The Squamidian Report – Aug. 30 / 03

The Ontarion

Hi All,

The spawning run of the Pink Salmon is just about over. The few that are left in the river are pretty beat up and exhausted. They don’t even bother to swim out of the way as Yogi walks around in the river. He likes to drink the crystal clear water as he walks. There was one very tired fish near the shore as Yogi bumbled his way along. He was lapping up the water and lapped right over top of the fish. He didn’t even seem to notice. The fish had probably never been licked by a dog before. I think Yogi refuses to see the fish, as he would have to do something about them if he did.

It is still very hot and dusty here. I keep my cell phone in one of those leather carry cases that clip to your belt. At the end of each week I have to take it out of the case and wipe the dust off. There is a little hole in the bottom and I’ve discovered that if I blow into the hole, dust shoots out of the keypad. Probably not all that good for the phone.

The whole southern part of BC is under an Extreme Fire Danger alert. There are now signs posted along all the roads, even right in town warning of the danger. The trail entrances into the parks have red tape across them. No one is allowed to go into the forests. There is a hefty fine or even jail time for anyone caught in the closed areas.

Several weeks ago they disallowed any smoking in the Vancouver parks, including Stanley Park for the duration of the drought. I was listening to a radio talk show that was discussing the smoking ban. Some jerk phoned in and insinuated that there was no real danger, it was just an inconvenience put in place buy the ‘non smoking agenda’ people. This moron was concerned that his ‘rights’ were being violated. No wonder they have to keep everyone out of the bush.

Regardless of the drought and fire problems, this is still the most scenic area in the country, and our air out here on the coast is clean and fresh. We just need to weed out the jerks and send them about half way to Asia.

Hey, have any of you that have seen out mountains out here wondered why some of them are rounded and lumpy while others have sharp, pointed ridges and peaks?

Well, there is a reason. Firstly, unlike the Rockies and other mountain ranges that are mostly uplifted sedimentary rock, the coastal mountains are made from igneous rock. That explains why there is no grain running through them. So there tends to be lumps instead of long straight lines in the topography.

Ten thousand years ago this whole area was under several kilometers of ice. The massive ice age glaciers carved and smoothed the mountains that they covered. However, some of the higher peaks and ridges were above the ice. They were not rounded off and smoothed out. As you look at Garibaldi, Alpha, the Rooster Comb etc you are looking at areas that would have been islands sticking above the sea of ice. That was also a time of active volcanism. There were lava flows that spread out over top of the ice, then crashed through when the ice gave way. The Cheakeye Fan is one such area. It lies just north of us and includes the Alice Lake area. This area is still considered unstable.

The Table Top Mountain was formed when an irruption melted through from underneath. The ice formed a cribbing which caused the lava to harden in a flat table shape. There are lava fields visible along the highway just south of Whistler. The lava has crystallized into vertical columns. Looks really neat.

Today is the Brackendale Fall Fair. I have no idea why they have their Fall Fair in the summer, and just for one day. However, Brackendale (part of Squamish the same way Garibaldi Highlands is) is pretty small and probably can’t come up with enough stuff to cover more than one day. Our Bluegrass jam session group has been slated in to play at the fair in the afternoon. No one knows just how that happened and most of the guys won’t even be there. That might mean we won’t be playing at all or that Warren and I may have to do some of our material just to fill in. Might be interesting, might have to wear a disguise.

Sue was in Edmonton this week and got home Thursday evening. That meant she was in the office on Friday. She said she’d be home early, this being a long weekend and all. I know from experience that when she says she’ll be home early that she will be anything but. That means I have lots of time for wild parties and all sorts of other endeavors. Too bad I’m too old and boring to use the opportunity.

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THE ONTARION REPORT

August 29, 2003

Hello again from Kitchener. It’s a tad foggy here this morning. The air smells heavy and that usually means a wet day. They are predicting rain developing by mid morning with some thunderstorms ending by late afternoon. Should be a good day to stay home and watch a movie. That would be nice but I know we have a load of errands to run. We have had absolutely beautiful weather for the past several days. Sunny and clear sitting at abut 24c or so. At least that’s what our backyard thermometer said. We were surprised on Wednesday with a visit by friends of ours from Saint John NB. They arrived without notice in their 30’ motorhome. I was out washing the Jeep for the first time in over a week and I saw what I thought was a bus approaching. This was unusual because they don’t run on our street. Here, it was Don and Joan Jennings. Luckily we had no plans for the day and were able to spend the day with them. We had a great visit with them and their new dog. They brought a Pappilon puppy with them that they had only gotten a week earlier. She’s a cute little thing that weighs in at 2 lbs. We weren’t sure what Bailey would do when he discovered another dog on his turf. That turned out to be a non issue as the two of them got along wonderfully. Carole and Joan took off around 2pm to do some shopping and Don and I dog sat until their return at 6:30pm. Like Joan says, the big city of Saint John is lacking in good shopping places so she welcomed the chance to tour KW and it’s big malls. I was glad to hear that the ladies behaved purchase wise. They managed to find a couple of clothing items that they were both needing and at great prices too, so they told us. Don and I sat out on the patio catching up on the past year and enjoyed a beer or three. I haven’t done that in 5 years (have more than one at a sitting) and they tasted pretty good. Well, back to behaving diabetically! Don and Joan were both really liked the pond. They were our first out of town visitors to see the back yard since its completion. We ended the day with a huge order of Chinese food and some great conversation. Man those New Brunswickers can talk! Anyhow, it was nice to see them again. They are on their way to some RV park near Ottawa for the weekend and then are heading home. They said they will be back in NB by this time next week.

