The
Squamidian Report – May 5 / 12
Issue #519
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Hey, guess what. We have a new Canadian Motorcycle Cruisers chapter here on the west coast. Our Vancouver chapter isn’t so big that it needed to be split up or anything like that, its just that the chapter covered the whole Lower Mainland and the territory was too big. Add to that the intolerable traffic problems and congestion and forever on-going construction and it made it impossible for members or potential members out in the Valley or in the southern sections below Vancouver to try to get to any meetings or events or rides. So, we have split off a new chapter. It is the 091 Fraser Valley chapter and is based in Maple Ridge. Our Vancouver chapter numbers will fall a bit as some of our outlying members transfer over but it will be a good thing in the long run. We were loosing members who joined and then realized that getting out to any events was difficult from where they lived, and potential members were not joining because there was no chapter closer for them. It was also very difficult for all of us to be ‘inclusive’ when planning events and rides.
There are half a dozen chapters on Vancouver Island and they have a lot of fun attending each other’s rides and events. This will give us the same opportunities. What’s even better is that it opens the door to more chapters in the Lower Mainland. Logic says that we could use one in the Delta / White Rock area and one out in Abbottsford. And those could happen someday, time will tell.
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Ryan is out touring with Adams in Southern Ontario right now, and ‘The Wife’ is back from her visit. That’s always a good thing. Her dog missed her and is only really happy when all her (the dog’s) ducks are in order. It was interesting when I drove Ryan to the airport early Tuesday morning. Willow came along for the ride and because we went to the airport, she probably thought we were ‘looking’ for ‘The Wife’. But we screwed up badly because not only did we not find ‘The Wife’ but we lost Ryan in the process.
So when we headed back to the airport on Thursday evening, Willow was quite interested in this process of looking for ‘The Wife’ but was also a bit concerned. We had presumably misplaced Ryan already, what if instead of finding someone, we were to loosed another one again. If I were the one to be misplaced, Willow would have to drive home and she doesn’t know how to drive. Luckily, this trip proved much more successful and we did find ‘The Wife’. Willow was beside herself with joy and a total blur as she wagged her whole body. Anyway, ‘The Wife’ is now home and that’s a good thing. Lauren has some much more willing help with the baby again, and lets face it, we were getting a bit low on groceries.
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And hey, guess what…. I’ve finished recording and compiling the third and final CD of my 3-CD winter project. I promise this will be the last one for quite a while. Firstly, if it ever warms up at all there are too many other things to do outside. As long as it was and is cold and wet I could work away at finishing the CD. Also, I’ve run out of material that I want to record and need to learn a whole bunch more new numbers. I know lots of other songs, just none that currently interest me for recording. Some of the material on this 3rd CD is a bit of a stretch for me again. I have pushed myself past comfortable boundaries both instrumentally and vocally. Not far, but far enough to make me learn a bit more, and do a bit more. Harmonizing with one’s self is actually quite easy, but first you have to come up with, or invent if you will, a harmonizing part. Or, if it was a song you’ve always done a home-made harmony part to, you suddenly find yourself having to learn the melody. Had that on several numbers throughout these CDs, songs I’ve sung harmony to for years but didn’t know the actual melody. Learning that melody is harder than coming up with a harmony part. Then, when there are high and low harmonies, you have to come up with something that doesn’t step on the other parts. When you have different voices doing the different parts, their separate tone and voice qualities tend to separate them, but when the voice sound and quality is the same, they can cancel each other out.
Instrumentally, I’ve had to learn how to use lead guitar notes to fill in the instrumentation sound. Tracks of lead guitar notes going in various directions tend to build on top of the rhythm and give it body. Same with the base runs, alone they are pretty boring but added to the music like ingredients in a stew they bring the sound out. Its like that saying, something to the effect of “when you add them together you come up with more than the sum of the individual parts”. But then anyone who has played or sang in a band or choir already knows that. In each case I’ve had to come up with my own arrangement of each number and then come up with a way of accomplishing it, breaking it into individual tracks and then building those tracks one on top of the other until it all comes together as music. Or hopefully does, there have been several unsuccessful starts that ended up in the delete bin, even some that didn’t get a re-start because they were so bad.
But its done now. Volume 3 is finished. I’ve mailed out copies to the people who have Volumes 1 & 2, hope you don’t mind but you might as well have the complete set. Like I said, I promise this will be the last one for quite a while. Carol & Al’s copy is in the envelope sent to the homestead. Rom & Maggie’s is in with the one sent to Gale’s. The rest were sent out separately. If you wanted one but it didn’t get one, let me know. I’m quite capable of forgetting all sorts of things. Oh, one last thing, some of you had a ‘preview’ version of this CD that contained about 5 numbers. You might think you are being ripped off because those songs are still on your new, full version of CD #3. Well, get over it, I’ve made some small editing changes to those songs so in some ways its an all new cut.
doug
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THE
ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
I’m sitting here in
the middle of a huge thunderstorm and was just about knocked off my chair by a
loud banger right overhead. Every window in the house rattled like it was an
old farmhouse with single pane glass with half the putty missing! I haven’t
heard a booming thunder clap like this since we lived out in Linwood a small
town 25km west of Waterloo back in the 90’s. In 1990 we built a house in a tiny
town that seemed like it was in the middle of a cow pasture in the middle of
nowhere. Huh, I guess it kinda was in the middle of
nowhere! I’ll tell you, when we had a storm out there we really got big ones!
We used to sit at our upstairs bedroom windows and watch the storms approach
from the west/northwest. You could see them for many miles before you actually
felt them! They seemed to be just a tiny black line across the horizon when we
first spotted them. Then the sky would turn a purplish green in colour as they
approached our little town. Many times we thought we were in for a tornado that
would rip the town out by its roots and drop it miles away in Waterloo! There
was many an evening storm that seemed to position itself directly overhead and
just pound away at the tiny burg for hours and then without doing any damage
suddenly, “Pfffffffft…!” it would be gone! It was an
amazing sight to see and very frightening indeed!
I guess storms seem
much more powerful when they happen out in the open countryside. The water that
ran through our two street subdivision was enough to float the Titanic it
seemed. I often watched as the water would spout straight up from the storm
drain lid that was in the roadside at the edge of our front lawn. It would
literally blow 5’ in the air when the pressure of the water gushing through the
storm drainage tiles under the roadway became too much for the pipes to take
away. It seemed we had our own version of “Old Faithrull”
right in front of our house. The one thing that always amazed me was how
incredibly peaceful it was outside immediately after the storm had passed.
There usually wasn’t a breeze and it seemed you could hear a pin drop on the
roadway from a block away. We then would sit on the front porch and watch the
beautiful red sky to the west that had replaced the threatening black
thunderheads of only minutes previous! We’d always remark on how the old adage
“Red sky at night, Sailor’s delight” applied to such a scene. Invariably, we
would experience a beautiful day the following day and of course comment on the
amazing difference from the incredible storm of the previous day. Mother Nature
sure has a way of letting us know who runs this earth as far as the weather
goes! She’s only got one boss and he seems to let her handle the weather
however she see’s fit!
The storm of this
evening seems to have calmed down at the moment but they say we’re in for more
rain and possibly violent thunderstorms over the next 10 to 12 hours. I think
I’ll crank on the fireplace, make myself and Carole a cup of hot chocolate or a
tea and curl up in front of the TV for a while before bed. That is, until the
power goes out! Seems like it’s going to be “One of those nights!”
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>
I wondered why the
baseball kept getting bigger and bigger. Then it hit me!
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Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
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