The Squamidian Report – Jan. 16 / 16
Issue #712
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Willow had a babysitting job earlier this week. You see, Willow just
loves puppies and one of our neighbors has a new one that was in need
of being 'sat' for part of the day. He used to have a very big long
haired Rottie that Willow would swoon over. Heck, all the females, dogs
or otherwise, swooned over Dozzer. That was his name. He was almost as
big as our old dog Yogi, and very majestic, proud and confidant.
However, as with all things, he got old and passed away this past
summer. About a month ago his owner adapted an 8-week old brown lab. We
have always figured that in her past life Willow must have had puppies
that were taken away because her heart melts whenever she sees one. She
wants to mother it, play with it and generally 'have' it. So the first
time she saw the neighbors new puppy her reactions were quite
predictable. She trembled with excitement as she approached, then
proceeded to sniff and lick the little dog and basically check it all
over. Then they tried to play which was tricky because the puppy was so
small and she is so big but they worked it out.
Then the puppy's owner found himself in need of somewhere to leave the
pup for an afternoon and evening as he had a meeting in the city.
Willow was the obvious choice. The two dogs had already formed a
relationship and we of course were quite willing to have the pup over.
After Neil dropped the pup off, Willow first 'mothered' the pup, making
sure all was in order or whatever and then they started to play. I
don't know where Willow found the energy or flexibility but they played
none-stop for 2 hours with the only breaks being the pee breaks that
the pup needed. Then, out of total exhaustion, Willow basically dropped
onto her cushion and was sound asleep. She slept for the next hour or
so while the pup tried everything it could think of to wake her up.
After a while the pup gave up and started to play with Willow's toys
and then simply fell over sound asleep as well. Only thing was, the pup
only slept for half an hour and was wound up and ready to go again
while Willow was still out cold. Several attempts to wake her almost
worked, like when the pup would jump on top of her and go for an ear or
nose. That would get a grunt out of Willow but not much else until she
was ready to be awake. Then, it was play time all over again followed
by dead to the world sleep. And as per usual, the pup didn't seem to
need the same amount of recovery sleep as the old dog but by later in
the evening the tide turned. I guess it was past the pup's normal bed
time because she was now sleeping more often which was just fine with
Willow because thats how she spends the evenings as well, sleeping, so
that she is well rested in preparation for a good nights sleep. Dogs
have that part of life worked out very well. Anyway, Neil came for his
pup about 9:30pm or so and while Willow was quite relieved and happy to
see Neil, the pup wasn't in any hurry to go home. But home she went and
Willow headed straight up to her bed in our closet where she dropped
like an exhausted rock and never moved all night. Its hard to be a
babysitter, no matter what kind of animal that baby might be.
*
Some of you are aware that 'The Wife' is currently out
of town. Those that are aware of that fact are aware of it because she
is at where you are at. Or at least in the same town. She's been gone
for a week and won't be back for another week. Cool. There is something
really nice about having the house to myself, mostly because its quiet.
By quiet I mean the kind of quiet needed to write and record music. I
can work on the writing part whenever my head is in the right space to
do so, meaning I'm relaxed, interested and feeling at least partially
creative. But until I have silence at my disposal I can't finish
anything because silence is needed in order to record. And its not
until I can record the melody of a song and then listen to it that I
can begin to understand what is needed to complete said song. I can
have the lyrics and melody finished but I can't know exactly where the
song is going and what is needed and just as importantly, not needed,
for instrumentation and backup vocals. I must hear the basic song first
before I can envision the full composition. I guess my style is
reactive rather than proactive.
I've been working at several new compositions over the last few months
with each never able to go much beyond being an idea and a few lines of
lyrics. A couple of them have evolved into the beginnings of possible
songs. With the house nice and quiet I've been able to pursue them a
bit further and start the recording process. That always gets me
excited because thats when writing music becomes the most fun and
rewarding. As a recording comes together, it gets increasingly
interesting and enjoyable. I get to see where the song is going as I
watch it evolve. Anyway, by next week I may have some new stuff for
anyone interested in to listen to. We shall see. With last year being
so stressful and busy, its been a while since I could get into that
necessary head space. Hopefully my 'head' is ready and starting to move
on. Stay tuned.
doug
****
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
I know I talked about the Power Ball lottery in the States last week
but since that time there’s been a couple of updates in the news. Of
course there was the results of last Saturday’s draw, which did not
produce a winner of the 1.3 Billion Dollar jackpot. That in turn caused
many investors to activate their home office shredders or just plain
tear their useless tickets into tiny pieces with their own two hands.
However, when one door closes another opens as the saying goes. Then we
all looked forward to the following draw that took place on Wednesday
evening with a Jackpot of no less than 1.5 Billion Dollars. When I
awoke on Thursday morning I checked the online news to see if there was
a winner or winners of that huge figure and lo and behold early results
showed that some lucky soul in California had a winning ticket in their
possession. The Power Ball corporation said however that they would
have to take a few more hours to determine if there were more than that
one winning ticket in their system. I guess with that many tickets sold
even a computer would have its work cut out for it determining the
number of winning tickets sold for the draw. By noon on Thursday it was
announced that there were actually three big winners who held tickets
on Wednesday’s PB Draw. This meant that the poor souls would only
receive half a Billion Dollars each once they came forward to claim
their prize. Shucks! Wouldn’t that rot your socks! I can just imagine
the disappointment felt when each winning ticket holder found out they
would have to share the big jackpot with two other ticket buyers! I
guess somehow they’d each get over the shock of it all. After all, each
winner’s share would still fill the body of the largest dump truck in
the world if it were paid out in American One-dollar bills! How lucky
after all to be able to claim that load for ones self! I don’t think it
would bother me to have to claim only one third of such a huge win. I’d
be more concerned as to how I was going to manage such a large fortune
and how I would go about claiming it without being harassed into hiding
for the rest of my life. There would be the challenge of just claiming
the money and knowing where to have it placed until you educated
yourself on how to make the best use of such a large sum. It most
certainly wouldn’t be something you’d stick in your wallet and hide
under your mattress! It’ll be very interesting to read about or hear
what the claimants will do with such an amount and how it will change
their lives. I doubt we’ll even know who they are for several months.
The first one to stake their claim will likely take the pressure off
the other two winners for a while at least. I think one would have to
sell their house and move to a different city before even picking up
the cheque. You may even have to change your identity once you’ve taken
possession of all the cash.
After giving some thought about the huge amount in the PB Draw, I’m
actually thinking that such an amount is too large for any one person.
When I look at the prize amounts offered in our Canadian Lotto Draws it
scares the hell out of me to think of the challenge presented if you
ever won one of those top amounts. After all, who that you know of
would be capable of handling a sudden win of 50 million dollars let
alone 500 Million? I’d love to try handling a big win like that but I’d
be afraid it would become a full time job just learning about major
finance and it’s management. The last thing I’d want to do at this
stage in my life is take on the task of studying finance and money
management so I could spend every waking moment watching the stock
market to keep track of how much I’ve lost every day or how much or
little I’d made on my investments every time the stock market bell
rang! I think I’d just stick it all in a bank account and forget about
investing for the rest of my life. Then the only challenge I’d have
would be who to leave it to after I “buy the farm”! Oh well, the way my
luck has been going with my Lotto Ticket purchases over the past 30
years or more, I doubt I’ll ever have to face such a challenge! I do
have to say though; I’ve always had a feeling that one day I’d catch a
big win in the Lotto! Guess I’ll just have to keep on buying that one
ticket per draw and see what happens.
That’s about 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>
One ticket is all it takes to win!
****
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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