The Squamidian Report – Jan. 30 / 16
Issue #714
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Turns out having to go to the airport late on a Sunday evening is a bit
easier than the other days of the week due to the slightly less amount
of traffic congestion in the city. Thats a good thing because thats
when I needed to go in order to pick 'The Wife' up. She flew home from
her two weeks back east. Willow comes along on the drives for pickup
and drop-off. She tends to not like the drop-off events because that
means someone is leaving but she does like the pickup ones. And this
time was no exception. As we get near the airport she tends to get
quiet excited. Anyway, once 'The Wife' was at the car and Willow calmed
down a bit we headed for home. Willow was not done celebrating yet. One
of her squeaky toys was on the floor of the back seat. She found it and
proceed to squeak it purposefully for quite a while, kind of the way
people blow those party horns at parties. Dogs need to express
themselves too you know.
The morning after she ('The Wife') got home we found ourselves up on
the trail at the top of the gondola, the one we normally walk. Some of
you have walked there too. As we enjoyed the view from the overlook
platform the big yellow search and rescue plane from CFB Comox did a
fly-by. I've written about those airplanes doing training maneuvers in
our valley before. They tend to fly low and slow as they pass overhead.
Only this time because of where we were, the plane was not overhead, it
was way below us. That was an interesting perspective, looking down on
the Aurora as it flew by. On that same walk we ran into someone whom we
had thought might be dead. I know, that sounds a bit morbid but heres
what happened. Being regulars up there, we tend to bump into the other
regulars, regularly. There was one guy who we would bump into and chat
with a couple of times a week on an ongoing basis but we never actually
leaned his name. He always carried a camera, had a back pack with him
and liked to hike up some of the more difficult trails alone. Well, the
last time we saw him was in early October, just about the same time we
heard that one of the regular visitors had died on one of the back
country rugged trails. No one seemed to know his name but he had a
camera and back pack with him. The authorities dealt with removing him
and informing family etc but no one we knew seemed to know just who it
had been. And as I said, we had not seen our friend since then and we
were aware that he did have some health issues which was why he hiked a
lot, an attempt to get his health under control. We had wondered if it
was him many times and had discussed it with other regulars we would
run into. No one seemed to know.
Well, just as the Aurora S&R plane was flying by below us, the guy
we had thought might be the one who had expired came walking up the
trail. I don't think he could understand the looks on our faces as we
greeted him. I even poked him with my finger to see if he was 'solid'.
We explained the whole thing to him and he explained that he had spent
the last couple of months visiting family over on the Island. All is
well that ends well. One lesson we will take away from that is that
should we (being the people who go there the most) ever decide to go on
vacation or a nice long road trip we will let other regulars as well as
the gondola staff know our plans. No point in having them worry
needlessly about us, especially since they simply assume we will be
dropping by almost every day.
*
And speaking of planning, as you know, I've taken
measures to protect my intellectual property every time I write a piece
of music. But I've sometimes wondered if the measures I've been taking
are the correct ones, files and copies sealed in a registered envelope.
I had discussed it with Lorne on occasion and figured I was on the
right track. After our last discussion I did a Google search on the
subject to see what info would come up. Turns out I have been doing it
right. There are companies out there that will do it for you and store
your information, all for a fee, but the basic idea is the same. Sealed
and dated in a way that would satisfy a court. Thats all it takes to
prove ownership and once a creation or composition or whatever has been
recorded on some sort of medium such as paper or tape or CD, and
dated, you have ownership. You own the copyright to it. Should some
lowlife copy your creation and try to pass it off as their own, the
legal system looks at who can prove it was in their possession first.
Thus, the dated sealed envelope. Its that provable date that is so
important. Registered mail is best because registering a letter through
the post office leaves a dated, traceable trail. An interesting side to
this; ownership of music, or poetry or whatever extends for 50 years
past the death of the owner of the item in question unless they have
sold those rights away.
Should a piece of music ever be 'stolen', it is up to the owner to
prove that it is theirs and thats where it would get complicated
because you'd need a lawyer and all that kind of thing. Thats the kind
of bridge you'd cross should it become necessary. I doubt I have much
to worry about regarding my own material but like I've said before,
I've taken the correct steps to protect my property. If I needed to
prove it was mine as of a given date, I can. And should anyone actually
just want to 'do' any of my numbers for their own fun, all they would
need is my permission. Just like I'd need theirs to 'do' their
compositions. Thats makes sense. Of course any of us who play an
instrument and/or sing other people's material are technically
violating their copyright. As long as we simply do it in private there
isn't likely to be any issue. Should we perform someone else's material
for profit we do run the risk of 'getting caught'.
