The Squamidian Report – Sept. 3 / 05
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Hi All,
Well, had things worked out as planned, Greg could quite possibly have written his Ontarion from right here on my computer at the Squamidian Central offices. We would have being entering a pretty great week of visiting, exploring and adventuring. Oh well, can’t knock him for looking after his health. There will be other opportunities in the future. On the ‘up side’, this saves us from having to tidy up the house and put on clean cloths.
It’s been a slow week adventure-wise out here in Lotus Land. About the biggest excitement I’ve had was to rescue a couple of banana slugs that were trying to cross a paved road. Actually, they weren’t even banana slugs now that I thing about it. Banana slugs are yellow to light brown, these were black making then the run of the mill garden variety around here. They were about 6 inches long, same size as a hot dog wiener and both seemed to have it in their slimy little minds that a trip across a paved road with lots of traffic under a hot sun was quite do-able. Both would have become little slippery patches had I not relocated them to some shady damp underbrush. No way of telling if they were grateful or even aware of my selfless act. But both left copulas amounts of secretion for me to remember them by. Kinda reminds me of that Bill Murray line from the Ghost Buster’s movie, “He slimed me”.
Something we don’t get near enough of here is nice sunrises and sunsets. The mountains get in the way. To have a colourful sunrise the sun has to shine under the clouds and illuminate their bottoms. We did however have a very bright colourful sunrise one morning with dark radial streaks breaking it into sections. These streaks were the shadows of distant mountain peaks that were blocking the sunlight from lighting the clouds.
To have a sunrise or sunset the clouds need to be high enough that the low sun can still hit their undersides while shining over the mountains. So even when we get one, it doesn’t last very long. But it was nice.
Anyway, this is quite a long letter so I won’t bother babbling any further. Make yourself comfortable and read on.
d
****
Well, after a year and a half of staying home I am finally returning to the work force!
I have just accepted a position with Warren Gibson Transport in Alliston, and am looking forward to working for them. It’s a company that I’ve been eyeing for about 4 years now. They have a stellar reputation in the industry, and from everything I’ve heard I think I will really enjoy working there.
However, there is a dilemma.
My going back to work means that my darling little Ella will now have to go into daycare. While on one hand I think this will be excellent for her in our quest to properly socialize her, there’s the nagging feeling that putting my child into daycare for close to 10 hours a day means that I’m a lousy mom.
Of course, she will be around other children, which she loves but doesn’t get to experience too often when she’s with me. Also, she will get more exercise, as well as more education than I can/ have been providing her with.
Really, my only concern is how this can affect her emotionally.
Will she grow up to resent me for it?
Am I being negligent?
Should I throw away all of my hard earned experience and take a job slinging coffee on evenings and weekends just to spend more time with her? Of course if I did this, I would then never get to see my husband nor would I be happy in my occupation. In fact, I would probably be downright miserable.
The bottom line is, if we want to live a certain lifestyle then I need to go to work, no ifs ands or buts about it. If I want Ella to be able to take the swimming lessons, dance class, art class, karate or whatever, I need the income.
How many other parents have experienced this tough decision? I can’t possibly be alone.
What can I do to ensure that Ella doesn’t feel neglected by me?
Will she know that I still love her just as much even if I’m not around as much?
I know that I have to give this a shot. I would kick myself for missing such an excellent opportunity if I didn’t at least try. Hopefully everything will work out beautifully.
Until then, if anyone has suggestions (or reassurances!) on making this an easy transition, or just relieving my guilt (both for leaving her and for wanting to), please feel free to send them my way!
****
Hi Doug, how are you? Jennifer wanted me to forward this report to share with your readers. She has lots of great photos as well - perhaps she could include a few to go with the report. I will suggest that she include a few of the funny ones. They are fantastic photos, and I haven't even seen the sandsculptures yet. Anyway, enjoy the report. I may read over it and put a few translations where Jennifer has decided to inject some of her German. Hope everyone enjoys it.
Karin.
