The Squamidian Report – Feb. 14 / 04
Also in this issue:
Carol & Al in Cuba
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Quite a lovely week, weather wise. Bright warm sunshine, deep blue skies highlighting snow-capped mountains. Just a tough of frost at night to keep things from greening up too fast. Hand in hand with clear sunny days are clear starry nights. Anyone up before dawn these days has no doubt seen Jupiter sinking into the west. Its four main moons are clearly visible through any small telescope. The moons line up, almost horizontal, from our perspective. Kind of neat, they look like little stars. Jupiter resolves into a round image, as it is so far out that it is always ‘away’ from the sun compared to us. It is an ‘outer’ planet. On the other hand, Venus in the western evening sky resolves into a half disk, like a moon phase. Venus is closer to the sun than we are so the rest of the lit circle is facing away from us. Venus is one of the ‘inner’ planets.
Also visible at night right now are two other ‘outer’ planets, Mars and Saturn. If you view all of them in the evening, they line up from east to west, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and then Venus. That makes four planets visible to the naked eye at one time. Actually, there is a fifth, just look down beneath your feet.
Saturn resolves into a beautiful white sphere with its rings on just enough of an angle to give them clarity, separated from the planet by a dark gap. A magnification of only 35x is all that’s needed to seen any of this detail clearly. Even more important is the ability to hold the scope steady, which is where a tripod comes in. Good binoculars can also bring in some nice views if you can hold them still enough. And most important is a nice dark sky of course, unencumbered by light pollution.
The last of the visible planets is Mercury but it is rather tricky to view. At it’s current orientation it appears just before sunrise and just slightly south of where the sun will come up. If you can see it, it would look like a tiny bright star but you need an unobstructed view of the horizon. I don’t have that here, there is a mountain in the way. Mercury is the inner most of the planets and is really only visible when there is already some daylight in the sky.
With our days hitting the low teens, our tulips are up several inches and our pansies are blooming. There is a shrub here very similar to a low juniper called mountain heather that is also coming into bloom. They have tiny purple flowers, which is why the sides of the highway coming through Furry Creek look purple in the spring. There is heather all along there.
I happened to look up one morning this week while on that job site in Furry Creek. There, soaring above us on the thermals were thirty or forty eagles. That many birds of that size all in one piece of air space are quite something to see. Kind of made me glad I’m not a rabbit or a rodent.
We seem to be back to some mild wet weather for the next few days but that’s OK. Our scenery can be very interesting when we have clouds to give the mountains definition.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but oh well. We have this funny thing that happens whenever Yogi stops part way up the stairs that lead from the entrance hall to the living level of the house. As he turns slightly to look at us as he waits, his tail is wagging. Nothing new there but as it wags it hits the bank of light switches on the wall, turning on of off various lights. Well, maybe you have to be there to see it, but it is kind of funny.
Sue wanted me to put some Valentine Day stuff in here, yeh right. Not exactly my style.
Oh yes, I’ve posted some pictures we took while walking along the bank of the Mamquam River (I mentioned one of those walks last week). They can be seen on my web sites, last link on the ‘Pictures’ page.
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One of my neighbours asked me about our holidays today. He was born in Jamaica but his parents brought the family here in search of a better life when he was still a boy. He was saying that he would never have been able to become a lawyer if they had stayed down south but on blustery days like today he envies the cabana boys. Now that we are back in the snow and cold once more our time away seems more like a dream then a reality and we are envious of the laid back workers still enjoying the sun and sea on Cayo Coco. We have read about the hardships and squalor that the Cubans endure under Castro’s regime. On the plane flying home I even read about a group who tried to sail to Florida in a Buick but were intercepted by the cost guard who sunk their car and sent them back to Cuba. We did not see anything of the real Cuba as people do not actually live on the cayos. There are miles of sandy beaches but earth had to be brought in to build up the areas where the roads and resorts are as the cayos are like the Florida Keys – everglades and swampy – not meant for agriculture. A good tidal wave would wash right over the islands. The workers either have to take the bus from the mainland (either a ¾ hour or 1-1/2 hour drive depending on which town they live in) or if they were recruited from further a field they live in off beach dormitories. So we only met the lucky ones with good jobs and very few of them put much exertion into their work (those that did work hard and deserved the tips they made were almost all women). I guess you could say that we spent time in paradise but haven’t really been to Cuba.
