The Squamidian Report – Sept. 13 / 03
Also in this issue:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
We have finally had some rain. I used the windshield wipers on the van for the first time since early June. Rain usually makes people grumpy but everyone out here has a smile on their face. People were getting pretty nervous. There had been 8 lightning strike fires burning last Saturday evening in Garibaldi Park which is the wilderness area to the east of us. The homes across the street back onto the park. A mad flurry of helicopters took care of the lightning strikes and the rain settled things down.
There has been enough rain this week to lift the ban on backcountry travel. That ban had even included local small parks and playgrounds.
The Stellar Jays are back at our bird feeder. They don’t have much patience with us. There are deck chairs just out side the sliding door and they stand on the chair backs looking in and yelling at us to get our butts in gear and bring them something good. We often have the doors open, as there are no bugs here. One Jay hopped in and looked around, then yelled at us and hopped back out. Very strange.
The next few paragraphs might be a bit boring unless you have some hidden geek in you. I’m sure some of you secretly aspire to being propeller heads.
One of my computers is an old 586-class computer that had 24 Meg of RAM and was running Windows 95. It had started out as a Win 3.1 machine. At that time it was considered to be a screaming hot machine. It is now being used for games and software testing. I never try out anything that I download on my ‘good machine’ until I’ve checked it out on the expendable one. I’ve wanted to hook it up to the Net as well as network it with the other computer. To do so I needed a bit more RAM as well as a software firewall. The router is good but it can’t cover everything.
I was able to find a network card that would support 95 but most of the freeware firewalls wanted 98 or higher. There were other reasons to load 98 onto it as well. Networking and other functions were improved with 98. Also, the C:\ drive is only 500 Meg or so in size. Ryan had left a 2 Gig drive here so I disconnected the existing C:\ and hung the 2 Gig on it’s wires. A quick boot from a DOS floppy and a setting change in the BIOS let me format that drive and load 98. Once I knew the drive was working OK I needed to pull the old one and stick the replacement in. Because of where the mounting screws were, I had to pull the motherboard which meant dismantling the whole thing. I really can’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Sue had to go to some baby shower in the city (don’t know why it takes a whole bunch of women to shower some dumb kid) so I could relax and tinker to my hearts content.
I found a couple of old 72 pin 16 Meg RAM chips in a dusty bag at the local computer store. Don’t think they even make those chips any more.
Re-assembly went fine and the NIC card installed fine so now the old 586 has a new lease on life as a machine that can not only still run Minesweeper and FreeCell but can access the Internet as well. Mind you, with 48 Meg of RAM and an old BIOS, she’s still pretty slow, especially when you load it down with anti-virus software etc. There are some pretty good freeware anti-virus programs available as well as freeware firewalls. I use a commercial firewall and anti-virus on the main system but there is no need to spend the money on software for the 586. The firewall can create some problems when you try to get your home network running but they can be worked out. Didn’t really need to network the computers but what the heck, it’s fun.
As anyone who has visited this area know, we don’t have much choice in the radio stations we can listen to. The mountains block most signals. While the Whistler area can receive all the Vancouver stations due to the fact that most of those stations have satellite transmitters there, we seem to be left in the dark. All we can get here is a rather dreary CBC station and our world famous Mountain FM, locally known as Mountain Flem. On Friday evening we were in ‘down town Squamish’ and my van radio was able to pick up a Seattle station that was playing old country. What a treat after hearing nothing but elevator music on the local stations. It came in nice and clear, even up in the Highlands. On Saturday morning this radio frequency was just static and dead air. What a bummer. Must have been one of those atmosphere things, just to get my all worked up.
And finally last and definitely least, I had to replace my old watchband. The thing had rotted right off the watch. Did you know I could almost buy a whole new watch for the price of one band? Probably should have gone that route but I hate wearing new things, watches included.
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Don't have anything for this
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THE ONTARION REPORT
September 12,
2003
Hello again everyone! Here we are well into September and still enjoying summer weather. I guess it is still Summer technically but once we enter September, we tend to think more of Fall weather. Carole and I took a nice long drive in the country today and noticed that some of the leaves are already turning colour. What beautiful temperatures we’ve been having for the past few weeks. As far as I’m concerned, we could do with this weather year round and it wouldn’t bother me a bit.
I thought I’d come back down to earth this week and stop stirring the pot with my commentaries. It’s just that once in a while I like to get people talking about controversial subjects to get them thinking and communicating. Not that day to day activities of each of us is boring or otherwise mundane but it’s interesting to hear peoples reactions to what are usually “testy” topics. Someone has to poke a stick in the hornet’s nest from time to time and I figured I’d take my turn. I didn’t however get stung as many times as I thought I would with the “Chemical” subject matter of last week’s Ontarion. I guess people are getting wise to me! LOL! If nothing else, I’ve gotten some interesting information to research from both Karin and Carol about natural methods of controlling Grubbs etc in my lawn. I want them to know that I intend to check that possibility out thoroughly for next years growing season. I’m sure that by Spring of next year, someone will be placing “environmentally” friendly products on the market to replace the chemical ones that the gov’t has outlawed as of this years end. So, I figured if you can’t nuke ‘em, join ‘em! Hahahaha, just kidding! I’ll be the first in line for the “new” ingredients.
