The Squamidian Report – Feb. 4 / 06
Also in this issue:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
As many of you may or may not know, I post each weeks Squamidian Report onto my ‘thedougsite’ website. That makes them visible to anyone who wants a web version rather than an Email version. It also makes available all the past issues, starting with the first rather crude attempt back on May 4, 2002. So this past Saturday after sending out the Jan. 28 issue I proceeded to upload the issue only to find out that the server that houses my site was down. Now that is frustrating. I couldn’t FTP the files up or even view my site in my browser. Other sites on the Easyhosting servers were also down including Warren’s. I don’t know when the server went down but by late afternoon or early evening it was back up. A bit frustrating but that was the first time there has been an interruption that I know of. Oh well, everything is fine again now.
While waiting for the server to come back up I did a bit of poking around on my sites on my hard drive and realized that they currently include over 750 files. The version of my sites on the server are simply mirrors of the ‘master copies’ on my computer. I also realized that Greg’s first Ontarion column was introduced on Feb. 22, 2003. He has been generously contributing for three years as of this month. Wow. Gotta respect and admire the guy. That’s a big endeavor requiring a lot of commitment.
I also realized that our 200th issue of the Squamidian will be on this coming April 1/06. That’s not very far away. We’ll have to get as many of you to contribute for that one as possible. But don’t forget that any of you are welcome to contribute whenever and as often as you want.
I also got to thinking about what’s all involved in the weekly publication of even a tiny little Email newsletter like our Squamidian. First off, each column has to be written. That may sound obvious but it’s not that simple. You have to come up with something to write about. Some weeks an idea jumps right out at you and demands to be written up. On weeks like that the column just seems to write itself. Or if you are in a mischievous or sarcastic mood it is often easy to come up with something. But if there has been no interesting events or nothing to capture your attention or inspire you, writing a column can be quite difficult and the results quite uninspiring. But that’s life.
When mine, Greg’s and any other contributions are all in I then have to assemble the whole thing as a Word document where I can clean up and standardize the formatting, insert any needed web links and on a very rare occasion, edit something. This is an open forum and unless there is a major error somewhere, I never change anything someone has written. I think the only time I’ve actually had to change anything was once when Greg forgot what year it was. Then I have to assemble any pictures that have been submitted or are intended as part of an article and create the needed web pages for uploading. They need to be uploaded to my sites and tested before the Squamidian can be published. So there can be a fair amount of site updating and maintenance involved. The Squamidian itself has to be saved as an HTML page and posted to the site. Once all is ready, I then Email out the given weeks issue. Even here, it is not cut and dried. There are several readers who do not want to be involved in any peripheral chatter that may occur. They get their copy privately. There are other’s who’s ISP rejects the Squamidian as Spam if it is sent with multiple addresses in the ‘To’ field, they need private delivery. There is even one ISP who has blacklisted my Email address as a Spam source simply because it was the source of a newsletter that contained multiple addresses. So there are always new problems popping up.
When I send the newsletter, I send it to myself as well. That accomplishes two things. I know once my copy arrives that the mailing was successful at least in general, and I can re-test any web links. So a good part of my Friday evenings and Saturday mornings are taken up with getting the Squamidian out. But it’s well worth it. I stay in touch with people that I would normally not have had a reason to be in touch with had we never left Ontario, and it makes for a great computer and Internet related hobby as well as an on-going challenge. So far my personal mandate has been to share the adventure of moving to and living on the west coast. I’ll keep trying to follow that mandate, but may at times in the future drift off into other areas. Case in point, I’ll be visiting Ontario in February, flying in on the 17th and flying back out on the 26th. This visit will encompass Vivyan’s 80th birthday celebrations which have been somewhat dampened by that bad fall that has laid her up. Needles to say, my column that week will be about my prospective of what’s happening in Kitchener rather than on the coast.
So that’s a brief glimpse of what is involved in publishing our little newsletter. I always look forward to articles and information contributed by others of you. They add to the diversity of what we are doing and it makes it more interesting for all. I always look forward to any comments and peripheral chatter as well. It shows that something caught someone’s attention enough to inspire him or her to type out a few words on their keyboard. So again, don’t be shy, if you have something to add to the weekly conversation, send it in so I can include it in the next Squamidian Report.
