The Squamidian Report – Sept. 18 / 04
For the ‘ON LINE’ version of this newsletter, go to:
http://www.members.shaw.ca/doug_b2/2004/sept18.htm
Also in this issue:
I Hate Pigs
Ryan Talks Linux
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Pacific ocean rainstorms can be quite interesting. We don’t have those tropical hurricane remnants passing our way but we do get some pretty good dumps that wander in from the open sea. After that hot dry spring and early summer our weather has turned comfortably cool with lots of rainforest moisture. A lot of our rain occurs at night, which is rather thoughtful and convenient. By morning our rivers and streams will be swollen and fast. Attractions like Shannon Falls will go from a mild mannered eleven hundred foot cascading waterfall to a raging thundering spectacle.
Mammoth Creek on the other side of the valley will become a wild white water attention grabber as it fills its ravine down the mountainside. On the eastern slopes of Mt Lapworth and just north of Mammoth Creek before you get to Fries Creek is a seasonal stream that drains that whole slope area. It sits dry most of the summer. Once there is sufficient surface runoff it comes alive, tumbling over a high bare rock bluff and forming an amazing waterfall that wasn’t there the day before and may be gone the next day. You really have to see it to believe it.
*
Had kind of a funny reversal of events. It is very common for people to see old Yogi down at the river and think he is a bear. These are usually other people taking their dogs to the river and they end up getting to know us we get to know their dogs. One guy, probably a few years older than me has a young energetic dog that he takes there twice a day, he lives within walking distance. One evening as he was crossing the railway bridge he and his dog saw what they thought was Yogi crossing the tracks and heading for the water. His dog wanted to run on ahead so he let it. Turned out it was a bear this time. The bear did what most bears do when a dogs is approaching and ran off.
*
New fresh snow on Whistler. Yup, they have had the season’s first dump up there. Our late summer weather has turned down right cool and wet so the inland mountains are turning a bit white. Needles to say, the skiing community and Whistler itself are quite happy about the whole thing. Won’t help the tourist end of things right now though as snow on top means cold rain in the village, at least until we get a bit closer to actual winter.
And that same snow has put a nice clean white coating on the higher ridges and peaks here on the coast. Garibaldi is covered right down to the lower sections of Brohm Ridge. Alpha and the Tantalus Range are sporting fresh white upper reaches. That big ice field up in behind Woodfiber is looking bright and white. I would expect most of it to melt again but it looks pretty cool right now.
*
The construction project that I have been on for the last month and a half or so down here in Squamish is just about finished. That’s too bad because it was kind of nice to be working just 5 minutes from home. Of course everything in Squamish is only 5 minutes from home. There is about a week of work left but it will be done a day here and there. We have been moved to the big project at Britannia Beach. There is a large subdivision going in up the mountainside as well as water treatment facilities, roads etc. Britannia is about a 10-minute drive from Horton’s so it won’t be too bad. Biggest problem will be an ugly left turn off the highway to get into the village.
Britannia is where the first group of 94 lots sold in less than 4 days this summer before they were even advertised. The current small subdivision up in there is mostly mobile homes and trailers. These are on leased lots and the land is now way too valuable for that kind of use. All the current tenants have been offered first choice to purchase the land they are on at a small discount from assessed value but most of the people in there will probably not be able to afford that. Long range plans call for somewhere between a thousand and fifteen hundred lot to be developed. Don’t know where all the buyers will come from, probably the Vancouver area. A lot of people seem to want to live outside the city, just like us. Can’t blame them I guess.
The lots up in there won’t be as steep as the ones in Lion’s Bay but the views will be better. Britannia is destined to become a pretty ritzy place. Right now it’s more like a hippy settlement.
*
Hey, this is good news for Sue and I.
Some back home may not be so happy about it. Ryan and Emily’s plans to move out
here to the west coast are finalizing. They expect to leave Kitchener somewhere
between the 17th and 20th of October.
