The Squamidian Report – Feb. 5 / 05
Also in this issue:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Well, I said I’d be back to Squamidian Central in time for this issue and here I am! Visiting back home is always a bit strange. There are so many changes, big and small that I end up feeling like a stranger in a town where I lived for 50 years. Finding my self the Guest of Honor and center of attention is somewhat unsettling considering I’m a bit of a recluse and on occasion down right anti-social. However, I will admit it was great seeing and spending time with all the friends and family that I managed to hook up with.
Had a really great visit with my parents out at the Homestead where I stayed for the week. The evenings I was not out visiting others were spent with them, nice, quiet and relaxed. Mornings were a bit too early for my west coast time zoned head. They tend to rise about 7 so I did too. Problem was, 7 in Ontario is 4 in BC. Now that’s fun, getting up at 4AM each morning on yours vacation. Of course, by the end of the week I’d adjusted to Ontario time so now I’ve got to adjust back.
Weather was nice and cool and sunny. Several of the early mornings started off with a flat gray overcast that would burn off. Because there are no mountains sticking up into the cloud layer and therefore imparting a 3-D aspect to it, I ended up feeling quite claustrophobic. With the horizon being only a short distance away and the cloud ceiling feeling very low I felt like I was in the bottom of a small bowel. I’m used to always seeing landmarks that are many miles away.
Timing was good for leaving. The weather forecasters were putting out SMOG alerts. That’s some of the stuff I moved to get away from. Greg was kind enough to drive me back to the airport and see me on my way. In fact, the 401 corridor and Toronto areas were already under a dome of yellow haze, visible as we headed out. Thanks Greg, and thanks everyone for a great time. And if there was anyone who didn’t want to see me, thanks for not spoiling my visit.
Got to the airport nice and early which is good because that way I could get a window seat in front of the wings. It is quieter and you have an unobstructed view out that way. Not only is it important for me to have a good window seat, it is important to have one on the north side of the plane when doing an east-west flight. The sun is very hot and bright at cruising altitude. Viewing into that sun out the south side is uncomfortable. Viewing out the shaded north side is great. About half an hour before departure time there was still no plane at the gate. An attendant came on the PA and uttered that dreaded word – ‘DELAYED’. Seems the plane had been delayed on its first flight of the day and we were caught in the ripple effect. Finally got airborne about an hour and a half late. I hate that! By the way, Lake Michigan is pretty well ice-free and I wrote the first draft of this column at 40 thousand feet using a pen that I seem to have ‘borrowed’ from my parents place. Sorry Mom, I’ll return it in June. On the other hand it has ‘Howard Johnson’ written on it so perhaps I’m not the first person to ‘borrow’ it!
While the southern great lakes seem to be mostly ice-free, all the in-land lakes along the flight path are frozen as well as the rivers. That includes the upper Mississippi and Missouri (not sure on that spelling). Our route took us over Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota an on to S. Dakota. We straddled the Montana – Wyoming border and then veered to the north over Billings Mt. The great plains are pretty well snowless, looking very brown and dry. Over western S. Dakota we could look down on a rugged, eroded land that sported cliffs along its river system that had to be very high and steep. When they look high and steep from 8 miles above, they kind of have to be.
By the time we were over Helena Mt. there was a solid cloud cover below us. That was a bummer. There was a lot of nice scenery that was now obscured. Our route took us over Spokane and on to the coast just north of Seattle were we turned for Vancouver. There was still the occasional break in the clouds but continuous viewing was over with. One nice break was over the Spokane and Columbia River areas. The terrain below appeared to be very rugged hills with quite open forests. We were over the mountains of central Washington before there was any real snow-cover visible on the ground. Over the coast we broke out of the clouds into bright sunshine. Our approach into Vancouver took us over the green farmland of the Fraser River delta.
The plan was that I would hook up with Sue who was to have flown in from Kamloops about an hour before my arrival. Turned out her plane was two and a half hours late so we ended up getting to the airport at about the same late time. Being a Friday evening the traffic was relatively heavy, especially heading up the Sea to Sky. All those rich Vancouverites do have to get to Whistler you know. From the Upper Levels highway you look down on English Bay and Vancouver, brightly lit in the dark. There is one point where you can look west and see the light of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. And then once you are heading north on the Sea to Sky to can look across Howe Sound and see the lights of Gibson’s.
Got home in time to see Ryan before he headed up to Whistler for some nighttime production they are doing there and to check my Email before calling it a long day.
From the ‘rub it in’ department, we have several types of small flowers blooming in our flowerbeds as well as some heather. The tulips and crocus’ are up several inches.
I’ll refrain from going into any more detail about my visit for fear of boring you any more. Must say though that while visiting with Clyde we had poor Greg pretty well bored to tears (he was falling asleep on us) as we discussed the finer details of formatting a hard drive.
One last thing for now, I haven’t had time to process any pictures and post them to my sites. I’ll get around to that this week and then post the links in next weeks Squid.
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
February 3, 2005
Hi everyone!
