The Squamidian Report – Sept. 26 / 09
Issue #383
Including:
"Personal First" Challenge, from Gale
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Last Saturday was our little local Toy Run. That’s the bike run that starts out at Britannia and ends up at one of the downtown Squamish hotels. Like I said, it is a small run with under 100 bikes in it but it is lots of fun. For starters, it is organized enough to have a police escort which means you get to run red lights and stops signs. Now that’s well worth the cost of the toys you donated.
All the riders meet outside the coffee shop beside the highway just past the mining museum and at the designated time the cops block the highway so we can all pull out in staggered formation. It is only about 15 clicks or so to Squamish so we ride the highway straight though up to Depot Rd and then turn down into Brackendale (which is actually part of Squamish the way Hespler is part of Galt). Then it is along the windy back way back into Squamish and through town to the hotel where the toys are collected and Toy Run pins are given out. After that most of the riders spend the afternoon in the hotel or go on a poker run but I’m not into that kind of thing so I just go on home. But it was a fun time and a fun ride.
Then on Sunday we took part in the ‘Rumble to the Rock’ ride. That’s the one that starts out at Deeley Harley Davidson in Burnaby and ends up in Squamish. Ryan and I rode down into the city with enough extra time to check out all the stuff on the showroom floor. By the time the ride was scheduled to get under way there were just under 300 bikes in the parking lot and spilled out onto the street. We managed to get positioned in the front quarter of the procession where things tend to stay relatively organized. It can get pretty chaotic further back in the pack.
There was a police escort out onto the highway but from there on we were on our own. The whole group moved into the left lane and stayed there. That worked fine because we didn’t interfere with the on and off ramps. It worked fine until the first spot on the Sea to Sky were the lanes narrowed into one in each direction. Even after the highway was totally rebuilt there are still single lane sections. There always seems to be a handful of car drivers who think they need to pass 300 motorcycles that are already traveling at or above the speed limit. No idea where they think they can go but they seem determine to get to Whistler or where ever as fast as possible. But it isn’t possible to pass that many bikes and the cars end up having to shoulder their way into the procession which makes them nervous as well as the bikes around them nervous. However, we all made it safely to Squamish where the local car club had all their old cars lined up along the main street, ready for a day of show and shine. The bikes all rumbled in and parked down both sides of the blocks that were closed off as well as down the middle of the road.
We stayed around long enough for the BBQ and to check out the cars and bikes, then took off on another ride of our own. Face it, this time of year you just know the season is going to come to an end in the not-to-distant future and you have to take advantage of every warm sunny day.
We are headed back out again today on an over-nighter. This time we intend to hook up with our biking friends that have moved from Squamish to Nelson. The ride will probably be the last big ride of the season. I’ll fill you in next week as to where and how things went. We’ll still fit in a few short runs to Vancouver or Whistler before the rainy season hits but that season will be here way too soon and force us to put the bikes away for the winter.
doug
****
"Personal First"
Challenge
Hey Doug, How about a "personal first" challenge for the squids? Here's mine…
Today I was out biking (the kind powered by two legs and lots of groans) when I spotted some people decorating their front yard. This was a personal first for me that I hope never to repeat because no, they weren't putting out pots of mums and no, they weren't setting up scarecrows and no, they weren't making piles of pumpkins. They - now don't gag - were putting up giant plastic snowmen and striped candy canes. I haven't even seen Christmas in the stores yet although I've heard rumors. I suppose it was a good thing when I had another personal first of reaching 30 k trying to put that vision behind me. So who has a "personal first" as ugly as this?
****
Hello
everyone!
We’re a
couple of days into the fall officially and it’s not much different than the
last days of summer if you ask me! I’m kinda hoping it’ll stay this good for a
couple of more months. Not much chance of that I guess but it sure would be
nice. I guess once again it’ll soon be time to ready the place and the yard for
winter. I’m actually looking forward to trying out the snow blower against the
new curb I installed along the driveway this summer. It should keep me from
running the blower up onto the front lawn. I usually do that on purpose though
to make an area on the lawn for Bailey our poodle to use as a poop spot. If I
keep the snow less than an inch deep on that spot I can easily clean up what he
drops as soon as he does it. He only goes outside in the winter on days that
aren’t too miserable anyway so I should still be able to clear him a small
patch with the shovel. What the heck???? Here I am talking about winter and
clearing snow already and it’s only the end of September.
Has
anyone heard a forecast for this winter yet? Are we expecting a heavy load of
snow this year or not? I used to hear all the predictions from the Mennonite
farmers when we lived in Linwood during the ‘90’s and they were usually pretty
accurate. Now that we live back in the civilized world of Kitchener I have to
rely on the word of Dave McDonald from CTV here in town. Actually, he’s not
that inaccurate when he predicts the weather but when we get sudden changes I
also like to blame it all on him for the fun of it. I’ve noticed lately that on
his 11 o’clock reports he’s been ending them with the words “But, ya never
know, that may all change in the next few days!” LOL! I guess he’d rather leave
it that way so he doesn’t have to take all the heat should his predictions not
work out! LOL! I actually find that the weather report that I read on the
computer seems to be a lot more dependable than the live TV reports. However,
when it comes right down to it, the weather reports on the computer were put
there by the same people that feed Dave his information for broadcast live on
CTV. So, one’s as bad as the other I guess!
I’ve
spent the last few days trying to locate a last minute supply of kites for my
stock so I can continue to fly over the winter. I checked the Wal-Mart stores
in KW, Guelph and Cambridge and none of them has any left. They all said that
they just sold the last of them within the past week. I guess I just missed out
on the sale. The employee I spoke to in the Waterloo store said that he had
kites in the $40 to $50 range on sale last week for $2.00 each. He said they
were spectacular and all different designs. I guess I’ll have to start my
restocking earlier next year. Probably the last couple of weeks of August is
the prime time for kite bargains. I may just have to resort to making my own
kites over the winter. Just might be a fun hobby to get into to accumulate a
supply of them for next summer. Although, I don’t want to turn a fun thing into
a work project and take all the fun out of it! I’ll just have to see how it
goes in the next few months. I do know where I can get some kites by paying
full price for them but what fun is that??? Half the fun is looking for the
great buys on kites so cutting them loose isn’t an expensive game. Oh well, if
it comes to desperation time, I may just have to build my own, although, it may
cost more to build one than to buy one at regular price. After all, they are
outrageously priced at around the $4.99 mark! LOL! Geeze, when I put it that
way, it’s still a pretty cheap toy!
Guess
I’ll go for now and think about buying vs building over the next couple of
weeks. Decisions Decisions!
Thanks
for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next week in The
Ontarion Report!
BUY” for now………GREG.
PS:
Something To Think About>
How do you know when a woman is about to
say something smart? When she
starts a sentence with 'A man once told me...'
****
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.