Don is a retired schoolteacher and is making the most of his newfound freedom. I’m not so sure I’d be able to get into the RV scene myself. In the first place it takes a lot of money to purchase one of those monsters and then a lot more to insure and run it. He told me that they are getting good mileage but it will improve. They are averaging 7mpg right now but it should improve to around 12mpg within another few thousand kms. He’s another one of us dinosaurs that figures his fuel consumption in Miles/Gallon instead of Litres/100 kms. I think I prefer to travel by car or Jeep and use motels when we stop. I’ve never been a camper of any sort. My idea of roughing it is a motel with running water and a real bed. As long as it’s clean and reasonably priced, I’m in!

Well, last night was another eventful night. We took a jaunt down to the Flamborough Casino and made another donation. We spent the first hour winning and the second putting it back into the machines. No great amount, just enough to have a couple of hours of fun. We arrived home around midnight and Carole decided to put a tea on. I went up to the office to check my e-mail and maybe write my Ontarion. Well, I spent about an hour reading the paper and diddling around on the computer when I heard a couple of young guys talking fairly loudly outside as they walked by my window. Carole suddenly called me to come downstairs. She told me that the two guys had walked to the top of a slight hill behind our house in the Hydro Right of Way. She said it looked like they were carrying a lamppost but, not when they walked away. We took a flashlight outback and sure enough there was a decorative type lamppost. I called the police dispatch and told them about the situation. An officer arrived within 5 minutes of my call. They said there had been a lot of vandalism in the area this summer. The officer asked if I would keep the post here until they did some investigation. I said I would keep it and if nobody came knocking on our door by garbage day, that I would toss it out then. It seems that you can’t have anything nice sitting out in your yard these days without worrying about someone stealing it. The neighbours across the street to our right had a beautiful cast iron bench stolen while they were in Holland on a vacation for 2 weeks. The bench was found a block away smashed to bits. It would be nice to catch someone in the act and make an example of them. However most of us don’t sit up till hours of the morning guarding our lawn ornaments!

One consolation, the kids will soon be back at school where they can damage and steal things from there instead! Actually, the only thing that stops them or slows them down is WINTER!

Just one more thing I’d like to comment on before closing. In these times of terrorism etc we say we are going to be tougher on offenders of our nation. Well, I can’t believe that our government isn’t acting immediately to the 16 recent offenders that have been “detained” by the RCMP. They have 15 out of the 16 sitting in Maplehurst Jail in Milton 40 miles from here while they check a few things out. The 16^th one is out on his own recognizance while they check his story. These guys, all but one of Indian nationality have apparently been watched for some time now. They have been observed acting suspiciously around Darlington and Pickering Nuclear generating plants. They all have a connection in that they have lived under assumed names here in Ontario and have all presented “fake” student ID documents for a business school that doesn’t exist as their reason for being in Canada. One of them has been taking flying lessons from a school that has a flight path directly over Darlington Nuclear plant. The RCMP has found evidence that they have been testing explosive devices in the apartments of several of these individuals and have disconnected the fire detection systems in their building to facilitate the testing process without being found out. Several of these people live or have lived in a common building and been seen together in groups discussing the measurements and construction details of many large and important buildings such as the CN Tower. I say what the hell are we waiting for? Send these troublemakers back to where they came from! If for no other reason than they have lied to Immigration to gain entry to Canada. We can’t afford to be the softhearted Nicey Nicey Canucks any longer. We have to take a firm stand against possible terrorists and stop kissing the asses of every foreigner that shows up at our doorstep crying persecution in their own countries knowing that we’ll take them in. After all, who are we to interfere with the policies of other countries? Unless these countries are downright cruel to their citizens and at that point it should be the United Nations as a body that steps in to change things for the batter. That doesn’t necessarily mean go to war with that country to effect those changes. Neither does it mean that we should take the people of such countries into Canada to protect them.

It means that we should as a civilized nation do our part diplomatically to improve conditions in whatever country has the situation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not prejudiced, I just think it’s time to get tough and tighten our immigration laws. If someone appears to be a threat to our safety and our national police force has evidence to support that appearance, then I say GET RID OF THEM! Don’t pussyfoot around and worry about offending people racially. If they are breaking the law, they deserve the resulting punishment! If the offender is a Canadian citizen, then it’s up to us to incarcerate them or punish them to the letter of the law. In my eyes, a lawbreaker is a lawbreaker. I don’t give a damn if they are white black red or yellow they deserve to be treated accordingly. In this day and age, the slightest hint of terrorist affiliation can’t be overlooked. Come down on offenders and come down hard! Complacency nowadays is not acceptable. The NDP gov’t that was given a chance in Ontario a dozen or so years ago caused so many weaknesses in our system that we will be years cleaning up the mess. In the meantime, we have to take turns sticking our finger in the dike and try our best to stem the flow that carries with it the threat of terrorist acts. I believe that the place to start is with the Immigration Policies. It’s virtually impossible to check the background of every person entering this country but we certainly should try. I’ll get off my soapbox now! Thanks for reading. Talk to you next week.

GREG.

PS: Something To Think About>

If man could have half his wishes, he would double his troubles!

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Have a good one..

the doug