The Squamidian Report – Nov. 20 / 04
Also in this issue:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
We finally got around to trying out the new and only movie theatre here in town. Squamish has now got a nice 5-plex theatre with stadium style seating. It has been open for a month now and while Ryan and Em have been to it several times Sue and I have just now managed to stay awake long enough to go and enjoy a movie. Typical of most things ‘west coast’ the customer service at the snack bar leaves quite a bit to be desired. The counter help is so slow that the customers in line forget why they are there and just sort of wonder off. The theatre is in the Canadian Tire plaza area so it is just a few minutes drive down the hill from here. No more long trips up the highway to Whistler or Vancouver just to see a movie.
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Sure is amazing what half a foot of rain during the night can do to the local streams and rivers. Every rock face along the highway sports it’s own waterfalls. Every creek and stream becomes a raging river. Every river becomes a raging big river. Shannon Falls widens out to accommodate the extra flow. Shannon is about 5 times higher than Niagara so under high runoff conditions it’s quite a spectacle. Across the Sound all the streams running down out of the mountains that are normally too small to see or hidden in the trees now stand out as stunning white-water cascades.
That same abundance of runoff turns our construction site at Britannia into a muddy quagmire. Huge piles of bedding sand turn to a thick useless liquid. Large areas of fill quietly move down hill as they obey the laws of gravity. Productivity tends to suffer a bit.
And all that rain falls as snow up in the higher altitudes. Blackcomb Mt ski season is opening today, at least on the upper half of the mountain. Whistler Mt will be a week or so behind as it is not quite as north facing. They will simply ‘upload’ skiers to the higher slopes and then ‘download’ them when they are done. There is no real amount of snow yet in Whistler Village but that could change at any minute.
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So while they are opening ski season out here today, we are picking up another dirt bike with hopes of getting a fair amount of use out of it during the winter. The same person I bought my 86 Honda from also has an 86 Yamaha that we had discussed purchasing at the time. He was asking two grand for it and we agreed that if he hadn’t sold it by the time Ryan got here that he’d sell it to me for half that if he were still willing. Takes it off his hands and makes a bike available to Ryan. While it’s great to be able to borrow one of Warren’s, it is not really fair to him. His own son could be making use of his second bike. Anyway, with the way west coast winters are, if the sun comes out there is no reason we can’t go biking. Just as long as we stay to the lower elevations and avoid mornings and evenings when the temperatures drops we should be fine. Mid days can be great.
I’ve been promising Ryan for 15 years that when we live out here we will have a pair of trail bikes to explore the back roads and back country with. These are pretty old machines but they will do just fine until such time as we can afford new ones. Besides, until our skill levels are good and high it’s best we are riding clunkers. Don’t have to worry about the paint if we drop them.
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THE ONTARION REPORT
NOVEMBER
20, 2004
Hello once again!
