The Squamidian Report – Sept. 10 / 05
Also in this issue:
The Perks of the Job
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Did you know there is a parking garage in down town Vancouver with an elevator with the buttons you push to go up or down marked with both numbers and brail bumps? Now is it just me or is it a bit strange to have brail on buttons that take you to your car!
We were in Vancouver to do some shopping last Sunday because even though it was supposed to be sunny so we could go dirt biking the rain from the night before had not yet stopped. So we did our shopping and headed home, north up the Sea to Sky highway. Just was we were coming into Squamish there was a rear-ender type collision in the southbound lane that pushed a car into on-coming traffic. We were the on-coming traffic. I saw the vehicle that did the hitting lock up its wheels (big mistake because at that point he could no longer steer) and I hit my brakes. However we were too close for it to do any good and the car he hit which had it’s wheels turned to the left for some stupid reason was pushed into the side of our car as we went by. The car that was hit was totaled, the front of the pickup badly damaged. Ours is just dinged from the driver’s door on back. No one was hurt which is quite remarkable.
Had I not hit the brakes we may have made it past the car but then it would have been right out into the on-coming lane and perhaps encounter the car behind us head on. We will never know, that is one of those ‘what if’ scenarios. As it was, we bounce it back into it’s own lane.
The pickup that did the hitting was pulling a trailer with a car on it, the trailer had no brakes and the road was wet. He was from California. The car he hit was a rental with Ontario plates, its driver from Mexico. That should make for lots of insurance red tape. And to top the whole thing off, the light fixture we purchased at Home Depot turned out to be defective so we need to take it back.
*
We used to vacation over on Vancouver Island every time we came out here over the years. However, I have not had the opportunity to get back over there since moving here four years ago. We decided to do an over-nighter to the Island and down the Sunshine Coast, the circle route. Perfect weather, sunny and clear. Our start and finish point is forty-five minutes up the highway at Horseshoe Bay where we caught a ferry to Departure Bay in Nanaimo. We could have easily spent a week or more exploring or re-visiting anywhere on the Island but our time was limited.
There are two ways to head up-island, the new multi-lane inland highway or the old highway that follows the coast and passed through the small villages and towns. That’s the way we took, stopping in Qualicum Beach where you can sit on miles of beach and gaze across at the mainland mountains back on the other side of the Straight of Georgia. We took a motel room at the same motel we have stopped at over the years in Courtenay and then walked to the air-park. There is a pathway that leads all the way around it and includes wandering through the estuary where the Puntledge River meets the ocean. There are numerous seals poking their heads up and splashing with their tails. There are all sorts of shore birds.
We were standing on a wooden foot bridge over the mouth of a salt-water slough, gazing out over the Straight when the water beneath us started to rush inward. The tide had begun coming in and was creating rapids as it squeezed through the 30-foot opening. Kind of cool.
There are clumps of blackberries growing along the path, hanging heavy with berries that are just starting to ripen. These things have thorns right out of a mid-evil torture chamber. We walked the path that evening and first thing the next morning. Just one of those things we do when we are there. Because we were on a short two-day trip we headed for the ferry at Little River just north of Comox for the ride over to Powell River on the Sunshine Coast. As you sail out into the Straight the mountains of Vancouver Island unfold into view. The Comox Glacier seems to hang over Courtenay and Comox even though it is about 20 miles inland. If the town of Comox sounds familiar, it is because that is where CFB Comox is located.
Powell River is a mill and lumber town build on the west facing slopes of the coastal mountains as they over look the water. It’s a nice looking place but I’ve never spent much time there so I can’t really tell you much about it. We headed south on highway 101 down to Saltery Bay to catch the ferry over to Earl’s Cove. That ferry is not timed to work with the others so there is a long wait, which we did at Mermaid Cove, a sheltered little bay hemmed in by huge trees. The kind of place you could fall asleep while lying on the smooth rocks.
Once across Jervis Inlet to Earl’s Cove we drove on down to Gibson’s, made famous by the old CBC Beachcomber’s TV show back in the 80’s. From there we caught the ferry back to Horseshoe Bay and were home an hour later. Great little trip, over too fast. The Sunshine Coast has towns and villages, paved highways, shopping malls and anything you would want but there is no road access to or from the outside world. No road was ever build though or over the rugged Coast Mountains. You can only get there by boat or air. I’ve posted two pages of pictures at this web link for your viewing pleasure.