****
Back to the old days – and I still hate pigs. I think I must have been born hating them. We had one cross old sow for years because she had large litters of healthy piglets. She often had one more then she had spigots for so she would push the runt away and not let it feed. We would put it in a large box with straw and paper. Carmen and I would have to look after it. Of course the box was brought into the house and we’d feed it with a bottle with a nipple. That part we liked. We also had to take the piglet, box and all, outside on to the lawn to clean the box and play with the little pig so it would get lots of exercise, also learn to eat grass, etc. Trouble was when they grew big enough to go back to the barn when they saw Carmen or I out in the yard they’d still want to play with us and they grew faster than we did and could get pretty rough.
Living on a farm we each had chores to do. One of my jobs was to look after the hens. I didn’t mind feeding and watering them morning and evening but I hated gathering eggs because if there was a hen on the nest you had to push your hand under her to get any eggs she’d be sitting on. Hens have sharp beaks and they sure peck.
he summer I was seven I was on my way to the hen house but the old sow was in a puddle near the path. I have mentioned our dog before and as usual he was right behind me. The sow decided she didn’t like me coming that close and she came charging at me with her mouth wide open and those big tusks showing. I was too scared to do anything but stand and scream but Shep came bounding between us and was protecting me by attaching the pig. My dad was in the barn and heard the commotion and came running with a pitchfork and drove the pig back. But by then she had grabbed Shep’s leg and broken it.
n those days if
an animal got its leg broken they just shot it. There was a neighbour there when this happened and I heard him
say to my dad that the dog would have to be shot and would dad like him to do
it. Dad said no (thank goodness), that
Shep had earned a life for as long as he lived. He took Shep in the house and set his leg with splints and
wrapped it up well. We had to keep him
quiet for awhile but before long he was running around on three legs and once
the splints came off he was as good as new.
He still went with me wherever I went , to bring in cows or to the road
for the mail etc. and was always very protective and he lived for another 9
years. But I still HATE PIGS!
*
Post script from Carol (the typist)
When we were young my grandparents had a pig called Susie who wasn’t at all like the old sow of Mom’s time. We used to go for rides on her back. This pig was smart. When we wore street clothes she would head for the pond and dump the rider in but if we thought to outsmart her and wear our bathing suits well then it would be straight to the manure pile for the dumping. I do recall when I was young my grandparents talking about an old neighbour who was killed by his pig (I think it was a boar) and after that I was very leery of the pigs.
After writing the above mom got talking about how men used to visit the farms when she was young with their boars or stallions or bulls at the appropriate times. By the time I was hanging around my grandparent’s farm all this was done by artificial insemination. Now when brother Gary was going to become a father (his kids are test tube babies) he tells us that, much to his disgust, he was handed a cup and told to go into a room and come out with it filled. So Mom and I are wondering – how on earth is the necessary obtained for the artificial insemination? We just can’t see handing a boar a cup.
****
Imagine being able to obtain your entire operating system, office software and day-to-day applications completely free of charge; all legally! Impossible, right? Wrong.
Lately I have been experimenting with Linux-based operating systems and software. Linux looks and feels similar to Mac OSX or Window XP but is very different under the hood. The graphical KDE desktop makes Windows XP look like Windows 3.1 in comparison. Even on my simple 15” monitor everything looks very rich and elegant. The installation of most Linux systems is quite simple. In many ways it is less of a hassle to install Linux then Windows. (And it takes about ¼ of the time)
The majority of software you'll ever use or need comes with the installation disks. I allowed Linux to install a “standard desktop” installation which included a very powerful office suite (which I now prefer to MS Office), Internet browser and Personal Management Software (ie Email, Calender, tasks, etc... “Outlook”). It even comes with very advanced graphic editing software, network administration tools etc. It you are a “typical” user there is nothing you need to buy... ever.