I almost hesitate to describe our holiday to you. With the exception of Karen who is enjoying her summer now, Rosie & David who were also away and Sus & Peter who are planning a winter trip soon winter may have gotten to the rest of you and turned the mood ugly against those of us who managed to escape for a brief, glorious time. The weather was ideal – warm enough to suit me but not muggy or too hot for Al. We do not have a digital camera and actually took very few pictures anyway as we were too busy relaxing. Jackie & Jim met us at our hotel the night before we flew out and brought us the Squimidian to read as we left home before Doug sent it out. It had me worried as Doug went on about the horrors of flying with Air Canada and that was who we were going with. Doug I don’t understand the problem. The seats were more spacious then Air transit or Skyservice, the food was actually not bad, they hand out a courtesy news paper and they do not make you pay for the headsets to watch the movie! The plane wasn’t full which also helps. The joy of leaving a dark cold place and landing in tropical sunshine is worth the price of our tickets alone. The resort is a tropical paradise. There are 2 pools at the resort we were at – one very large one broken into sections for different types of swimming. This was where all the action took place. We hung out at the smaller, quieter pool where there was always room in the hot tub and never a line up at the bar (I may not drink but the slushys were great and I overdid the ice cream). There are 28 kilometres of sandy beach on Cayo Coco. I walked the beach (actually I walked in the water as that was more fun) every morning and evening. The water felt like warm silk and was crystal clear. I love ocean kayaks, especially when the waves are up, and went out as often as possible. Al wouldn’t kayak with me (bad experience in Mexico) but on a calm day we did paddle boat together. We were taken out to the coral reefs by Hobby Cat (a small catamaran). We could have snorkelled (all this is included with the hotel) but ended up rescuing a lady snorkelling off a different Hobby Cat who panicked when she got away from the rest of her party. This means the only actual fish we saw were a few small jelly fish that washed up on the beach. I even had Al bicycling one day. It must be 40 years since he last went bike riding and I’m afraid his wobbly form left a little to be desired but he was a good sport about it.
There are 13 low rise buildings housing the tourists at our resort. We were at the far end, away from the noise and no paths were behind us and the rooms are offset and private. We could have safely emulated cousin Sharon on our patio if we had an inclination for nude sunbathing (since I burn I do not do any kind of sunbathing). The only reason we needed to close the screen door was to keep the chickens and peacocks out. We ate way too much. Al’s big disappointment was the milk left a bad after taste. The first day when he asked for milk they brought him a steaming hot cup of it – seems that is the way they drink it there. He tried drinking the milk that was put out for cereal but the aftertaste made drinking it impossible. Milk is his second favourite beverage and he really missed it, in fact on the plane back instead of ordering a beer he got his milk. There were 4 a la carte restaurants, the pool grill, the 24 hour snack bar, the buffet, the beach pizza hut (Al’s favourite) and the main buffet for every meal. The fun things about buffets in a place like that is one can try all kinds of weird and wonderful food and if you don’t like it just go back for something else. I have no idea what kinds of seafood we ate but dad would have loved the variety. We are back in the real world now & trying to figure out when we can travel again. Oh well there is still much to look forward to here – Sue’s visit next weekend for one.
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THE ONTARION REPORT
February
12, 2004
Hey there fellow Squamidians!
One week closer to the warmer weather but still darned cold out there! I’m really looking forward to Spring this year. It seems to be such a long winter this year but I guess it’s just that I’ve kind of been hibernating and that makes it feel longer. Doug was talking last week about the spring like buds etc that are peaking out of the ground in BC. I’m afraid we here in Ontario won’t see that happening for 6 to 8 weeks yet. Oh well, it’ll come soon enough I guess.
We have a satellite dish and our card has been zapped. A good friend of mine reprograms our card but he is in Florida for another week. We’ve been watching a lot of videos that Adam has collected over the years and will soon be running out of those. Last Father’s Day I received a collection of “The Sopranos” on video and for this past Christmas, I received the second season of “The Sopranos” needless to say, we’ve watched the whole collection. Last night we decided to go out and pick up the 3rd season of “The Sopranos” and start watching it. Man, once you get hooked on this series it’s hard to let it go. Mind you some of the language in this show is not very appealing but it’s an interesting take on “Mob” life in New Jersey. It’s strange how we have found ourselves rooting for the Soprano family rather than the FBI in this show. I guess when you know it’s fantasy you can cheer for the bad guys and not feel guilty abut it.