Carole
and I were quite impressed with Rosemary and David’s pond work. The pictures
show that it looks quite natural with the trees in the setting. With a back
yard that’s surrounded by a 6’6” fence, we have had to work at making our
waterfalls and pond look natural. It’s coming along very well. We knew that it
would be a year or so to get the plants to grow around the pond and behind the
waterfall to make it look like it’s been there for years. Just this week,
Carole decided to bring the gardens on either side of the pond out towards the
front edge of the pond more. This has made a huge difference in the “natural”
look. I’m sure glad that Carole has an eye for this landscape stuff. I’m more
of the “tell me what you want and I’ll do it” type! It’s nearing the end of the
season for the pond now anyway but it still looks great. We have to decide what
to do with the fish for the winter. I’ve had a friend of ours that has a pond
tell us that the fish should survive in a 28” deep pond our size. I think we
are going to try leaving them in for this winter and see how they fare! I’ve
also been told that if I pump air under pressure into the pond all winter that
it will keep the surface open in at least a small spot. If that’s the case,
then I think the fish should survive. Now all I have to do is devise some sort
of air pump to do just that. I’m thinking of building a windmill that will pump
air. Nothing huge, just yard sized. Shouldn’t be too difficult to do. I’ve seen
lots of those small windmills in people’s yards. Doug, if you have any ideas
for me, please jump in!
I don’t know if I mentioned this last week or not but I’m attempting to fly my kite to an altitude of ONE MILE tomorrow. Last week was a bust because of the poor wind conditions. I hope the wind is a tad stronger and more steadier than last Saturday. I tried to get the kite in the air at a friend’s back yard last Saturday. He has about an acre and a half for a back yard but it’s surrounded with trees.
The
wind seems to channel into the back yard and rise once it hits the tree line.
This is great to get the kite up for the first 100 feet or so but then the wind
seems to die. I had the kite up about 15 times and each time I tried to hold
tight on the line to make it clime more, it would take a dive to my left and
wouldn’t pull out. The model of kite I purchased was a B2 Stealth Bomber. I
said it’s a bomber alright but the damn plane is dropping WITH it’s bombs! LOL!
I was ticked enough at the poor performance that I returned it to the Zehr’s
store that it came from. They said they had only one other kite that they could
replace it with and it was a Pirate Ship. I said what the heck, I’ll give ‘er a
try! I brought the kite home and spent a few minutes assembling it. It weighs
in at about a pound so it will take some wind to carry it aloft. Especially
since it will be carrying with it a couple more pounds of string once it’s up a
mile. For those of you that are not in my generation, a mile is equal to 1,760
yards or 5,280 feet or 63,360 inches. To speak your metric language, an inch is
approximately 2.5 cm. That makes the whole thing equal to 1.6093 km. Any way
you look at it, it’s one heck of a long way up! I’m going to take some pictures
of the flight so if they turn out well enough, I’ll send a couple to Doug for
posting. If the wind isn’t strong or steady enough in my friend’s back yard,
I’ll be taking the kite to a more prominent spot on Ottawa St S. It’s known as
Mount Trashmore. I believe Karin and Doug have mentioned this spot in previous
reports. It’s the old Kitchener Landfill site. It’s actually called McLennan
Park. Named after a former Kitchener Mayor Sid McLennan. They have made it into
a huge tobogganing hill that the kids
use in the winter. No matter what the weather is like at street level, there is
always a wind at the top of Mount Trashmore.
I’ll
be sure to let you all know how the flight goes in next weeks Ontarion. It
should be fun. I’ve attached a picture of the Pirate Ship Kite so Doug can post
it on his site. Just thought you might like to see it before it’s dashed to
smitherines on the face of the earth. Once I get it aloft and flying at my
intended altitude, I’m going to decide whether or not to wind it back in or
just cut it loose! I think it will probably be the latter. This is the reason I
purchased an inexpensive kite for the flight. I’ve had my other “good” kite up
to 1200 ft and it takes me about ½ hour to wind it back in. I’m not sure my bad
elbow would be up to winding in 1.6093 km of string. If I have a couple of
volunteers with me that are willing to help, I’ll attempt to bring it down
safely. Otherwise “The Flaming Skull” (my Pirate ships name) will be cast
adrift for others to scavenge! Har Har Har me Maties!
Well,
I guess I should call it a night. Hope to hear from you all soon. Enjoy your
weekend and I’ll talk to you next week. Bye for now. GREG
PS: Something To Think About<
The trouble with trouble is that it
always starts just like fun!
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http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/
Have a good one..
the
doug