Now the cool stuff. Linux is self-maintaining. You are not required to run defragmentation utilities or disk scanning utilities. It is all a self-automated process. Virus problems are basically non-existent because NOTHING can harm your OS and programs when you are a regular user. In fact, you have to enter a password to make system changes. This is done entirely for your own protection. This also means that “clumsy” users can not do any damage to their computers. This also protects the computer from children or relatives. The only thing that can be deleted is personal documents. If you keep regular back ups you have nothing to worry about.
*As a geek note: Even if you were to get a virus, Linux treats all executable files as text files. Nothing can self-execute in Linux. For you to get the virus to “work” you'd have to log in as the root user and install the virus in a command prompt. Even then it probably couldn't do any damage. Poor virus... back to Windows.
I was not sure if Linux would identify and install drivers for my hardware but it did. In fact in did it better than Windows XP. Windows quite often installs generic drivers for hardware it cannot completely identify. Linux installed the proper drivers for all my components. The only problem I had was with my modem. Software-based modems are a bit tricky because they are designed specifically for Windows. I ended up buying an external hardware modem which works flawlessly.
If you are interested in a Linux system I recommend SUSE 9 or Fedora Core. Both are very nice to work with. SUSE 9 is what I am currently using. It is just too cool to take off. Fedora Core is a Red Hat product. It is extremely stable but not quite as “pretty.”
Slackware is neat too. I only recommend it for advanced users.
I highly recommend that you try a new OS like Linux. It allows you to learn about computers again and try something that is really unique and fun. Can you remember a time when you were excited about computing?
Ryan
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THE ONTARION REPORT
September 18, 2004
Hi everyone!
Man what a week it’s been weather wise for the Islands and the southern states. I have a friend that lives 25 miles east of Pensacola on the gulf coast. I spoke to him via e-mail yesterday morning and he was going to take his wife and head for their son’s place in Tampa. Then, he wrote me again at 5:30pm and said there was no point in trying to make the trip to Tampa as the roads were all jammed with traffic. They decided to tough it out and stay put. I told him to keep in touch as much as he can and we’d be praying for their safety. He thanked me and said he was sure they’d make out ok. It just so happens that the eye of the storm hit pretty much on his town of Navarre and Pensacola. We haven’t heard from them yet and probably won’t for a week or so till the power is back on down there. I just watched the news a bit and it sure is a mess along the Florida Panhandle. I’m writing this on Thursday night, my usual time, so maybe by Saturday we’ll know more. Right now thoughts of Thanking God for our lovely year round weather here in Ontario are spinning in my mind. We have our ups and downs but I promise I will make an effort in the future not to complain about our weather conditions. Let’s all say a little prayer tonight for the people affected by Ivan. They can use any help they can get.
The US National Weather Service in Atlanta says that this type of Hurricane activity comes along approximately every 15 years or so. They also say that these storms are created by conditions off the coast of Africa but many of them die before reaching the Caribbean. I guess this year’s crop is a lot stronger than usual. Now Mexico is not only dealing with the spin off tropical storm that Ivan spawned but they are also being hit by another Hurricane on the Pacific coast. Hurricane Jean is supposed to sideswipe the east coast of Florida by next Wednesday as well. Looks like they’re just going to keep on coming! Let’s hope Jean is the last of them for this year. I think the season lasts until mid October. Hopefully any more will dissipate before making it to the Caribbean. Keep your fingers crossed!
*
I promised to tell a little about my adventures on Peppler St after reading Lorne’s account last week. Well, it’s not quite as quaint a story but it’s part of my past and I’ll remember it for years to come as well. It just so happens that it took place on the same row of houses including the exact house that Lorne lived in as a youth. We were looking for a building to practice our ventilation and search and rescue techniques in about 17 years ago. It was the late 80’s and we had just hired a dozen new firefighters including our first female.
