The Squamidian Report – July 2 / 05
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Hi All,
Well now, I finally got around to putting my old Yamaha Virago 750 back on the road. I guess it is kind of decadent to have two motorcycles licensed and insured but the 750 is strictly a street bike while the 250 is mostly a dirt and trail bike. The 750 is still in pretty good shape for its age, a 1984 model making it 21 years old. Still looks good and runs good. Do have one area of concern. The fork seals have warn out and are leaking oil which runs down and gets onto the front disk brake pads. Oil contaminated brake pads are not a good thing, they loose their ability to brake. And the front brakes on a motorcycle do about 70% of the stopping so that all needs to be taken care of.
To that end I’d dropped the bike off at the local Yamaha dealer for the repair. It was ready to be picked up yesterday, Friday. So a nice stroll down to the dealer to pick up the bike took about an hour and a quarter. I walk at about 3.5 miles per hour so it would be about 4 miles. No big deal, its down hill for the first 2 miles. Heck, half the locals run that far every morning before breakfast. But the bike is now ready for some nice mountain highway riding, or at least a toot down to Horton’s with Sue on the back for a coffee. Just thought you’d like to know.
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I don’t know about you but I hate plumbing with a passion. So when the toilet in the main floor bathroom overflowed I was not real happy as it meant I needed to fix the problem. There was nothing wrong with the drain, it was clear. There was nothing caught in the bowl trap, it was smooth and clear. Only thing I could think of was that the water in-flow was somehow restricted and therefore not imparting that necessary spin to anything needing to be flushed, leading to a coagulation of unmentionable materials. I removed the water tank and then the bowl. Took it outside and checked it over. Then I gave it a good hosing using out pressure washer to dislodge any crude that may be blocking the incoming water ports.
When I put it all back together I found the valve in the tank was acting up so I hunted all around Squamish and finally found a replacement at Home Hardware that would probably do. Got the whole thing back together and found that the supply line connections were leaking. A quick trip to Canadian Tire for a new line and fittings and its all back up and running, so to speak. Seems to be flushing OK now, we’ll see once it gets a good workout. Now you know why I hate plumbing, its never quite done, always and on-going endeavor. Whenever you disturb something it has a ripple effect on all the other components. And those wax gaskets are sure gooey things to work with.
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As everyone who listens to the news knows, we sure had a bit of excitement out here. Well, not actually ‘we’ and not actually ‘here’. Actually over in Horseshoe Bay for all those people. The Queen of Oak Bay is one very big ferry and had just come back from $35 million in re-fit work. It lost power while approaching the dock on a return run from Nanaimo so there was no way of slowing the ship down. They come in pretty fast and use reverse to get themselves stopped. Large ships have an incredible amount of inertia so while still moving relatively slowly they will either keep plowing forward or do an incredible amount of damage to anything that won’t move. The captain had to make a choice between ramming the dock or grounding the ship.
Had he hit the dock, a very solid object, they figure the cars on board would have ended up stacked about 5 deep and people would have been thrown off the ship. The dock area would have been demolished including anything and any one near by. He instead choose to run it aground, into the beach area of the bay. That meant ramming right through the marina and all those fancy expensive West Van boats. With his air horn blasting the emergency he took that route. The few people who were on the marina docks and boats had time to run. The ship made a soft landing as it plowed up the sandy bottom of the bay and not one person was injured.
The passengers on board would end up waiting another 8 hours before they could get off. Terminal traffic was tied up all day, the other terminals were all in kayos. And the summer season is just beginning. BC Ferries under the Glen Clark NDP government a decade ago had wasted a billion dollars on those ill-conceived fast-ferries that had to be scrapped as useless garbage. Now they are stuck with a fleet of 40-year-old ships that continue to break down. Gotta love when politics interferes with sound business decisions.
d
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I’d like to welcome Earl to our little group. He stumbled across the Squamidian on the Internet and has contacted me. His branch of the family stayed down in the States while ours migrated north a century or so ago.
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Hello
everyone!
Well, we are
starting to gather information for our trip to BC. We’ve decided to visit Doug
and Sue in September. We’re going to drive across Canada and decide once we’re
out there whether or not we’ll take the States run on the way home. I think
that everyone should make at least one trip across Canada via personal vehicle.
