The Squamidian Report – July 3 / 04

 

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Also in this issue:

The Ontarion

 

Hi All,

 

Hope you are all enjoying the long weekend.

 

As you may remember, our dishwasher bit the dust. It was probably fixable but we would have had to find a Maytag repair place somewhere in the city and then go from there. So Sue purchased a new one from our local Sears Outlet. Not a full-blown Sears store but an outlet, catalog store. Same place we got the replacement fridge and stove from over the past month or so after each of those bit the dust.

 

At least a dishwasher is small enough and light enough for us to easily lift it into the van through the side door. You may also remember that the rear door won’t open. Haven’t figured out how to fix that yet. Pulling out the old unit was not a problem. The water line had to be undone at a fitting before the washer would slide forward. The electrical line and drain line were both flexible and long enough to make disconnection easy. (Side note: make sure you throw the right breaker switch before yanking the mar connectors off the wires. Avoids that tingly feeling).

 

However, installing the new unit was a bit more difficult. There is simply no room under it to get my hands in there let alone any tools. So getting the water line hooked back up was an exercise in scraped arms and sore fingers. You just can’t reach to or see what you need to do. Eventually we got it hooked up and it works fine. Much quieter than the old one. The old one was so loud in its dieing days that we had begun to run it only when we were leaving the house for an hour or so. So now kitchen life is back to normal. Just let Yogi give the dishes a good thorough pre wipe and then pop them into the washer.

 

Looks like my commuting stint to Whistler is finally over. At least for a while. We have wrapped up that stage of that project and the fire precaution procedures would have shut us down anyway. Not sure when we get going on the project down here in Squamish but it should be soon. Did you know that people commuting to Whistler tend to drive about the same speed on that narrow winding hilly highways as people commuting to Toronto drive on the 401? In the mean time I’m having a nice 5-day holiday weekend. Sue had July 1st off and took the 2nd off so we could actually live like normal people for a while. I’m not all that good at living like a normal person but what the heck.

 

So on Wednesday I finally got around to putting up some shelves in the garage. Nothing fancy, just a sheet of plywood ripped the long way into 16 inch x 8 ft sections and mounted on those angle bracket things. Creates lots of storage and I have them high enough that I can store my miter saw under them. They are also high enough that the bike could sit along the wall under them as well.

 

We celebrated Canada Day by going out for a couple of rides on the bike and just relaxing and taking it easy. And of course a nice nap in the afternoon. That’s my personal favorite way to do it.

 

Ryan phoned to tell me about a Linux distribution he found that loads from a bootable CD and runs only in memory. You don’t install it onto the hard drive and it makes no changes to your system. Kind of cool to play with.

 

On Friday we took a run into the city. Our heat wave has let up a bit so the drive was pleasant and scenic. Sue picked up a birdbath at the Home Depot in Burnaby. I’ve been using one of Yogi’s water dishes for the birds to drink out of. They tend to leave it kind of dirty. We also stopped in at the Park Royal Mall in West Van. That’s where we do most of our ‘mall’ type shopping. Sue needed a replacement antenna for her cell phone. There is a fruit and vegetable store there that usually has lots of fresh local produce as well as imported stuff. They had these chocolate chip cookies that the package said were very good. So we bought a package. They are good but they cost $6 and there were only 9 cookies. That’s 66 cents a cookie. Too expensive to eat so I’ll probably just look at them.

 

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THE ONTARION REPORT

 

July 1, 2004

 

       Happy Birthday CANADA!

 

      It’s hard to believe it’s been 37 years since Canada turned a century old. Expo ’67, seems like only a decade ago, my how time flies. Where were you in 1967? I know where I was, walking the halls of KCI and wondering if I’d ever get out of grade 11. Well, I must have done something right because here I am still kickin’ and feelin’ like I’m still in grade 11! Although, there are days that I know I’m a tad older but for the most part the body ages but the mind can keep you young. It was back in ’67 that I bought my first new car as you may recall my telling you in an earlier Ontarion. Well, talk about your flashbacks, I had a dandy two days ago. I was driving down Weber St to Kitchener from Waterloo approaching the Kitchener city limits. As I passed a car lot called Eby Towne Motors, across from Forbes Motors I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to see an original Mini Cooper sitting on the boulevard at the dealer. I stopped in and took a look at this little machine. It was bright red with a white roof. As it turned out, it’s a 1976 Cooper that they are selling for one of their customers. I talked to the salesman who just happened to be a guy that I attended 22nd Kitchener Cub Pack with when we were both 8 years old or so. His name is Ric Schell and we had a bit of a gab about the old days. He remembered me having a couple of Mini’s back in the ‘60s. We took a good look at the Cooper he had for sale and he told me that the asking price was $16,900.00. WOW! That’s one hell of an increase since the days when they cost $1,800.00 brand new. Of course now that these are classics and the new BMW MINI’s are out the value has skyrocketed.

