The Squamidian Report – June 07/03
Also in this issue:
North Nova News
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Last Sunday was strange to say the least. Firstly, it was one of the very few days that the air here was muggy. That almost never happens. So both Ryan and I were a bit stuffed up trying to breath. Reminded me of most days back home. And old Tracy was too sick to even want to go to Hortons. She was listless all day but did recover in the evening.
Then, Sue was booked on a noon flight to Winnipeg. She usually parks at Park&Fly when she is gone through the week. However, this time she will be gone two weeks so we drove her to the airport. No sense in having her car sit there that long. Once there, we discovered that good old Air Canada had cancelled her flight at the last minute and switched her to a 6 PM flight. That meant she had to sit and wait the whole afternoon.
We had lunch with her then headed back. Stopped at a computer store to return a RAM chip. They charged us a $15 re-stocking charge. Fine, I guess. I had two separate car drivers mad at me in the parking lot, both thinking I was trying to steal their parking spots when all I was trying to do was find my way out onto the road.
Sunday was also the start of a summer type heat wave. Very hot bright days with temps up into the mid 30s. The construction sites become ovens. However, at the risk of flogging a heat stroked horse, it’s a dry heat. Really. Except for Sunday, there is no humidity, no sticky mugginess. And as soon as the sun drops below the mountain the temps drop down to comfortable levels.
Sue’s audit was in Winnipeg this past week, and then she flew to Toronto rather than back to Vancouver. She is spending the coming week visiting with her parents. Hopefully she will have time to enjoy her self as well.
Ryan’s computer was acting up, giving strange error messages and freezing etc. They were consistent with a loose or bad data cable connection. However the connections seemed to be tight. I removed the cable with the intent of swapping in another one in case there was a bad internal connector. When I examined the cable I found a tiny hole through one of the wires that make up the ribbon cable. I don’t know how the cable could have gotten damaged but it felt very brittle. I think just normal shock from being moved around was enough to do it. Works fine with the new one in place.
And both Ryan and Emily have found summer work here. Em was snapped up by the local Tim Horton outlet. (She has experience from working in a Kitchener outlet). They are desperate for help that can walk and chew gum at the same time. Ryan has landed a job at CTC. They had both thought about prestigious Whistler jobs but that would have created logistical problems as well as putting hundreds of extra klicks a week onto his car. Don’t need that.
They drove up to Whistler last evening to go to a show. That is the closest movie theatre to us. The next closest is in North Van. Squamish could use a theater desperately.
Blueberry Update!
All those little blossoms that had covered my blueberry plants are now turning into little green baby berries. Looking good.
****
This week I seemed to be at a loss of what to write in the
newsletter until I came across an article in the Halifax Chronicle Herald. It reminded me of how small a place we live
in. Everyone here is related or knows
someone who is related to anyone you may possibly want to talk about. Gossip is definitely out of the question. This article is about Prince Edward Island
but could just as well be here in northern Nova Scotia.
Reasons P.E.I. doesn’t really have
a sex trade
The Summerside Journal-Pioneer said
in an editorial this week:
P.E.I. came into the national and international spotlight for a
dubious reason recently after a misprint in a Boston Globe feature listed a
1-800 phone sex line number instead of the 1-888 number that links callers to
tourism agents. What makes the error
especially humorous is that there are probably few places on Earth that have a
more innocent, fresh-faced reputation than Prince Edward Island--- a reputation
that’s warranted. If P.E.I. has a sex
trade, it’s hidden very well.
Escort services are not published in the local papers. Women do not walk up and down Water Street
asking for dates.
There are no strip clubs or brothels that we’re aware of. Bachelor and bachelorette parties have to
send to Moncton or Halifax for racier entertainment.
No, the closest thing P.E.I. has to a sex industry is the lineup
outside the Water Street Barz on a summer night where the dress code is
Christina Aguilera chic.
The reason is simple.
Imagine hiring a stripper for a stagette party. Just as the fellow has undressed to his
G-string, one of the party guests exclaims:
“Wait a minute…isn’t your father, John, from Kinkora? I knew your sister, Jenny, when we were
kids. In fact, your cousin’s wife’s
aunt is my stepmother!”
Or another scenario sees a john about to partake of the services of
a hooker when they both realize they’re second cousins. It would dampen the mood a bit.
