The Squamidian Report – March 10 / 07
Issue # 250
Also in this issue:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
I had kind of hoped the weather would start to behave itself once my parents and Cindy headed back to Ontario but it hasn’t really. The day after they left dawned cold and clear. And by cold I mean –10 type cold. Oh well, by the middle of this past week we had sunshine and mid teen temps as well as some nice warm spring rain. And then more cold rain. But for what its worth, Vancouver is pink with blossoms right now.
I should probably clarify a few things. That little side trip I took Lorne, Vivyan and Cindy on with me in Sue’s car up into the Garibaldi Park would have been smooth sailing a few days earlier, and the lookout is well worth the drive. The road had been clear and dry with only the snow banks along the sides to remind anyone of how it can be up there. But the night before we headed up it had been raining down in the valley and at our place. The rain had turned to snow and by morning we had a couple of inches on our street. But up in the mountains the rain had all been snow. As we climbed up the park road, the snow got deeper and deeper. The grader had opened the road up to the park’s parking lot so I didn’t think there would be much trouble. Besides, there are several places where you can get turned around if you need to. The rest of the road is a narrow single lane adventure.
We climbed up past a big open ploughed-out turnaround, and as we went on the snow kept getting deeper. The road itself had been cleared but there was packed snow on the base. The road was also getting steeper with the mountainside on our right and the drop-off down through the trees on our left. As we climbed and the road was getting steeper, I knew I should have turned around at the last place but I was now committed. If I stopped, I would not be able to get moving again. However, I knew there was another turn-around opportunity at the bottom of a switchback just before the road gets really steep below the lookout I had wanted to go to. We made it to that spot but found the turnaround to be taken up with 3 vehicles that had been left there by hikers or skiers. These vehicles had been blocked in by the grader and there was no way I could or would try to squeeze in beside them to get turned around. Trying the steep switchback was out of the question. Now that I was stopped, I could not pull forward again and even if I could have, I certainly wouldn’t have made it up the next section to the lookout.
That left only one option. I had to back down the kilometer or so to the turnaround area below. Even though we were in snow, the road is steep enough that all I had to do was leave the car in neutral and gently work the brakes. As a worse case, we could have slid off on the high side into the ditch. The low side over the edge was blocked by the snow bank built up over the winter so I didn’t have to worry about that. There were several places where all I could do was tickle the brakes to control the speed. Too much pressure and the front wheels would start to lock and slip and I’d loose steering control. After a while my passengers relaxed and we eventually made it down to the open turnaround. So we all had a fun adventure and were left with something to talk about. No harm done.
Another thing to elaborate on. The five of us had been up to Whistler for breakfast and a stroll through the tourist village. There is a chocolate store in there that sells good high quality chocolate, unfortunately at Whistler prices. But the chocolate is good. I picked up a little box of chocolate covered blueberries again and Lorne decided to get some as well. Back at the house he tried them and liked them. He talked Cindy into trying them and she hated them. Not just a simple disliking, she hated them with a passion. She hated them so much she was appalled by them. You’d think it had been chocolate covered cheese or something. Cindy, the world’s most likable, easy going, wonderful to have around person, was put into an almost unheard of bad mood by them. Go figure.
Of course the up-side was Lorne didn’t have to share any more of his chocolate covered blueberries with anyone.
*
On a totally different note, you may have heard about the 76 year old woman who is being sent to jail for 10 months for protesting the highway widening in West Van. She is a well know activist and has done time before for protesting logging operations and such. However, she gets 10 months for holding up a sign and refusing to move when numerous hit-and-run drivers, street racers and run-of-the-mill bad guys get off with anything from nothing to house arrest to a minimum slap on the wrist. Know why? I would like to know why too, but I can think of one reason. Crimes like killing someone who is crossing the road in a cross walk or running a red light and hitting someone, or robbing a variety store are crimes against the general public. On the other hand, protesting a government-sanctioned activity is a crime against a government. And governments wont’ stand for that. Governments must protect themselves from any threat, no matter how silly.
