the beach.) That’s a lot
of trips into town! Actually I am far more familiar with Vancouver and Whistler
than I am with Toronto and London! Strange…
It is sure amazing what can change within a 3 month time period. For example, the Franklin St. Bridge is completed. Not only that, there is a Price Chopper Across from our Apartment. Hw 8 through Kitchener is sure having quite a makeover and there are many new buildings and businesses on Victoria St. All this in 3 months! It just shows how quickly a place you know can slip away. Since it have now been almost 1 ½ years since my parents have lived in Kitchener, they would almost be strangers to this area. Odd…
We both had a great summer and I am looking
forward to my return. It sure is hard leaving the west coast.
****
Jim and Jackie's Temagami Adventure 2003
Jim and I spend one week every summer canoeing and
camping in the beautiful wilderness of Ontario's Canadian shield. Usually we go
to the Algonquin Park interior but this year we chose the Temagami lake system
for our trip. Stunning, serene, beautiful.
Another twist we added this time was to do a fly-in/paddle-out trip. So we
drove up to Temagami lake where we were then flown in to a smaller lake on a
little Cessna 185 float plane. Disembarking was a little tricky as we had to
load up and board the canoe with just one of the plane's pontoons as our dock.
But it went off without a hitch and we paddled off in one direction while the
plane taxied off in the other.
The first day or two of the trip was on-and-off rainy. The air was also
perfectly still without the slightest hint of a breeze. Out there, wet + still
= mosquito paradise. Jim, Saba and I were like an all-you-can-eat buffet for
those hungry bugs. Of course, Jim and I used insect repellant but the kind with
high concentration of deet makes me a little dopey. I heard that deet has the
same effect on your liver as drinking a case of beer. The poor dog, however,
didn't have much in the way of defense against the mosquitos and biting flies
so I would cover her up with a light poncho and she was content.
It wasn't long before the sun came out and the wind picked up, giving us
beautiful days to enjoy. It also wasn't long till I got a sunburn but it wasn't
too bad. We spent our days paddling from lake to lake, breaking and setting up
camp as we went along. We swam in the refreshing (read: cold) water nearly
every day. We ate well, did our camp chores leisurely, relaxed, unplugged.
No major wildlife sightings this time. One thing that was odd was the number of
loons on Obabika Lake. Loons usually travel with a mate and that's it. I've
never before seen more than a small family of two adults and a few babies
(loonlings?). Well, there must have been a loon convention because I lost count
at 40 loons all hanging out together. Sometimes they would all start warbling
and calling together and it was the most amazing sound.
We stayed two nights on Obabika Lake, a very large. long lake. We had a
fabulous camp site with a good breeze, a big rock terrace and a little sandy
beach. From the rock terrace we had a beautiful view up the north body of the
lake. The sky up there is so huge. We were entertained one afternoon watching a
series of rain storms march across the north end of the lake. We could track
the storm by watching the far shore disappear behind a grey
"curtain"; and then the island in the middle of the lake would be
swallowed up by it, and then the nearer points of land marking the bays.
We would just get sideswiped a little by the edge of
the storm. We'd get a big strong wind and then a mist of rain for minutes and
then it was done. Very cool. I think Doug would have enjoyed watching this
horizontal weather in action.
Another neat part of the trip was when we were leaving Lake Wakimika and
heading into Obabika. We woke that morning to a misty fog over the lake. That's
not very unusual itself, however it didn't burn off by 9 or 10:00 as it usually
does. The fog stayed thick and full until noon. It was neat to paddle in. We
had to find the mouth of the creek that would take us into Obabika. Once we
were on the creek, navigation was no problem, there's only on way to go. We
came out into a tiny lake briefly and it was quite eery. The fog was pea-soup
thick, the lake was as smooth as glass, all sounds were muffled, and we slowly
paddled through tall grass reeds without quite knowing if we were heading in
the right direction. I've never paddled in anything like it. Very mystical.
The whole trip was wonderful. I can't wait to get back up north and leave the
city behind. If you care to check out our pictures, they are posted at the link
below. It's set up as a slide show with the pictures changing every 10 seconds.
If you want to go faster or selectively, just click on the thumbnails at the side.
I hope you all get to experience your own personal nervana and that you write
and share it with us.
http://members.rogers.com/sabaleung/Temagami/
:)
Jackie
*****
THE ONTARION REPORT
August 22,
2003
Here we are again it’s the weekend already. Just taking a glance around, it’s amazing to read about all that’s going on in the world today. Huge forest fires in BC, blackouts in eastern North America and heat waves in Europe to mention a few! I think I’ll take the blackouts myself. At least we have a chance to learn from our situation and hopefully do something in the future to prevent a reoccurrence. There is certainly little that can be done to prevent forest fires in the future and nothing that can be done to prevent a natural heat wave. It’s certainly tragic when lives are lost to such events but this has been happening since the beginning of time and will continue. All we can do is try our best to anticipate these disasters as far in advance as possible. I know that I personally am ready for action should an earthquake hit our region. I’m going to get on my knees in the bathtub with my forehead on the floor of the tub and clasp my hands behind my neck. I figure hell, if it would have protected me from a nuclear blast as a kid in the halls of Prueter Public School in the 50’s it should protect me from a little ol’ earthquake! Do any of you remember doing that during “Air Raid Drills”? It was called the “Turtle Position” and we’d file out into the hallways and assume the “Turtle Position” every time the air raid sirens would sound. I guess we’ve come a long way since then. Now they tell us to just stand still and take it like an adult! If a nuke goes off within 10 miles of where you happen to be, your vaporized anyway. It really won’t matter if you’re in the “Turtle Position” or not! I had a friend who’s father owned a fuel oil company back then and they were the only people in the neighbourhood that had a bomb shelter in the basement of their house. It was made of cement block with a 2” thick metal door. Of course it was vented by a 4” tin pipe to the outside air. When you think of it, what the hell would it have protected you from? Not much! The only thing it was useful for was storing his mother’s canned goods every fall. We used to hide in there when we didn’t want his little brother bothering us while we were planning our next assault on the tree fort belonging to the kids on the next block.