And speaking of my intellectual property, remember how I ran out of
time trying to get that third song I'd been working on finished and
recorded before 'The Wife' came home? Well, I actually did have last
Saturday to work on it, and I did get it finished. Just not in time for
last week's Squid. So, contact me for the link to the song. Enjoy.
'Well, Hey There'
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Well, it looks like we’re about to end this
winter with a mild spell! We’ve had a very bearable winter so far and
with this current mild spell, I for one have actually enjoyed this
year’s cold season. I’ve only had to use the snow blower a few times
and I’m grateful for that. Just means that it’s going to last another
year longer than it might have if I’d had to work the heck out of it
this year again. I’m hoping my TORO is going to last another 20 years
or more!
It seams there’s always something to be done when you’re a home owner
and not having to clear as much snow as other years is a bonus indeed!
Mind you, I’ve been out quite a few times to clear the snow but most
times there hasn’t been enough snow to warrant using the blower. Just a
quick shovel of the drive and walkway when there’s only an inch or so
is a gentle workout when Mother Nature has seen fit to be nice! There
is always something to be done around one’s home when you’re they type
of person that likes to keep their home in good shape. Carole and I
have always taken pride in the condition of our home and of course the
same goes for the outside grounds and gardens. We’ve done
everything from our own maintenance and renovations of the homes we’ve
owned to the entire construction of one of our own homes at one point.
That was the biggest job we’ve tackled, sitting down at the kitchen
table and drawing up our own set of plans for our dream home and seeing
it through from the basic drawings to the total general contracting of
the construction of the home. Of course it included shopping for and
purchasing a lot on which to build the house. I looked after hiring
everyone from the excavators for the foundation to each one of the
trades that it took to complete the job. Of course I spent hundreds of
hours either assisting each individual tradesperson or persons in their
part of the construction to actually doing lots of the work on the
house myself. Carole also worked with along with me doing whatever
needed to be done by us as the homeowners during the construction. It
was indeed a very interesting but taxing job to look after such a
monstrous task as building one’s own house. It was fun as well as a
great learning experience. Having worked in the Refrigeration and Air
Conditioning/Heating trade for many years I had been fortunate enough
to become acquainted with many different trades persons. I of course
made full use of my contacts in the trades in order to build the house
and the end result was amazing! We lived in that house for 8 years and
finally decided that we’d like once again to live in the city. We had
built it in Linwood and eventually tired of the drive every day to and
from Kitchener for work and shopping purposes so we put it up for sale
and purchased our present home in Forrest Heights section of Kitchener.
We have never regretted either the building of our home in Linwood or
the purchase and move to the home we are now in here in Kitchener. It’s
all been fun but as we age, we have gotten to appreciate the fact that
our present home is finished the way we like it and will likely stay
here until we decide to make one final move to a smaller home with less
work to maintain. You never know but some day we may just buy a condo
or something like many older people do when they have had enough of
individual single home ownership. Until then, life in our home goes on!
After so many changes and renovations to the
homes we’ve owned over the 43 years we’ve been together we are still
not finished making changes to the one we live in. About 6 years ago as
Carole likes to remind me, she asked that I remove the wall in our
front hallway that divided the foyer from the living room. When we
moved into this house, the previous owner had taken it upon himself to
make 6’ x 4’ hole in the top half of that same wall so you could see
through from the foyer into the living room. Carole decided after a few
years of living in this house that the rest of that wall should come
out so the main floor would be more of an open style that is all the
rage these days. I of course having had enough of renovations and
building over the years resisted somewhat as I figured the wall with
the opening in it was “open concept” enough! After putting her request
off for a while (6 years as she likes to remind me) I finally relented
and a few weeks ago I enlisted Adam’s help and we tore the remainder of
the wall out. I needed Adam’s assistance to sort out the wiring that
was within the lower wall. There was a receptacle on either side of the
short wall as well as a switch on the Living Room side that operated
the living room receptacle. It helps for sure to have an electrician
for a son! Once he had sorted out the location of the wiring we opened
up the wall and removed the wiring. The receptacle on the hallway side
was eliminated and the one with the switch was moved closer to the
front wall of the house but still in the part of the wall that was
facing the living room.