 

He told me to take it home for an hour or so and see what I thought of it. I told him that I may be interested in trading my MGB for the Mini if the price was right. I knew of course the minute he told me the asking price that I’d never pay such an absurd amount for the car no matter how good a shape it was in. At any rate, I took the opportunity to drive off into my past for an hour. The second I hit the street in the Cooper, I was back in 1967. I even drove down a couple of streets in my old neighbourhood just for the fun of it. Man what a rush! I took the Mini home and showed it to Carole. We even put it beside Adam’s new Cooper in our driveway and took a series of pictures of the two of them. They are both the same colour combination. It’s amazing how much bigger the new style Cooper is over the old one. By the way, this one was a ’76 but looked identical to the ’67 I had. If they were asking a more realistic price for this piece of history, I’d consider buying it. However, they are dreaming if they think it’s worth anywhere near their asking price. I’ll send a picture of the two cars to Doug along with this report in case any of you (Al) would like to see the old and new together. I had an hour of fun thinking back on my Mini days and then decided to return the car to Eby Towne. I politely told Ric that we had talked it over and decided not to spend the money at this time. Maybe at a later date if he ever gets another one in stock we’ll take another look and who knows! We take the MGB to Bronte Park in Oakville every September to the huge British car show that they have there. It’s always a hoot to see all the sports cars from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s at the show. My heart still belongs to the Mini when I’m looking at all the collectables in the show. When Adam saw the pictures, he immediately wanted the “old” style Mini as a toy. Then I told him the price and put an end to that thought! LOL! Oh well, it’s nice to dream

 

      We had a nice quiet Canada Day. First thing in the morning we enjoyed a cup of tea on the patio and took in the glow of the morning sun as it crept across the back gardens. We like to get up early and enjoy the quiet of the morning before all the traffic starts buzzing by. Of course July 1st morning is particularly quiet being nobody has to rush off to work. I then went up to the office as I usually do and checked my e-mail. Carole did some household chores and Adam was working so he could take Friday off instead, to make his weekend longer. Carole then started puttering around in her gardens. The phone rang and it was my cousin Randy who lives just down the street from us. He asked if we’d like to join him for breakfast with my brother Brent at a little restaurant on Lancaster St. Carole said she’d prefer to stay home but to go ahead without her. I picked Randy up and we went out for an hour and had a polish sausage, eggs and home fries “heart attack on a plate” style breakfast. Not a great thing to do when two out of the three of us sitting at the table have had heart problems. LOL! Oh well, they say everything in moderation. I arrived home mid morning and helped Carole move a couple of plants around the garden. When they get a little too large for their original spot, she likes to relocate them. The gardens are looking great and so is the pond. Now that all the plants are maturing they have filled in that empty look that exists when first planted. Carole says that people tend to want to fill in all the blanks in a garden when they are first planting one and sometimes don’t look into the future when the plants will all get bigger. One has to allow for growth in a garden I guess! Hmmmmm….what an interesting concept! Hahaha..! I’m sure you all know by now that I’m not into gardening so this is all news to me. Makes sense though doesn’t it? Adam arrived home around 1pm and we sat and talked for an hour or so.

 

The afternoon passed rather quickly and we talked about taking in a local fireworks display but that seemed to require too much effort just to do the same old same old. An evening of Pizza and TV appealed to all of us so that’s exactly what we did. We found a 3 for 1 Pizza shop on Highland Rd about 3 years ago and they have the greatest pizza I’ve ever tasted. Believe me, I’m a pizza connoisseur! I worked for Peppi’s and PeeWee’s Pizza shops in high school and have tried most of the brands in KW on a regular basis ever since. This “new” discovery is called “Avanti Pizza” and their pies are GREAT! I recommend that anyone within the KW area try this place next time you want Pizza for supper. The price is right as well. For 3 medium pies with 3 items on each, the total including taxes is $19.50 for pickup and $21.50 delivered. You’ll be amazed when you try their product I’m sure! Anyway, Adam and I picked up our supper and eventually settled in the family room to enjoy our evening movie. All in all, it was a totally enjoyable Canada Day and even Bailey had a share of the pizzas.

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    It looks like we’re in for some nice weather for the next day or so anyway. We have no definite plans for the weekend but will probably wind up heading out somewhere. I had mentioned attending the CASCAR race at Cayuga Raceway on Saturday but Carole thinks it’ll be too hot and crowded for her liking. She said that Adam and I should go and she’ll putter around and enjoy a day without anyone else home. I guess we could do that but I hate to go enjoy myself somewhere while she’s slaving over an empty house. LOL! I’m not sure yet what we’ll wind up doing but whatever it is, I know it won’t be anything too strenuous.

 

Maybe I’ll just talk her into accompanying me to the Casino and see if we can’t make a little bonus money to buy that Mini Cooper! NOW, THERE’S AN IDEA!!!!!!

Well, I should let you all get back to whatever it is you were doing and wish you a pleasant holiday weekend. Thanks for tuning in I’ll talk to you all again next week.

 

Bye for now…   GREG.

 

PS: Something to Think About>

You can’t do anything about the past but here’s the real sorrow…….you can mess up the present by frettin’ too much about tomorrow!

 

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Have a good one..

the doug

 

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