The Squamidian Report – Mar. 20 / 04

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The Ontarion

Hi All,

I’ve finally clewed into the fact that Yogi sees me tucking in my shirt as an indication that we are taking him somewhere neat. Whenever I do it, he starts making excited dog noises and heads for the garage door. He is not too happy when it turns out to be a false alarm. We can’t always be taking him out for a treat. Just needed to get that cleared up.

Turns out there was some damage to Sue’s car after all. Seems the thieves had jimmied the driver’s side front door lock so they could open the door and then open the trunk by using the dashboard button. The keyhole lock on the door no longer works, you can’t even push the key into it. The electronic locking system functions fine so she can lock and unlock the door but it just adds to her frustration. We were able to get it replaced at our local dealer but that’s $180 that we now have to get the bank to re-embers us for. The car was damaged while on bank duty, after all.

Sue and I picked up Ryan and Emily at the airport on Monday. We stopped at the audit office in down town Van on the way in so she could get her replacement laptop configured and up to speed. The streets in Vancouver are lined with trees covered with pink blossoms. The flowerbeds are full of flowering flowers. We had wanted to take a look at the big Long & Mcquade on Granville so we dropped in there on our way back. There sure is a lot of music stuff in that store.

In his own way, Yogi was glad to see them. He needed to take a couple of looks and sniffs to be sure, then he was happy.

Unfortunately, it’s been a bit on the wet side this week. That meant trips into the city to go shopping instead of back country adventures, that kind of thing. Mind you, when the girls are in those stores that sell all that fancy stuff that no one actually buys, Ryan and I could check out the computer stores, Future Shops, music stores, that kind of thing. There was a pretty cool Harley display in the Park Royal Mall in West Van. They tend to frown upon us drooling all over the machines.

Lonsdale Quay is one of those trendy shopping areas. It’s on the waterfront in North Van, where the sea taxi docks for it’s trips back and forth across Burrard Inlet to the waterfront of down town Van. It is one of those places that sell all the art and craft things, exotic foods, and tourist stuff. It’s also one of those places where you have to pay a buck and a half to park for three quarters of an hour. The girls would still be in the shops there if it were up to them.

Ryan, Emily and I had planned to do the Chief on Friday as we were supposed to be back to nicer weather by then. Friday dawned dark and rainy with big wet snowflakes mixed in. They were the size of used Kleenexes. Luckily they didn’t stick as it’s way too warm for that. We scrubbed the Chief idea as that is not a place to be during unsettled weather conditions. Every year several hikers end up missing when they try that climb and get caught off guard by changing conditions and try to find a shorter way back down or slip into a hole somewhere.

One of the interesting things about this kind of weather is how much its effects are affected by altitude. A warm rain down in the valley can be a cold rain up here. That same rain turns to snow up by Allis Lake and by the time you get to Warren’s it is snow. Our inconvenient rain here will be a snowstorm up in Whistler. So we can be here on the mild coast and see vehicles coming down from Whistler plastered with snow.

Another interesting thing is that we can look out and see the actual snow line on the surrounding mountainsides. The trees below the line will be green, the ones above will be white. On Friday morning the snowline was just a couple of hundred feet above us. For anyone familiar with our place here, there is a high ridge to the east of us with an exposed rock cliff face that faces us. The top of the cliff is in snow, below is clear. So that puts the snow line about half way down the Chief. There will be other opportunities, we can wait.

Ironically, it has been much nicer in the city most of the week than here. When the on-shore weather patterns set up in just the right direction, the cloud fronts are funneled up Howe Sound. The air is compressed and forced to rise as is passes up the valleys. We were having rain at times when it was sunny in Van. It can work the other way too where we can have sunny days while they have fog and drizzle so it all works out in the end.

We did manage to take a stroll into the waterfalls on the Mashiter Creek just off the end of Thunderbird Dr. That is one rugged ravine in there, you wouldn’t want to slip or fall. This is the same ravine and creek that runs behind the properties across the street from us. There are places where the sides are shear cliffs with over hanging vegetation. Other areas have steep sides that are over grown with mossy trees. You can be a five-minute walk in from the road and feel like you are a thousand miles from civilization and a thousand years into the past. And the term ‘creak’ can be a bit miss leading.

We also did a couple of easy walks along the river where Yogi likes to go into the icy water for a dip. The fish have long since finished spawning so the water is very clear and clean. There is a spot just before the Mamquam empties into the Squamish that the river is eating away at a sandy tree covered bank. Each time we are there, more trees are laying into the river. This point was hundreds of feet away from the river until last Fall’s flooding.

We drive the kids back to the airport later this afternoon for their redeye flight back to Ontarrible. I would imagine we will go into the city well ahead of the flight time and muck around some more. There are no plans for them to be coming back out in the summer as they will be gearing up for a more permanent visit later in the fall. We all had a nice visit, didn’t do a whole lot but we all relaxed and enjoyed it. They managed to get up to Whistler for an afternoon. Emily dropped her camera in our front hall and broke the lens. I think it can be replaced as it is one of those screw-on types. Yogi well be sad when he realizes they have left again.

Public service announcement…Some of you will be fully up to speed on the latest variants of the worm and virus scourge we have to deal with. For those that aren’t, these latest ones can be embedded in the body of an infected Email, not in an attachment. That means just opening or viewing that Email will trigger an infection. That also means do not open any Email that you either are not expecting or that is even remotely suspicious. These Emails can look like they are from your ISP or from some tech support system or whatever. Just delete anything that isn’t ‘normal’. If it turned out to be something valid, the sender can re-send it anyway. If any of you are using Outlook Express or Outlook and have the Preview Pane feature turned on, turn it off. If you don’t know how, let me know and I’ll walk you through it. Just takes a few clicks, that’s all.