Well, it’s been an interesting week to say the least. The get together at Lorne and Vivyan’s to welcome Doug “home” was as usual, homey and friendly. Lots of food and good conversation to be had by all! I was happy that I was able to remember most of the names of everyone that attended and those few that were a little foggy to me, Carol helped me clear up. I’d like to first of all thank Vivyan and Lorne for inviting Carole and I to the gathering. Carole was not feeling well that evening and was unable to be there for the festivities. Once again there was homespun music supplied by the Brubacher Trio. It’s always nice to hear that warm sound of guitar and mandolin. Makes me wish I could play something with strings! This year, Clyde and his wife Barbara were a welcome addition to the event. Although they had another engagement to attend that evening, they were able to spend a couple of hours with us. It felt good to have another Squamidian “extra” there with me. There’s always lots to talk about when Clyde is around. I think I talk a lot but I can’t hold a candle to Clyde in that department. Of course, that’s a good thing when someone other than me does lots of the talking. I tend to think that I talk enough through the Ontarion so maybe I should sit there and keep quiet for a change! LOL! I figured I might pick up some new material to fill the space in The Ontarion at Vivyan’s that night. So I started off thinking I’d just sit and listen to everyone else for a change. It didn’t turn out that way though. We all talked each other’s ears off and at times I found myself trying to listen to more than one conversation at a time. Luckily, we didn’t get into discussions involving past “Ontarion” topics or sparks might have flown. I do think we touched on the amount of turmoil instigated in the “Crime and Punishment” article but fortunately only for a minute or two. I was given a couple of suggestions for future topics but I promised myself I’d give them a little more thought before venturing out into what may just be volatile territory. LOL! Anyway, the evening was a success and it was nice to see everyone once again. It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since the last gathering. I enjoyed talking with Ed and Ev once again and was glad to hear that they had some encouraging words for me regarding The Ontarion. Carol and Al were obviously excited about their upcoming trip to the Dominican. I’m sure they’ll enjoy that trip and hopefully Carol will write about it in a future Squamidian. I assured Al that they have plenty of beer in the Dominican but I wasn’t so sure about the quality of the milk on the island. I told him I think they only have goat and Llama milk and only that taken from the male of each species! LOL! Methinks he’ll be drinking nothing but beer while at the resort! Hahahaaaa….! Sorry bout that Al! Just kidding!
I told Doug that I’d pick him up on Monday morning and we’d tour the KW area and see what if any changes were to be found. Let me tell you, Doug is very fortunate that I still carry my badge from work. As I rounded a curve on Ottawa St on my way over to pick him up at Lorne and Vivyan’s place, I was suddenly confronted by a large policeman running radar. He flagged me over to the side of the road and asked for my license etc. He told me that he clocked me at 74 in a 50. I apologized and said I didn’t realize I had been going that fast. As I opened my wallet to get out my license, he noticed my badge. I of course didn’t mention a word about it but respectfully asked him to be as gentle as he could when writing the ticket. He asked me to wait in the Jeep and he headed for his cruiser. It was no more than a minute and he walked back over to me and handed me my license etc. His only comment was “Here you go sir and please slow it down a bit”! I thanked him for his kindness and continued on my way to get Doug. When I told Carole about the incident later on that day, she said “Boy, was Doug ever lucky!” I said “Why Doug?” and she said “Well, you were on the way over to take him out for the day so naturally he’d have been paying the ticket for you if the copper hadn’t let you off!” LOL, Hahahahahaaaaaa…..! I guess when she put it that way, Doug was a very lucky fellow that day!
We had an interesting day and pretty much covered both Kitchener and Waterloo. Doug got to see everything from the old Pioneer Tower to the new “Traffic Circles” in Waterloo. Even I found it amazing how much has changed especially in Waterloo since I’ve been spending most of my time in Kitchener since retiring. The one difference in Waterloo that stands out most in my mind is the new extension of Westmount Rd from Columbia St to Northfield Dr. When I started on the Fire Dept in 1973 they told us that within a year of opening the new Station on Westmount at University that fall, the extension of Westmount Rd would be completed. Well, it only took them 32 years to actually complete it. I managed to take a few pictures as we traveled around and I believe I’ve sent them out to most of the Squamidian members. If you didn’t receive them, maybe you can see them on Doug’s website. If he isn’t posting them there, let me know and I’d be glad to pass them on to whomever I missed. I’ll let Doug tell you about his week since I was only a small part of it. My week ended with a drive to take Doug back to Toronto Airport for his flight home this morning. The week’s weather was clear and sunny while he was here in Ontarible as he calls it and today was no exception. I’m sure he had a great flight home to rainy old BC. As the smog from the great state of Michigan settled over southern Ontario Doug’s winged limo was waiting at the gate. I dropped him off at terminal #2 at 10:45am and bid him bon voyage! It was good to see him once more and I look forward to this June when both he and Sue are here once again for Lorne and Vivyan’s anniversary. Until then, we’ll keep the Squamidian/Ontarion going and here’s hoping all of our readers will meet in KW in June for the celebration. I’ve attached a couple of pictures of Doug and his mum and dad to this weeks Ontarion. I’m sure Doug won’t mind if any of you would like to take a look at them on his website.
Thanks to everyone at Vivyan’s place for making me feel welcome once again. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Talk to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report.
Sincerely…..GREG.
PS: Doug and I also had an interesting afternoon on Thursday at Clyde’s place in Waterloo. I’ll let Doug tell you whatever he wants about that visit.
PPS: Something To Think About>
Cooperate; remember the banana – every time it leaves the bunch it gets skinned!
****
The family site:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/
The Squamidian Site:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b2/
Have a good one..
the
doug