The Squamidian Report – June 25 / 05
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Hi All,
OK, I’ve been back at Squamidian Central for over a week now so I suppose you are expecting another dirt bike episode. Well, we did do some great biking but I’m not going to tell you about that. Instead, I’ll tell you about a hike up the Chief. Both Ryan and I had an unexpected day off at the same time and on the spur-of-the-moment decided to do the climb. I wasn’t sure whether or not I was even currently capable making the climb, it is very grueling.
So anyway, at 10AM last Monday morning we were standing at the trailhead, determined and ready to go. The day was clear but a bit on the warm side. The trail up the back of the Chief was originally established for the people that climb the face to have a way back down. It starts at a rock wall after a short stroll through a forested campsite. That rock wall is the first clue that it is a hard hike. If you can’t climb the wall, stay out! It took just under 10 very long and hard minutes to make it up to the bridge that crosses Olsen Creek. By then your lungs are already burning and your legs are screaming. It’s a good place to catch your breath, the creek tumbles down the mountainside and the view is great. The falling water creates a cool breeze. The trail on the other side would take you over to Shannon Falls after a few clicks of hiking. It’s also a good indication of the climb ahead.
After numerous and very necessary rest stops we made it to the spot we call Lunch Break Rock. It’s a shelf of rock sticking out over the valley behind the Chief and has a huge boulder balanced and waiting to continue its trip on down. This is a little better than 2/3 of the way up and is a good place to have lunch. By now you need a longer rest and you need food energy. At least I do. So we always stop here and have a snack while enjoying the view.
Another 15 minutes of trudging brings you to the area with the ladders and chains. They are bolted to the rock, the ladders give a way up vertical walls and the chains give a handhold for pulling yourself up steep bare rock. By the time you are past the chains you are onto the more open rock area leading to the top. It usually takes me about an hour and a half to make the climb to the top of first peak, this time it took an hour and three quarters. The extra few minutes were needed for rest stops. Sitting in an excavator for hours on end has aged me a bit I guess. At the top the view was magnificent, but that’s not why you do the climb. You do it for the accomplishment, the view is an extra reward.
There is a colony of chipmunks that live up there. Their only enemies are birds, they make their living by fleecing the hikers for their trail mix and other goodies. They seem to manage to stash enough food to see themselves through the slow times. Certainly no fear of humans, they will run right over your foot without batting an eye. If you don’t have something for them they just run on up to the next person.
It took an hour and a quarter to work our way back down. Down is just as hard on the legs as up, perhaps harder on the knees as you have to brake all the way down. It’s just easier on the lungs, not much but a bit. Used to make it back down in under and hour but like I said, I’m getting older and more out of hiking shape. The stroll from the trailhead back out to the parking lot is necessary and enjoyable, its your time to cool down and relax your muscles. Took a bunch of pictures as usual, posted two pages of them at: http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b2/Chief/chief1.htm for anyone who may wish to view them from the comfort of their computer desk.
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And now time for some more Geek Speak!
I haven’t done one of these for a while so here goes. This time’s topic, the Copernic Desktop Search Tool. Think of it as your personal computer’s version of Google. If you are like me, you have hundreds of data files, thousands of Emails, all with information you may want to dig out at some point. If you have a good memory you may be able to recall where some data, a name, a topic, is stored. If not, you need a utility that can catalog and index your files and then find what you need when you do a search. Don’t even bother with the built in Windows ‘Search’ tool, it is pretty well useless.
There are several desktop search tools available. Copernic is not only one of the best, it is Freeware. The company that created it sells other software but gives their search program away. After downloading and installing the program you let it do an indexing of your system. You can choose which drives and folders to search. No need to index your O/S or program files. Depending on your computers speed and the volume of data you have, it can take some time to catalog all the necessary files. Then you just have it do an update every once in a while to keep current.
