The Squamidian Report – Feb. 6 / 16
 
Issue #715

Including:
The Ontarion

Hi All,

I don't have much to write about this week so I'm not going to write much at all. Heck, I've been writing way too much over the last several weeks as it is. Besides, its been raining a lot and that kind of puts a damper on doing most things. Or at least raining at our elevation and lower. Above us its been snow. So to that end we've done some nice snowshoeing up on the trails. We got up there on Thursday morning with our snowshoes in hand and found a nice fresh deposit of 10 or 12 inches. Beautiful. As is often the case, we are the first hikers to head out on our usual trail, the Panorama Ridge and that was the case again Thursday. We had unbroken new snow, pristine so to speak. We took turns breaking the trail as snowshoeing through deep snow is rather tiring. And keep in mind that this in on top the packed trail which is about 4 feet deep now. Thats 4 feet of packed snow. It will take a while to melt away when spring comes.

One of the problems with stomping our way through deep heavy snow is that you get quite warm due to the exertion. To counter that we tend to take our winter jackets off and carry them. But that creates its own problems. A lot of snow came down the night before  and a lot of it didn't quite make it all the way to the surface. It piled up as big lumps in the trees and became snow-bombs. Those snow-bombs like to wait until someone is directly beneath them and then let go and come crashing down. They somehow know the difference between someone wearing their coat and someone who is carrying their coat and being the diabolical entities that they are, they aim for the carrier of the coat. You get bombed on your head, down your back and on anywhere else that is exposed. So, you brush as much off as possible, pull your coat back on and over heat again. While your coat is on, no snow-bombs try to get you. They are too smart for that. But as soon as you give in and remove your coat, you seem to be fair game again. Go figure.

We were kind of thinking of doing it all over again on Friday as it rained down here again all Thursday night. (This is the rainy season and we do live in a rain forest after all). However, due to the weather forecast that included high winds, rising temps and stupendous amounts of rain, the gondola elected to shut down for the day. No point in ending up with people stranded at the top. There are wind gauges on some of the towers that tell the controlling computer what the wind conditions are and if the wind speeds or gusts climb above a certain level, the computer shuts the whole thing down. The lift operators can over ride the system but thats not the point. If they need to shut down for safety reasons, well, thats what they do. And besides, under those conditions the only customers at the top would probably be just little old us. And thats all I have to say about that or any other topic this week. Short and sweat, well, short anyway.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello Everyone!

Man, these weeks are flying by in a hurry!
It’s already the end of the first week of February and it feels more like March or April to me. With Mother Nature teasing us with these exceptionally warm temperatures and beautiful sunshine I’m tempted to lay out back in my bathing suit with a cold drink in hand. Carole and I went down to Burlington Wednesday to visit IKEA and see what’s new with the Swedish Giant. We left Kitchener around noon and the temp here was +11c. By the time we pulled into IKEA’s parking lot the sun had come out full tilt and the temperature there was a balmy +16c. It was so lovely down there we thought we had missed the drive and woke up in Florida in Mid February. We almost didn’t want to go inside the store it was so nice outside! However, we also like to browse around out of interest in their quirky items. We realize most of their stuff is more appealing to the college or university student crowd but it’s fun to see what’s new in that world a couple of times a year. After picking up a few items we headed for home and enjoyed the drive in the warm sunshine once again. By the time we reached KW once more the temp had dropped to +6c and was destined to get quite a bit lower than that through the night. When I awoke the next morning the thermometer out on the fence was showing a chilly – 3c and we were almost back to a normal winter temp. Guess we should be grateful for small favours from Mother Nature! Anyway, at least the few days of mild weather we’ve had over the past week or so have depleted the snow cover we had accumulated so far. I like to see the green grass this time of year; it just seems to make the winter feel shorter. Hopefully we’ll see an early spring since Wiarton Willy predicted 6 more weeks of winter, the dirty rat! Why the heck would he care? He sleeps through the winter anyway!
Oh well, he’s seldom accurate in his predictions anyway so I hope he goofs up and sleeps through spring! That’ll learn him! LOL!
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    I think I’ve mentioned the friends we have that moved back here from Texas after working there for 10 years and then transferring back to Canada. They lived in Saltcoats Saskatchewan for the final two years of his working career and have now moved back to Ontario after retiring and buying a home in Grand Bend. They are now living there and are completely renovating the Senior’s bungalow they purchased in a retirement community. We were down to “The Bend” a month or so ago to visit them and welcome them back to Ontario and at that time they told us that they were going to redo their kitchen in February. When they told us that, we offered to help in any way with the renovation. A week or so ago I got a call from him asking if I’d be willing to help him install the new cupboards in the kitchen. I said that I would be willing to keep my promise of help and he should just call a day or three ahead of the installation date so I could clear my busy schedule in order to help! He gave me a date of Monday February 1st and likely the 2nd as well for the installation. So, Monday I headed down to “The Bend” to get started on the project. Upon my arrival at 9am, the electrician was still busy installing the lighting in the kitchen ceiling. We figured he’d be done in about an hour so we got busy unwrapping the packaging on the cupboards. That took us almost two hours and he was finally finished. I figured it wouldn’t take us more than a day once we got at the job. Well, of course things never go as well as planned and when we looked at the clock it was almost 9pm. We finished up the last of the one unit we were working on and decided to finish the remainder of the job on Tuesday the 2nd. I had to head back to KW to make an appointment I had with my Dr at 9:30am. I told our friends I’d be back down right after my visit with the Dr.

