The Squamidian Report – Sept. 24 / 05

Also in this issue:

The Ontarion

Hi All,

You gotta love this late summer, early fall weather. Cool nights that are almost chilly with clear skies for star viewing and warm sunny days. The best, and really only planet viewing is just before daylight in the morning. Mars is just below and to the west of the moon and is nice and bright. Saturn is in the southeastern sky. The Andromeda Galaxy is visible through binoculars. It will be a naked eye object once the moon is no longer flooding the sky with reflected light. The temperature is dropping well below freezing up in the alpine country now and we will soon be seeing new snow up there. The leaves will soon be dropping from the alders that grow along the high logging roads, opening up our vistas for when we go dirt biking again.

Aside from the great weather, there is really not much happening right now out here in Lotus Land except that the western phone company Telus’s workers are on strike and the BC teachers are threatening to go on strike. Get this, the teachers are claiming that a long strike would have little or no impact on the students or their educations. That’s kind of a strange message to be putting out there.

And I suppose most of you watched the video on the news showing the airliner making the emergency landing in LA. That was an incredible display of flying perfection on the part of that captain when he kissed that plane down onto the runway, laser straight and steady as a rock. But what really caught my attention when watching it on the news was the unexpected ignition source. In this case there was no fuel to catch as the main gear held so no damage was done to the engines or fuel tanks. But maybe this explains some of times over the years that a plane has slid down a runway during an emergency landing only to suddenly bust into flames. As you watch that front strut slide along the asphalt, you see the tire and wheel assembly smoking from the friction. Then, as soon as they hit a painted center marking line, sparks and flame burst out and trail back under the aircraft. At the exact point where the center marking ends, the sparks and flame end, only to start again at the next paint marking. The effect must be similar to sliding a match over a smooth surface, then onto sand paper.

There has to be people out there a lot smarter than me that picked up on this and are in a position to look into or encourage a study regarding centerline paint being a possible cause or catalyst in aircraft runway fires. The training and professionalism of pilots mandate a perfect landing down the center of a runway. Maybe that’s not always the best idea under some circumstances.

d

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Warren and his son Jason went dirt biking while the rest of use had to work. He took some nice pictures to share with us.

http://www.tantalusviewretreat.com/Biking/ashlu1.htm

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

Well, here we go, it’s the second day of Fall and the sun is still shining here in KW. We’ve been having the most beautiful weather and it looks like it’ll continue for a while yet. As I’ve said in past Ontarions “Fall is my favourite time of year”. The temperatures are much more bearable than the heat of summer and the air is much clearer. Just as the world seems to come alive with green in the spring, Fall colours burst onto the scene and bring the surroundings to life in a different way. We’re lucky here in Ontario to be able to see such a vibrant change in our scenery. Out west where the mountainous surroundings are predominantly covered in green, they stay that way except for the addition of a blanket of white with the coming of the snow. Carole and I like to take drives in the country to see the beauty of the colours of the leaves. I’m looking forward as well this year to seeing these sights from the seat of my motorcycle. From what the weather man says, we’ll have a long mild fall so the bike riding should continue for several more weeks at least.

I’ll have to fulfill my promise to Doug yet and take my camera along on the country drives to record the beauty of rural Ontario so I can share it with Doug and Sue.

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I spent the afternoon on Tuesday cleaning out and reorganizing the contents of our shed. I intend to store my Suzuki in it for the winter. I knew when I put the shed up that I’d eventually find a good use for it and what better use than holding a man’s toys? LOL! Just kidding of course, we all know it holds our work implements as well. Speaking of which, it’s almost time to store the lawn mower as well. I can tell the lawn work is coming to an end. I only had to cut the back lawn today as the front is starting to slow in growth, another sure sign of seasonal change. We are thinking of doing away with the fish in the pond when I close it for the winter this year. We’ve been unable to successfully clear up the water in the pond and it’s time for drastic measures. We’re thinking the pond will be much less work if we fill it with chlorinated water next season. With the fish not visible anyway, the pond is most attractive for its natural look and sound. Who needs fish anyway! LOL!

We’re getting ready for the winter season by putting away the usual yard items. This year we should be much more organized in the shed. I’ve taken the big blue barrel that stood in the corner with all our shovels, rakes etc standing on end in it and given it away. It took these implements and placed them on hooks on the walls of the shed. This of course has cleared up a considerable amount of floor space. I’ve also tossed out a bunch of the junk that has accumulated over the past few years.

Isn’t it amazing what we save thinking it may one day be needed? We collect and collect and collect until one day we are up to our knees in collectibles and “voila” the garage sale is born. I’ve said “never again” to garage sales and I meant it so if we do some house clearing next spring, the local Salvation Army will be the lucky recipient of our 33 years of collecting. I’m so glad my cousin who lives down the street bought a truck on Wednesday of this week. He said as I drove him to Cambridge to get the truck that anytime I need a truck to just drop over and pick up the keys. Looks like he’ll be parting with the truck for a couple of afternoons come Spring. Over the years of my life, I’ve owned several pick up trucks. They are one of the handiest vehicles anyone could own. The secret is to buy one that doesn’t require a large investment. That way you don’t feel guilty when it sits idle in the driveway for days and weeks on end. You know that although you don’t drive it every day, it’s always there if you need to haul something. Not to mention the phone calls that invariably come from friends and neighbours when they know you have a truck. I never begrudged helping anyone out with my truck. Most times they would offer to put a little gas in it for the use. Even at today’s prices for gas it’s a lot cheaper to put a little gas in your friend’s truck than to buy your own, especially when you have no steady use for one. I’m sure I’ll own another truck some day but for now I think I’ll just take advantage of my cousin’s offer. I have a trailer hitch on the Jeep but I don’t own a trailer. I either have to borrow one from a friend or rent one from U-Haul when I need to haul something. Life goes on!

Thanks for tuning in everyone and I look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontario Report.

Bye for now….. GREG.

PS: Something To Think About>

I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it!

Mae West (My Little Chickadee 1940)

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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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