The
Squamidian Report – Oct. 6 / 12
Issue #541
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Do you remember house fire a couple of doors up from us way back in the early summer? The second floor was basically gone and the ground floor was badly damaged. Well, the insurance company elected to repair the house rather than replace the house. So, what was left of it sat for quite a long time, boarded up but totally open to the elements. Then about a month ago the repair contractors started working on it. First they had to strip away all burned structure, then the drywall, insulation, siding, flooring, wiring, plumbing, everything until they were down to bare studs. Then they removed any studs and joists that were charred deeper than a quarter inch. Anything less than that simply got scraped down to clean wood. After that they sprayed the framework with some kind of white stuff and then started to rebuild from there. They have spent the last week or so building the roof. The roof trusses all came on a truck so they really just had to set them in place and then lay sheeting over top, but every time I look to see what’s going on they are either standing around or on lunch break. Must be unionized I guess. However, I didn’t envy them the dirty work of removing the interior of a burned out house, it would have been dirty and dark and smelly.
I just can’t figure out how it can be cheaper for the insurance company to renovate rather than knock the whole thing down and start over from the foundation up. Knocking it down would have taken half a day with an excavator and a couple of trucks. Then everything would be done with new clean materials. The home owners would have a new house to move back into that would meet all the modern building codes rather than a ‘fixed up’ house that has suffered several hundred thousand dollars in fire damage. But, what do I know? Just my opinion.
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The cost of gas has become ridiculous, and the politics behind the high cost is even worse, at least in my opinion. Crude oil prices have remained fairly stable for most of the summer and are still fairly stable but the price at the pumps has jumped by 10 cents or so in most of the major centers across the country. The reason seems to be the alleged disruption to the US Gulf Coast refineries due to recent hurricanes. So, when the usual flow of gas in the states is slowed down a bit, gas is diverted from Canada to fill the demand. We don’t seem to have any say in the matter, the big multi-national, US orientated corporations have their own agenda. We end up paying through the nose to keep the southerners happy. And it’s the same old Canadian story, time after time, we pay higher prices for our oil than the Americans do for our oil, just like we pay more for any other produce produced in Canada than they do in the States for the very same product.
Case in point, my good friend who lives in the Kootenay’s works very close to the US border and simply pops over the border whenever he needs to fuel up his truck. The cost savings is very substantial. Here’s the kicker, he has been at that US gas station when its underground tanks were being filled, the tanker doing the filling is from Alberta. So, my buddy can buy Canadian gas from Alberta at a US gas station for about 2/3’s of what the same Canadian gas would cost him in Canada. Something very wrong about that.
Now, anyone who follows the news is aware of the battle going on between BC and Alberta regarding the Embridge Pipeline. Alberta and Embridge want to run a pipeline from the Alberta oils sands, through pristine northern BC and out to the BC coast so Alberta crude can be loaded into tanker ships and exported to China. To hell with any Canadian need for the petroleum products that the crude will be refined into, yet the federal government seems to be backing Alberta on its desire to put northern BC at considerable risk of an environmental nightmare should a spill happen, and Embridge has a rather dismal track record regarding spills and cleanups. So, lets ignore the issue of a pipeline disrupting a pristine part of the world for the sake of getting a very dirty product to the Chinese market. Once Canadian crude is flowing onto the International market, our gas prices will skyrocket, simply because we will ‘suddenly’ find ourselves having to compete on the International market for gas instead of on the North American market where we area already being reamed out through our lower intestine. Now, lets take it one step further….what happens when the US and China start bumping shoulders over some diplomatic or political issue? Or, those Gulf Coast refineries are put out of action for an extended period of time due to any reason? The US wouldn’t hesitate to send in the American military to ‘secure’ the Canadian/Alberta oil supplies and prevent the flow of crude to the coast so it can be diverted south. Now we find ourselves with an occupying army that is only interested in getting the products to the US, and not caring diddly squat about who’s it actually is in the first place, and in order to ensure that no more oil makes it to the coast and on to China, they would probably simply bomb the hell out of the pipeline and the port facilities in order to shut them down completely. We would end up with badly polluted rivers and coastlines and very little gas at our pumps, and that gas would be prohibitly expensive. Just my take on current situations. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello and Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
It’s turkey time once again and I’m sure you’re all looking forward to this weekend’s dinner! I know I am!
With the discovery of doing our turkey on the BBQ spit a couple of years ago it’s made preparing the bird my job which frees up Carole to attend to all the other fixin’s! We don’t have a big family but we still like to do a turkey a couple of times a year and Thanksgiving is the main occasion. This year we’re going to give a “drug free” turkey a try and see if there’s a difference than the usual “Butterball” bird. We’ve taken to eating healthier and have been buying our meat and a few other things in Waterloo at Brady’s Meats in Parkdale II plaza on Albert St. It just feels good to be making an effort to take in less chemicals and drugs in the food we eat. With the beef scare and mess that’s been going on with XL Foods it’s only wise to find another source for our meats these days. We’ve even tried their Bison Meat and burgers and they’re terrific! Even their drug free beef burgers are much better tasting than the usual hormone pumped ones that you buy in places like standard grocery stores. I think we’re through shopping at the normal commercial establishments, at least for our meat products.
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Well, it’s Oktoberfest time once more and as of Friday (yesterday) the tourists will be packing the “Fest Halls” and enjoying tons of sausage, schnitzel, cabbage rolls and sauerkraut as well as gallon after gallon of beer! I think the problem of over boozing that was synonymous with this annual occasion has lessened over the years as there don’t seem to be as many drunk driving charges reported by the Regional Police when Oktoberfest rolls around! That’s a good thing and it’s good advertising for Canada’s largest “Beer Festival” to be keeping the patrons safe on the roads of KW after their evenings out at the German Fest Halls. There’s nothing wrong with having a good mug of beer with a good German meal and some fun filled dancing to traditional German music but it’s when people have too many of those mugs of beer and then try to drive themselves home that the problems arise! People are acting more responsible these days when they attend Oktoberfest than they did for the first 25 years of the festival and I’m happy to see that indeed! I hope this year’s festivities are the safest and most trouble free in the history of the occasion. It only makes for a better outlook for next year’s Celebration!
This years Thanksgiving / Oktoberfest Parade will be held on Monday and the parade marshals for this year are the two stars of a Canadian TV show called “Canadian Pickers”! I’m sure most of you know about this show but if you don’t, these two gentlemen travel around Canada looking for antiques and old relics to buy at a reasonable price and then they resell them at a profit. It’s an entertaining show and has turned half the country into amateur “Pickers” as well! I’m sure they’ll be staying around this area for a few days to take advantage of the many antique collections in Waterloo Region. Maybe we’ll even see our region on one of their TV episodes. I do believe they’ve had one show that they produced in this area already but that was way back before their show was such a success. I’m sure they’ll enjoy their stay here in KW and will get their fill of the traditional atmosphere and German food and Music. Not to mention their share of the local BEER! From the way they talk on their show, I’ve come to think that they both enjoy their share of “Suds” when they get a chance to stop for a cool refreshment in their travels! If the weather is good, I may just take in the parade on Monday myself.
It’s been a few years since we attended the Oktoberfest parade and many many years since we attended any of the fest halls for Oktoberfest! Those days are long gone for us, we just prefer to stay in the back ground at this time of year. Let the younger folks do the whoopin’ and hollarin’!
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 know a guy who’s addicted to brake-fluid but he claims he can stop anytime!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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