The
Squamidian Report – March 6 / 10
Issue #406
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Ryan found himself needing to fly out of here just when getting to and through the Vancouver airport is in itself an Olympic endeavor. We had been able to fly Sue out a couple of weeks ago by getting her to YVR in the wee hours of the morning. Now not to be out-done by every other business in the service industry out here during these highly visible times, the airlines have set new standards for gouging. Prices are though the roof if a flight is even available. My first inclination was to book a flight directly into good old KW on Westjet but they have those fairs jacked so high that it is actually cheaper to fly Air Canada into Toronto and then pay the Airporter for the ride up to Kitchener.
Oddly enough, it is relatively inexpensive to fly OUT of KW and back to Vancouver. Its almost like KW doesn’t want any more people coming to there but is encouraging people to leave.
With Ryan being involved in the media end of the Whistler part of the games we had hoped that he could delay bugging out until the main part is over and that’s how it worked out. There is a window of about 10 days between the able-bodied events (questionable wording after we saw how some of our athletes performed) and the Paralympics. If he could limit his absence to that period he would be able to tend to his responsibilities on-line with his laptop. So I got him to the airport very early Wednesday morning and he will fly back again on Monday with lots of time to get geared up for the Paralympics.
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Just for the fun of it and because I was a little bit curious, I stopped in at the local Tim Horton establishment last Sunday morning. That’s the first time I’ve been in there since last summer with the exception of picking up a hot chocolate one night in the fall on my way home from somewhere.
This was the last day of the able body Olympics and the place was packed with blue clad volunteers and tourist types getting ready to catch a Whistler bound bus. There were also several RCMP in there picking up coffee and donuts. The line-up was right out the door so I had time to strike up a conversation with one of the cops. Mostly I was interested in how he kept his pants up. His belt was so laden with weapons and electronics that it must have been very heavy. He good heartedly answered that it was only a problem when his hands were busy, the rest of the time he could just use them to hold up the belt that was holding up his pants. But mostly they were just sitting in their cruisers at checkpoints or surveillance points so there had not been any disasters yet.
And my visit to ‘Timmies’ hasn’t converted me back to being a customer. Their products are over priced (at least here in Squamish) and even though the new owners seem to be keeping the place cleaner, it just is not all that inviting anymore. Besides, I can get a ‘seniors’ coffee at the good old clown food place for seventy-nine cents and its not bad coffee at all.
You know, its pretty sad and even embarrassing when you think about it. Oh, I’m talking about the Olympics again, not Horton’s. The day following the closing sees a mass exit of spectators, official and VIPs’. The opening of the Paralympics is just days away yet there is a mad dash to leave. All the welcome signs and most of the infrastructure disappeared overnight. It’s kind of like having a concert with a warm-up band and the headliner band but having the headliner band play first. No one bothers to watch the second band and everyone just leaves them to play to an empty hall.
Just like most people, regardless of their degree of interest in grand closing hockey game, I know exactly where I was when that overtime-winning goal was scored. And it was not in front of a TV like most of the rest of the world. However, I was NOT in front of a TV because I wasn’t interested, I was NOT in front of a TV because, well, I forgot. Yup, I simple forgot there was a very big game on. You see, we had just had several days of rainy wet weather and low and behold, the sun came out and it was glorious. So I went out for a nice walk. Interestingly, there was no one else out walking, there was almost no traffic on the streets up here, I had the whole world to myself.
Then suddenly the world erupted. Shouts and cheering rose from the University site followed by shouting and yelling and cheering from many of the houses on the street I was walking on. I then remembered the game and began to think that our side must have scored. But the cheering didn’t die down, it spread. I could hear cheering down in the valley below and then cars down on the highway started blowing their horns. By now I was figuring it must have been a pretty good goal. Then, the big air horns on the cruise ship started blasting. Wow, really must have been some goal! Slowly the idea that we had just won the game filtered through my rather dense head but it wasn’t until I got home and turned on the TV that I became aware of just what had happened.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
We’re home form the sunny south and loving the spring like weather we’re having here in Kitchener. I’m hoping that we have an early spring that sticks around. We’re looking forward to getting outside in the yard and also to getting the motorcycle out of storage. Of course all that means is I have to pull the cover off the bike and unplug the charger and away we go! LOL! There’s not much to “unstoring” a motorcycle. We saw loads of bikes on the road down south. They are lucky to have good riding weather all year round in Florida. This year they told us was an unusual year for cold weather where we were staying. We thought that 50 to 70F temps with beautiful sunshine was great and most days we were on the beach with Carole basking in the sun and me with my shirt off walking the beach with my metal detector. Of course there was a steady breeze that was cool but it certainly was bearable.
Carole had the use of a cabana for several days and then we purchased a beach umbrella and a low level beach chair so we could move all up and down the beach. The beach is 35 kilometers long and pure white sand. It’s probably the most beautiful beach we’ve ever seen and been on. We are happy to be home but will remember this vacation for a long time to come.
When I get the pics transferred to our main computer I’ll be sure to send Doug a few so he can share them with the Squid group. We photographed the most beautiful sunrises and moonrises we’ve ever seen. I can’t wait to get the photos onto this computer to take a better look at the results. I think between the two of us we probably shot a couple of thousand pictures. Of course this is the advantage of having a digital camera these days, you can shoot and shoot and shoot and worry about the quality of the pics later. We carry a camera everywhere we go nowadays. I have had my digital camera since the day I retired. It was given to me by Carole and Adam as a retirement gift and I use it pretty much every day. That’s no exaggeration! Carole used to be the shutterbug in the family but I dropped her 35mm film camera in the salt water in Jamaica and had to replace it for her. Since then she used the new one a lot but then the age of digital came into our lives when I received my retirement gift. Then her “old” camera sat on the shelf. I finally bought Carole her own digital camera for Christmas this year and she’s back to shooting to her hearts content!
Well, like I said, once I get the pics transferred I’ll send out a few to Doug and you can all see what I mean rather than take my word for the beauty of Pensacola Beach. We’re already considering going back to that same lovely spot for a month next year.
That’s it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… Greg.
PS: Something To Think About>
Vacationing abroad may be exotic but there is so much to see right here in North America and driving to any of the lovely places we have here on this side of the globe is half the fun!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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