The Squamidian Report – Oct. 22 / 05
Also in this issue:
Clyde does Geek Speak
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Hey, you remember me talking about rain last week? Well, we had left our wheelbarrow out for a few days and it filled right up full of water. It takes a lot of rain over a few days to put 18 inches of water into a wheelbarrow tub. But wow, you should see all the waterfalls coming down the mountainsides. Great. Not so great of course if you wanted to travel on the Trans-Canada west of Hope. It’s been closed for most of the week due to mudslides.
*
I had only put 4 months worth of insurance on the Yamaha Virago 750, my trusty old street bike. Just enough to give us some nice cruising throughout the summer. That time period is up now so it is time to put the bike away till next highway riding season. That was always a sad time back on Hidden Valley because the bike would be locked away, frozen in the old shed for 5 or 6 months. Things are a bit different here. You can go motorcycling pretty well any time of the year if the sun is shining. And that’s what the little Honda 250 dirtbike is for. I keep it insured and street legal all year round, and that makes putting the Virago away much easier to do. When the sun comes out during the late fall and throughout the winter, we still go biking. My attention goes back to riding and exploring the backcountry on the logging roads and trails. Looking forward to it.
You know, some weeks this column seems to just write itself. There will have been all sorts of things to write about and it will be done days ahead of time. On other weeks there seems to be very little to write about and all of a sudden it is Friday evening and I’m searching the foggy hidden crevices of my brain for something to say. This is one of those weeks. Nothing of interest has happened to catch my attention. Oh well.
So lets see what I can scrape up. This is fall so the bears are hungry. Four of them have moved into what qualifies as the down town section of Squamish. So be careful while walking around in the dark through the ally-ways if that’s what you tend to do. There are also bear tracks all over the place at Britannia. Big tracks.
We missed the lunar eclipse because it was overcast. October tends to be cloudy and wet due to the fall storms that pump in off the Pacific. Mind you, the sun does come out and when it does it gets quite warm and bright. The wet days just out number the sunny ones but the storms are interesting if you even notice them. The locals don’t seem to. They will be out playing on the street or doing yard work, totally unaware of an on-going downpour.
Had to purchase a new pair of work boots. Can’t complain, my last pair lasted about 10 years and would still be going strong but the seams have started to come apart. Way back in the 70’s when I worked in land surveying and was therefore walking around in mud and wet grass all the time I used to rot out a pair of boots in about 6 months. They last a lot longer when you spend your day sitting in a machine. Old age seems to be their biggest enemy. Mind you, while maybe my boots didn’t last very long back then, I sure stayed better shape myself.
d
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Clyde
does Geek Speak.
This has just been brought to my attention by my friend Peter.
You know when you have taken a number of digital pictures in a folder and you want to send them to friends and family. Then you realize that they average a half a meg each in size. Way too huge to send to people on dial-up whatever. Do this. Open your folder of pictures, select all you want to send, and right click/send to/ mail recipient/make all pictures smaller. Wow, I tried it a few times sending to myself and they were great resolution and size. Windows will automatically resize your pictures for email. Cool! Good enough quality even for PowerPoint.
****
Greetings
everyone!
Well, I
saw my first ice of the season this morning. I had Bailey out back for his
morning pee and there was about a half inch of water on a plastic carton on the
patio and it was frozen solid. Adam said he had to scrape his windshield before
driving to work this morning as well. Brrrrrrrrr…….. the temps are dropping to
October norms and I don’t like it. I was able to get on the bike for a ride
this afternoon but by the time I was on my way home an hour or so later, the
temp had dropped 10 degrees c. It won’t be long now before I have to winterize
the bike and park it in the shed. It was a short biking season but then again
we only bought our motorcycles in mid August. I’m already looking forward to
next spring when we can get them on the road in warmer and sunnier days. It’s
definitely something to look forward to and I hope make the winter shorter.
*
The pond
is clear as a bell and fishless! I guess we’ll just have to go without them
next season. It’s much easier to keep the water clear when you don’t have to
worry about killing the fish with the algae clear solution. We’ll see what the
spring brings and will have to be creative when it comes to decorating the
pond. We’ll probably add some plastic fish or whatever. It’s going to be
difficult to make it look interesting without making it look cheap but I have
faith in Carole’s ideas and I’m sure she’ll come up with something. We’re going
to spend tomorrow removing the last of the yard stuff and packing it away for
the winter. It’s supposed to be sunny and cool so it’s a good day to get that
all done. I think I’ll have enough room in the shed to store my Suzuki and
we’ll keep Adams Yamaha in the garage with his Mini and the MGB. Looks like the
Jeep will just have to spend the winter in the driveway. At least I don’t have
to get up and scrape the windshield to head for work anymore so if it’s ccccold
and icy or frosty out in the mornings I’ll grab a cup of tea and wait till the
sun melts the yucky stuff off the Jeep. That’s one of the advantages of being
retired!
*
This week
has been interesting with the new High Speed Cable internet. We all thought
we’d be spending more time on the computer than before. However, with the much
faster response to every action taken or request made, we find we are finished
with what we want to accomplish in much less time than before. It’s so nice to
be able to click the mouse and see the video we are opening within seconds
instead of huge blocks of minutes or in some cases hours. Carole and I don’t do
much in the way of downloading but Adam does a fair amount of it in conjunction
with his music studio work. It’s a definite advantage for him. I’ve always said
that I didn’t see the need for High Speed because I have loads of spare time
now but I really do appreciate the speed of this system now that we have it.
When you know that working on something new on your computer won’t take as long
as before, it makes you want to try learning new stuff.
*
With the
weather having taken it’s time cooling down, the leaves have stayed on the
trees longer this year. Carole and I took a drive a couple of days ago to see
the colours and they are magnificent. We started out to drive to Hockley Valley
to view the colours but found the beauty of the Elora area was as beautiful as
any and spent our afternoon there. There is a “Lookout” spot just outside
Inverhaugh near Elora that overlooks the Grand River. You can see for miles
from this vantage point and we stopped there and took a few pictures. The day
was a little overcast but we managed to find some sunny intervals that lit up
the fall foliage in the river valley. It’s a beautiful spot and enabled us to
enjoy the view without driving all the way to Hockley Valley near Orangeville.
I’ll load the pictures
onto the computer and include a few with this Ontarion. If Doug deems them
acceptable, maybe he’ll place them on his site for your viewing.
Gotta go
for now!
Thanks
for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next time in The
Ontarion Report!
Bye for now…. Greg.
PS:
Something To Think About>
A joy
that’s shared is a joy made double.
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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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