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THE ONTARION REPORT

March 18, 2004

So St Paddy’s Day has come and gone for another year. I know that the Brubacher’s are from a serious Irish background so I won’t presume to tell ye any stories ‘bout the “Little People”. I’ll just figure you’ve heard them all and celebrate SP Day the way you did back on The Emerald Isle. Being Carole is from Belfast N I we celebrate the day with the same traditions she learned there as a child. Wear something green, eat something Irish for supper and of course remember to greet everyone with “Top O The Mornin’ T’ Ya” at least until noon on the 17^th. Although we like to think of green on St Paddy’s Day, we had nothing but white everywhere we looked. I guess the little “Snow” Leprecaughns were up to their tricks this year. Oh well, maybe next year we’ll think to spray the front yard snow with green dye to make it seem more like Ireland. One bonus of the white snow, if there’s a pot ‘o gold anywhere out there, it’ll be easier to spot!

I don’t know if any of you ever attended KCI or Forest Heights CI but surely you must have heard of the infamous Ross Dunford! He was the vice principal of KCI and then the Principal of FHCI for many years. He is now 86 years old and is the father of a friend of ours. His wife died 2 days ago at the same age. Carole and I went to the funeral for Ellenor Dunford this afternoon in Waterloo. She lived a good full life so although it’s hard to let go of anyone’s parent Ellenor’s daughter Marg Zupko and son Dave Dunford both realize she had achieved a ripe old age. We talked to Ross for a few minutes and he told us that they had been married for 63 years and she was his one and only date. Now that’s an amazing history.

Ross seemed pretty frail and although he has a form cancer he was in good spirits. It was amazing to see all the old teachers that attended. I saw several that I had as teachers when I was at KCI. Most of them are in their 70’s or older now. When many of them used to say to us “Honestly, you kids will be the death of me” they forgot to add that it wouldn’t happen until 50 years later! LOL! I don’t think we were as hard on them as they let on back then! Anyway, it’s nice to see that there are people living to a respectable old age and still having their wits about them. I can only hope to make it another 30 years as many of these teachers showed us is possible to do.

On to something a little more upbeat. Did I say upbeat? I should have said beat up! As in, my Jeep got beat up by a big Dodge van in the parking lot of Zehr’s on Ottawa and Strasburg today. Carole was sitting in the Liberty waiting for me to come out of Zehr’s with the bag of milk we stopped for when some jerk in this huge van noses into the side of the right rear wheel well. I was just arriving at the Jeep when it happened. I waited for the guy to get out of the van and he said “Did I brush against your vehicle”? Now, he had to back up and take a second try at entering the parking spot so he knew bloody well he “brushed” my vehicle. I said you sure did and proceeded to point out the 3”x1” scratch on the edge of the fender. He immediately spit on his finger and tried to rub the mark off the paint. He tried again with more spit on his coat sleeve but to no avail. I said don’t bother trying any more. I’ll have to find out what I can do to fix it right.

He asked me what I wanted to do with it and I said, “Here’s an idea, why don’t I check in to getting it repaired and YOU pay for it?! He said “Ok, well, I guess that would be alright”! I asked him to write down his name and phone number, which he did readily and handed it to me. I then asked him for some ID. Just in case he was writing a phony name and number on the paper. He showed me his driver’s license and lucky for him ……it was him! LOL! When we got home, I called my brother who happens to be a licensed automotive painter and asked him what I could do about the scratch. He told me not to touch it but to bring it over to his place while it was still light outside. I immediately drove across town to his place. Upon my arrival, he was waiting for me at the front door. I showed him the mark and he pulled out a tube of some kind of crème. In his other hand he had a soft white cloth. He applied the toothpaste looking goo to the mark and started to rub gently. Within no more than 30 seconds the mark was completely gone! It was amazing to see the results. I had visions of having to get the fender painted and run my buns off trying to collect form this van driver. I thanked my brother and headed for home. As soon as I got in the door I called the guy to tell him the news. I decided to play with him a bit so when he answered I told him he owed me $280.00. He paused for about 2 seconds and said “Really”? I said NO, I’m just pulling your leg and told him the truth. I just wanted him to realize how lucky he was that I had a connection with the knowledge and skill to fix the problem. I told him that my brother had done me (and him) a big favor and polished out the scratch. I thought he’d have reacted in a much more apologetic manner but all he said was “OK, thanks for calling” and hung up the phone.

I don’t know, maybe I was expecting too much but wouldn’t you think he’d have been a tad more gracious about the outcome? Oh well, there’s no accounting for peoples attitudes is there!

I’m off to Toronto at 6am Friday to take my brother-in-law to be fitted for his prosthetic eye. Apparently there is an artist at Princess Margaret Hospital that paints a perfect match on the plastic eye to your remaining natural eye. It sounds amazing and I’m interested in checking out the process with Norm. Should be an interesting day. We’ve been told that it will take the full day to complete the process so I guess we’ll be doing a lot of sitting around. Oh well, it’s the final step in the process he’s been through and he’s looking forward to having it completed as well. He’s doing quite well coping with only one eye. He’s even been riding his bicycle around town on the days that were mild enough to be out. He said it’s a bit unnerving riding with a true blind side but he seems to be getting used to it now. I should get off to bed so I can stay awake on the 401 in the morning. I’ll talk to you all again next week. Have a good weekend and thanks for tuning in!

Bye for now……GREG.

PS: Something to Think About>

Crises and deadlocks have at least this advantage. They force us to THINK!

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the doug

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