The Squamidian Report – Feb. 19 / 11

Issue #456

Including:
A Note From Vivyan
The Ontarion

Hi All,

Someone suggested, after reading my admittedly boring recount of my computer re-building adventures in last weeks addition that I should have talked about the weather instead. That would certainly have been the ‘Canadian’ thing to do and it also points out the depths of desperation that the reader had sunken to. I could almost hear the cries of anguish buried between the lines as I read their response to my composition. Well, as the saying goes, “be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it”.

So, here goes! All the weather reports covering the west coast for the past week had indicated beautiful mild sunshine. Yet, as each of those days came along, we found ourselves under heavy rainfall warnings and high wind warnings. And we sure got both. When it rains hard enough on the coast for people to notice, it is raining very hard. It pelted down in windblown sheets. Day after day. Then we’d get a couple of hours of the promised sunshine, followed by more days of driving rain. And not only that, it was a cold rain, almost cold enough to be snow. Our normal highs for this time of year are about +8 here and +10 or so in the city. We were lucky to hit +4 except for those few hours of sunshine when it climbed almost all the way up to ‘normal’. And of course, all that heavy rain activity was dump after dump of snow up in the high country. There are now massive amounts of snow in the local mountains.

My ride to the airport for my flight to KW was through heavy rain and dark skies (of course it was not light out yet so they would be dark). By the time my flight got off the ground a half hour late it was well past dawn but still raining hard. There were some breaks in the clouds as we flew over the mountains giving some interesting views of the scenery below. It was overcast with light snow in Calgary where I caught my connecting flight but by the looks of the area, they had not had any snow at all for quite a while. From Calgary on there was a boring cloud cover below us so I couldn't even tell where we were very well. Well, thats not quite accurate. A good part of Saskatchewan and Manitoba were clear giving a great view of the prairies which were nicely snow-covered. Many people I talk to don't like the prairies whether they are flying or driving, they think they are boring. Not me, I find them fascinating and interesting. The only time I don't like to drive them is through Saskatchewan where the highways are in such bad shape that they are a national embarrassment.

Our flight dropped down across the border into the States right about where the Red River crosses up into Manitoba. The next time I could see the ground below through the under-cast was as we crossed the south end of Lake Huron. I could see the Niagara River flowing out. As usual, the flight followed highway 401 across to KW where it landed, half an hour late, as usual.

Visiting KW is always a bit weird. I know my way around but I don't know my way around any more. And traffic is a nightmare, I don't know how anyone can handle it. Of course, if we get 3 cars backed up at our stoplight in Squamish we think we have a traffic jam so perhaps its what you get used to or perhaps KW traffic is as bad as it seems. Hard to say. Another thing that is different is that now that I'm in my 60's my mom offers me her car to use when I'm here. When I was 16 all the begging in the world didn't help much.

So, right now I am bumbling around Kitchener and will be until mid week. Hope to see some of you at the birthday party drop-in on Sunday. By the way, remember how I said I'd have better luck finding a sound card in Kitchener than on the west coast... well, I did. Found a 'Sound Blaster Live' at a place on Frederic St. Cost me a whole ten bucks but I will have to download my own drivers from Creative Labs. No problem!

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Happy birthday Vivyan.

Should we let on that it's your 85^th, or would you like that kept quiet!!

doug
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A Note From Vivyan

I wish these birthdays wouldn't come around so fast. It's fun having a birthday but it would be nice to go backwards for a while. Birthdays do have some good points through. First one, Doug is home for a visit, for another, Gale and Carol came over and did my cleaning, makes me feel rather special. Or maybe they just feel I need a lot more energy than I've got. Funny how easy it is to play out! Some days I don't even go out for a walk, after all those years of starting my days with a good half hour walk.

I'll try to get back to walking every day (that's my birthday resolution). I'm not even active at church anymore. It's too easy to sit back and say “there are young people to do the work now”.

Carole was here this morning with her grand daughter, so I got to play with her while Carol and Gale did the house work. She is sure a sweetie, but they grow up so fast. I'm glad that I see her enough that she knows me. It would be awful if she made strange. Have a good week everyone and enjoy this snowy winter.

Vivyan

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The Ontarion Is STILL On Vacation!

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Have a good one..
the doug
http://www.thedougsite.net
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