The
Squamidian Report – June 23 / 12
Issue #526
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
After ‘The Wife’ and I saw 10 bears along the highway near Whistler last weekend, I decided it would be cool to get some pictures of the bears. This though creates some problems. It is very dangerous to stop along the side of the busy highway and in fact, it is illegal. Its illegal for good reason. We have very stupid tourists who try to get pictures of themselves standing next to the bears, or pictures of their kids petting a cub. They thinks its some kind of Disney Land display. And we get morons pulling U-turns right in front of on-coming traffic as they jockey for a better view, or simply come to a screeching halt right in the middle of the road. There are T-bone collisions regularly. And, its not fair to the bears.
An easy solution is to do a ride up into the Calaghan Valley, where the Olympic Ski Jumping stuff is. That is a nice scenic winding paved road posted at just 60 k and has almost no traffic on it. So, that’s what I did, I rode up that way twice, only to discover a problem. Bears don’t seem to exist when I have a camera along. I have no idea how that works or how they know, but I can ride those roads and see bears almost anytime, but if the camera is in my pocket, it suddenly becomes a bear-free-zone. So, no pictures of bears, at least not yet.
I don’t know how much news from the west coast gets reported back in the ‘center of the universe’, but much of BC is under flood advisories and alerts. What has happened is that the normal seasonal snow in the mountains has been building up for 3 years now and the temperatures in the interior of the province has rocketed up all the way to almost ‘normal’, so, the melting that would normally happen during the spring is happening now. Add to this the relentless, endless rains that have saturated the snowpack and you get a lot of water entering the rivers that should have been spread out over 4 or 5 months. Not counting up in the very far north, there are really only two river systems draining the BC interior, the Fraser and the Columbia. All the lesser systems drain into one or the other of these. The rivers are all obviously in the valley bottoms where human development is located so numerous towns, villages and rural areas are either currently flooded or in danger of being flooded. Very inconsiderate of mother nature to put her rivers right where people have built their stuff but that’s how it is.
Rivers like the Squamish River, that drain the Coastal Mountains directly into the ocean are not in danger of flooding. It simply has not been warm enough for any real melting to happen on or near the coast.
The ‘up-side’ to all the cold and rain is that the southern half of BC has not had a forest fire season for a couple of years now. There have been some minor fires but really almost nothing at all.
doug
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello Everyone!
And a special HELLO to Vivyan! I hope you’re coming along well and are looking forward to getting home again real soon!
*
I just read an article that told me how all of Canada is going to experience a hot and sunshine filled summer and quite possibly will see the same weather extend right into the fall of 2012. At this point, I simply must ask Doug and Sue how they’re enjoying this sunny heat out in their neck of the woods? Either the weatherman is full of poo or Doug is stringing us along so none of us wants to go out to Squamish for an extended vacation and free stay at the “Western Brubacher Homestead”! LOL! Which is it Doug?
Are you just trying to keep that lovely province all to yourself or is the weather really on the fritz out there?
No matter anyway, from what I’ve been reading about the cost of living or even visiting BC, a lowly retiree like me couldn’t afford more than a few days out in the wilds of British “weather” Columbia anyway! It’s nice to look at the pictures of that lovely province and maybe some day we will be able to afford a trip to BC but for now I’ll have to settle for maintaining an existence right here in good old “Onterrible” as Doug calls it! I call it home and I’m used to it the way it is! After all, sunshine and an average of 28c day after day isn’t anything to complain about, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the province!” is what it boils down to I guess! Hahahaha…. This isn’t aimed at you and Sue, Doug it’s just an observation on my part! Looks like we’re in for a warm summer and I sure hope you guys finally get some of the predicted sunshine out your way too! It’s time you got back to the lovely climate you told us about for so many years after you first moved out west! After all, it’d be a shame to have any rust form on that Big Blue Hogg you’re thinking of trading on a Kawasaki this year! Oops! Did I let the cat outa the bag? Sorry about that Doug! Just kidding of course my friend! When a writer is desperate for something to write about he’ll say just about anything to keep his readers attention! I guess even an amateur like me isn’t above such literary trickery. However with the kind of mileage you’re piling on “Big Blue” it won’t be long before she’ll need replacing. On the other hand, you could shoot for the world record mileage on a Harley? I don’t know what it stands at right now but I guess I could check that out in the Guinness Book Of World Records. I wonder if there has been a mileage record set specifically on a Harley Davidson? I know that the record mileage for a Honda Accord is held by a guy in the Boston area and he was well over the million mile mark when Honda USA rewarded him with a brand new Accord and used the occasion of presenting it to him as an advertising gimmick! Maybe you can ask if HD will offer you the same deal once you reach the big “M” on Big Blue! If you feel up to it, you’ve got a good start but you’d better get at it if you hope to pack on a million km’s before calling Guinness and HD with your “Record” setting accomplishment!
Toys are fun when you’re an adult and motorcycles are one of the most fun toys to own. I have my Kawasaki but I’ve only got 9,000+ km on it since buying it new in 2008. Guess if I hope to get anywhere near the use out of my bike that Doug has out of his, I’d better start riding every day from dawn till dusk and not just from here to the corner store! LOL! I’ll never reach the amount of riding that Doug and Sue have accomplished but I sure do enjoy it when I do get out for a cruise! Carole and I have owned a 1979 MGB since 1989 and I just did a brake job on it today. The second brake job since buying it MG and we hope to own the little MG for another 23 years so we can do another couple of brake jobs! It sure is a pleasure to pay for repairs on this little British car compared to the cost of modern vehicle maintenance. If only today’s vehicles were as simple!
Well, we have the MG in good running order and the top is down! We don’t intend to put the top up until storage time in the fall. As I was saying, “Toys are fun even when you’re an adult so between the motorcycle and the MG we should be able to fill this summers sunny days with loads of it!
Looking forward to cruising with the top down on many a lovely day! I’ll be sure to report on a few of our MG cruises and maybe even get some pictures to send out to Doug for your viewing! That is, IF I remember to take my camera along!
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>
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
****
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.