The Squamidian Report – July 12 / 03
Also in this issue:
The Ontarion
The Etobican
A Note from Traveling Carol
A Note from Ewan
Hi All,
We did something last Sunday that Sue and I have both wanted to do since we moved here. We have walked parts of the sea wall in Stanley Park many times over the years but we’ve never taken the time to walk the whole thing.
The four of use drove into the city on Sunday morning and got parked before the park filled up with tourist. The day was sunny and bright; there were literally hundreds of sailboats on English Bay and out into the Straight. There were huge container vessels in the port and waiting to come in.
We took our time, just strolling along and enjoying the views and scenery. Took up about 3 hours to walk the entire way around. It would be about 10 km according to my GPS. We stopped at many of the lookouts and enjoyed the views. Great way to spend a Sunday morning.
And speaking of the views, you should see all the young women in their tight spandex on roller blades cruising along the sea wall. Very hard to concentrate, and with your wife walking right beside you, you sure realize the benefits of dark sunglasses.
The tourist traffic on the highway on our way back was a real bummer. It is certainly not their fault, for unless you are familiar with that sea to sky highway, it can be a bit intimidating. They are all over the road as they look at the scenery instead of driving their car. If they are in a motor home etc they seem to be afraid that it will tip over on the shark curves. The real problem is the mixture of tourists and the people that drive the highway regularly. Like mixing oil and water, it don’t work. The locals know where the passing lanes are and are ready to go as soon as they get to them. Unfortunately, there will inevitably be some white knuckled driver that won’t pull into the slow lane and won’t speed up to even near the posted speed. You can hear the screams of frustration. Not us of course, we behave ourselves.
Sue wanted shelves in the little closet off our balcony. She was starting to look for a unit in the stores so I figured I’d better build some quick. That would be easier than carrying in and assembling some over priced cheaply build thing. Anyway, some material from the buildall store and an hours time and now she has her shelves. Hey, they are only 4 feet long but maybe we can rent those out as bunks during the Olympics.
****
Hi everyone! Welcome back again. It’s been a busy week for us here in Ontario. We’ve had everything from an armed bank robbery to a Jazz Festival here in the twin cities. Other places in Ontario such as Toronto have been in the news as well. Toronto is hosting the Toronto Indy this weekend. Looks like the qualifying laps in TO tomorrow will be wet again. They are forecasting 60% rain for Saturday but Sunny and warm for Sunday the day of the actual race. Here’s hoping that our own Paul Tracey will win this year. I’ll have to keep an eye on the TV this Sunday. One of these years, I’ll get up the energy to attend the race in person.
We’ve been experiencing some wet weather for the past few days. It rained very hard this morning but has been off and on all day with drizzle and the odd shower. I guess we needed some moisture but 4 days of it is enough for a while. It figures that it would rain the day after the regional trucks were around our neighbourhood placing larvacide in the storm drains. I spotted the truck beside my house yesterday and read in the paper that they were dropping larvacide through a funnel device into storm drains to stop the breeding and hatching of mosquitoes. I guess they’ll have to redo the work they did yesterday. They said it has to be placed in standing water and I understand it has to sit for a few days to be effective. If they place it in a drain with running water, it will just wash away. Maybe it only takes a few hours to do its work. I’ll have to watch the paper and see if there’s anything said about the rain’s effect on the project. Carole and I were just saying that we’ve only seen a few mosquitoes around here this year. It’s been a very good year for the lack of insects here.
We finally went out and purchased a dozen gold fish to put in the pond. They are just small ones but we’ve been told that they will more than triple in size by the Fall. Adam placed 2 huge rocks on top of each other in the center of the pond last night.
The fish were hiding under the hose for the pump so now they have a larger place to do it. We bought some floating fish food as well. It’s fun to watch them come to the surface and eat. They look pretty insignificant in such a huge pond but that will change for sure. We bought floating “Water Hyacinths” and other mossy like greenery called “Hornwart” that floats just below the surface of the water. The mossy stuff is supposed to oxygenate the water for the fish. We have to go back to the nursery and get several more “Hyacinths” to cover the proper % of water surface required to support the fish. They say that you have to cover 60 – 70% of the surface to provide enough shade for the fish. It also produces the proper amount of oxygen for the water life as well. It’s interesting to find out all this stuff. Carole also chose the plants and bushes she wants around the waterfalls. We are just waiting for some dry weather to plant them. It’s been very wet here as I said earlier. We are still going to be working on this for another day or two. Here I thought my work was done once the water was flowing! Oh well, like the great Jimmy Durante once said “It ain’t over till it’s over”! The rain has kept me from cutting the grass as well. I usually mow the lawn every second or third day but it’s been 5 days now since the last cutting. I’ll have to go over it 2 or 3 times to get it nice and even this time.
We also have a new family member here on Royal Orchard Dr. Carole and I picked up our new Jeep Liberty LE on Tuesday. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a New vehicle and decided to treat ourselves to one this year. It sure is a beauty. It’s a steel blue colour. They call it Atlantic Blue Pearl Cote. In some lights it looks gray and in others, it looks quite blue. The interior is a nice charcoal coloured cloth. The LE is the top of the line and is loaded with all the goodies. It sure is a pleasure to drive. Now all I need is some snow to test the 4 wheel drive in! LOL! OK, I guess I can wait till December for the snow. Maybe we can go out into a swamp somewhere and test it there in the warm weather. NOPE, I’d never get away with splashing mud all over the pretty new Jeep! I just had it coated with “Krown” rust proofing today so it’ll still be here 5 years from now. If there’s one thing that Carole and I agree on, it’s that we both detest rust on a vehicle. Hopefully the rust proofing will take that worry away for a long time.