The city had taken over ownership of the houses along the east side of that block of Peppler St and they were slated for demolition. The building department offered the use of these homes to the Fire Dept for our training sessions. We gratefully accepted their offer. We were under strict orders not to damage the houses any more than necessary. The Deputy Chief had just purchased a “Smoke Machine” for our training department and it was supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread. Other crews had taken their new recruits to these houses over a period of a week and said that they finally found it realistic training in a real house. The idea was to fill the house with smoke and place a couple of people in remote parts of the building and then send in the recruits under the guidance of a veteran fire fighter to “rescue” the planted victims. This was working quite well according to the tales that I had heard via the grapevine back at the hall. Well, it was finally my turn to take my new people to Peppler St for a days work. At the time, I had a fellow Lieutenant working on my shift whom I’d known and been friends with since high school. He was the type of person that never seemed to be satisfied with anything. We filled the house with theatrical smoke several times during the morning and practiced ventilating with our new PPV or positive pressure ventilators. They were huge fans that would blow air into the building to pressurize it and after approximately 4 minutes we would open an exit port at the highest point practical on the house. The exit point had to be smaller than the entry point of the air. This would create a high velocity venturie affect and we could literally enter the house standing up and follow the smoke through the building as we checked the rooms for victims. It was a new technique that worked amazingly well. We used to poke holes in as many spots as we could and try to suck the smoke out with much smaller electric fans. This never did work worth a darn. What a boon this new PPV was to search and rescue! Welllllll, Larry, my fellow officer said “Yah but the smoke is white and you can still see through it, it’s not really realistic if you ask me”! So I said “It’s vegetable oil smoke and the only way to get real black smoke is to light a real fire”! Larry suggested that we light a fire in the basement since the foundations were all stone anyway. I said what about the wood floors above the fire in the basement? Larry assured me that we would have a charged hose line right there and we could control the fire before anything happened. Against my better judgment I agreed to try it. We rounded up some hardwood skids that were in the back yard and piled them in the basement. A few ounces of diesel fuel, some paper and a match and we were in business. The first two times we did this burn, it worked like a charm. Then, Larry go brave and told the guy on the hose to let the fire get going better and “really get some good smoke and heat out of it”. He wanted to make it really lifelike for the new recruits. Well, after many years of floor joists being exposed to open air they are subject to pyrolysis or extreme flammability due to lack of moisture in the wood.
The fire was allowed to burn until it got rolling, as we say in the fire service and all of a sudden it flashed over and the whole basement was engulfed in flames. With the house filled with black smoke from the diesel fuel, it was difficult to see that this was about to occur. Luckily, I had told the hoseman to station himself outside the house at a basement window instead of in the basement with the fire as Larry had him do for the earlier fires. Well, you should have seen us scramble to get another hose set up to help put out the fire. By the time we got it under control, the main floor had been breached and the fire was into the living room above. Thank God we managed to stop it at that point or we would have lost the whole house. With the theatrical smoke, it wasn’t necessary to have the “victims” wearing breathing apparatus since the product was “breathable” according to the manufacturer. However, using real smoke, I had ordered SCBA to be worn by all involved. We managed to get the two people up in the bedrooms out without any problem but we did have a load of explaining to do when the Deputy caught wind of our escapade. When the building department found out that we had damaged the house with real fire, they withdrew their offer and we were without training facilities once more. Larry was banished to Head Quarters where the brass could keep an eye on him and I was switched from “fire ground” training officer to “theory instructor” in the classroom. I guess the Chief figured I needed a break. I certainly don’t think he blamed me for the fiasco but, now that both he and I are retired, I guess I’ll never know.
I drove down Peppler St this afternoon and all of those houses are gone. They have been replaced by a Mennonite Credit Union building. The only feature of the street that Lorne mentioned that is still there is Laurel Creek. I guess neighbourhoods change but memories remain constant. Sorry for burning your memories Lorne but, isn’t it a small world when you think of it?
Better sign off for this week.
I look forward to next time and thanks for tuning in!
Bye for now…..Greg.
PS: Something to Think About>
Love…friendship that has caught fire.
PPS: Larry is retired as well. Thank God!
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Have a good one..
the
doug