The
Squamidian Report – May 7 / 11
Issue #467
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
My CMC chapter had it’s best ride to date. I had scheduled a group ride for last Sunday and we actually had some cooperation from the weather. The sun came out and the temperature rose almost all the way up to ‘normal’. Mind you, my ride in to the city along Howe Sound was chilly but that good old heated vest kept my teeth from chattering. Several of us met up at a Horton’s in North Van and then rode on out to Langley where our ‘official’ meet up locations was. I’ve been rotation the meet up locations because our members are spread out all over the Lower Mainland. We rolled in to that parking lot and parked out bikes beside the ones that were there waiting for us. Our destination was Cultis Lake Park, a BC Park east of Abbotsford and just north of the US border.
We held a rider’s meeting and then saddled up and headed down the Trans Canada for a short distance to our turn-off where we then rode south right down to the US border. This took us into the beautiful farm country, along back roads lined with blueberry fields and horse corrals. Once we turned east again, there was a single row of fields on our right. Beyond those fields were more similar fields but they are American fields. The border is simply there, no fence, not markers, just more fields. The narrow, paved back roads we followed took us to the base of the mountains that nestled the Park. The forested mountain slope rises abruptly from the almost flat, slightly rolling farm land. The road up into the Park climbs nicely up into the valley where the lake lies. Lunch was at a nice little restaurant and then we did some cruising along the windy lake roads.
Eventually we worked our way back north to the highway, out through Chilliwack, and turned west back to Vancouver. Traffic was generally quite good except for that on going, never ending nightmare of the Port Mann reconstruction. That’s just the pits, but we tightened up or riding ranks to keep cars from inserting themselves among us and managed to make it through. As we rode through Vancouver, various riders tapped out at their turn-offs. Eventually there was just Ryan myself. We pulled into Horseshoe Bay, then he headed back to Coquitlam and I headed back up to Squamish. I put on about 400 clicks, the others put on about 300. The difference is that I have to ride the 50 clicks each way back and forth to the city.
We ride in a staggered formation with a road captain and a tail gunner. The road captain leads the ride, sets the pace, and passes instructions to the column by using hand signals. There are signals for tightening up (for protection from cars etc that don’t seem to ‘see’ our group), for forming into single file, to slowing down, to indicate various situations. It works very well and we rode with pleasure and pride. The job of road captain is very demanding and Ryan does and incredible job of it. Tail gunner is a lot of work as well but nothing as demanding as R/C. Tail gunner controls the traffic behind the column, and ‘captures’ the driving lane when lane changes are needed. Tail gunner also keeps an eye on the bikes in case someone needs assistance for whatever reason.
Anyway, we had a great day. One of our members is quite good at taking pictures while he rides and has posted them on his photobucket site. You can see them at:
http://s120.photobucket.com/albums/o173/gussijons/CMC%20Cultus%20Lake/
We are actually quite lucky to get any good riding in this spring. We had a record breaking cold wet March, then a record breaking cold wet April and now we are on track for a cold wet May. The sunny days are few and far between. This could well be the second year in a row that much of the Fraser Valley agriculture industry suffers a total crop failure. Last year they lost all of their root corps and most of their ‘low’ crops like strawberries. It was too wet to get onto the fields to plant and then too cold and wet for anything to grow. Then when things like potatoes and carrots should have been ready to harvest, it was to cold and wet to get onto the fields. Those same fields are still sitting under water with last years produce submerged and rotting in the mud. Even if it were to dry up right now, which is NOT in the forecast, it would take weeks for the fields to dry out and long before then it would be way to late to salvage the season.
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This will be quite exciting for some, and will put the rest to sleep. Ubuntu has released it’s latest version, 11.04. That’s right, 10.04 has been replaced. Of course you are all aware that Ubuntu is one of the more popular, user friendly versions of Linux, and like most Linux computer operating systems, is absolutely free. You don’t have to upgrade from earlier versions but its there so why not. One of the many cool things about the Linux O/Ss is that they run very well on almost any hardware as opposed to Windows which is always demanding fast system components and larger system storage.
Installation is generally a breeze. Whether your computer is brand new and without an O/S or is old with a bloated crippled version of Windows dragging it down, Ubuntu installs effortlessly. In fact, you don’t even have to install it to run it. If all you want to do is try it out, you simply put the downloaded iso file onto a CD or USB stick. The Ubuntu web site even has instructions that walk you through the process. Once on a CD or stick and that medium is inserted into the appropriate location, you boot your computer and Ubuntu loads. At that point you can choose to ‘try it’ and it loads into memory without any effect or changes to your system. Its just that easy. One of the cool things is you can use that setup as a way to do things to your hard drive that can not be done from Windows, like creating or adjusting partitions, repairing corrupt files systems and extracting files from a crashed Windows system. If you do want to install it, it gives you the choice of setting up a dual boot system with your old O/S intact, or wiping your old O/S and installing just Ubuntu.
