The Squamidian Report – Jan. 13 / 07
Issue # 242
Also in this issue:
An Article Worth Reading
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Vehicle brakes tend to be rather important! We all use them and we all take them for granted. Sue’s car is an ’02 Malibou. All the Malibou’s and all the Impalas’ share the same foundation and braking systems. Those braking systems are way too light for medium size cars. In many parts of the country GM gets away with running lighter than necessary brake components because the hills are gentle and the driving is easy. The brakes ware out faster than they should but not fast enough for the car owners to actually notice that they have to do more brake jobs than other similar sized vehicles.
Here in the coastal mountains and the rest of southern BC, brake ware rates on these cars is greatly accelerated. In fact, you are lucky to get 15,000 k out of a set. Within a couple of thousand k after a complete brake job, the fronts will begin to chatter and pulse because the undersized rotors will become badly warped from overheating. The dealers freely admit there is a problem (once you own the car) but explain there is nothing they can do about it except keep replacing brakes. So every second or third oil change also requires a brake job to be included. Costly and inconvenient.
We knew Sue’s car was in need of it’s next brake job but finding an opportunity to have it done was not easy with her putting in the extra time needed to get settled into her new branch. So we booked ahead for the first Saturday that she would be free… last Saturday. Then, on the preceding Wednesday as she was driving back to Squamish from the city her brakes began making even more noise than usual and her braking ability dropped to scary lows and her brake warning light came on. Because it was late and traffic was light she decided to continue on home as there was really nowhere to pull over anyway. She drove slow and careful but each application of the brakes brought louder noises and less braking results. She managed to limp the car home but knew it wasn’t going anywhere soon except down to get the brakes fixed.
She carefully drove it down to the dealer the next morning and then took the bus into Vancouver where she rented a car to get home with and go back in with on Friday morning. When the dealer checked out the ‘no brakes’ complaint, they couldn’t believe she had driven back from the city with it. One of the front disk pucks had warn through, letting the hydraulic ram push through the back of the puck and right into the rotor. Soon after that, the whole disk assembly self-destructed. The set on the other front side was in the process of self-destructing. Because cars have redundant systems, she had rear brakes for a while but once all the fluid was gone from the main system and backup system was almost gone, she really only had brakes working on one back wheel when she pulled onto the dealer lot. They hadn’t believed her when she told them she had NO brakes, they could barely believe what they saw when they pulled off the wheels. They had to order in parts so it was late Saturday afternoon by the time it was fixed with all new components and ready to go. Just thought I’d share that with you.
*
Like I told everyone, I had to ditch my old Email addresses because I was receiving more Spam than I could stand. For the last several months I was getting close to 100 Spam’s per day. Many were gibberish, many were nonsense and many were trying to sell me products that claim to enhance certain body parts. I have no idea how my address ended up in the hands of the jerks that do the Spamming but it bugs me that I have to supply the bandwidth for their shady endeavors and that I have to change my address to get some relief. Anyway, hopefully this one will stay Spam-free for a while. At least Shaw Cable makes it easy to delete old addresses and set up new addresses. Except for the inconvenience, it might be a good anti-Spam strategy to become a moving target.
doug
****
Squamidian reader Wayne sent me a rather interesting article on Climate Change that I hope you will take the time to read. It was bit too long to include here so I’ve simply supplied a link to the article as it is posted on the What We Now Know web site. Follow this link and then click on the ‘Next’ page button at the bottom right of the first page.
http://www.investorsinsight.com/wwnk_va.aspx?EditionID=450
****
Hello
everyone!
Well we’re into 2007 and so far so good. I though
we were destined for a green January but here in KW we had snow on the ground
for the past two days. It’s almost gone today but I’m sure we’ll get more
before the month is over. We had about 2” of snow on the ground on Wednesday
and I went out to blow it. When I got outside the stuff was so fluffy that it
wasn’t worth starting the blower for so I grabbed the shovel and in a matter of
10 minutes I had the driveway and sidewalk cleared to the concrete. I actually
enjoy clearing the snow and it gives me a little exercise to do it by hand.
