The Squamidian Report – May 2 / 15
Issue #675
Including:
From Al
The Ontarion
Hi All,
You may remember that I stated that KW has the worst drivers around.
Turns out I was only partly right. I should have included the taxi
drivers in Maple Ridge BC. They sure can ruin your day. I had planned
on visiting Ryan and Kyra and Lauren last Monday, which I did. The
intention was that Ryan would help me choose a new cell phone and
service provider so I could sever my ties with Bell. I would then spend
the rest of the day visiting, doing fun stuff with Kyra and so on, then
head home in the evening after the Lower Mainland rush hour traffic had
subsided. Things didn't quite work out as planned. I was on my way and
only about 4 blocks from their place when a taxi driver made a sudden
left turn at an intersection, right in front of me. I've said before
that I always look both ways twice, and I did, but even that didn't
give me any chance of avoiding the jerk. He turned so close that
although I was moving well below the posted speed due to the fact that
all the traffic was moving slowly, there simply was no chance at all of
getting stopped. I T-boned him with 'The Wife's' Toyota Camry. Our car
now needs a new bumper, grill, any and all plastic parts at the front
and needs the hood straightened out. However, all the front end
lighting stayed intact so the car is still legally drivable. His
lighter Prius didn't come out so well, our heavier car did a nice job
of caving in the back passenger side and spinning him sideways.
Luckily for me there was a witness standing on the corner and the
vehicle behind me also saw the whole thing, the taxi pulled a left into
on-coming traffic. Both people gave me their names and numbers and
licenses. Under the ICBC system, everyone is at fault (so they can
raise everyone's rates) unless the 'victim' can prove otherwise. Thats
why it's so important to have witnesses and get their contact info. In
the old days, a cop would have attended and the 'at fault' driver would
have been ticketed for an unsafe turn. That does not happen anymore and
I personally think thats why there are so many unsafe drivers, there is
very little consequence anymore. Many people tend to see this kind of
thing as just an insurance issue and nothing more. Anyway, I phoned
ICBC and gave them my side of the story as well as the witness contact
info. I won't know for a while yet what their 'findings' are but it
should work out ok. The car is drivable although there is no longer a
front license plate so I drove home in mid afternoon instead of late
evening. I was just too stressed to be a good visitor at Ryan's.
Under ICBC you must contact their claim center, give them the details
etc and then they give you a claim number which you then take to an
approved auto body shop, or have the vehicle towed to an ICBC
evaluation center. The local auto body shop here now has the claim
number and the car went in on Thursday to be repaired. There are still
a lot of hoops to jump through and red tape to deal with, all part of a
cumbersome bureaucratic system. Like I said, great way to spoil a day.
This whole thing is a bit unsettling because I've always believed that
if you drive defensively, are constantly alert and always ready for any
and every thing that you will at least have some options, limited as
they might be. I was wrong. There were no options because he turned
left so quickly and so closely that I had barely touched the brakes
before we hit, and there was certainly no where to swerve to had there
even been time, which there wasn't. Perhaps thats not quite right,
there was an option given the traffic and driving conditions and I was
using it, I was proceeding at a reduced speed as my perception of the
road and traffic conditions indicated was necessary. I could very well
have been tooting right along and that would have resulted in a lot
more damage, perhaps even personal injuries. Or, I could have been long
past the intersection before the taxi ever got there. We will never
know.
Kind of a funny thing is that we qualify for a free rental car while
ours is tied up being repaired. The only reason I even bothered with
the rental car is that it was easier than waiting for a ride home after
dropping off our car, and I'd have had to get a ride back down to the
auto body place when our car was ready, unless its not ready by the
time I drive to the airport next Thursday night to pick up 'The Wife',
in which case then I'd want the rental car. I don't really want to
drive to the airport in my truck, only because it gets relatively poor
milage. Its actually very comfortable to ride in but the milage thing
spoils going very far with it. I have both my truck and motorcycle to
drive, I don't need the rental car. So, if our car is ready before I
drive to the airport, I will have put approximately 12 kilometers on
the rental. If not, I'll end up putting on12 kilometers plus the
distance to YVR and back, a total of about 212 clicks. The rental will
spend its whole time here sitting in our garage. Another funny thing,
when you rent a car from a car rental place like Avis etc, you get a
new or fairly new car. The one I had in Kitchener a couple of weeks ago
was almost new with quite low miles on it. The one I've got from the
auto body place is a 6-yr old Ford Focus. Nothing wrong with that but
it struck me as funny.
*
And just to get my mind off of this and on to other
things, I'll tell you about the guitar cleaner and polish that I've
come across. It took a lot of Internet research before I stumbled
across it but I'm glad I did. Most run-of-the-mill instruments have a
hard, almost plastic finish over the wood. Very good for protection but
not good for transmitting musical vibrations. It inhibits the sound
quality and quantity. The 'better' instruments use a Nitrocellulose
finish. I don't pretend to understand exactly what that is but it does
not impede or influence the sound qualities of the wood. However, it is
very delicate and just the contact of where the guitar sits agains your
clothing and where your arm lays across it can cause very faint hazing.
The proper way to clean an instrument with this kind of finish is to
just wipe it with a soft, damp cloth. However, that hazing will not
wash off. You must not use a cleaner that contains abrasives, which
most every day cleaner do contain. Most guitar cleaners and polished
also contain abrasives. Neither Gibson nor Martin make any
recommendations on their web sites as to how to remove the hazing. They
both sell cleaners and polishes, but those products don't remove haze.