The Island is just too small and everyone is too interconnected for
such an industry to thrive here. And
any tourists coming here who are not related to anyone are not visiting for
that kind of vacation. The thrills
they’re seeking involve lobster suppers and Anne of Green Gables…..the musical.
Hope you found that interesting. Yesterday as we were driving down our road we came across a big
motor home looking quite lost. We pulled up beside to see of we could help. The
man was looking for someone we knew!
(Have we become just like the locals?)
We told him to follow us as we were going right past his friend’s
house. Tourists are always exclaiming
how friendly the Maritimes are and the further you go east, the friendlier they
get. (example: Cape Breton and then Newfoundland) It’s nice to be known for being a friendly place to visit.
Until next time
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
June 6, 2003
Well hello
everyone! June is here and it’s still crumby weather! What the heck’s going on
with Mother Nature. I figure the least she could do is make the sun shine in
the month of June. I’ve been dodging
raindrops for weeks now trying to get this pond project finished. With no
definite plans for a design, just a whole load of ideas it’s certainly
interesting to see the progress. Believe it or not, it all starts with digging
a hole in the ground. Like Doug says, the southwest Kitchener clay is something
to behold. Every shovel full weighs in at approximately 20 lbs. It’s
recommended you make the depth of your pond 36” in the deepest spot to
accommodate leaving the fish in over the Winter. I have the deepest point of
our pond at 28” and that’s deep enough for me! I figure I’ll just buy the
“Flushable” type of goldfish so we can renew the stock each Spring. They say
that the sewage system in Kitchener is well stocked with Mutant goldfish from
people disposing of their family schools via the toilet. I guess that says
something for the quality of the nutrients still in human waste. I’ve heard
that some of the goldfish that are in the system weigh in at a hefty 3 to 4
lbs. Amazing when you think about it! Oh well, I actually think flushing is a
cruel way to go so we’ve decided that rather than take a chance on freezing the
fish in a solid block of Ontario Ice, we’ll release them in the huge pond out
back of the Greenbrook Pumping Station on Greenbrook Dr. Apparently lots of
people have done that as well. I like that option myself. At least you know
that they’ll continue on and live to splash another day. Getting back the
actual construction of the pond, it’s really starting to take shape now.
Carole’s brother Norman has been over here for the past few days helping me
with the job. We actually started digging last week. We got about a foot down
and laid a few blocks around the perimeter and packed it in because of
darkness. I got ambitious over the next 2 days and dug the rest of the depth
myself. I then proceeded to scrounge up enough 8” cement blocks to finish the
support wall. They were forecasting rain over the weekend so I didn’t do any
more work Saturday or Sunday. Of course, it didn’t rain a drop, figures!
Earlier last
week, Norm and I went rock hunting south of Puslinch Lake in Cambridge. After
scouring the Niagara Escarpment around the Milton area and finding nothing but
huge cliffs and no loose rocks, we headed back to Cambridge on a road that ran
parallel to and south of the 401. About 15 kms east of Cambridge we happened
upon a section of the road where they were digging huge tree stumps out of the
roadside and in doing so, they had unearthed the most beautiful “rock garden”
style rocks I’d seen in years. You know the kind, the ones that you pay 59
cents/lb for at the Garden Centers? Well, we went home to borrow a pickup truck
from someone and couldn’t find anyone that wasn’t using theirs at the time.
Sooooooo, back into the trusty ’93 Altima with a shovel and leather gloves and
away we went. We actually brought about 600 lbs of rocks home in the trunk. We
decided that we could make one more run before dark and back down we went. We
met a farmer by the roadside that had his tractor stuck in the mud. We helped
him get it out and he offered to let us take as many rocks as we wanted from
his land. We eventually brought 4 more loads home from the farm the next day.
We figured we had a good stock of good looking rocks to work with.
Come this past
Monday, we finished smoothing the bottom of the pond and took a measurement and
headed for the garden center to pick up the rubber liner for the pond. Well,
$250.00 later we had the liner and were fitting it in the pond. It took Norm
and myself and Adam to lift the liner into place and get it fitted to the
shape. We then filled it with water. By my calculations, we have approximately
1200 Imperial Gallons in the pond. The liner also extends beyond the pond and
over the mound of dirt we piled up behind the pond to make the waterfalls. The
rocks go on top of the liner covered mound.