Greetings everyone, I just got back from hanging out in France. "bitte, keine Neid (envy) -it wasn't THAT fun!" :) Okay, I did have fun, and it was a nice change, even though it's also great to be home again. Here's the promised report of my adventures. Pictures are still being processed! Love you all, hope you're well! Grüß aus Berlin, Jen :}
After two weeks of sunshine, sand, and technology not even advanced to the level of a microwave, a keyboard beneath my fingertips is a strange, yet distantly familiar feeling. Can you tell I haven't been on many holidays in my life? (well, aside from my globe-trotting, but I would hardly file that in the same drawer as the last nine days) We went to France. West coast, a little past Bordeaux, near a small town called Hourtin. The adventure rolled to a start on the 15th, sometime in the early afternoon. -Ok, maybe it began the previous few days with crazily buying everything for the trip and cleaning the house. Martin ("the dude from the other room", as we call him... when we're not calling him 'Graffy' or 'Hase' (Bunny)) was also going to be away for one of the two weeks, so I wasn't taking any chances with things rotting or acquiring consciousness while we were all away.
Sunday night we went to Ingmar's parents' place to get some extra playthings (boat, badminton racquets and so on and so forth) and some other useful things (Tupperware and dictionaries).
Monday morning we went to rent a car for the drive. An Opel station wagon, fairly nice car. Diesel too, and it had a low fuel consumption, something like 8L/100km, which the guys didn't expect, saving us a few hundred euros. We also got the camping ground for much cheaper than they'd calculated, so there was an extra 300 euros to spare. Only the food was incredibly expensive. They had a decent range of foods from all over the world, so I got the privilege of enjoying Cheerios for a week, though I failed to find a particular brand of French mustard that Ingmar's mom brought me from one of her France trips. Our last stop at a Marché also led us to buying 12 2L bottles of 'Orangina' (avec sa pulpe!) -A nicer tasting carbonated orange juice with pulp in it. Ingmar reeeeeallly likes the stuff... If you can't tell.
Anyway, enough about groceries! With Ingmar and Andre taking it in turns to drive through the night, we would arrive in the Médoc area around 8am, and thus grab something to eat (since even Macdonald's closes at 11pm in France -we weren't quite expecting that, unfortunately. so Bordeaux was a welcome stop when we finally got there)
We originally wanted to rent a mobile home in Lacanau, in the Gironde/Médoc region, but there was a surfing championship running that weekend, so basically everything was full to the brim. We drove a little further north along Lac de Carcans/Hourtin and found a little camping ground called L'oree du bois. They were also fairly packed, but they did have some space for us to pitch a tent for two nights. After that we got to move to a mobile home for another two nights, and then had to move again to a bungalow for the last week, which was just a big tent but it had a fridge and cooktop too. I thought it was very military style, but oh well, beggars can't be choosers, so they say... It was a place to drop our stuff and sleep when we needed to.
Plus, after about 16 hours driving and being hungry and tired and needing somewhere to sleep, we were getting sick of going from one camping ground to the next. So, we set up the tent and said we wanted to go check out the beach nearby, but Ingmar sat himself down for a few minutes and then was out like a light, so we all followed suit. In the evening we did get around to going to the ocean beach, just to check it out. Ingmar also wanted to get some mussels from one of the restaurants on the little main street and I got a generous swab of candy floss from a stand there that could have easily had the same radius as me.
We still felt groggy from the ride, so took an early night. The next day we went to the lake, which -no jokes- was no deeper than our hips. Well, we walked a fair distance to the middle and most of the time it was barely deeper than my knees. We had the inflatable boat along, but most of the time it was better -quicker- just to walk where we were going (although the bottom of the lake could be enough to turn anyone's stomach -it had some organic layer into which one sunk with every step). The boat, however, did serve the purpose of holding some towels and a drink and the badminton stuff. Yes, we even played badminton in the middle of the lake.
During said game of badminton, the boat drifted off in the rising wind, and as I went to retrieve it, I saw something floating in the water, and being curious as to what it was, I had a look and found a very soggy praying mantis which, much to my surprise, sprang to life when I fished it out of the water.
The praying mantis is one of my favourite insects, if only just for their body structure, and their alertness. They always seem to be watching you... I was pleased to just sit down and watch it dry off. I was also this time able to see the wings perfectly, while the insect stretched them out in the sun. Unfortunately, I had left my camera in the car, so didn't have a chance to take a picture of that. Ingmar did need to go back on land at some point later, so he got the camera for me. I got some great photos too, though they'll have to come later, because I still have to get them from Andre. He brought his laptop along for photo storage. I'm hoping to get them by tonite. There was at least one from them I'd like to use for a new desktop image. ?