It makes us wonder how much of this stuff really goes on. I also wonder if this show is based on true to life activities of gangsters. I wouldn’t doubt it’s a fairly accurate account of life in the “Families” of that area. We’ve been reading about gang activities right here in KW for about the past year. It seems there are “youth” gangs operating in several cities in Ontario. They say as these young offenders mature they become much more hardened as criminals and get into much more serious crime activity. I was actually surprised to hear that it’s as big a problem as it is in Kitchener. In fact, the Waterloo Regional Police have a team dedicated strictly to the surveillance and prosecution of these gang members and their crimes. What the hell next I say! We’ve even had murders attributed to the young members of these organizations. It’s a shame young people involved in such activities can’t apply their intelligence to something constructive instead. Apparently the Police have had some real success in arresting and prosecuting the leaders of these gangs and have caused the rest of the junior members some confusion and hesitation in continuing their criminal activities. An article I read about them the other night stated that the police hope to frustrate these young people enough that they will change their ways and revert back to normal lives before it’s too late for them. I say once a criminal, always a criminal. Cross that line and you are virtually hooked on it for life. I’m sure there are people that have successfully reformed from a life of crime but they are certainly the exception in my opinion.
From what I’ve seen and read, people that get involved in crime are so used to looking for the angle in everything they do they can’t help themselves. Everything from how do I cheat on my taxes to how can I get a phone hooked up in my apartment without paying for it. This is petty stuff but this kind of thinking sometimes leads to larger more serious crimes. Luckily most of us are honest at heart and never think of committing a crime. I read a write up on fraud in the insurance industry last week and it’s amazing how much this crime costs the insurance companies each year. In Canada alone, there is over a Billion Dollars in insurance fraud every year. Of course the companies have to recoup their losses and wind up tacking this loss on to the cost of our policies. I know our deductible is now $1000.00 if we should have a claim on our homeowners insurance. Even a comprehensive claim on automotive insurance is now from $500.00 to $1000.00 deductible. I’ve noticed a lot of vehicles on the roads with cracked windshields lately and I’m sure this is because the owners don’t want to pay the huge deductible rates to have them replaced. It’s incredible how far reaching a simple crime can be. One criminal act can affect not only the immediately wronged person but also their family members, the police involved and the insurance companies. Not to mention the insurance investigators, their co-workers and even their family members when these people take their problems home from work with them. It’s a chain reaction that can stretch a long way through society.
Take for instance a person that lights an arson fire. Whether it be for vandalism, profit or revenge a fire affects so many people. Not only emotionally or physically but financially as well. A fire occurrence sets in motion an abundance of actions that affect so many people. First to suffer is the immediate victim. If it’s a residence, the inhabitant’s home, belongings and usually their past history, family photos and memorabilia are wiped out by the fire. The fire fighters that are responding to the fire are affected both physically and mentally. If it’s a particularly serious fire, it’s not only dangerous but also emotionally stressful to the fire fighters. The police and the paramedics are also involved in such cases. Each member of these agencies takes a risk when working at these scenes and consequently is affected enough that they take the memories and emotions they experience home with them. This tends to involve their family members as well. The insurance companies that deal with such acts have employees and their families that are affected. Not to mention the court system and each member of the legal community that must deal with the consequences of a criminal act of arson. In the end, the cost is not only emotional but financial to everyone involved as well. Insurance rates are increased each year as a result of how much the companies have had to pay out to settle claims from such acts of thoughtlessness. So you see how many lives are affected by one criminal act? Amazing isn’t it! In conclusion, let me say this, if you’re ever thinking committing a crime, think of the outreaching affect it will have on so many people and reconsider. I know that the majority of us have a conscience and would never consider committing such a thing as a criminal act. It’s just too bad that there are others who think nothing of it and this costs us all a great deal.
Well, enough soap box activity for this week! I’m looking forward to attending another show by the local band “Gravity”. They are playing at a club downtown tonight called The Still. Clyde was going to attend this show with Adam and I and a couple of other friends tonight but he called and told me that he injured his back yesterday and won’t be able to go along. He apparently helped a neighbour push his car out of a snow bank and injured a disk in his back. I sure hope he’s feeling better soon. There is nothing worse than a bad back. Of course, he should know better than to be pushing cars at his age! LOL! Maybe next time he’ll volunteer to be the driver and not the pusher! Get Well Soon Clyde!
Better go for now. Thanks for tuning in again this week and I’ll talk to you again next Saturday.
Bye
for now……GREG.
PS: Something to Think About>
Youth is a blunder.
Manhood is a struggle.
Old age a regret.
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