It’s been a long week for us with the trip to NB to attend our friend Don’s funeral. It was one of the saddest occasions we’ve ever experienced but we are both so very glad that we made the trip. It was a drive of 1756 kms one way. We stopped over night one night in each direction. The weather was sunny and clear for most of the week. Saint John NB had 4” of snow on Saturday but by Sunday it was starting to melt. Monday morning as we left for home it was +3c and clear. Saint John is a strange city weather wise. Because they are surrounded by hills and exposed to the Bay of Fundy they get totally different weather than the rest of New Brunswick. The bay of Fundy as most of you know has one of the largest tide changes in the world. Saint John harbour rises as much as 29 feet with the incoming tide. It’s amazing to see the difference. The water in the Bay of Fundy and consequently Saint John harbour only differs by about 5 degrees in temperature from summer to winter. Therefore, the weather is cool in the summer and mild in the winter when compared to other areas of NB. You can drive 120kms north to Fredericton and you’re in a different climate. One of the most amazing sights in Saint John is the famous Reversing Falls. It’s actually the point at which the Saint John river enters the Saint John harbour. There is a large bridge over the mouth of the river that has a restaurant at one end. We sat and had breakfast there on Saturday morning. We had a perfect view of the bridge and river below. At around 9am this time of year, the tide begins to rise in the bay and harbour. Because the tide increases the level of water in the harbour so much, it actually rises much higher than the normal level of the Saint John river at it’s entry point into the harbour. This causes the harbour water to flow back into the SJ river and actually makes the water at that point flow up stream in the river. It’s an amazing thing to see. They call it the Reversing “Falls” but it’s actually more of a reversing “River”. The popular boating harbour is about a kilometer up stream from the “Falls” and the only time the boat owners can move from the river to the salt water SJ harbour is when the tide is in. If they get caught out at low tide, they have to wait till the next day to re enter their marina. I wanted to take some pictures of this natural wonder but forgot my camera the day we visited the Falls. Saint John is a very popular stop over for large cruise ships. They are docked in SJ several days each week. When we were there 5 years ago the largest cruise ship that Carnival Cruise Lines had just launched was docked in the harbour. We were amazed at the size of it and to think that the Queen Mary II is more than twice the size of that ship boggles the mind. I recently read that the QM II burns over a gallon of diesel fuel for every 6” it moves in the water. How would you like to have that kind of fuel economy in your car? Not me! One of the things that struck me while driving through NB this time was the incredible amount of rock in that province. My friend Paul that we stayed with while there, said that most of the province of NB has less than 5’ of soil covering it’s rock base. The blasting that has gone on to accommodate building the new 4 lane highway from north to south in NB must equal an atomic bomb if all ignited at the same time. Everywhere you look is rock. I’ve been thinking about the unusual colours and types of rock we saw and have thoughts of trucking huge loads of this rock to Ontario for sale as unique landscape material. I have no doubt one could make a killing doing this if they had the resources to cut and transport this product. Absolutely beautiful colours and designs in these huge boulders. I know that Ontario also has it’s share of rock but there’s something different about the NB rock. You’d have to see it to understand I guess.
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On the trip home, we decided to stop for a few hours in Kingston and view the display of photographs that were the entries in a photo contest at Queen’s University. I had entered the contest back in April and won second prize for my effort. We thought that since the university had e-mailed me to tell me about the display being on for the months of Oct Nov and Dec that it would be something special to see. Well, are we ever glad that we didn’t make a special trip to Kingston just for this show. I had visions of all the entries being blown up to poster size and arranged in a formal and somewhat spectacular display. Boy was I wrong! They had a pine 1”x8”x8’ board suspended from the inside wall of the new engineering building with 4 sets of 2 small chains about 6’ long hanging from the board. They then attached 4 photographs in order of their placement in the contest from top to bottom on each set of chains. The photos were only viewable from a second floor balcony approximately 10 feet away from the photos. The photos were the original 8”x10” pictures mounted in clear plastic holders. Each contestant had to submit a photo that size as their entrant to the contest. The way the e-mail had read, I expected much more from Queen’s than this puny little effort. Hell, we practically needed binoculars to see what was in each photo. What a disappointment that effort was! Oh well, it’s not like we were viewing the Mona Lisa or anything but it would have been nice to be a tad closer than 10 feet! LOL! What a joke that was! To top it all off, my prize money was only $100.00 and they told me I’ll have to pay income tax on the win! Is nothing sacred these days? If we had made a special trip to Kingston to view this display, we would have spent much more than I made for the win! LOL! Hahahhaaa….! Sheesh! Oh well, at least it gave me something to talk about in the Ontarion.
It appears as though our weather is clearing up as the morning progresses so I think I’ll stop here and go out for a while.
Thanks for tuning in again this week and I look forward to talking to you all again soon.
Regards to all…..GREG.
PS: Something to Think About>
“He who listens but doesn’t think, is lost. He who thinks but doesn’t listen, is a fool.”
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Have a good one..
the
doug