Later on I made a sand camel while waiting for the boat to dry off. We'd gotten tired and hungry over the day, so despite wanting to stay a little bit longer, we took our leave and stopped into Macdo's to see what they had to offer.
First thing we found was that it was darn expensive. We spent almost 30 bucks there. However, that tends to happen when one orders a lot... It also took a long time, but I think the stuff was pretty fresh. We also had a lot of fun trying to relay what we wanted in French. I think that was when my ten years of schooling began to resurface, albeit somewhat bloated and flaky. I also had to work as a translator for the guys, so maybe by now I can finally call myself trilingual. It does get tricky -and confusing- at some point, as I found out in later days... On the 18th we got to move into the mobile home, and Ingmar finally got to wield a pan again, although he did complain that it was tiny... (It was about half the depth of the one we have at home) and talk about spillage... Other than the dishes being tiny, the facilities were pretty good. Very clean, even though we had shared, outdoor showers and toilets (except for the 'luxurious' two nights in the mobile home). There were recreational areas for table tennis, and we played some badminton too. It was also within walking distance of the town.
After going food shopping at 'Shopi' (does anyone else think of the little dog on the Chum ads?) we sat down to a supposedly French breakfast. All that was missing for the cliché was that we chose to sit in the cool non-windy kitchen instead of outside on the porch.
It was a beach day. We went to Hourtin Plage on the Cote d'argent, (I thought that maybe the name was an allusion to the tourist prices of the food places there) overlooking the Atlantic ocean.
Reflecting on it now, I am a little surprised at how desensitised I have become to the beach... supposing I was ever much in awe of it before. I found it lovely to look at, but I never liked the chill and pull of the waves... Went for a walk instead and had some fun looking at the people. I enjoyed the freedom of the beach-goers (I saw a guy walking along wearing nothing but a pork pie hat) though the beach population seemed to comprise mostly of Germans.
Coming back from the two hour walk up and down the beach, we grabbed a much needed drink and read a bit. The boys also went for a dip again while I played around in the sand (as one does at the beach, of course).
Our stomachs drove us home fairly early, as Ingmar was still anticipating being able to exercise some cooking skills. Unfortunately, he was disappointed with his creation, as we couldn't locate any oregano in the shops and what is but a Bolognese without its herbs? I figured that one drops enough cheese into the mix, and it all tastes fine. (I would just like to mention that after three days of working on the amount of noodles and sauce made that night, the afore mentioned argument is void)
We declared the 19th "Recuperation Day", as we'd all suffered some sunstroke from the day before and wanted to all read in an unsandy, unsunny place. I also didn't feel like doing much after jamming my thumb in the door the night before. I also did a bit of doodling in the evening for some amusement, and the guys went to play some table tennis.
Next day, someone got the most imaginative and bright idea to go to the beach again (...), and halfway there I realised I must have a mission. Namely, the construction of something artistic using sand as a medium. I tell you folks... nothing seems to attract more attention and followers than a few mounds of sand...
On that day I was really just having a little bit of fun; no plan. I made a dragon at first and caught the eyes of many who mentioned a similarity to Falkor from The Neverending Story.
At some point Ingmar went to get something to eat and surprised me with the gift of a shovel upon his return, which facilitated the fabrication of a second sculpture -a camel- in about half the time, too.
Around 4pm I had to start thinking of a new problem, which was beginning to claw its way up the beach: the tide.
It was a feeble attempt at protection, I'll admit, to just dig a small moat around the sculptures, but I was fully aware of the mortality of the work when I began. Plenty of people lamented the destruction of the sculptures as the water licked away at them -a slow death- but I was pleased with the day's work and looked forward to doing it again sometime. What was a more pressing lament was that I had, in my eagerness to get to work, forgotten to put sunscreen on the strip of back my tshirt didn't cover. It was a mistake I paid for with two nights of discomfort, and numerous jokes and mortified expressions up until now. It's almost better now though -still dark where all else is pale, but I can laugh about it anyway.
I spent the evening learning and playing Canasta before we gave in to aching muscles and slept. The next chance to exercise my creative muscles came on the next day, when we once again struck out in search of sandy adventure. This time I was sure to slip slop slap everywhere with the sunscreen, that I might not repeat the mistake of the previous day.