We are lead to believe that police forces and the laws they enforce are there for our protection. Wrong. They are there to control us, to keep the government safe from us. We are lead to believe that the forces are for our protection so we will all be in favor of using tax dollars to support the forces. But the mandate of any military or par-military force is to protect the government from it’s own people, and from outside. A little 76-year-old woman protesting a government decision is of much more concern to the ruling elite than any drunk driver that just happens to kill some innocent bystander ever will be.
doug
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****
Hello
everyone!
I don’t
know if any of the guys in the Squamidian have kept track of the vehicles
they’ve owned over the years from age 16 to present day but I have. I sat down
the other day and decided to write out the list. I finished with what I believe
is a complete list but there may be a set of wheels or two that I missed. When
guys are interested in cars they tend to remember them all. I’ve had everything
from a ’51 Morris Minor 1000 to a new Corvette and I’m still searching for that
perfect ride. I’ve had fun and haven’t regretted most of the vehicles I’ve
owned but there were one or two that I might have skipped over had I known
their characteristics. For instance I bought a 75 Pinto “Woody” Station Wagon
that just wouldn’t quit putting us in the poor house. I paid $2500.00 for it
and had it about 10 months. In that time I think I poured another $1500.00 into
the damned thing. I finally sold it in a friend’s yard sale. We were invited to
bring some of our “overstock” items to a friends place on a Saturday and sell
them in a joint family yard sale. We took a stereo, a couch and chair and a few
odds and ends over. We managed to sell everything we took over and by the mid
afternoon were scraping the bottom of the barrel for items to display. I had a
guy wandering around the driveway for a few minutes who suddenly turned to me
and said “Excuse me, that nice little Woody station wagon wouldn’t happen to be
for sale would it?” I said “As a matter of fact, it is!” “What kind of money
would you like to spend on it?” He said he would be willing to go $800.00 as
is. I had just bought an ’82 Ford F100 short box / step side pickup and I was
looking at painting it and redoing the interior. It just so happened that the
prospective buyer of the Pinto said he was in the auto upholstery business. I
said “I’ll tell you what, if you give me $1000.00 even and recover the bench
seat in my “new” truck you’ve got yourself a deal!” The guys went over and
looked at my truck and said I’ll be right back with the cash. He was gone for
about a half hour and was beginning to think he had skipped out on the deal.
All of sudden I felt a tap on my shoulder and there stood the buyer with ten
$100.00 bills in his hot little hand. He told me if I wanted to bring the truck
over to his shop in Bridgeport the following Monday he’d be glad to help me
pick out a cloth and design and within a few days he’d have the seat done to
seal our deal. I grabbed his money and wrote him a receipt for $500.00, signed
over the ownership and the Pinto was his! By the end of the following week, he
had finished the truck seat for me and we were both happy. I never heard from
him again so I assumed he was happy with the Pinto. I said to Carole that I
figured he’d be calling me every second day bitching about the piece of junk
I’d unloaded on him but I never heard a word. Carole said the reason I never
heard from him was because we had repaired or replaced every defective part on
the darned Pinto so he had himself a perfectly fit automobile at our expense
and no reason to call us back. LOL! I guess she just might have hit the nail on
the head with that one! Anyway, I was happy with my new(er) truck and after
having it painted the next week we had ourselves a good vehicle. That one lasted
4 years and I sold it for the same amount we had in it after. It seems that all
of the trucks I’ve had have been relatively trouble free. I’ve found over the
years that as long as you service and look after your vehicles they tend to
give you little grief. Getting back to the list, my final total was 49
vehicles. The list includes every vehicle I (or we) have ever owned, including
motorcycles, cars, trucks and even a moped. I’m sure we’ll eventually own one
or two more but for now and in the foreseeable future the Jeep will be in the
drive and serving us well. I guess I could have made better use of the money
I’ve spent on vehicles but think of all the fun I would have missed wheeling
and dealing. Maybe I should have been a used car salesman ya never know! Oh
well, maybe next time around. The one thing I do wish I had done was take a
picture of every vehicle we’ve owned. Wouldn’t that have made a great scrap
book to look back on? You betcha!
Oh well,
hind sight is always 20/20!
Guess
I’ll let you go for this week!
Thanks
for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next week in The
Ontarion Report!
Bye for now.. GREG.
PS:
Something To Think About>
Vehicles
are both an asset and a liability.
****
The Family and the Squamidian sites:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/ and http://www.thedougsite.ca
Have a good one..
the
doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.