With the liner
under the waterfall rocks, any water that spills between the rocks will still
end up back in the pond. Well, let me tell you, once we had visited the garden
center and picked up some flag stone to place on top of the liner which is
stretched over the block wall, we realized that the flag stone was too thin and
too light to make a decent ledge around the perimeter of the pond. Since the
nice thick rock garden style rocks were very expensive at the Nursery, we
decided to head back to Cambridge and pick up the rocks on the roadside. We
have spent the past 2 days making trips to the stone pile and loading them in
the Altima. The Altima was literally dragging it’s rear bumper with each load.
We brought home 6 loads of rocks covered in mud and moss. Each load consisted
of 10 to 12 rocks that were 6 to 8 inches thick and 18”x24” in size. We figure
we have around 3 tons of lovely rock. I decided to try pressure washing the
rocks. I discovered that they are a real nice light yellow under all that dirt.
The kind with little pock marks and holes all over them. Exactly what the
little woman wanted. We abandoned the idea of using most of the farm rocks and
are going to use them for filler. ARE YOU BORED YET???
I hope not, since this is only part of the story. Probably only Rosemary Gibb will appreciate what I’m telling you. Although I hope you all get something out of it if only a laugh or two!
Well, after 4 hrs of blasting away at the rocks with the high pressure, they look great. I’m sure we have $1800.00 worth of rock if we had to pay for it. Carole is very happy with the progress but even she now sees that it’s a lot more work than one thinks when first planning a pond like this. I wanted very much to have the pond finished before Carole goes into hospital on Monday June 9th but I doubt it will be possible now. Oh well, it will be a nice homecoming gift for her when she gets out.
I guess I should explain what that’s about now that I’ve started.
Through a routine chest x ray and exam that Carole had to undergo last Fall, they discovered a growth in her chest. It turns out that the “growth” is what is called a Bronchogenic Cyst. From what the Dr’s tell us and from what we have read on the internet, it’s very rare. There have been only 15 recorded cases of this worldwide in the past 20 years. Carole says leave it to her to have something so rare! What it is, so the Surgeon says is an extra branch of the Bronchial Tube that formed when she was still in the womb. The extra branch stopped growing when the 2 normal branches reached the lungs. This 3rd one has filled with fluid over the span of her lifetime and it’s now the size of a large egg. They are very confident that it’s not malignant and have decided it’s best that they remove it before it causes any pressure on any of her organs or becomes infected and must be taken out in an emergency situation. They figure while she’s relatively young and in good health otherwise, now is the time to do it. It’s a very serious major surgery though. They will have to collapse her right lung and remove 2 ribs from her right side to enable the surgeon to reach in and remove the cyst. This will take 3 hrs and will require a long recovery period. The surgeon told us that Carole will be in ICU for 7 to 10 days and then another week in regular care in the hospital. Sheesh, what an experience this will be. Carole and I are of course both very concerned but have every confidence in Dr Sharkey, the surgeon. It sounds like she will be up to 8 weeks before she will feel back to her old self. We are hoping it won’t be as long as they say. Carole is a very strong woman and I know she’ll do well. My goal is to have the house in great shape and the pond looking like it’s a natural habitat that’s always been there when Carole comes home. The way it’s going now, I’m sure it’ll be just beautiful. Although, it’ll have to have her finishing touches with plants of her choosing once she feels up to gardening again. If she trusts me with the chore, I’ll be glad to do the planting if she’s willing to supervise form the patio. Knowing her, she’ll be sneaking out of the ICU to come home and plant! LOL!
WOW, this has to be the longest winded I’ve been yet!!! Hope I didn’t bore you too much. I usually don’t get into much personal stuff but I wanted to mention what’s going on and Carole said she didn’t mind my telling you all. We feel like family now anyway and this is stuff you share with your family! I know you’ll all join me in wishing Carole well. She really gets a kick out of this Squamidian weekly too. It’s a part of our lives now, first thing we do every Saturday, sit in the office and read the reports together. Anyway, hope you all have a great week and I’ll stay in touch with any news about Carole. Talk to you again next week. Till then, take care and don’t sit too close to the monitor! LOL!
All the best, GREG.
PS: Something to Think About>
Talk to a woman about herself and she will listen for hours.
****
Have a good one..
the
doug