By the time I once again arrived in Grand Bend it was noon on Tuesday. It only took one unit being installed to get back into a rhythm and we were off and running once again. Things went well and I told them not to bother planning on my staying for supper as I had told Carole that I’d likely be home around 7pm. This meant that I’d have to leave their place by 5:30pm. Well, as things happen we took a bit longer than I planned and we finished with the cupboards at 6:45pm. I was just about to pack up and head home when they asked if I’d mind helping with one last installation. I said I guess I could! What might that be? They pointed at the huge microwave sitting in the box in the corner of the kitchen! Now I know from when I installed our own microwave / oven hood fan that it takes more than a few minutes to fit these things properly in place. I thought, what the heck, I’m here now so I might as well finish the job so I wouldn’t have to make another trip to The Bend the next day. We tackled the job and of course it took several attempts to get it to fit in place properly. We were just finished with the install and the phone rang. It was Carole calling to see if I had left for home yet as she had heard a report of impending freezing rain happening for the entire evening. We hadn’t looked outside all evening and were unaware of the storm happening at the time. I really didn’t want to stay overnight since they had enough to worry about without having to look after me. I said I was going to try to make my way home, as the rain was not yet freezing, at least down in The Bend. I told Carole I’d drive carefully and if things got dicey I’d turn back and stay the night with our friends. Otherwise I’d be home in about 2 to 3 hours rather than the usual 1-½ hrs. With that said, I loaded all of my tools into the Jeep and headed for KW. Having not eaten supper yet I decided that I likely wouldn’t make it home in time to enjoy a meal with Carole so I stopped in Exeter at the local McDonald’s and grabbed a couple of cheese burgers and a milk shake! I enjoyed my treat and took my time driving much slower than usual.

I managed to make it all the way back to Kitchener without encountering any frozen road surfaces at all. Even though my thermometer on the Jeep read a steady 0c there was no black ice on the roads that I found anyway. I was just about to turn into our subdivision thinking, “See, no freezing rain at all!” Then I made the turn off Trussler Rd into our neighbourhood and OOPS, total icy road!!! I slid about twenty feet after making the turn and finally came to a stop. I was surprised to see the ice and slush on the road after such clear sailing most of the way and of course put the Jeep into 4-wheel drive for the short few blocks to our driveway! I made it home without sliding into anything and needless to say was happy to see the inside of the garage! It was shortly after eleven o’clock and Carole was relieved to see that I had made it home safely. I phoned our friends in Grand Bend to let them know, as promised, that I had made it home ok! After settling down with a nice hot cup of tea, we had a chat about my adventure and the kitchen project. I spent a little time watching TV just to unwind and then hit the hay!
That was my big adventure for last week and it was kind of fun to see the changes our friends are making in their new home! Can’t wait to see the finished product!

That’s 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
I used to be indecisive, now I’m not so sure!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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