The
Squamidian Report – Oct. 27 / 12
Issue #544
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
This is something I was never really aware of because I didn’t pay very much attention, but now I am aware because I am paying attention… TV commercials seem to be constructed in such a way that they catch a baby’s attention. Big time! Little Kyra can be happily playing or doing whatever it is that babies do, when a commercial comes on, on the TV that is on. She hadn’t paid any attention at all to whatever nonsense was on TV until a commercial begins to play. Then, her little head whips around toward the TV and her attention is full and total. I don’t know if its sounds we can’t hear, or colours or movements that we don’t seem to pick up on but they sure get to her. It doesn’t seem to matter what or who’s commercial it is, it has the baby riveted to the screen. Kind of scary when you think about it. What messages are in those things that are being programmed into the heads of little kids? Me thinks its time to unplug the boob tube.
Incidentally, 9-month old Kyra’s favorite TV programming is the Weather Network. Smart kid.
Do you remember a while ago, when I had finished my 3rd CD? I had kinda promised that there wouldn’t be any more recordings for a while. Well, we are back into the cold rainy type of weather that lets this part of the world have its incredible rain forests. That means we tend to spend a bit more time inside than we do during the nicer days of summer. So, even though I had said I wouldn’t do any more for a while, I guess ‘a while’ is up. I’ve been laying down some tracks as I work toward a 4th CD. I have no idea when there will actually be enough numbers to make up the alleged 4th CD, but I’ve got 4 numbers recorded now that will probably be on it. There is really nothing new, or at least nothing better, still just me playing several instruments, and just me singing leads and multiple harmonies. In fact, one song, a Willie Nelson song, has 7 vocal tracks in the final chorus. I guess that makes me a choir, in the chorus. Talk about multiple personalities, is the world really ready for a choir of me? Anyone interested in a sneak preview can actually hear them long before there are enough numbers to become the next CD. There are MP3 versions of them on my web site. Just go to this link and at the bottom of the page they are listed where I’m compiling the needed songs.
http://www.thedougsite.net/Songs/songs.htm
One reason I’ve started working on the next CD is that many of the people in my motorcycle club have been bugging me for the next installment. I guess they have gotten tired of the versions they have and want new material to listen to. Another reason is that I’ve actually had some quiet time here lately, which can be pretty hard to come by. When a few hours of relatively quiet comes along and if I’m feeling creative, I start a new music project, or continue work on an existing one. Its amazing how rare it is to have the house to myself, and then I still have the dog snoring and the fridge running and the occasional train blowing it’s whistle on the other side of the valley to add to the ever present background noise. But, on the bright side, all the background noise and distractions give me a good excuse to not be too picky about sound quality or skill and talent levels. If my stuff sounded too professional, It would be expected all the time.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Well, we had one beautiful day here in Waterloo Region today and I’m not sure just when we’ll see another like it! The weatherman says it’ll be a while! I guess we can’t expect a beautiful fall day every day can we! Today was the warmest October 25th in several years according to today’s weather report and it sure would be nice to experience a few more before the nasty stuff sets in for the winter. I was tempted to take the bike out but all the running we had planned for the day required that we both be out and about and that our vehicle be capable of carrying a few boxes of groceries that wouldn’t even fractionally fit in my motorcycle saddle bags! LOL! Oh well, I’m sure we’ll get another nice day before fall packs it in for this year.
Speaking of vehicles, it seems that all around me are friends and relatives that are splurging on new vehicles. Adam has been talking about selling his Mini Cooper and buying a pick up truck for the past year or more and he finally did it! He sold his Cooper last week on Tuesday and on Friday afternoon he and I took one more drive past a good portion of the many dealerships in the Region to see if we could find his favourite truck the Dodge RAM HEMI. Over the past year we’ve been out many times cruising the dealers and found many RAM’s for sale but none that met his fancy. He wanted to purchase a slightly used RAM so as to avoid the massive kick in the wallet that purchasing a brand new one comes with! He figured through his research that if he bought a new one through a Dodge dealer he’d lose upwards of $15,000.00 in resale value the first year. He was given this figure by a good friend of mine who owns a used car business in Waterloo and is the only used car dealer I would ever trust to tell the truth! LOL! I’ve been friends with this guy since high school and he’s always been a standup guy.