As we marched along the beach, scanning the sand, attempting to calculate the best spot like the planners of the Taj Mahal... or Sphinx, whatever... Andre went into the water and Ingmar read. I grappled with my task, which not only comprised of a sculpture or two, but must incorporate some means of protecting them (as long as possible) from the tide.
I began with digging a moat some 50 cm wide and roughly 60 deep, but only got to a length of two metres before I got bored (I don't know how you can do it, Doug... maybe it's that you have machines to do the digging for you, and I had a measly plastic shovel, haha!) and began on the likeness of a crocodile. My reading muse lying on a blanket nearby inspired me to make a book for my sculpture too. That got quite a few laughs from passers-by.
Afterwards the guys decided to help me with fortifications on the outer walls and moat, stretching our construction to about 5 metres long and 3-4 wide. As the tide drew nearer and more people arrived to 'begin' their beach time, we probably had staked out the largest plot on the main drag.
Sometime later, after a break for refreshments, I began a second sculpture of another dragon (some may think I'm boring, but I think sand just lends itself wonderfully to reptiles) on the other end of our fortress before applying myself to digging trenches again. As the tide began sneaking in along the beaches from both sides, I began to regret not having listened to the little voice in the back of my head telling me NOT to extend the moat to the back of the fort, as the water also came in from the side and back, forming a sandbank for awhile before high tide. It was this little river that brought the first wall down. Our castle attracted even more attention on this second day, and all different tongues. I can't think of having experienced a more stressing linguistic switcheroo! Going from English to French to German constantly and back again wore hard on my already exhausted self. A lot of people took pictures; some people were practically hysterically delighted. It's still hard to cope with that kind of acclaim. Or should I say, it was a surprise.
My work also seemed to inspire some other groups of kids to build their own forts against the incoming waves, and also some sculptures (a group of boys made a single breast nearby), but we watched as they dissolved in the waves around us. The tide came; we too had to move our less waterproof things to higher land while we worked. The outer wall was doing pretty good -the moat keeping the breaching waves from my works for a time... However, as anyone knows, the might of the ocean cannot be bridled, and sand is its own enemy when used as the sole ingredient for walls. They became waterlogged and simply broke off in sheets on the inside, still protecting the interior for a time, but the rising water table also began to eat away at the crocodile first. His book sailed away...
The fate of the rest was never revealed to us, as our rumbling stomachs hauled us back to the car and finally back to a dry place and a bed. My last view was of a bunch of small children jumping on the main wall... spiteful little buggers, hahaha. Just kidding. They probably wanted revenge for having chased them away earlier and getting their parents to scream at them. Brats.
The weather had thus far been nothing short of fantastic those first few days, but on the 22nd it began to be more overcast and windy and cold. The wind was always coming from the north when we were there, mostly picking up around 2pm. We decided that on this day, we would give the boat on the lake another run, to see if we could find deeper water.
I think everyone knew that it was a crummy idea when we hit got to the lake. The water was wonderful, that's for sure, but the wind was bitingly cold, and when one got wet, one also got cold.
We walked/paddled out beyond the end of the pier and hooked the boat up to a buoy to test the water, and to get a bit warmer (out of the wind), but it was fairly senseless to head into the waves and wind, because we only ended up soaked.
In true comfort kid style, we turned back and it began to drizzle as well, making for a miserable mood on the beach. It was then we decided to go back to the camping ground and play some table tennis and cards instead. I won big in Canasta that night. ?
We had been procrastinating (and still are) getting some postcards, so we took a walk around the area of Hourtin, looking for some shops and chasing the local wildlife (lizards). We were also on the hunt for some books, as Ingmar had eaten his way through all three of the ones we had brought with us (one of them having been mine). We did in fact come across a bookstore (really surprising, I thought) where they even sold books in English and German. I happened to stumble upon Shantaram, which funnily enough was recommended in the Squamidian Report, and is absolutely as worthy of the praise it received there. It's simply a most extraordinary story, and an extraordinary 900-something pages too! I'm still reading it and I am very impressed.