Once ready, you use Copernic just like you would do a Google search except that the interface lets you specify the type of file you are looking for such as a document, an Email and so on, on your hard drives. You can search for a word, a phrase, a name or whatever. By file size, date and so on. As soon as you input a word, it starts to show instances of that word in various files, highlighted for ease of spotting. You can ‘view’ the contents of the file or open it. The list of hits can be viewed in date order or any other order you may want. You can also specify a Web search and it will go out onto the web and find what you are looking for. If you have named your graphic files, you can search for them that way. It is a very useful and even fun utility. You can get your fee copy at:
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One last thing, anyone with a clear view of the western horizon just as the sun is setting should be able to see Mercury, Venus and Saturn all quite clear and close together. Enjoy Saturn, it won’t be visible for much longer and then will be gone from viewing in the Northern Hemisphere for quite a while. And that’s Jupiter following not too far behind.
d
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It looks like everyone had a great time at the reunion / Lorne and Vivyan’s 60th anniversary party. I know I did and it has me all excited about the next reunion, early August 2007, here in beautiful Nova Scotia. So get your plans in gear ‘cause it’s going to happen. My father, Howard, will be turning 80 that year also. We are hoping to see people from far and wide. We are about an hour and a half drive north of the Halifax airport, about 1100 miles drive from Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge area, 6-7 hour flight from Vancouver, 7-8 hour flight from Switzerland, a super long flight from Australia but why should that stop you, and a few minutes down the road from Fitzpatrick Mountain. All are welcome. If anyone wants to work out accommodations just email me and we will get right on it. We have lots of camping space for trailers and tents for those who like the outdoor life plus lots of extra beds in our houses and the gallery. Also there are B&B’s in the area. Stonehame Chalets are located on Fitzpatrick Mountain for those who want a more luxury stay with a spectacular view. Their prices are actually quite reasonable and a chalet can be shared with 4 or 6 people cutting down the cost. Anyway there is a rundown for you to plan on.
My trip away to Kitchener is almost like a dream now. I jumped right back into work full force since summer is extremely busy around here. I came back just in time for the proms and graduations. The girls at work did just fine without me but said their knees ached from such long hours. I’ll get them conditioned yet, after all they are only 26 years old.
The sailing season is finally off to a good start. We’ve had a few good races coming in second or third, usually we are in the middle of the pack. Last night’s race was very exciting. The wind was very light so a short course was picked. As we crossed the start line at a snails pace the boats silently crowded together. By the first mark the wind had picked up slightly and we took the lead. Picture a horse race in slow motion. Now all we had to do is stay ahead!!! Well it happened, at least until the final stretch, when someone mentioned we could just win this race. No sooner did they get the words out and the sheet went loose on the jib, oops! Lost time there! Then the wind shifted putting us off course for the finish line. Had to tack. Ran out of wind, had to tack again and so it went. The boat behind us took up the lead making us a close second. Oh well, that’s the way the wind blows!! We also got thoroughly soaked from a big shower but that was not a concern at the time. We all headed for the club house for a rum and friendly banter.
We have a sailing instructor from Niagara region staying with us for a couple of days. She has been hired for the mobile sailing school held every summer in Pictou, Antigonish, St. Peter’s and Guysborough. She has never been to the Maritimes before and is looking forward to a great summer of teaching and meeting new people from these areas. She is Italian and her name is unpronounceable. She says call me alphabet since there is almost every letter in her name. Well that’s all for this week.
Sus
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Hello
again my fellow Squamidians!
Ouuuuch!
I just leaned back on the scratchy office chair in the office here at home and
that’s not the thing to do when you have the worst sunburn in the universe.
Yesterday I was enjoying a cup of tea on the back patio with Carole and we
decided to trim the shrubs in the gardens. I said “It’s 9:30 am and if we get
right at it, it’ll be finished in an hour or so!” Not giving another thought to
the suns rays beating down on my shirtless back, I dragged out the cord and the
hedge trimmers. Well, that hour or so turned into about 4 ½ hours and it wasn’t
until Carole made a comment about putting on a shirt that I realized I’d been
literally cooking in the sun. I usually make a point of using sun block as soon
as I step outside but for some reason it slipped my mind yesterday. As I pulled
on my tee shirt, I felt a twinge of tightness in the skin on my back. I said to
Carole that I’d probably regret the sun bath by evening. Well, let me tell you,
I now have a taste, be it ever so slight in comparison to how it feels to be a
true burn victim. With my back hurting like H, I can imagine the agony that a
burn victim must experience. Excruciating is the word that comes to mind when I
think of such injuries. In my years as a fire fighter I was witness to many a
burned human being but our dealings with them were swift and passed on to
someone with greater medical skills than we as fire fighters had. Therefore,
our relatively short time with these unfortunate people made it seem less than
it really was. In all our training, we were told that nothing in this world
hurts like a burn. Of course we were shown loads of video along with the
training and eventually personally handled many a burn victim but until you
actually have a burn of some proportion, you really don’t understand the pain.