*
And on a totally unrelated subject, except for the fact that it is something to write about, it must be frustrating to be a weather forecaster around here. One day this week we were put under a heavy snowfall warning. Within minutes the sun came out and it was nice for the rest of the day. Then it rained again of course. But speaking of rain, while we didn’t set a new ‘consecutive days of rain’ record due to a rather lame technicality, we did set a new record for the number of days of rain in the month of January, 29, up from the old 28. We also set a new rainfall amount record for January. Snowfall records were also set. The old record for snowfall in January on Whistler was something like 4.56 meters. That was broken by a whole day of heavy snowfall. Add to that the stuff that accumulated since late summer and you can understand how 30 ft tall trees can be totally buried up in the mountains and why there can be enough of the stuff to stick around all summer.
Just to clarify things a bit, 29 days of rain does not mean it rained non-stop for 29 days. It means that it rained at some point during the day or night on each of those 29 days. So while this has been one of the wettest winters on record here, it is not yet ‘build a biblical boat’ weather by any means.
doug
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Hi everyone!
We’re getting closer and closer to Spring and I for one
can hardly wait. Adam and I spent a day last weekend working on our motorcycles
in the garage. We have them stored there for the winter but hadn’t finished
winterizing them. We finally put some stabilizer in the gas and decided not to
disconnect the batteries but to install fittings on them to allow the
connection of trickle chargers. These chargers are designed specifically for
the purpose of maintaining the battery over the winter. Usually the battery is
removed from the motorcycle and stored indoors. This is done to prevent the
battery from freezing. The charger eliminates the need for removal of the
battery. While enjoying the warm weather and sunshine of the day there were
about a dozen motorcycles that passed the house. It’s hard to believe that in
Southern Ontario in the dead of winter in January these vehicles would be
whizzing by on dry roads. I guess it’s just another feature of this mild winter
we’re enjoying. I’m sure that next year well be back to the normal heavy
snowfall of Ontario winters. They say this happens a couple of times a century
where the weather goes whacky and the world worries that the sky is falling or
some silly thing. I don’t happen to
think we’ll be seeing the Arctic ice melt and flood North America in the next
few years. This could theoretically happen but from all accounts of present day
scientists this won’t be for at least a few hundred years. I doubt anyone will
even remember any of us by the time it hits the fan. I say let’s just enjoy the
mild spell we’re having and keep our fingers crossed that it’ll last until
spring and then get REAL NICE!
*
My birthday was January 11th and I got to
celebrate it in Florida in the warm sunshine. Carole and I were taken out to a
“Ruby Tuesday’s” restaurant by our friends. When the meal was over, the three
of them made me eat a HUGE chocolate fudge brownie sundae. Actually they
brought a dish for each of them as well so they could gouge a hunk out of the
sundae out for themselves. I probably had 4 or 5 spoons full and to anybody that
isn’t diabetic that wouldn’t be a problem. However, it threw my glucose reading
off for a couple of days. I knew better than to eat the sweet gooy sticky
chocolaty delicious treat but figured I may never get to use a birthday in
Florida as an excuse again. Thus, the justification was there and real and I
pigged out! Doing this once or twice a year is no big deal but best not to make
a habit of it. I managed to regain my senses food wise before coming home and
thought I was back to normal. Well, when we got home from the sunny south
Carole and Adam had another celebration for me the following Sunday. As is the
tradition, Carole baked me a lovely Chocolate cake. Of course so as not to be
rude, I had to eat some of the cake. Back to buzzing for another day or two
again. Thank goodness I only have one birthday per year! LOL! Well, with that
occasion over for another 11 months I can relax and concentrate on staying
healthy again. It’s difficult to behave and not slip into the desert and treat
mode but it does get easier when you’ve been at it for a while. You just have
to decide whether you want to shorten your life or get as many years as
possible out of it. There’s a balance in there somewhere and it’s like the
health professional’s say “Everything in moderation!”
Guess I should 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>
Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul
remains unawakened.
Anatole France
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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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