The new 11.04 extends hardware support as well as supplying the latest advances in software and apps. And its those available apps that make any of the Linux distros so appealing. There are hundreds of full-blown software programs that are absolutely free. Most are from the open source community, just like Linux itself. Programs like Open Office, a full office suite that rivals MS Office, and Stellarium, an incredible astronomy program, and graphics editors, HTML editors, and on and on. There are third party programs including Skype, there are games and, well, almost anything you would want. Ubuntu finds and configures itself for your home network almost instantly. It finds and sets up your network printer effortlessly. Just try that on a Windows machine. 11.04 comes with a new user interface that probably works very nicely on a full size screen. However, I’m using it on my tiny little Netbook and I found it a bit awkward, but, as to be expected, there is an option for running the ‘Ubuntu classic’ interface and that one is very clean and Spartan making it perfect for the tiny screen. So, don’t be shy, give it a try.
http://www.ubuntu.com/
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Well, we’re finally settled into a secure stretch of four years of solid Majority Government. Now maybe the Federal parliament will be able to accomplish something that will be of benefit to the citizens of Canada without having to fight like hell with a jealous opposition! I’m not going to go on and on about this but I will say that I’m happy with the results of last Monday’s election and I’m confident that PM Harper and his Conservatives will do a fine and trustworthy job of managing our country over the next four years. Good luck to Prime Minister Harper and good riddance to that pain in the ass egomaniac Ignatieff! I understand the rat has already abandoned the sinking ship! If the Federal Liberal Party wants to stay in existence they’d better find someone with more political genius than Bob Rae whom they’re apparently putting in as “leader” in the interim while they look for a new permanent future top dog! Thank goodness we don’t have to listen to their Liberal bullshit for the next four years at least! I wonder if the liberal supporters (as few as there are) resent footing the bill for Iggy’s move back to his preferred home in Boston Mass USA so he can beg for his job back at Harvard? I wonder if they kept his custodial position open! Hmmmm…?
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With a break in the weather earlier this week I managed to get out the mower and cut the lawn. Our grass was getting pretty shaggy indeed! I had fertilized the lawns about a month ago and they are growing like crazy! I think it was last Monday when I did the first mowing of this year and by Thursday the grass was long enough that I figured I’d better not let it go for another day or I wouldn’t get the mower through it without stalling it! I decided to take the blade off and have it sharpened professionally since I had done it myself the last couple of times. This time it had a lot of nicks in it and needed pro attention for sure. I took it to Schlichter’s Automotive on Queen St where the mower was purchased 5 years ago. They told me that the blade was a tad worn but they could bring it back to life in a few minutes. I waited for about 15 minutes while they cleaned it up and sharpened it. When the service guy brought the blade out to me it looked great and he explained to me that he also balanced the blade because if it was left out of balance from wear, it could shake the bearings out of the motor on the lawn mower and that would be an expensive fix for sure.
I took it home and reinstalled it on the mower and proceeded to cut the grass. The lawn turned out to look like a beautiful lush green carpet! What a difference a properly sharpened blade makes! Later that day Carole and I were at the Giant Tiger store a few blocks from our home and bumped into Alan and Shirley Payne. They are folks I’ve known since I was a kid but are not related to us. I said hello to Alan and Shirley and the first words out of Shirley’s mouth were “I see you’ve already cut your grass! We are on our way home to cut ours as soon as we’re finished here!” LOL! These people live about 5 blocks away from us and you wouldn’t think they’d give a darn that we’ve cut our lawn before anyone else in the neighbourhood but I guess the do! Just goes to show you that people take notice of a lot more than you think! I’d hate to think what she’d have to say to everyone but us if our house and yard were a mess rather than well looked after! We’d be the talk of the neighbourhood I’m sure! We don’t keep our place in good shape for anyone else, we just prefer to look after our home for our own satisfaction but it is actually nice that others notice. People passing by on their walks have often commented to me and Carole that our lawn and home always look so nice and that in itself makes all the hard work worth while!
I just heard that the Canadian Weather Service has predicted a long hot and dry summer so I hope that doesn’t mean we’ll be in for a “grass burning” year where it’s a crime to water your lawn! Oh well, at least we have a good start on a healthy one this year so all we can do is try our best to keep it looking good!
That’s it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now…. Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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