I’m sure this brush with over exposure will teach me a lesson for a long time
to come. Thanks to the makers of Solarcaine the heat is slowly dissipating and
maybe just maybe I’ll get a few hours of sleep tonight.
Doug
talked about his trip to Cedarville and gave us access to pictures of
structures in the area. This was an interesting trip back in time for not only
Doug but for Vivyan as well. Carole and I thought the pictures were amazing and
very well composed. I suggested to Doug that he print the pictures out and send
copies to Vivyan so she can look back on them every once in a while. This trip
back in time brought back many memories of my own youth. I told Doug that his
pictures have inspired me to make a trip to visit my grandparent’s grave sites
and take pictures of their headstones. Also to spend a day taking photos of my
boyhood home and the homes of my grandparents both fraternal and maternal. My dad’s parents lived in Hespeler on
Winston Blvd in a tiny yellow brick house. The lot was more than twice the
width of the house and about 150 feet deep. My grandparents were avid gardeners
and the majority of their property was taken up by a huge vegetable garden. I
don’t think they ever bought a vegetable from a store. I said to Doug that when
I think of Lorne’s garden it reminds me of that which my grandma and grandpa
Payne tended all their lives. My dad used to take us kids to Puslinch Lake on
Sundays and we’d wind up the day with a visit to Hespeler to see his folks. My
grandpa Payne loved to water his garden with water from the rain barrel he had
at the corner of the house. He wasn’t one to make use of city services unless
absolutely necessary. His garden was always full and lush. He had the biggest
tomatoes and the tastiest potatoes I’ve ever eaten. When we headed for home,
grandpa always made sure we had a bag of mini potatoes and cherry tomatoes to
take along. One of the fond memories I have of those visits was a regular
ritual we had of trying to sneak a catfish into the rain barrel without grandpa
noticing. Of course we thought this was a funny trick to play on him and he
went along with the gag and made a big deal out of the “surprise” so as not to
spoil the fun. He always pretended to be mad about our prank but dad told us
many years later that grandpa loved to bury the fish under his rose bushes
because as fertilizer there was none better for producing the biggest and
loveliest roses and he was grateful for our contribution to their flourishing
blooms. Since reading Doug’s write up of Cedarville, I’m anxious to get down to
Hespeler to see what the old place is like today. I know that my mother’s
parents house on Spruce St in Waterloo is now a student housing unit and
doesn’t even resemble the original house. It started out as a story and a
half 800 sq ft dinky house. I think the
present owner has added about 8 bedrooms to a structure on the back of the
original place. I guess there’s money to be made in student housing and being
close to U of W and Laurier it was a smart investment. Grandpa Hoy would flip
if he saw what they did to his house. He had it built in the early 60’s and never
did finish the upper story. They lived on the main floor in a living room, a
kitchen and a bedroom and of course a bathroom. People were not as obsessed
with size in those days as long as they had a roof over their heads they were
happy. Looks like I’ve got lots of visiting to do and lots of photos to take to
cover all the old haunts. It will be interesting to say the least to look back
at these places and rekindle old memories that have somehow faded over the
years. If I come across anything I think would be of interest to our Squamidian
readers, I’ll be sure to pass it on.
That
about covers things for this week. I look forward to talking to you all again
next time in The Ontarion Report. Thanks for tuning in!
Bye for now…GREG.
PS:
Something To Think About>
There is nothing we receive with so much reluctance as advice!
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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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