The Squamidian Report – May 17 / 08
Issue #312
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Maybe, just maybe the slowdowns and interruptions I’ve been so frustrated with have been rectified. My Internet connection had been driving me NUTS and I was ready to drop my ISP and jump to the competition. Last Saturday was just about the last straw. I barley got the Squamidian out and it took several attempts to download any incoming Emails. Numerous re-boots of the modem were necessary to re-establish a connection each time the connection was dropped. I called tech support and was told, again, that there was no problem in the area or with the signal to my modem. After some discussion the support person finally agreed that there may be a problem and decided to set up a service call which of course meant I’d have to bug out of work some afternoon to be home. That I did and the service person found that the splitter outside the house was in need of replacement as well as that my modem was not working as well as it should. He replaced both and all of a sudden I have Internet speed the way I should have had it all along. Fast, smooth and dependable. At least so far.
So as far as I can tell everything is working the way it should. Web pages come in instantly. Large Email attachments take only seconds. Now the question is, why did it take so long for Shaw Cable to be convinced that there was a problem at my end that was their fault?
*
The sun came out!! Finally, the sun came out and brought hot temperatures with it. Or at least warm temperatures that feel hot to us because we have been used to it being so cold for so long. There is currently almost double the normal amount of snow pack up in the mountains and the heat has started melting in a big way. Rivers and streams are rising right before your eyes. The softening wet snow is avalanching down on some of the mountain pass highways. The Duffy was closed Thursday, a section buried under a slide and on Friday the highway people closed it again so they could bring down any threatening areas.
But the blip in temperature and sunshine is to be short lived. What had at first been touted as the ‘turn around’ in our weather is falling apart. This was supposed to be the beginning of getting back to normal but the system is weakening and the second half of the weekend is back to cool and wet with single digit temps by Monday.
However, we will make the most of it. We are off on a bike run to Kamloops and back today in 30C heat. Should be down right fried by the time we get home late this evening. And yes, I’m sending this out a few hours early but that’s so we can get away nice and early.
doug
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Hello
everyone!
Happy May
2-4 weekend to you all! It used to be when this particular weekend rolled
around, everyone I knew was heading for Grand Bend! Well, it’s been many years
since that phenomenon took place for me anyway. It seemed that the Copperpenny
was always booked at the Colonial or one of the clubs in “The Bend” and I spent
a lot of years with “The Penny” as we called them either slugging equipment or
driving their bus or just following them to gigs and being their front row
cheer leader. They were a great band and their music is still played on many an
“Oldies” station across North America. It’s too bad they didn’t hit the real
Big Time! They certainly had the talent to do so! I guess they just grew out of
it and moved on. Their keyboardist and vocalist Rich has been a lifelong friend
of mine and still lives just around the corner from me to this day. We see each
other a few times a year and talk about old times. I’m sure that this time of
year stirs a lot of old memories in Rich’s mind as well. Maybe I’ll break out
one of the Copperpenny’s old albums this weekend and flash back to May 2 4/
1967 at “The Bend”! What a hoot!
*
Actually
the big hit song I remember most from my last weekend at Grand Bend in 1972 is
“Sundown” by Gordon Lightfoot. I had my brand new 1972 Corvette Stingray and a
buddy and I headed for The Bend to hear the Penny play. I think every third
song on the radio that weekend was a Gordon Lightfoot song but “Sundown” in
particular played until we were tired of listening to it. Gordon sure was a story
telling minstrel and is still doing well from what I hear. He’s actually just
played The Centre In The Square here in Kitchener a week or two ago. I wonder
how many songs ol’ Gordie has left in him? I hope he keeps writing for many
more years.
We got to
The Bend and headed strait to the beer store. In those days you had to line up
for hours to get a case of Ex. Nowadays you walk around with your cart and fill
it with whatever you like just as we do our groceries. Now that’s progress!
