The Squamidian Report – April 19 / 08
Issue #308
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Last Saturday was the wife’s birthday… I didn’t throw a party or anything like that because she hates that kind of thing and would have just gotten mad at me anyway. So that’s why none of you were invited to a party, it didn’t exist. Instead we did some nice cruising around on the bike. Started off by taking her to Deep Cove for lunch. Deep Cove is at the southwest end of Indian Arm, near where Indian Arm reaches north out of Burrard Inlet.
To get there we drive in to the city and onto the Upper Levels Highway at Horseshoe Bay. Head east and just before the highway runs up over the Second Narrows Bridge we turn off and onto the Dollarton Highway. This follows the north shore of the inner section of Burrard Inlet to Indian Arm, and takes you right into Deep Cove, a sheltered little cove with a marina and kayak facilities as well as restaurants and parks and stuff. All the flowers and blossoms are in full bloom, although a month late due to the fact that winter wouldn’t quit on the west coast either, just like everywhere else in the country. We had lunch in an overpriced out-door patio type place where we could watch the Cove and the goings-on.
The ride in had been on the cool side, but not cold. The ride home was quite warm and both directions were very enjoyable. We got home in the early afternoon. Since the bike had been parked in the back of the garage all winter and since I’ve been riding it for the last month (weather permitting) it was looking a bit on the dusty side so I gave her her first wash and shine of the season. I had wanted a warm day to do that and Saturday was a good candidate. After a rinse and then sudsy wash and another rinse I had my first opportunity to use the Sidekick Blaster motorcycle blow dryer that Sue had given me for my birthday to blow dry the bike. Worked fantastically, sure beats hand drying. Did find one problem though, you have to be careful with where you aim it. I wasn’t paying attention and accidentally pointed it at my workbench. Blew half the junk on the bench off onto the floor.
I’ve been using a polishing product called Nu-Finish and it does a very good job of removing those terrible little scratches that always seem to end up in the finish when I wash and shine a vehicle. It leaves a nice shine and can also be used on chrome, so there you go. And there we were ready to go. After a light supper we climbed aboard again and headed back into Horseshoe Bay for a hot chocolate.
The ride in along Howe Sound was up to its usual spectacularness. The setting sun backlit the islands and mountains along the Sunshine Coast and filled the water with sunset colours. The snowcapped mountain peaks over on Vancouver Island stood out brightly against the darkening sky. We sat in the Mercedes Blends coffee shop and enjoyed our ‘way too rich’ beverage while we looked out over the bay and the boats. The ride home was in the dark but the temperature was still comfortable. The night seems to magnify the Harley’s exhaust rumble and the ride home was pure biker’s pleasure. Would have been nice to just keep on going.
*
Oh, by the way, the humming birds are back at the feeder now. Funny how they seem to just turn up once the flowers and blossoms have popped. Having said that, the whole west coast is over a month behind weather-wise. We have been averaging mid February temperatures all spring. In fact, our average temperatures have been anywhere from 5 to 10 degrees lower than they should ever since and including last summer, and that’s enough to trigger the next ice age because the temperatures during an ice age are only a few degrees lower than what we’ve averaged over the last thousand years or so.
*
Ever been sitting there and realized that something very interesting is right in front of your eyes? Happened to me the other day. ‘The wife’ has a shiny silver saddle shaped bowel and it was on the table as a centerpiece with some oranges in it. But floating above the oranges was a miniature version of the light fixture that hangs above over the table. I could view the floating vision from any side around the table and it still floated there in perfect focus. I reached in and removed the oranges and the vision still remained.
What I was seeing was a reflection of the light fixture. With the curved inners sides of the bowl the focal point was not on the sides of the bowel but ahead of the sides. You could not see the reflection in the actual sides at all. I turned the light on and the reflected bulbs looked like tiny shining jewels hanging in mid air. Basically, what I had was an optical illusion hologram. I tried to take a picture of it but the camera could only capture the reality, not the illusion so I can’t show you what the eye thinks it can see.
I can reproduce the effect any time I want now that I know about it and how to set it up. Very cool, very interesting and very unexpected
doug
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Hello
everyone!
Well, now
I’m sure the snow is gone for good! We officially hit +25c today and it was
glorious! Carole and I got at the outside work that we do every year and made
one heck of a dent in it already. We’ve spent every year since we put the pond
in the back garden working hard to keep the water clean and clear. Last year we
finally got rid of the fish and chlorinated the water as you would in a
swimming pool and the water stayed clear as a bell. The only thing I had to do
was clean the cartridge filter about every three days to keep the pump up to
pressure. Last fall I had the opportunity to purchase a full size, brand new
sand filter and a 2hp pump that is large enough to filter a 16x32 foot swimming
pool. I snapped it up and decided to use in on our little pond. I’m sure it’ll
move the 500 gallons in our pond through that filter several times an hour so
the water should have very few impurities in it this year! I’ll continue to
chlorinate the water as well and I’m sure the pond will be a lot easier to
maintain this season. I spent today cleaning the pond and changing the water. I
also placed the new pump and filter on a patio stone in the garden where once
the garden is in full bloom, it’ll nicely hide the mechanics of the system.
This pump has a lot of power and I’m anxious to see how it performs on the
pond. I’ve designed a pipe system that spouts up in the middle of the pond and
hopefully this new pump won’t hit the clouds with all its pressure. I’ve
installed a valve in the pipe that is the base of the main nozzle so if the
stream of water shooting up is too high, I can open the valve and relieve some
of the pressure thereby lowering the height that the stream reaches. I am quite
confident that it’ll work all right but I’ll be sure to give a brief report on
the results in next week’s Ontarion. I should have it in operation early
tomorrow morning. All the assembly is complete, I just need to prime the pump
and plug it in! I’m looking forward to the inaugural squirt, so to speak and
will enjoy not having to clean that filter every three days. With the new
system, all I have to do is switch the filter lever to backwash for a minute
and the filter is clean once more! With the filter being the size it is, I
should be able to do the backwash once every two weeks. I’ll experiment for the
first month or so and see how well it works. Should be a much more efficient
way to clean the water than the little pumps I’ve tried in the past. Keep you
fingers crossed that I’ve found an answer to our pond problems once and for
all!
*
The pond
is one thing that’s looking good but I have something in the garage that’s much
more attractive to me and I’m sure to the men in the Squamidian family. I
finally took delivery of my new motorcycle. As I said last week, it’s a
Kawasaki Versys the newest road bike in the Kawasaki family. I’ve got all of
43kms on it and am looking forward to putting many more on it this season. I’ve attached a picture
of the newest member of our family for your viewing. I hope you all agree that
it’s a pretty sight!
That’s
about it for this week!
Thanks
for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next week in The
Onarion Report!
Bye for now.. Greg
PS:
Something To Think About>
If every
wife were to surprise her husband with a new motorcycle to ride, she’d be doing
the world a great service by significantly reducing the pollution produced by
the cars they normally drive!
Greg’s
new bike: http://www.thedougsite.net/Greg/Versys.htm
****
Have a good one..
the doug
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