Looking out the window just now, the snow is almost completely gone and they’re
forecasting rain for today. As long as we don’t get the rain that BC has been
getting for months I’m ok with a little. We’ve seen a lot of motorcycles on the
roads in the weather we’ve been having. Adam and I even went to the Toronto
Motorcycle Show last weekend. It’s a sure sign of spring (usually) when the
bikers take to the roads but this is a tad early. Actually it’s just a
continuation of last years riding season. If the amount of snow we get doesn’t
get any heavier than what we’ve had so far I’m sure the bikers will make it a
full year of riding that will spill into this coming spring. I myself am a fair
weather rider. I don’t even like riding on the cooler days let alone trying to
do it in the winter months. I can wait for April to get the motorcycle out of
storage.
*
I have
been thinking of all the stories I could tell about the experiences both
emergency and non emergency from my years on the fire department. I thought I’d
share one with you this week. Like they say, sometimes you have to be there to
appreciate the humor in something but I’m sure you’ll all get a chuckle out of
this one.
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT ON CHICKEN FARM ROAD
Hey I do have another quick shit story for you.
We were working night’s one shift and around 10pm we got a call to an old
chicken barn on fire up on old Northfield Dr. Do you remember Northfield Dr?
It's the first road to your right that runs off King St way up at the north end
of Waterloo past Conesoga Mall. It runs out to the town of Conestogo. In fact
it used to be called Conestoga Rd. There was a chicken barn on the road
not far off King St. We used to take our muscle cars up there from Sonny's and
drag a 1/4 mile strip that we marked off out in the boonies. (at least it was
the boonies back then) LOL! Anyway, the chicken barn was fully involved as we
say in the fire service. Flames at least 50' in the air as we approached. We
spent the next 4-5 hours dumping water on the building to try to keep it out of
the field of 3' high weeds that stretched for a mile beside it. We finally
managed to get the fire out but the structure was a goner. As we packed up the
hoses and equipment my Lieutenant at the time Ted Geisel came to me and said
"Are we about ready to head back?" and I said "Give me 5 minutes
and we'll be on the way." Ted was a real great guy to work for and one
helluva good fire officer. He said "I got a problem!" He confided in
me that a couple of minutes earlier he felt like he had to take a shit. With no
porta potty in the area, he wanted to hold it till be got back to the hall. He
said he figured he could just let a little fart squeak out and relieve the
pressure. Well, I guess it was too close to the sphincter and once he relaxed
to let the gas out, he filled his shorts with whatever he had been eating and
drinking that day. Ted loved his booze too! LOL! As he stood by my Pumper
waiting for me to close the last of the cabinets so we could leave I could
hardly stand the smell!
Man did he reek!!!!! I told him I didn't want him in the cab with me on
the ride home and he'd better see if the guys would allow him to stand on the
tailgate with them. He managed to secure a place on the back of the truck and
held on till we got back to the hall. He headed strait to the locker room while
the rest of us cleaned up the trucks and equipment. About 10 minutes later, we
spotted Ted heading out to the rear of the station to the dumpster with a
plastic bag in hand. He tossed his shorts and uniform pants in the dumpster. We
laughed like hell about that one for days after. Actually for years! LOL! As we
sat in the lounge (kitchen) till sun up ( it was 4am when we first got back
from the fire) and laughed about his situation I noticed he had no socks on. I
said "Where are your socks?" Ted said the shit had run right down his
legs into his boots and he had to throw his socks out as well. Hahahahahah....
I still laugh about this whenever I think about it and it happened 30 years
ago! He also managed to get the Deputy to give him a new pair of boots the next
day. I guess the old ones were just too badly soiled to clean up.
Hahahahaaaa.... geeze, I'm still laughing!
What a great bunch of stories that 30 years produced. I really should
write a book about the goings on around the Fire Halls.
*
Having to
go to the washroom at the scene of an emergency is something that most people
don’t even think of when watching their local Fire Department on the news.
However, it doesn’t really matter what your situation Mother Nature plays no
favourites when it comes that natural process.
Guess
I’ll 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>
The shark
is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
****
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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