The
Squamidian Report – April 10 / 10
Issue #411
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
I know that all I did in last week’s addition was complain about the weather but that’s all I had to write about. So bear with me while I make one more mention about it. We had TWO winter storms during the past week. Winter storms out here tend to be very wet and very windy. There was wind damage all over the Island and throughout the Lower Mainland. Wasn’t too bad up this way in comparison. We didn’t loose our hydro like some of the areas did and we didn’t have any trees come down. We did however wake up on Friday morning to a dusting of snow. I think that’s the first snow at this elevation since early December. Ironically, the North Shore Mountains that were so embarrassingly bare of snow during the Olympics now have several meters of the stuff and the ski season has been extended by several weeks.
And I saw my first seasonal bear this week, or first bear of the season this week. I guess bears could be considered to be seasonal as they are only visible for part of the year, just like a lawn mower or snow blower. Anyway, I was heading up into the Upper Squamish Valley to a job site and there it was, standing on the side of the road. Just a mid sized critter, nice and black and timid. It took off into the underbrush when it saw me coming.
Now the reason I was heading to a job site up the valley is because I’ve jumped ship and am now working for a different company. This one does smaller, more interesting kinds of jobs and this particular job is at a kid’s summer camp. I don’t mean a kid owns it, I mean its for kids to go to in the summer. I have been fed up with my old company for quite a while and I think they have been fed up with me ever since I stood up for some of their laborers who where being treated very poorly. That company treated everyone poorly and has lost a fair number of employees over the years due to stress-induced problems. They never actually treated me badly because I simply would not put up with it but once they were aware of my disapproval of how they did things and were treating some of their people they suddenly didn’t have any work for guys like me. Not a problem at all. I’ve had a standing invitation to come and work for a small landscape company for quite a while now, and I finally accepted the offer.
The landscape company also does small excavations and trenching and material handling so they do a lot of the stuff I used to do back home. They have perhaps half a dozen or so employees and the working environment is very relaxed. At the old company we always said we were hired from the neck down, meaning that they did not care what we thought or even want us to think, just to do what we were instructed to do. At this landscape company we actually get to think and express our opinions and feel like we are a contributing part of a team. I’m there strictly as a machine operator, not as a landscaper. I’m to old and tired for that kind of stuff.
I intend to retire within the next year or two but this should be a pretty good place to be while winding down. And if it isn’t I’ll simply retire a bit sooner.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Today it’s raining here in Kitchener! I guess it’s what we’ve been needing to clean up the dirt and grime of winter that was still haunting the streets and sidewalks. With this cleanup happening we’ll soon be able to drive the streets without seeing patch after patch of litter along the curbs. It seems that too many people figure the snow will cover what they toss out of their car windows and by spring it’ll have melted away. That’s not the way of course and come spring someone will have to pick up what was carelessly thrown on the streets. I don’t know why people just can’t take their garbage home with them and put it in the trashcan there! I have been using a garbage bag that Carole gave me for the car for many years now and it makes it so easy to put trash in it’s proper place. This little black bag hangs on the door handle of the interior and then once a week or so I take it off and empty it at home. Carole has always said that you can tell what a person’s home would look like by the way they keep their car. If the inside of their vehicle is strewn with trash, so must be their home. I think that’s a fair observation and I’m sure it’s true!
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I think we’ve been spoiled over the past month with all the nice weather and sunshine and we’re in for more to come! LOL! One day of rain and possible snow flurries won’t hurt I guess till we get back into our routine of sunshine and warm temps once again from Saturday till late next week. We sure can’t complain about the spring we’re having and let’s hope it’s an indicator of the summer to come! We’ve had a few days this week that brought us rain and that’s a good thing considering we’ve had little or no snow to melt that will replenish our ground source water that’s usually there to last us through the drier months of summer. We may indeed be in for a long, hot and dry summer if we don’t get more “April Showers”! The plants and trees out back in Carole’s gardens are starting to bud and even blossom over the past week. I think this is about six weeks too early and I hope it doesn’t through the whole system off this year.
I actually went out and cut the grass on Monday because it was getting quite long. We always fertilize in the fall to give the grass a good boost first thing in the spring. Well, it’s worked very well this year and having to mow the lawn already is a good indicator that the fall fertilizing is worthwhile. In fact, the front lawn was so thick I actually had to take it quite slow so the mower wouldn’t bog down. It’s a mulching mower and usually is quite proficient at pulverizing the grass blades. I guess the lawn was a little wet when I cut it because the mower was leaving behind clumps of wet grass and I had to go over it a couple of times to spread it around. Kinda makes you proud of your efforts when you’ve got the first green lawn on the street and it’s looking like a nice even medium shag carpet with it’s blades standing on end like soldiers. I hope the walkers by take notice of it and stay the heck off my corner out of respect! So far they’ve been doing so but we’ll see just how long that lasts!
With such a good head start on yard work this year Carole and I are hoping for a nice easy maintenance year for the outside needs. We’re just waiting for the new windows we ordered a couple of weeks ago to get here and be installed and then we’re pretty well caught up on the house repairs. OOPS! I shouldn’t have said that, I almost forgot that I just picked up our new water heater this afternoon! Last week I went into the furnace room in the basement and noticed some water on the floor. I thought the water heater had just puked out a little overflow so I thought nothing of it. Then a few days later it happened again. I checked the drain tap, the overflow valve and they were both dry. I then ran my hand under the bottom of the tank and of course it was dripping wet! In the house we had in Linwood and the one in Kitchener before that I had installed an instantaneous / tankless water heater. They worked well and seemed to save a little on our gas bill. I thought of installing one in this house when the need arose but the units they sell these days need to be directly vented out through the basement wall and …… wouldn’t ya know it, our only possible location for a water heater is dead center of our basement so there’s no way to direct vent the sucker. The one that’s in here now is vented along with the furnace via a “B vent” strait up through the roof of the two-story house.
With a little research I have decided there’s no savings to be had in most cases by using a different style of heater than we already have so I went out and bought a new “conventional” water heater as a replacement. I’ll get it installed within a few days and we’ll be back to normal. Our furnace is the original one from when the house was built so it’s pushing 34 years. It’s still working fine so I’ve decided to leave it alone and see if we can get another few years out of it. With the water heater replaced, the furnace will be the last major replacement we’ll need when the time comes. From then on, it’ll just be redecorating room by room whenever Carole figures it’s time. That’s just normal upkeep and that’s ok.
Well, that’s it for this week folks!
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>
When in doubt, just take the next small step!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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