So, after hunting for quite a while I came across one product that was
hard to find, hard to get and all the reviews claim works
fantastically. Only problem is, there is no where in western Canada
that sells it. I could however order it on-line from the company, which
I did. Both their polish and their cleaner come in small bottles, at
about $10 each. Shipping and handling to here from the States adds
another $25. Thats ok too because if the products were available here
they'd probably be priced at double the American price anyway. So, just
to let you know, I had some slight hazing on my guitar and this stuff
cleaned it off almost like magic. Wipe it on, wipe it off and buff.
Beautiful results.
Here's a link to their site if this kind of thing interests you.
Virtuoso guitar cleaner and polish.
doug
****
From Al
I haven't contributed for some time so I thought I'd comment on a
couple of things that Doug mentioned last week. First of all Bell.
Years ago we would go days at a time with-out any service( which at
that time included our inter-net connection). When we contacted them
about this issue we were told that it must be the fault of our
land-line phones. However when one of their technicians came out and
worked on the service box out front, the power would magically be
re-stored! Finally we got fed up and went to Rogers whereupon they
bombarded us with letters and calls saying how much they missed us! We
now have a bundle package with Rogers which saves us a bun---lot!
As far as driving in Kitchener now one does so at their own risk. The
over-all volume and people trying to get somewhere where they should
have been 5 minutes ago is terrifying. May-be I'm just getting old but
I drive strictly defensively. Actually Carol does most of the local,
she seems to adapt better. Can't wait to get back to Wiarton and blend
in with the "small town drivers".
Take care, Al
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
It seems as though one can’t read the paper these days without finding
the name of someone they know listed in the obituaries. I haven’t read
my e-mail for a couple of days and when I opened it on Thursday evening
I discovered a note from Carry Gilmour, Clyde’s daughter announcing
that on May 31st from 1 to 5pm she and her mother Barbara will be
hosting a memorial gathering to celebrate the life of Clyde at the Jazz
Room in the upper level of the Heuther Hotel in Waterloo. Clyde passed
away several months ago and the gathering was postponed as per Clyde’s
wishes until the weather was nice enough to be assured of a pleasant
day.
In the very next e-mail I received another message from an old friend
that included the Obituary announcement of the death of the father of
another life long friend of mine. My friend’s name is Rich Wamil and
we’ve known each other since grade 10 at KCI. Rich played keyboards and
sang for a great local band I’m sure you all will remember called
“Copperpenny”. His father “Julian Wamil” was a great guy and made sure
that all of Rich’s friends were welcome in their house anytime. Julian
made the best wine I’ve ever tasted and believe me we tasted our fair
share of Julian’s wine. Rich and I became fast friends and although we
don’t see much of each other these days, it’s like we were together
only yesterday when we do connect. He and his wife Deb live just around
the corner from Carole and I and yet we never seem to make that
connection as often as we’d like. Back in the early days of our
friendship Rich and I connected in a strange way indeed. Rich and
another friend of his by the name of Alan Dunbrook were placed in the
same class as I was when the school year began. We had only been in our
class for about a week at the start of the school year and had not yet
spoken more than a “Hello” once in a while. I was walking in downtown
Kitchener on a Saturday morning and happened to see Rich and Alan
looking in the window of Budd’s Clothing store. As I approached them I
noticed that there was a rather “greasy” looking guy in a leather
jacket who stepped in front of them as they started to walk away. Rich
and Alan were dressed in what we called “Mod” clothing style back then
and they stood out from the “normal” crowd, so to speak. This “tough
guy” was blocking their way and was insulting their way of dress and
their long hair. I heard him say something to the affect of “What the
hell do you freaks think you’re proving with your Hippie clothes and
your girly hair?” I heard Rich say “Nothing man! We don’t want any
trouble!” At that point I stepped into the doorway of Budd’s and
intervened with a nice loud “What the Hell’s your problem pal?” To
which he replied “None of your f_ _ _ _ _ g business!” So I said “It
just so happens you’re bothering these guys and they are friends of
mine so SHOVE OFF!” and with that I gave him a shove out onto the
sidewalk and I guess it surprised him enough that he didn’t want any
more of me, so he turned and with a few choice curse words and a rude
gesture walked away.
Rich and Alan looked relieved and thanked me with hearty handshakes and
from that point on we were the best of friends! We spent a lot of our
spare time together from then on and got along great. I even at one
point drove the Copperpenny to gigs in their old school bus and of
course attended most of their gigs and bookings for many years. After
graduation from KCI we still spent a lot of time together. I even lived
with Rich and his dad Julian and his brother Donny and his dad’s second
wife Trudy on the corner of Margaret Ave and Guelph Sts for about 6
months. It was my first attempt at living away from my parent’s place
when I decided to buy a new Corvette I had to move home to my folks
place so I could afford the car! LOL! It was a new 1972 Corvette coupe
and of course my first attempt at a new vehicle.
Rich and I kept in touch and when Carole and I got married we would
hang around with Rich and Deb. They got married shortly after we did
and moved to Wingham. We didn’t see them for a long time after that but
when they moved back to Kitchener we started up the friendship once
again. Our lives took different paths and consequently the times we’ve
gotten together have been few and far between since. However our
relationship has been like Ann Murray said in one of her many great hit
songs, “Hello my old friend. Gee it sure is good to see you again!
Doesn’t matter really how long it’s been, just open up the screen door
and c’mon in!” I reiterate, when we do manage to see each other, it’s
like the last time we were together was only yesterday! Isn’t that the
way friendships ought to be? Guess we’ll see Rich and Deb at the
funeral!
That’s about all 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>
It’s a lot better to be seen than viewed!
****
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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