The Squamidian Report – Feb. 19 / 05

Also in this issue:

The Ontarion

Hi All,

We needed to slip into Vancouver last Sunday so Ryan could replace his broken cell phone and Sue could look at end tables and I could deposit a cheque that had been sitting on my desk for a while. There are no TD branches here in Squamish and I am too stubborn to switch to one of the local banks. There is a Telus cell store here but Ryan is on Bell Mobility. There are some small furniture stores here but they don’t have what Sue is looking for. And besides, it is always a scenic drive into the city.

This time of year the waters of Howe Sound and English Bay are silver gray, even though the skies are blue. We had billowing white clouds floating between the mountains and islands. Being a Sunday afternoon, English Bay was very busy with sailboats and powerboats. From the Upper Levels Highway we can see countless cargo ships waiting to enter Burrard Inlet. They anchor in English Bay while waiting for their docking instructions and timing.

Because Sue would be doing an upcoming audit in West Van we turned off the highway can cut down through that area. The lawns and high hedges are all very green, the trees lining the streets are all out in blossom. The city tends to be a bit ahead of us that way, being right on the water and south facing. Our lawns are green and we have flowers flowering in the flowerbeds but our blossoms are not out yet.

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We are still having our weekly bluegrass jam session only they are no longer at the Legion and therefore no longer open to just anyone. It has become a relatively closed group of musician friends. The sessions are now held in someone’s own home. The last couple have been way up Ring Creek Rd in a log beam home that has a lot of similarities to Warren’s place. These people live rather remotely, away from the hustle of even our small town. There is a lot of rugged individualism in the people that choose to live on the edges of the west coast population. Like Warren and Janice, they make their own hydro, extract their drinking water from the mountain streams and carve out a living with their bare hands. There are many other similar homes scattered throughout the area, all with people who want or need that remoteness. It is common to see someone, a virtual mountain man so to speak, come into town in his beat up old truck to get supplies. There is still room for ‘individuals’ around here. That appeals to a lot of people. Always very interesting.

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Just a short follow-up to last weeks working the machines down in the bottom of a steep ravine – we finished up in there this week and of course had to get those machines back out. I had been using both a small loader and a small excavator to re-build the eroded trail. We widened out the path where walkers and hikers were entering the ravine, wide enough so the excavator could crawl back out that way. Excavators can use their boom and bucket to pull themselves up some pretty steep grades. Then we used the excavator to pull the loader out. Everything worked out fine. We used a good heavy logging cable for the pulling and just took it nice and easy.

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THE ONTARION REPORT

FEBRUARY 19, 2005

Hello my fellow Squamidians!

Well, here we are, one more week closer to spring. I don’t know if any of you are fans of Wiarton Willie and his predictions but I’m rootin’ for him to be right this year. Actually this winter hasn’t been too bad at all but I am getting a little tired of it at this point. However, now that I’ve mentioned that ground hog’s predictions, what the hell is the difference between “6 more weeks of winter” and “spring is just around the corner”? Willie is just another one of those corny traditions that suck people into spending money in Wiarton every winter I guess. No different than the “Octoberfest” in KW every fall, now that I think of it. I suppose life would be quite dull if we didn’t have special occasions to look forward to. So let’s be grateful that such occasions are there for us to choose to attend or not. At least they break the monotony. It’s kind of like complaining about the crap that’s on TV these days. When it comes right down to it, one can always change the channel if one doesn’t like what he/she is seeing on the Tube.

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Speaking of changing the channel……I guess we won’t have to decide which Hockey game to watch for the rest of the year. I for one won’t miss the NHL games at all. I’ve never been much of a hockey or sports fan for that matter so the cancelled season means nothing to me. I do however feel sorry for the people that make their living working in related industries. The bar owners and workers, the sports store employees and the people involved in the production and promotion of all the hockey memorabilia items sold across North America will have a rough year because of the greed on both sides of this story. I really didn’t understand what a “salary cap” was until today. They finally explained it as the total money allowed by the agreement that each team’s owner can pay out for player’s salaries in one year. The players asked for 52 million and the owners suggested 41.5 million. I say give each player $100,000.00 / year and if they work hard, they will be eligible for bonus bucks such as $1,000.00/ goal that they score. Wouldn’t there be a load of improvement seen in performance if this were the case? On the other hand, fans would never see any of the players wanting to pass the puck! Maybe it wouldn’t be such a good idea after all.

Heck, most of us work our entire lifetime to make a total of one or two years of a hockey player’s salary. I say Waaaaaa Waaaaaaa they can cry all they want but let the poor beggars live on a real worker’s salary and see how it feels when they have to pay $65.00 a ticket to take their kid to a sporting event. Actually, I’ve wasted enough time talking about a sport that I don’t even like. I hope all you hockey fans find something else to occupy your Saturday evenings for the next 6 months.

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I was watching a travel show on TV last weekend and it was the top 10 places to visit in Canada to see wildlife. One of the areas they chose, I think it was #3 on the list was Brackendale area of the Squamish valley in BC. I know that Doug has been telling us about the amazing number of Bald Eagles out there but this show actually gave me a chance to see this sight for myself. Amazing is not the word for this phenomenon of nature. The sky was black with these huge birds. They said that the record for the number of eagles to be counted in one day at Brackendale is 3,767. This is literally just down the hill from Doug and Sue’s place! What a sight it must be to see in person. They are beautiful birds with a wingspan of over 7 feet according to this documentary. I didn’t know that the males and females have the same colouring and size as each other. This leads me to ask the question “How do the males know when they are approaching a female?” I guess if they reach out and touch another bird’s breast and get slapped, they’ve found a female and if they get their ass kicked they’ve assaulted a male! Hahahaha….. LOL!!!! What do I know? It’s always been easier to solve this problem as a human. I don’t envy the male eagles when it comes to this situation. LOL! Of course, maybe in some of the bars on Young St in Toronto they have a little more difficulty telling the males from the females but for the most part, it’s an easier task for us humans! Maybe that would be a good question to ask someone that lives in TO! How bout it Ewan got any good tales to pass along to us small town folk? Get the wheels turning and punch out a story of TO life for us Ewan. I’m sure you’ve heard a yarn or two about life on Younge St even if you haven’t had any personal experience at it! LOL!

Guess I should sign off for this week before I get myself into trouble again! Thanks again to all who tuned in this time and I’ll talk to you all next week in The Ontarion Report.

Bye for now…..GREG.

PS: Something To Think About>

The road through life is dotted with many tempting parking places.

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The Family and the Squamidian sites:

http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/ and http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b2/

Have a good one..

the doug

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