Now
that I think of it, as kids back then we seem to have had much better
imaginations than the kids of today. We were allowed to watch TV for a couple
of hours on Saturday mornings and that was only if we had a TV. I think ours
was a Spartan TV if I remember correctly. It looked like a cardboard box on
four tall dowel type legs. It was Black and White of course. I think we got
four channels as well, 13, 11, 4 & 7. Kitchener, Hamilton and 4 & 7
were both Buffalo. Man, how did we ever get along without 500 channels on a
satellite? I guess it was because there was no such thing as a satellite until
the Russians launched a spacecraft into orbit with something called “Sputnik”
on it. This I believe was the very first satellite to orbit the earth. Can
anyone remember the second one? I believe it was launched by the Americans and
was called “Tellstar” correct me if I’m wrong on this one. Anyhow, I believe
the year of the first launched satellite was 1959. It was a year to remember
because we had a big red plastic ball with white spikes lighting the top of our
Christmas tree that was supposed to be a likeness of “Sputnik”. Why our parents
would ever want a Communist likeness gracing the top of the second most
important symbol marking birth of Christ (Jesus being the Most important) we
could never figure out. From what we kids had heard, those Commie Bast_ _ _ s
should be wiped off the face of the earth before they get us. Oh well, such
political issues didn’t concern us back then. We had more important things to
worry about, like what to ask Santa to bring us for Christmas! I guess again
that things were a lot more simple back then regarding that issue as well. I
remember my list including such things as Everlast Boxing Gloves (so I could
pound the heck out of my big brother), a transistor radio so I could listen to
it under my pillow at night, a “Mechano Set”, Tinker Toys and Mini Bricks and
of course a Snakes n Ladders board game. There was one Christmas in particular
that I remember. It was the one where my brother and I got a “shared” gift from
Santa. We woke up to a Lionel Train set. I still have it to this day. I believe
it is an “O” guage freight train. The one with 3 rails on the track set. The
center one being the conductor of electricity for the engine. It was really
cool but shared gifts have never been a favorite of mine. It meant that I had
to let my big brother use it as much as I did. This of course never worked out
because he was 2 years older and bigger.
When
you weren’t the “Engineer” working the transformer to drive the train, you where
the poor schmuck that had to sit there and put the train back on the track ever
20 seconds when big brother ran it off from driving too fast! That was really
NO FUN at all! I finally decided to wait till he was out with the other kids
before I’d get the train set out to play. Of course then I’d be missing out on
all the fun playing outside with the other kids. HECK, I just couldn’t win.
This leads me to giving the following advice to parents everywhere, DO NOT give
your kids “Joint Gifts” for any occasion it just doesn’t work!
I gather that’s enough nostalgia for this week. It’s always fun to look and think back to our youth. Most of those times were happy ones for me and I hope they were as well for my fellow Squamidians. A few days ago Clyde scanned some pictures from his high school graduation yearbook and sent them out to us. I’m sure they brought back a lot of memories to those of you that knew the people in the pictures. For me it was a chance to see what some of you looked like and may still look like today. I could be wrong on that one! I know that I’d recognize Clyde for sure. The lad still looks the same to me! In fact, he still has his Beatle haircut to this day! LOL! I wish he had found a picture of Doug though I could have used a laugh! SORRY ‘bout that one Doug, just kidding. I’m sure you were just as handsome back then as you are today. That’s the part of this association that I’m missing out on. Most of you knew each other back in your teenage days and can look back and laugh about the goings on at GRCI. We had a lot of fun at KCI (Kitcheners Collection of Idiots) as well but I guess you had to be there to appreciate it. Maybe next week we can talk about people that some of you might have known that went to KCI back in the 60’s. I’m sure if you mention a few names, I’d be able to recall some of them. Better go for now. Thanks again for tuning in and I’ll talk to you all next week. Stay safe and have a good week.
GREG.
PS: Something to Think About>
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy!
****
And for anyone interested, Greg sent along this web address. These are spectacular pictures of the Northern Lights, taken in Iceland.
http://www.iww.is/art/shs/pages/thumbs.html
Also, Greg sent in some pictures of his finished pond. They can be viewed on my web site. Just enter my site and look for ‘Greg’s Pics’ link at the bottom left.
http://www.members.shaw.ca/doug_b/index.htm
Have a good one..
the
doug