The
Squamidian Report – Aug. 6 / 11
issue #480
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Would you believe I was finally able to get my ‘spring’ haircut. My head gets cold easily and my wild bushy hair helps keep it warm in cold weather. Usually, once the nice mild days of spring come along, I slip out and get my mop mowed. The barber usually wants to charge me combat pay but that’s another story. Anyway, we have finally had some relatively consistent nice mild October weather, at least in the daytime. Nights are still dropping down to single digits but we’ve now had some sunny days that have gone about the magic 20 degree mark. So, I got my hair cut. I left a lot of grey fuzz on the barber shop floor, but not as much as I used to. Numerically there is still pretty well as much up there as there used to be but the volume has gone down. The stuff is getting skinnier. Where once it was like stiff, thick steel wool, each hair is now, well, thinner than a hair. And, my head is cold.
You know, they say that a picture is worth a thousand words. The 2 links below will take you about 11 pictures representing stuff we’ve been up to this week, and by the conventional logic, those 11 pictures equate to about 11 thousand words. That really lets me off the hook, as far as writing goes.
First item. As stated before, we have a lot of bears wandering the neighborhoods these day. One morning while walking the dog we had to wait for one rather big guy to move off the street in front of us so we could proceed. This was just a couple of doors down as we were heading out. Then, we had to wait for another one, perhaps a year old one, to cross in front of us as we were headed back for home. Didn’t have a camera with us so you will just have to take my work on this. Garbage day came with the usual attendant bears. Most people have smartened up a bit and are now waiting until the last minute before setting out their bins, but some are still setting them out way to early. Mind you, ‘too early’ can be just minutes before the collection truck comes along. A young bear decided to check out the bins across the street from us. I took some shots but the sun was directly in my face so they are a bit washed out, but do tell the story. Our dog Willow was more than willing to give the bear a piece of her mind but we would not let her out to do so. However, I spoke a few gruff words to the bear from the sanctity of our balcony and the bear headed for the forest. I guess my reputation of being a grumpy old fart has spread to the local wild life because it kept on going right out of site. At least until next time. Follow this link for pictures:
http://www.thedougsite.net/Pictures/Bears/Bears1.html
Then, and secondly, on another occasion about mid week we jumped on the bike and did a nice ride up into the Callaghan again. And, in order to not have to type thousands of words, we took some more pictures. Actually, ‘The Wife’ took the pictures from the back of the bike as we rumbled along. The Callaghan Valley is where the Whistler Olympic Park is. Some of you have been there. Its where the ski jumping stuff is. It’s a high mountain valley with huge trees although most are second growth or newer, and cold rushing mountain streams. There is a tourist info building there with an over-priced restaurant, and all sorts of hiking trails. The heavily snow-covered mountain tops and upper slopes overlook the valley. Anyway, click on over to this link and save me any more typing.
http://www.thedougsite.net/11-Rides/OlympicPk.html
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Since we moved in to this house we’ve always found it easy to sell or just get rid of anything by just putting it on the curb or driveway with a “Free” or “For Sale” sign on it. It usually takes less than a day to part with whatever it is! I’ve found it a lot different with this little car we’re trying our best to find a new home for though! I guess there’s a difference between a low dollar household article and a vehicle worth $5,000.00 or more. In fact, this little car is worth, according to others I’ve seen on the market between 5 thousand and 65 hundred dollars but nobody seems to be in the market for cars this time of year. Not good second cars at least! Lots of people are buying new vehicles for many thousands of dollars more but I guess used vehicles are a fall (getting’ ready for winter) sort of purchase. I hope we don’t have to hold on to it until November to find a buyer!
We’re going on a week’s holidays starting this Thursday so maybe we’ll have a buyer waiting for us when we get home next week! We have a cottage waiting for us up on the Severn River just off Hwy 400. We have friends that have a cottage there and my buddy’s mother owns one on the next lot to theirs so she’s kindly let us have it for a week or longer. We figure we’ll take her offer for a week and a few days. We’ll be up there from Thursday August 4th until August 12th. It should be a nice retreat and a chance to get some peace and quiet. We’ve been up there before and really enjoyed ourselves. We’ll have the use of a kayak and other fun stuff while we’re there. Being in a self-contained cottage will allow us to take Bailey along with us too! He’ll be in shock I’m sure with all the open space up there and the river at our front door! I’m somewhat familiar with this area of Ontario since it’s only 10km south of Gravenhurst where I spent many weeks training and learning at The Ontario Fire College over the time of my Fire Service years. With Gravenhurst and Bracebridge towns within short driving distance of the cottage I’m sure we’ll enjoy touring these villages for a day or two during our stay!
I said to Carole, “What are we going to do up north for 10 days?” and she said “That’s just the point we don’t have to do anything while we’re there if we don’t want to!” LOL! By golly, she’s got a good point there hasn’t she! LOL!
Anyway, it should be fun and I’ll tell you all about our stay when we get back! That is, if there’s anything interesting to tell!
We’ve got the next two days to get our stuff together to take along and then come Thursday we’ll be heading North!
That’s it for this week!
Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to taking to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… Greg.
PS: Something To Think About>
Life’s a funny thing! By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends!
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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.