Anyway, we finally spotted a beauty of a Dodge Ram “crew cab” HEMI 4x4 SPORT DELUXE on a car lot on Hwy 24 in Cambridge and when we pulled into the lot to take a look, it appeared to be a spotless and likely too new vehicle for his liking. I got out and took a look at it and Adam was approached by a salesman. When he said the vehicle was a low mileage one owner totally loaded locally owned 2010 model that he was willing to deal on, he piqued Adam’s interest so he decided to get out and take a look. After he talked for a few minutes and the sales guy opened the truck for him to climb in he decided to take a test drive. We were both amazed that this vehicle was actually a three year old vehicle (technically that is) because of the condition. It was virtually spotless and had only 48,000 km on the odometer. I can’t even begin to list the features and extras on this amazing vehicle. It has everything from a total navigation/communication system to electric trailer brakes controller, to a sun roof, to heated and air conditioned 10 way power seats, to twin storage/coolers in the rear floor, to a hidden DVD player behind the nav system, to a heated steering wheel, to a rear back up video camera with back up distance sensors in the rear bumper and about a dozen more features that used to be available only in the most sophisticated of luxury automobiles. We were both shocked at the quality of this vehicle and Adam was very impressed with both the truck and the price. We returned to the dealership and within an hour he had struck a deal on a new truck! His yearlong plus search was over and all he had to do was wait from last Friday afternoon until the following Tuesday afternoon to take delivery of his new beauty! The truck is copper coloured outside with a black leather interior. It’s an unusual colour and we had never seen one like it before. Of course now that he owns it he’ll likely see a few more around with the same paint colour, that’s just the way it seems to go. I’ve driven it now and it’s so impressive that now he’s got me thinking about looking around for a new vehicle too. I think I’m going to let that move slide for a while and give it some thought. My Jeep Liberty is still keeping me very happy with it’s 257,000 km on the clock so maybe I’ll take a year or so just like Adam did and really do some looking before making the jump to something new. Besides, I am still mulling over trying to set a mileage record with the Liberty since I’ve already got a good start on it! You never know, Chrysler Corporation may just reward me with a free new Jeep Liberty when I’ve reached the 1,000,000 km mark 20 years from now! LOL!
I did say that people all around me are purchasing new vehicles but that was a tad bit of an exaggeration. There have only been 2 people in the same week and Adam was one of them. The other is my cousin Randy who phoned me a week ago Tuesday and asked what I was up to. I told him I was out in the garage cleaning up and he told me to stay there, that he’d be over in 5 minutes. He didn’t say why but as I was putting the floor mats back into the Liberty after cleaning them, I turned around to the sound of something rumbling at the end of my driveway. The rumbling turned out to be a bright red 2012 shiny new Corvette! He had traded his 2007 electric blue Corvette in on this red beauty and had honoured me with being the first person to know about his purchase as well as being the first person to see it and take a ride in it! I’ve owned two Corvettes in my car buying history, a 1972 brand new and a 1974 that I had purchased from this very same cousin that was 3 years old (the Corvette that is, not the cousin)! Anyway, I guess that he figured that being he just turned 65 and has been retired for 10 years that he deserves a brand new Vette, not a dumpy old 2007! LOL! The car is definitely a sophisticated machine when compared to the Corvettes of yesteryear but I still can’t bring myself to want another one. It’s like that popular saying of today, “Been there done that!” I like to look at the new Corvette and ride in them but have no desire to own one! They’re just too limited in practicality for my liking! I’m much more of an SUV “Jeep Liberty” type of guy now that I’ve “Been THERE and Done THAT!” LOL!
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’m reading a book about anti gravity and I can’t put it down!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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