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b2/Circle/circle.htm
Now here’s a cool thing to do. A quick trip up to Whistler on the motorcycle for lunch. Perfect day for it, I think Sue was a bit on the chilly side by the time we got back but it was a nice ride. Traffic was light, there were some fluffy cumulous clouds playing with the mountains and the bike is running great.
d
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I am very fortunate to work for a company that offers me new and exciting challenges everyday. The company I work for is called Rocky Mountain Production Services in Whistler, BC. We do audio, video and lighting services for everything from Elton John, Faith Hill and Diana Krall concerts to corporate events for Smirnoff, Oakley and Haley Hansen.
This past week I worked for the Red Bull Elevation Tour. Basically extreme BMX-style competitions where the riders would perform acrobatics in the air on their bicycles. We seriously had jumps that put the riders 30-40 feet in the air over a rough dirt course. We even had one of the riders make history by spinning his bike underneath himself 3 full rotations (1,080 degrees) and land it! These guys and their bikes were doing back flips, front flips and many things the majority of us would never attempt to do into a swimming pool. My job gives me an all access pass to the entire event so I can go into restricted areas to really get up close to the action. Pretty cool...
However, the weekend before I got a pretty neat experience offered to me. We were doing a job for the Anthony Robins (the motivational speaker) Platinum group. I believe it is $60,000.00 US to become a member. As part of this event we turned the Whistler Bungee Bridge into a first class bar/restaurant. A covering was put over the bridge and the event was held at night so no one knew that they were not in just another private club. We had a band playing, indoor lighting, a full catering staff. It was a perfect surprise. The head/MC of the conference was hidden behind a cloth wall strapped in and ready to jump off the bridge. We had a full video crew ready to broadcast the jump on the flat screen TVs placed around the event. The MC came over the loud speaker and gave a speech. On cue the cloth wall fell, The entire bridge and valley below was lit up and the video crew filmed as he jumped. Very cool intro to the night. Anyways their entire party was to jump off the bridge, eat, drink and have fun. Once everyone was gone myself and two of my work friends were offered a jump. We all went. This is not your ordinary bungee jump over a parking lot. It is approx. a 200 foot fall above a raging river below. I have never done anything like that before. The hardest thing is actually jumping off the bridge. You know it is probably safe. You know that you most likely will make it back up alive. But even then your body really does refuse to go. You have to force yourself off the bridge. Well I did it and I am alive. Falling like that is a very strange feeling. People are not designed to not have ground beneath their feet. Anyway it was a very unique experience! After working a long day (in my industry a long day is considered to be 20 hours straight and over) bungee jumping sure wakes you up!
Anyways, I usually don’t write much but I thought I’d share one of my adventures with everyone and to let everyone know I am still alive and well out here. For those of you who haven’t heard yet, Emily and I are getting married September 2006 in Ontario. (So the only people that have an excuse to not come is Emily and I, my dad, and maybe you east-coasters and Australians)
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello my
fellow Squamidians!
Well, the
kids are back to school and the mess has started to pile up on the sidewalk and
boulevard along side our house already. I’ve made 2 runs a day up the side of
the house to pick up everything from school papers to pop cans. I guess they
don’t know how to carry this junk home to dispose of it properly. I’m tempted
to strap a big blue barrel to the lamp post on the boulevard. I wonder if
they’d take the hint and use it or………..would they abuse it? Hmmmmmmmmm… just
might give it a try. From what I’ve seen in the past with waste paper
receptacles in the bus shelter that used to be across the street, they’d just
throw their trash on the ground around the can. I’ll have to give this one some
thought. It might be worth a try. Actually, maybe I could call the city and
have them place a garbage barrel and sign at the post as a trial run. I’ll give
the board of works a call in the morning and keep you posted as to the results
of both the request and what happens afterward if anything. It isn’t the kids
or people that wait at the bus stop up the street another 200’ but the kids
that walk to and from school that drop the scraps at their feet. I don’t know
about any of you but when I was a kid if I dropped my trash at my feet I would
get my fanny paddled if my folks found out. Not to mention you’d get a tongue
lashing from any adult that happened to witness the incident. I truly don’t
remember seeing any amount of litter on the roadsides when I was a kid. I think
it’s a phenomenon of the late 20th and early 21st
century. It seems to me that from sometime in the 80’s this became more of a
problem on our streets. Anyway, I’m getting tired of picking up after other
people and it is definitely worse during the school year than in the summer. In
the spring it’s amazing what I’ve found once the snow melts away. I’d say I
fill 3-4 large green garbage bags with trash each spring when I first clean up
around our property. It’s a damn shame when you think of it!