So, I guess it might be obvious that I was pretty wrapped up in that book for those last two days. We were also thinking of heading back early, as the weather wasn't looking very good in the forecast. We did however take one last trip to the lake, where I went for a nature foraging walk, seeing what wildlife I could find. There was rather a lot, for a lace appearing very barren... All sorts of grasshoppers zoomed about, dragonflies, frogs, lizards and I even found a crayfish in his hole under some planks of wood.
I had some more fun with the lizards at the camping ground, too... Ingmar found a tiny one and managed to catch it and pass it on to me before he went to play some more table tennis with Andre, and as he left, a most bizarre thing happened. I sat down to look at the little lizard and take some pictures of it when an adult came storming across the yard in front of the bungalow and straight up my leg. I was wondering if this thing could have been the smaller one's parent, but even at its speed, I doubt it could have caught up to Ingmar from the other side of the camping ground that fast. Not only that, as I tried to catch the larger of the two, it darted straight at my camera (which was sitting on the chair next to me) and attempted to 'escape' into the black viewing screen. For no less than 10 seconds, either, before it gave up and tore off for the nearest tree. I was dumbfounded, to say the least... but amused, no less. ?
We gave up our vigil on the 25th and decided we'd had enough of sand and anyway, the rain had moved in again. Great weather for cleaning up... NOT. We collected our things together, cleaned the tents... somehow..., talked to the owners, and hit the road, stopping only for the purposes of getting drinks and refreshments for the way home. Read most of the way, until daylight faded. We got back to Berlin sometime nearing 5.30am and decided to take a few days holiday... from our holiday.
****
Hi and
happy September everyone!
Well,
it’s been a heck of an end to August and a hellish start to September. Is it
just me or is this world getting crazier every day? The southern states are in
turmoil and we’re all amazed every hour with the happenings in New Orleans in
particular.
I just
heard that a major typhoon in China has devastated a huge portion of that
country’s coastal region. It triggered land slides and deadly flooding displacing
hundreds of thousands of people. The US is in a difficult state itself right
now and they are usually the first to offer aid to ANY other country in similar
situations throughout the world. Other than Canada, I haven’t heard of any
other country offering aid to the USA. I may be wrong but isn’t it time for the
rest of the world to cough up on behalf of the States? China is in need of help
with their situation and are too proud to ask for it but just because they are
a communist country doesn’t mean their people are any less deserving of our
aid. It’s becoming a smaller world every day. Maybe these incredible disasters
will bring the world closer together. Although there will always be terrorists
in the world maybe just maybe these unifying disastrous situations will serve
to open everyone’s eyes to the fact that we the inhabitants of earth need each
other whether we think so or not.
*
The
weather that we all wished for is finally here. It was however, way back in May
or June that we should have had temps like these. Oh well, let’s not look a
gift horse in the mouth and just enjoy it while we have it. It’s perfect
weather for riding one’s motorcycle I’ll give you that! Sounds like Doug got
his Virago back on the road just in time. Or, maybe Ontarible is the only area
to have such perfect riding weather. No matter, I’m sure BC will have it’s
share of great late summer and fall climate as well. Here I go talking like
it’s almost over and winter’s staring us in the face. Maybe we’ll have one of
those winters that really aren’t winter. Let’s hope so!
Just in
case though, I’ve got the snow blower all tuned up and ready to go. Our lawn
mower is in rough shape but it runs well enough to last the rest of this
season. Not bad for an item that was bought in K Mart in the states for $119.00
in 1990. I guess we can’t ask for much more than 15 years out of such a
reasonably priced unit. I think I’m going to spring for a better quality than
the run of the mill department store MTD this time. I’ve been looking at a model
called the Snapper “Ninja” Mulcher. It’s got a 6.5 hp commercial grade engine
on it and costs little more than the MTD model sold in CTC or Wal Mart. They
say you get what you pay for but one can’t argue with the service we got out of
the K Mart cheapie we’re just about to toss in the scrap heap. Oh well, I’ve
got all winter to think about it so I won’t make the final decision now. Let’s
just hope the old one continues to work for the rest of this season.
Well,
that’s about all I have for this week. I look forward to talking to you all
again next time in The Ontarion Report.
Have a
great weekend.
Bye for now.. GREG.
PS:
Something To Think About>
A bayonet is a weapon with a worker at both ends.
****
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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