We found
the cottage that The Penny was staying in for the weekend and had a great
afternoon drinking beer and eating BBQ’d steaks. After their gig, their cottage
was packed to the limit so we had to find our own accommodations. Of course
there wasn’t a room to be had so we decided to sleep in the car. A Corvette is
about a comfortable as sleeping in a coffin! We pulled back into the Beer Store
parking lot at around 2am and tried to catch a few winks. We figured we’d wake
about 7am and try to find some place to eat breakfast. We were just nicely
dozing off when we were suddenly hit with extremely bright lights shining
directly in our eyes from across the parking lot. A voice of authority came
blasting out of the night at us saying “ATTENTION ATTENTION, you in the Green
Corvette! Show your hands and slowly exit the vehicle! Don’t make any sudden
moves and nobody will get hurt!” “This is the Ontario Provincial Police!” We
were both smelling of beer but had both quit drinking about midnight so we were
only moderately drunk! LOL! This was about 5am so we’d had a few hours of sleep
anyway. We followed orders and slowly got out of the car and placed our hands
on the hood of the Vette. I didn’t want to do that because I didn’t want to
scratch my new car. We really had no choice at this point though. The cops came
over and quickly surrounded us with their guns drawn. We were almost filling
our knickers! Of course neither of us had ever seen the end of a police gun
from that point of view and were shaking in our boots. Apparently when all was
said and done, there had been a robbery in London and the robbers had stolen a
Green Corvette from a Chevy dealer to make their get away earlier in the
evening. They had headed up highway 21 northbound and the OPP figured we were
them when the car was spotted. When the cops realized we were not the robbers,
they were not interested in the fact that we were slightly drunk from an
evening of beer drinking. In fact, the Sgt suggested we stay in the car and not
drive anywhere until we were sure we had sobered up. Who the heck could sleep
after facing something like that???? We just sat in the car until 8am talking
about the experience and then hit the nearest restaurant for some breakfast! We
decided to head back to Kitchener to another “in town” party to finish our May
2-4 celebrating for that year. The trip home was uneventful and the party was
much safer than spending another day at The Bend and then have to drive home
hung over very early Tuesday morning to try to make it to work on time! That
was a wise choice for a change! LOL!
Like I
said earlier, it’s been many a year since I’ve celebrated the May 2-4 weekend
with any pizzazz like in the good ol’ days!
Ahhhhhh
yes, “The Good Ol’ Days”! How well I remember!
*
Over the
past 10 to 15 years, we’ve spent the May 2-4 weekend (Actually the Monday)
tramping through the streets of New Dundee searching for bargains in hundreds
of garage sales. I’m sure you all remember my talking about this event in
previous “Ontarions”. It’s become an annual event for us and this year will be
no exception. We’re looking forward to heading out early Monday to make a day
of it. We don’t usually pick up many items but it is lots of fun to look at the
goodies people offer up for sale. They are having a car show in the park and
the Waterloo British Car Club that Carole and I belong to usually takes it
members LBC’s or Little British Cars out to make a showing for the day. I’m not
sure if we’ll take the MG out there with us this year or not. I only managed to
bring it home from winter storage yesterday and would have to get a sticker for
the license plate if we want to drive it to New Dundee. I know I can get that
sticker from one of those kiosks in the mall but with the weather being
unpredictable for Monday we may just take the Jeep in stead. Last year, Adam
and I went and Carole had other things to do that day. If it turns out that
Adam and I go again this year, we may take the new motorcycles ya never know!
No matter which way we wind up attending this extravaganza, you can be sure
I’ll write up a full report for next weeks “Ontarion”.
I hope to
find some interesting items to write about so we’ll have to make sure to cover
a lot of ground on Monday.
*
That’s
about it for this week!
Thanks
for tuning in and I hope to talk to you all again next time in The Ontarion
Report!
Bye for now… Greg.
PS:
Something To Think About>
One man’s
junk is another man’s treasure!
****
Have a good one..
the doug
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