The Squamidian Report – Jan. 25 / 14
Issue #609
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Just about bought the farm a couple of days ago and I was not
impressed. Luckily it was just me and Willow. The morning before, the
three of us had taken Willow for her morning walk so there would have
been Sue and Kyra on the side of the street as well. I was just
finishing up walking the dog and had come in off of Thunderbird onto
our street. As you may know, our street is laid out like a 'T'. I had
walked up the leg of the 'T' to the corner. There was a white pickup
truck coming down from up past our place. I've seen it many times
before and it is always driving way too fast for a street that has a
lot of young families and kids that tend to play on the street. It's
intention was to turn left onto the leg of the 'T' in order to get out
to Thunderbird. For reasons totally beyond me it cut the corner so
badly that it not only ended up on the wrong side of the street but it
jumped the curb, right where Willow and I were walking. Had she been on
the outside of me she would have been creamed. Had Sue and Kyra been
along, we all would have been creamed. As it was, I have no idea how I
didn't get run down. I was walking on the curb, not even on the edge of
the asphalt. The truck left track marks on the front corner of the lawn
after jumping that curb. Once back on 'his' side of the street, he
slowed, rolled his window down just far enough to see I was still
standing and then sped up and kept on going. I'm pretty sure he could
not have missed hearing some of the profanity I was directing in his
direction.
I have no idea if this jerk was on his phone, or was just driving too
fast, or hadn't cleared his windshield yet, or all of these. Or perhaps
he simply wanted to run someone down. It all happened too fast to know.
It sure left me shaken. I didn't even have time to dive out of the way.
What I do know is that I'll be watching for him and will have his make,
model and license number ready for the next time I catch him driving
too fast up the street. I'm going to make it my job to make his life
miserable before he succeeds in killing someone.
*
The annual Motorcycle Show works it's way across the
country during the winter. If memory serves, it is held in Toronto in
early December and then moves around from major city to major city. It
finally makes it out to the west coast in late January. Unfortunately,
even though its called the 'Vancouver Motorcycle Show', it is held way
out in Abbottsford. For several reasons I guess, one being that
Vancouver is way to uppity to permit something as base as a bike show
to be held in any of its big halls or convention centers. You can have
indoor boat shows, almost any kind of show for that matter, but they
don't want the bike show. So, its held in the Tradex Center way out at
the Abbottsford Airport. That place is a big, drafty, cold barn. Each
year the show gets smaller, with fewer exhibitors to attract
attendants, and fewer attendants to attract exhibitors. This is the
weekend for it, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Each year we go and end up
telling ourselves that we won't bother to go the next year. Each year
we end up going again, just because I guess. So, a bunch of my chapter
members and I decided to get together and car pool out to the show on
Friday.
As expected, the number of exhibitors was down again and there sure
weren't many people there to check out the bikes and related stuff. In
one way, with fewer exhibits and people, it was easier to see stuff but
there really wasn't much to see. There used to be an incredible amount
of leather goods, bike parts, add-on goodies, riding apparel and so on.
Now the average bike dealer carries more stuff than was available at
the show. But, we had a good time and a good day out. Will we go again
next year, no, but probably.
doug
****
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Right off the top, I’d like to say that Doug’s tunes have become a
perfect workshop background sound for my wood working set up. I’ve
always worked in the quiet because I didn’t like to drown out some of
my favorite tunes and stopping to listen to every second tune tended to
slow my progress down too much. So, I got in the habit of working in
the quiet. However, since I started my new hobby of making smaller
wooden projects, I don’t have to have the power tools on as much as
when cutting and sanding larger furniture pieces it works just fine to
have Doug’s original material in the background. I must say I’ve
enjoyed listening to his latest creations. I’d say in about six or so
months I’ll be able to sing along! If I want to know the words sooner
I’ll have to spend quiet time listening to his CD’s without the
distraction of working on a wood project! That’s ok, I’m not in the
business of memorizing his tunes, just enjoying them and they are very
good listening stock!
Well-done Doug!
I’ve been doing woodworking as a hobby for the past 40 years and it’s
still fun. I must admit that I haven’t been as busy in my workshop for
the past few years but now that I’m a senior citizen, I have decided to
get back at it and see if I still enjoy it. I think this wooden toy
making just might be more fun than the larger projects. I’ve got a
resource that I never had before and that’s the Internet! I’m now
enjoying researching an unlimited supply of ideas that I didn’t have at
my fingertips before and it’s half the fun! Once I get a few finished
projects stacked on my shelves, I’ll send out a few pictures of the
results. I will that is, if they turn out well enough to show them to
anyone! LOL!
*
I’m sure you all know that we here in Southern Ontario
are sitting in the middle of another deep freeze and it ain’t fun! Oh
well, at least when the weather is as c c c cold as it is there doesn’t
seem to be as much snow falling. The roads are dry and the sidewalks
are clear. It’s when the temps hover around the freezing mark or a tad
lower that the snowstorms hit us one after another and that of course
creates a lot of work for the snow blower and me! The extreme cold
isn’t pleasant but it brings the clear weather with it and we’ve had
beautiful sunshine for the past week or more along with the cold temps.
I’ve plugged the Jeep in every night just in case I have or want to go
anywhere during the daytime. In the 11 years we’ve had the Jeep it
hasn’t let us down but I have had to replace the battery about 4 times
over that period of time. They just don’t seem to make ‘em like they
used to! I’ve gotten to know the battery wholesaler that has a store
just off Highland Rd pretty well and he treats me well price wise.
Every time I need a new battery I check around and always wind up going
back to the same guy because I just can’t beat his prices. When you
find something good, stick with it I always say! The one thing he
doesn’t sell is a motorcycle battery so Zdeno gets my battery business
every spring for the bike! Funny, the bike batteries aren’t much
cheaper than the ones for the Jeep yet they are ¼ the size, go
figure! Oh well, life goes on!
Guess that’s about it for me for this week! It’s been a slow week so I
really didn’t have much to write about! Thanks for tuning in and
reading me anyway. 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>
You can have all the talent and money in the world but if you have the
brain of an idiot your still looked upon as a
“Loser”! ie: Justin Bieber
****
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.
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