Well, it’s getting late and I’m hoping to get up early and do the planting of the greenery around the waterfalls. I’ll be sure to send you a picture of the finished product again soon. It will take a year to get them to fill out enough to really look proper but at least we’ll have them there this year to get started. Hope you all have a great weekend and I look forward to reading all the reports. Until next week, take care and stay safe.
Regards….Greg.
PS: Something To Think About>
One of the easiest ways to improve your appearance is to sit next to a homely person.
****
Hi Doug,
We are at a motel in Brandon that has free
internet access (would you believe a kitchenette, heated pool, continental
breakfast for the grand total of $49.00 including tax?) I thought you
might want to include our little trip thus far in your tomorrow's report.
By the way could you send us a copy of the report at Anita's? Her e-mail
is arblyth@shaw.ca
We got away about 8:00 on Wednesday with me driving that day as Al worked a 12 hour shift until 7:00. We stopped and visited aunt Millie in Spanish - it was a good thing we weren't staying there as she managed to talk non stop for the 1-1/2 hours we were there and Al's eyes were glazing over. We stopped at our cousin's in Blind River but since it was still early continued on to just west of the Soo. The place we stopped at had a number of nature trails so I was able to have a good walk in the morning before Al woke up. We stopped at a few scenic lookouts and nature trails along the top of Lake Superior.
There are so many beautiful sandy beaches
which no one swims at because the water was even too cold for Al to put more
then a hand in. He thought we should fill his coolers with the water to
keep his u-brews cold. We spent the night just out side of Thunder
Bay. There are a lot of moose crossing signs and we came upon a young
moose who had obviously been hit not long before we arrived - and for you hunters
out there we did not stop and butcher it even though Al thought dad might
appreciate it if we brought him home a few moose steaks.
The construction from before Dryden to the
border was terrible. 4 times we were stopped for a minimum of 20
minutes. We turned the motor off and got out to talk to other tourists -
interesting way to pass the time. We are in Brandon now and unless we
come across something that catches our interest will be at our friends in
Calgary tomorrow night.
****
*********************************
*********************************
Tracy was born on a farm near Fergus on November 12, 1988. Both her parents were pedigree standard schnauzers and all her pup mates were issued their papers. She was the exception. She was wild, adventurous and out of control. By the time she was 7 weeks old she had already injured her leg when she climbed over a door and broke a lamp. That left a scar, she could never be a show dog.
We brought her home to Hidden Valley Rd. much to the delight of Ryan and dismay of our then old dog Corky. She got carsick on the way home and made quite a mess. Right from the beginning her wild streak showed. She would go into some sort of zoom mode where here eyes would go wild and she would run at top speed around the house or yard. Totally out of control.
It wasn’t until we took her to obedience class out of desperation that we were finally able to control her. She seemed to have limitless energy and zero attention span. She took to obedience training like a natural and ended up taking first place in both standard classes and advanced off leash work. She proudly went back as and instructor dog for several years. And she sure didn’t have much patience with the other dogs if they didn’t get it right.
From her obedience days on, Tracy loved life. She loved balls, she loved supper. Especially oven baked, sit at the table suppers. She also loved car rides and quickly learned to read both the Tim Horton signs and Dairy Queen signs. As the years passed, she found herself in the position of ‘senior’ Brubacher dog. As the oldest and most experienced dog, she ruled the other dogs in the Brubacher families. She would not tolerated any dissention from those lesser creatures.
Tracy and Ryan sort of grew up together. She was his willing companion on hikes, making snow forts and snacking out in front of the TV. She had him pretty well trained to bring her a cookie on demand. Once Ryan was old enough to get his driver’s license, she was his happy traveling companion, much to the dismay of his girlfriends.
The years caught up with her all too soon, bringing a heart problem the would require medication as well as a large growth on her tummy that the vet said could not be treated as she would not survive. The growth burst one day and I found her in a pool of blood. He had no choice then but to operate. That was over 3 years ago. She recovered and went on to many more oven dinners and bbq’s.
Tracy tended to live life at 110%, often resulting in minor injuries that would leave her limping for a day or so. She would launch herself off the top of a snow bank at Yogi’s head, teeth bared, ready to put all 150 pounds of him in his place. She would run so fast and hard that she could hardly stand up for a while. Hence the nickname ‘Hopper’, as she would end up hopping around on 3 legs for a while.
We didn’t expect
her to be with us this long, she was in bad shape when we moved out here. The
adventure of new surroundings and the benefits of a very mild winter gave her a
new lease on life and another year.
That year is over now. Tracy started going down hill last weekend. She has had bad spells before but always seemed to snap out of them by suppertime. This time was different. She seemed to know and was resolved. She was comfortable, sleeping on her mat. I checked on her during Tuesday night and she put her head on my hand. When I got up Wednesday morning at 5:30, she seemed to be sleeping quietly. At 5:45, she stopped breathing and it was over. Yogi had spent the night lying beside her; I guess he knew as well.
Tracy passed away on Wednesday, July 09, 2003. She was 14 ½, a good old age for a dog. She had a good life. We miss her. I miss her.
the
doug