*
Well, we
finally got a new stop sign and post at our corner last week. I don’t think I
told you all about this but if I did, skip to the next paragraph! LOL!
It was a
Tuesday evening about 2 weeks ago. It was late around 2am, Carole was in the
kitchen fiddling around and I was on the computer ……. fiddling around. We had
both slept in a little that day and were wide awake so decided to stay up for a
while. Things were pretty quiet until we suddenly heard a loud bang and some
screaming and shouting out front. I looked out of the office window to the
street below just in time to see four kids about 15 years old running away and
laughing. I headed down to the front yard to see if I could figure out what the
bang had been. Well, it was quite obvious when I got out there. Right in the
middle of the road was the 4x4x8’ post with the street signs and stop sign
still intact. I went out onto the road and hauled it back to the boulevard.
This post had been very well worn at the grass level from years of whipper
snipping by the previous owners of this house as well as by me. I would also
spend a half hour about 3 times a year pulling nails screws and staples out of
the darned post from people’s garage sale signs. By the looks of things these
kids had pulled or pushed on the post and it finally broke off at the base. It
actually split from the base up to about the 3’ mark before it broke right off.
I leaned the remnants of the post against the light standard out front and went
in the house to phone the police. I was surprised that the dispatcher told me
she’d have a city crew out within a half hour to put up a temporary stop sign
in it’s place. She also called me back about 10 minutes later to ask if it
would be OK for an officer to stop by the house to ask me some questions. I said
I’d be up so there would be no problem. I actually took a drive around the
block to see if the kids that ran by were up at the corner store. It’s open 24
hrs a day now and they are quite often up at the plaza hanging around rather
than home in bed where they should be at such late hours. I spotted 4 young
teens on the other side of the block. I thought I had seen 4 boys run by but
this group included one girl about 14. I went home and minutes later the
officer arrived. He asked if I could identify the kids and I said no, it was
too dark to get a description. However, I did tell him about the 4 young kids
on the other block. He thanked me for my concern and report and said he would
take a run over to talk to them if they were still there. I told him that if he
got a look at their clothes or hands they just might have white paint chips on
them from the flaking colour on the old sign post. He said “Good thought” and
headed off down the street. I never saw him again or heard if they caught
anyone but I felt better having done my civic duty. About 20 minutes later, I
heard a vehicle out front again. I checked and sure enough, it was a city works
truck with a temporary sign post. I went out and thanked the fellow for coming
out so promptly with the sign. He said he was on call and goes out for the same
reason every night about 3 or 4 times. He said if it isn’t street signs it’s
broken bus shelter glass. I asked if they could put a steel sign post up this
time and he assured me that he would make it a metal one. He even cut his hand
on the staples of the old one as he loaded it into his truck. I guess I must
have missed one! LOL! By noon the next day, there was a shiny new metal post
and stop sign erected on the corner. At least the neighbourhood garage sale
people can’t staple their signs to this one. They’ll have to use electrical
tie-wraps to hold up the advertising from now on. With that in mind, I won’t
have to worry about brushing my shoulder up against all those sharp staples
while cutting the lawn anymore. I can’t count how many times I’ve cut myself
doing just that. It’s usually the same day I decide to spend a half hour
removing the staples etc come to think of it! LOL! Hmmmmm…….. this all reminds
me, I have to mow the lawn again tomorrow.
Well, I
guess that’s about all for this week folks! Thanks for tuning in and I look
forward to talking to you again next time in The Ontarion Report.
Bye for now…. GREG.
PS:
Something To Think About>
A genius is a man who has two great ideas.
****
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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