Carole and I are going to try our best to see whatever interesting and
historical sites we can on the trip west. I’m looking forward to having my
picture taken in the mouth of the T Rex at Drumheller Alberta. Doug wrote last
week in the Squamidian about his climb up The Chief in great detail. He
mentioned that he wasn’t sure he’d be in shape for the climb after sitting so
many hours in his swing shovel at work and not getting as much conditioning
exercise as he’d like. Sounds to me like he’s still in pretty good shape. I
know that I for one won’t be hiking to the top of that mammoth tourist
attraction. Maybe I’d be more interested if I weren’t prone to leg cramps after
strenuous exercise. Unfortunately I tend to wake in the middle of the night
with a HUGE knot in the back of my thigh when I do such things as climb a lot.
Doug assures me that there are loads of other things to do in and around
Squamish. Although……. Doug may just do his best to try to talk Carole into the
climb just to get even with her for subjecting him to numerous HUGS when he was
here last month! LOL! She thinks that everyone likes a hug when first greeted
but as most of us know Doug prefers to be hug free so to speak. I’ll leave it
up to him to handle the greetings when we arrive for our visit. I for one
promise not to HUG Doug hi or goodbye during the visit.
Speaking
of the drive west, I’m looking at all the preparations needed before we set out
on our trek. My main concern is making sure we have no vehicle troubles during
the drive. I have no doubt the Jeep will handle the drive but just want to
cover all the possibilities. There’s the matter of a tune up. Fortunately the
modern vehicle doesn’t need much with respect to this. A set of plugs, a new
air filter and an oil change and lube is about the extent of it. Our tires are
original and the Jeep has 115,000km on it now. I just may have to spring for a
new set of tires before the BC run since we’ll be covering approximately 10,000
km on before we get home. It’s to be expected that one has to spend a little in
preparation for such a drive. I checked with an acquaintance of mine that owns
a tire store and he told me that good quality tires for the Liberty will cost
me about $150.00/tire. That’s $600.00 + that I’d rather not have to spend. Oh
well, better safe than sorry as they say! I told Carole that I may just dress
like a bum ( excuse the 60’s term for “street person”) and make myself a sign
begging for money just to cover the cost of the new tires. I could stand at the
intersection of Ottawa St and Fischer-Hallman with the sign and probably pay
for the tires in a couple of days. I say this because of an experience I had
the other day. I was waiting in a line of traffic for the light to change and
there was a girl dressed in army fatigues with about 15 piercings in her face
and $1000.00 worth the tattoo art on her neck and shoulders holding a sign. The
sign said “Broke, Homeless and in need of Food! Any Amount will Help! GOD BLESS!”
My first
thought was to pull up beside her and point out the “Help Wanted” sign across
the street at Wendy’s Restaurant but I soon dropped that idea. The three
vehicles in front of me each handed her a “bill” out the window. I could only
see the denomination of the vehicle directly in front of me and it was a $20.
This means that the other two vehicle drivers gave her at least a $5.00 bill.
She made at least $30.00 in the minute we sat there. Why in the world would she
ever apply for a job at Wendy’s when she can make five times the money she’d be
paid for actually “working” an hour there by begging on the street? Beats me!
I’m thinking it’s time we stopped carrying these people with such donations and
maybe they’d start looking for jobs at such places as Wendy’s. But, then again,
I’m not so sure I’d like to have my food prepared by someone that doesn’t take
good care of themselves either. I wonder if anyone has ever tried this method
of raising money when they weren’t actually homeless? Hmmmmmmmm….. I may just be as naïve as I sound!
Surely
nobody would do such a thing would they? Maybe I’ll stop and talk to one of
these people the next time I encounter one at the corner. I’m sure they’d be
happy to tell me the truth about their situation and how much money this method
begets them. If all pans out, this may just turn into a lucrative part time job
for yours truly. Of course I’m just kidding at this time but………one never knows
what the future might bring. Take a close look under the hat and behind the sun
glasses of the sign holder next time you’re stopped at a red light at Ottawa
and Fischer-Hallman.
I’ll go
for now but look forward to talking to you all again next time in
The
Ontarion Report.
Bye for now….. GREG.
PS:
Something To Think About>
People ask you for criticism but they only want praise!
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The Family and the Squamidian sites:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/ and http://www.thedougsite.ca
Have a good one..
the
doug
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