The Squamidian Report – Sept. 20 / 03
Also in this issue:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
I know that I’ve mentioned this several times already but it is still fascinating and interesting to me. It’s the fish jumping in the river. We are in the habit of taking Yogi down to the river every evening after supper so he can puddle in the water. (He kind of insists on it). The run of Pink Salmon is just about over, and I’m not even sure if it’s the Pinks or some other species of fish that is doing the jumping but it is quite something to watch. Some of them seem to go for height and manage to clear the water by several feet. Others are interested in distance and manage to span several feet. Still others seem to like to show off and do a series of jumps, similar to skipping stones. They will cross half the river, making all sorts of splashes as they bounce in and out. Yogi still doesn’t seem to notice. The birds of prey do though; there are a lot of eyes watching the show.
Another really strange sight is when several fish seem to jump at the same time while fairly close to each other. The come out of the water, with just their tails left in and seem to stand upright in a group as if they were looking around. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s definitely weird.
We are back to normal, seasonal late summer / early fall weather. There is rain at night, the days are nicely cool with billowing bright clouds draped over the mountains. Very scenic. The rains on Monday night dumped fresh snow up on Garibaldi. That mountain is high enough to create it’s own weather. With the clouds in and around the mountains and the mists along the rivers, the scenery is even more mesmerizing than on those postcard clear days. It is always changing, never the same. (Bet you didn’t know that I knew a word like ‘mesmerizing’).
There has been enough rain on the coast and into the interior of BC that there is very little danger of new forest fires starting. However, those massive fires around Kelowna, Kamloops etc are only ‘controlled’. They no longer threaten the built up areas, but it will take the snows of winter to actually put them out.
Sue has been bugging both Yogi and me lately with the idea that Yogi needs a bath. There is a car wash in town that also has a dog washing room. So we took him there but there was no way he could get up into the tub thing. His old back end is just too stiff. So we took him into a normal car bay. That seemed to work OK, just had to not use the high-pressure settings. We didn’t use the wax option either.
We went into the city today (which is why this letter is late coming out). Just above Horseshoe Bay a large black bear ran across the highway. It was coming down out of the ‘wilderness’ side of the road and heading into the built up areas. As we went past he was standing in the ditch looking at the traffic going by. He would have been at least 6 feet tall standing there on his hind legs. Unfortunately, this is not a normal place for a bear and his prospects are probably not very good.
More computer talk. Don’t worry Karin; I’ll keep it short.
I’ve been playing around with my little ‘home network’ to see what I can do with it. I don’t actually need it to do anything except let two systems access the net but us boys need out toys. Printing over the network is as smooth as printing from the computer that the printer is hooked up to. Moving files back and forth is just like moving them between directories on the same drive. Running an app that is on the ‘other’ machine is a bit slow but that’s OK.
One really great thing now is using one machine as a place to store backup files. Keeping current, up to date backups of your data is rather important as we all know. I have been using a replication program rather than backup software because the replicator not only copies new or changed files, but it deletes files from the target location if that file no longer exists at the source. I’ve tried it across the network and it is smooth and fast. Don’t know how I ever lived without it.
I’m using a freeware program called PtReplicator. It was written in VB by a past columnist of the now defunct Windows Magazine. This programmer has made available several utilities programs to make our lives easier and more fun. This replicator program is great for anyone who might want to synchronize or duplicate files.
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Space for rent.
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THE ONTARION REPORT
September 19,
2003
Hello
everyone! I guess you’ve all been listening to and watching the reports on the
incoming Hurricane Isabel. Well, it’s supposed to be down graded now to a
tropical storm. I think we’re still in for a good whipping. Although you’d
never know it by the look of the beautiful sunset we were treated to this
evening. I couldn’t resist grabbing my camera and taking a few shots of the
blazing sky to the west. I have attached a photo of the sunset so you can all
enjoy what we saw from our back yard here in Kitchener tonight. Thanks again
Doug for posting one more photo of mine. I hope you all like what you see. It’s
hard to believe that tomorrow will be a disaster weather wise! I’ve always
believed in the old adage “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight”. It never seems
to fail. However, this time I’m afraid it’s in for a surprise. With all the
hype about this storm, I doubt we’ll see the sun Friday at all. As long as the
storm is weaker than what the US has seen we’ll do ok. I do remember standing
in the doorway of our house on Floyd St in 1954 and watching the lashing
Kitchener took from Hurricane Hazel. The only damage I remember seeing was our
neighbour’s roof being stripped clean of shingles in about 5 seconds flat.
There was loads of rain with Hazel as well. Floyd St is lower at one end than
the other and we lived about 5 houses up from the low end. There was literally
a river flowing past our driveway and down into what was just a field then.
It’s now called The Breithaupt Park Sports Fields. Of course we wanted to go
out and play in the water but my mother wouldn’t let us. Shucks! I’m sure
Isabel will give us a show but hopefully there won’t be much damage or injury
resulting from her passing through. The weather report shows a nice weekend
coming directly after Isabel is gone, sunny and 20c or so for Saturday and the
same on Sunday. I’m looking forward to the weekend. I didn’t get the kite up
last Saturday because there was little or now wind. Go figure! I’ll keep trying
until get it up that mile I’ve been talking about. I’m sure there will be some
remnant breezes around Saturday following Isabel’s trail. I’ll keep you posted
on the flight progress as I promised last week.
