The Squamidian Report – Aug. 9 / 08
Issue #324
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Well now, we had an unusually quiet long weekend here last weekend thanks to that highway closure. It didn’t stay closed all weekend but the traffic stayed relatively light. In fact, the highway was opened by late Saturday night. That was an incredible feat of highway repair. The biggest reason they could clean up the mess so fast was that the ministry of the environment relented and gave permission to push the countless tonnes of rock into Howe Sound. At first they were going to deny permitting the rock debris to be put into the Sound and that made no sense. It is the same rock that the sides of the Sound are made of, and a good proportion of the rock from the collapsing cliff landed in the water anyway. By permitting the rock to be pushed into the water they removed the need for a thousand or so truckloads of rock to be broken up, loaded, and hauled away. That alone would have been a major hassle.
So with the highway closed or with people thinking it was still closed, it was almost deserted. There was no long line of cars heading for Whistler and no long line heading back to the city. With no traffic on the highway, the local businesses that depend on the highway traffic were pretty slow. In fact, the local Horton’s, normally open 24-hr a day, closed each night due to lack of business. We did a run up to Whistler on the bike on Sunday morning for breakfast and had the highway to ourselves.
However, by the holiday Monday, people seemed to have caught on to the fact that the road was open because traffic levels had climbed back up to their summertime weekend normal, including all the jerks, assholes and aggressive self important creeps that just have to get to Whistler or back to the city faster than anyone else.
*
I saw a cool thing at the marina in Lion’s bay on that day we boated to work. They have very little dock space and so they don’t moor the boats at the dock. Instead, they have several large buildings that have multiple levels of very large shelves. When someone wants their boat, and some of these are rather large boats, the marina uses a large forklift with special forks to lift said boat from its cubbyhole and lower it into the water. When they return from their outing, the boat is put back on the shelf. Kind of cool when you think about it.
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And just to be different, I left the Harley parked last Monday and fired up the little dirt bike. Warren and I did a run up onto Brohm Ridge. I’d forgotten just how grueling that climb is on a bike. By the time we reached the top my arms, legs and knees were beat, but it’s a good ‘beat’. Once up there, we couldn’t ride around much as the snow patches have not yet melted enough to open up the ridable areas. We did do a wee bit of hiking around so we could enjoy the ‘top of the world’ view from different locations. And that view was spectacular. The day was crystal clear with literally, unlimited visibility. We could see everything from Vancouver Island to the mountains north of Whistler. I took a few pictures, and posted them at:
http://www.thedougsite.net/Brohm%20Ridge/brohm4.htm
doug
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Hello
everyone!
Right off
the bat I want to say hi to Vivyan and wish her a speedy recovery! Guess Lorne
will be waiting on YOU for a while eh Vivyan! I’m sure he can handle it! Take
care and we’ll talk to you soon.
*
We had a
visitor today that literally dropped out of the sky. We were sitting on the
front porch enjoying a beautiful day when all of a sudden a flash of white
landed on the lawn in front of us. Carole pointed to a large pigeon that was strutting
along the edge of the grass pecking at the new grass seed I planted to patch
the spots where Adam and I had removed the fence around the front lawn last
week. Good thing I had covered the new soil and seed with burlap to hold it in
place. The pigeon spent about two minutes pecking at the seed and when he
couldn’t get through the burlap, he moved onto the grass. I guess it’s easier
to pick up ants and things from the already growing blades. This was obviously
not just any ordinary pigeon. He was a much different colour than I had ever
seen before. He was basically white with a black head. He had a collar of black
feathers around his neck with dots surrounding the edge of the collar. His
wings had a few thin black lines outlining the shape of them and his tail was
also black. He was really a beauty! He looked very healthy and plump. We
watched him for a while and then went into the house to do some other stuff.
About two hours later, Adam came home from work and called us outside to see
the pigeon still on the lawn. As he got out of his car, he said he approached
the pigeon and it just stood there. He said he sat down on the grass beside it
and was able to reach out and touch it on the back and feet. It didn’t even shy
away. He noticed that it has two bands on the legs. Adam was able to read what
it said on the bands and write it down. We went inside to check out the wording
on the computer. Adam found that the pigeon belonged to thousands from a
company in Waterloo that made the news lately for suddenly going bankrupt. It
was called The Pigeon King and had been selling pairs of breeding pigeons to
farmers all over Canada and the USA. His intent was to buy back the offspring
produced by these breeders and sell them to a pigeon slaughter house to be sold
in restaurants as food. He sucked hundreds of down on their luck farmers into
this scheme by telling them that they would get rich and the breeding operation
would replace the crops that nobody wanted from them anymore, thus saving their
farms from ruin. Well, as it turned out he was running a pyramid scheme and it
finally all collapsed about two weeks ago. He’s now being investigated for
fraud and there are hundreds of farmers that have invested millions of dollars
in his company that are stuck with hundreds of thousands of breeding pigeons
and no place to sell them to. I called the Humane Society here in Kitchener and
was told that this pigeon we had was only one of the thousands that had just
been set free by farmers that could no longer afford to feed them after the
collapse of the Pigeon King Co. They told me that they were getting dozens of
calls about birds landing in yards around KW. She told me not to feed the bird
and it would simply move on to find food somewhere else. We went out to check
on it an hour later and it had flown away. I guess it’ll find food all over the
place while the weather is warm but what happens to all these birds once the
winter sets in? This bird was very tame and I can’t see it surviving when the
weather changes. What a sad situation this is! I feel sorry for the farmers
that invested heavily in this company only to have the rug pulled out from
under them but I also feel badly for the birds. What a mess this “Pigeon King”
has created and all in the name of greed! He claims he had to walk away from
the company because he has cancer. If that’s true, surely there is a better
method of ending the business than just locking the door and going home for
good! According to the Humane Society person that I spoke to there is a phone
number these farmers can call for help euthenizing their flocks. The government
is asking the farmers not to just turn the birds loose but to call this number
for assistance. Not a very nice thought either but I’m sure it’s a better
alternative than just setting them free to die over the winter. It’s very sad
when you think about it. It’s like someone just taking their dog or cat out
into the country and dropping it of in some farmer’s field when they no longer
want to look after it. A sad situation for sure!
Maybe
they can take them all to downtown Kitchener and turn them loose to live on the
roof of the Walper Hotel!
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
Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… Greg.
PS:
Something To Think About>
Horse
walked into a bar. The bartender says “Why the long face?”
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Have a good one..
the doug
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