Speaking
of Breithaupt Park Field, that very thought brings back many memories of when
we were kids living so close to actual uninhabited land. You farm kids will
scoff at this but this was as close to the country as most of us got back then.
In those days, the city would just let these spaces grow wild. There were only
a few manicured parks around and they were in the older areas of town. Back in
the 50’s the Floyd St area of the North Ward was new housing and one of the
last “edge of town” areas before you hit Bridgeport. Seems silly now when I
think of it but that’s the way it was. We used to do everything from fly our
kites in that field to play hide n seek in the tall weeds. It was a great place
to get back to nature! LOL! I remember one summer when we were around 10 years
old I was with a friend of mine named Brian Kummer. His dad was a Captain on
the Kitchener Fire Dept and of course everyone’s hero. Well, that particular
day there were 4 or 5 of us just hanging around wondering what to do with
ourselves. Brian reached in his pocket and pulled out a pack of Old Port cigars
that he had liberated from his dad’s stash. He said he thought it would be cool
to smoke some stogies. So we all stood there on the sidewalk beside the field
puffing away bravely thinking nobody would ever know we weren’t old enough to
smoke. Well, it didn’t take long and someone yelled “hey Greg, isn’t that your
dad coming this way in the Burn’s Meats van”? I said OH SH..! Get rid of the
cigars! So we all pitched the stogies
into the field as my dad pulled up at the curb. He asked what we were up to and
we said “Oh nothing, just hanging around”! He didn’t stop for more than a
minute and we were glad for small favours. Without another thought for the
cigars, we decided to walk up to my place and play up there. We were about to
turn in to my driveway when one of the guys looked back and saw Breithaupt’s
field on fire. I guess those pesky cigars don’t go out as soon as you throw
them away! LOL! Of course, we had to call the fire department so we ran in to
my house and used the phone. The fire dept was way over on Duke St and it took
the fire truck about 6 or 7 minutes to arrive at the scene. We were waiting at
the field when the trucks rolled up and who should get off the pumper, none
other than Burt Kummer, Brian’s dad! By this time about ½ the field was burning
and it was one heck of a big field. I would figure it to be about 10 to 15
acres on the upper level and most of the upper level was ablaze! Mr Kummer
asked us if we knew what happened and of course we said no! The fire fighters
worked for the better part of an hour before they had the fire out. They just
managed to stop it before it progressed into the back yards of some homes on
the north side of the field. I think they had every truck on the Kitchener Fire
Dept at the fire. We made a pact NEVER to tell anyone that we started the fire,
even though it was an accident! Although there was no real damage, the fact that
the field was a charred mess was enough to spoil our favourite play area for
the rest of the summer. I sometimes think that I might have wound up fighting
fires for 29 years as a way of making amends for that summer’s unsung deeds! We
all grew up and moved away over the years and I don’t recall ever hearing
mention of that fire again. About a year before I retired I was up at Home
Depot in Waterloo with my Pump Crew from Station #3. We were doing one of those
“Public Relations” things for a Saturday morning. We were asked by HD to bring
the truck up and let the kids see a real Fire Engine as their parents shopped.
They also had a booth selling hotdogs and hamburgers and were donating the
money to charity. Well, after about an hour with the kids, I felt a tap on my
shoulder and turned around to see Burt Kummer standing there. He had retired
from KFD about 10 years earlier. We talked for a while about the job etc and
suddenly I had an urge to spill my guts! I said “Burt, I have a confession to
make to you”! He smiled and said “and what might that be”? I reminded him about
the fire in Breithaupt’s Park Field and he remembered it clearly. I told him
then that Brian, myself and a few others were smoking cigars and tossed them in
the field and that’s what started the fire. He laughed so hard that I thought
he’d split a gut. He told me that he had asked Brian what happened to the pack
of cigars that he had on the kitchen counter and Brian finally broke down and
told him that he had taken them but he never did tell Burt about the fire. He
was going to visit Brian that same day for supper and said he was really
looking forward to that visit knowing what I had just told him. I haven’t heard
of or seen Burt since but one of these days I’m going to track Brian down and
ask him about the whole story. I’m sure they had a great laugh about it! Well,
I’m about through reminiscing for this week. I hope you got a chuckle out of
this story. It certainly has brought back a flood of memories for me.
I
hope everyone stays safe through the storm tomorrow (Friday) and I’m sure we’ll
have lots of interesting tales about Hurricane Isabel for next week. Until
then, take care and thanks once again for tuning in.
Bye for now!
GREG.
PS: Something To Think About<
Too often when you tell a secret,
it goes in one ear and in another!
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Both of Greg’s latest pictures are posted to his page on my site.
You can view his pirate ship kite as well as the sunset.
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/
Have a good one..
the
doug