Now when you walk in the front door, there is only a 4’ long wall to
your left that still defines the living room. Then the rest of that
wall is no longer there. After the short wall was gone I spent some
time tossing ideas around as to how to patch the strip in the hardwood
floor that was missing between the hall and the living room. Carole
suggested I try to patch it with some of the hardwood we had left over
from the new oak floors we had installed on the entire second floor
about 6 or 7 years ago. I sorted through some of the flooring I had
stored out in the garage and came up with a near perfect match to fill
the space in the floor. It worked out just great! There had been a cold
air return vent on the living room side of the wall that was removed. I
then had hole into the return air ductwork in the floor. There had to
be something done to facilitate leaving that air vent useable. I went
looking at the various home improvement stores in town to try to find a
long floor vent to cover the hole but that wouldn’t look out of place.
I realized that the hole in the floor was divided by one of the
basement ceiling rafters but both sides of the hole accessed the same
return air duct. So, I figured since I couldn’t find a 30” long flat
fancy return air grill, that I would use two vents with a piece of
flooring between the grates. This would look attractive and also save
me having a custom made grill. That solved the problem of the floor
grills and having purchased also a smaller hot air grill to of the same
design to fill the heat vent across the hall from the living room, it
all worked out just fine. The next problem I had was a pillar that was
made by the original framers of the house that held up the beam that
ran from the front wall of the house to the rear wall of the living
room. The beam was essentially the upper 15” of the wall I had removed.
The post was about 4’ from the rear wall of the living room and had
been the left side of the living room doorway. It was made up of four
2x4’s nailed together by the framers and it extended all the way from
the basement floor right through to the attic. I had to leave it there
when I removed the wall so now it was an eyesore that had to be dealt
with! Well, in our travels in search for the floor vents, I had an
opportunity to look through a place called “Timeless Materials”. It is
a company owned by the Kieswetter family and it’s in a huge barn
located up on Northfield Dr in Waterloo. They tear down old buildings
and keep whatever materials are still usable in this barn. They resell
the materials and make a pretty good living do it I’m sure! Anyway, I
had an idea that I might find an old pillar or column in their stock
that perhaps I could split in half and place over the 2x4 post that
remained in our hallway as a supporting post! I went up to Kieswetter’s
and talked to one of their people and asked if they had such an item.
The young fellow that helped me said he had just the item I needed. He
took me up to the second floor of the barn where the had about two
dozen old pillars standing in a corner. I looked at the selection and
found two large columns. They were a pair but he said he would sell me
one if I wanted it. We laid it on the floor and I measured the size of
the inside opening of the pillar. It was one inch larger than the
diameter of the post I had to cover so it looked like it would do the
trick. I asked the history of the item and he told me they pillars were
from a 150 year old homestead they had demolished hear Mount Forest
Ontario. The bottom foot of the one pillar was rotted off from being
exposed to the weather. I guess they were standing on the front porch
of the mansion they were originally from. I measured the length of the
remainder of the column an there was plenty of length left to
accomplish what I wanted to do with it. I looked at the price and it
was marked $350.00 per post. I asked if he would do any better on the
price and he said, “How’s $250.00?” I said I’d be willing to go $200.00
and he agreed too take my offer. I was totally elated since the newly
manufactured ones we’d priced at the building supply places were all
around the $500.00 + mark and were made of aluminum or fiberglass and
didn’t have anywhere near the character this one had! I loaded it into
the Jeep with all the seats down and it just fit! I got it home and set
in the garage since it was too long to take downstairs to my workshop.
Carole was a little shocked at the size of it but agreed it would look
great once it was cleaned up and in place as well as repainted! She was
also thrilled just as I was that it was a very old original column and
that we would have something very unique in our home! I spent the next
day cleaning it up and sanding off the old paint etc that had made it
look a little rough. Once that was finished, Adam came over and he and
I spent a couple of days measuring and cutting the pillar to fit our
needs. We first cut it to fit from floor to ceiling in the hallway. We
even cut a notch out of the top of it so it would fit up both sides of
the beam to the ceiling once in place. Then we sliced it right down the
middle so we could sandwich it over the 2x4 post that actually holds up
the beam. With a few dowels in place to help us line up the halves of
the column, we took it inside the house and set it in place on the base
I had prepared for the bottom. With a little wiggling and a bit of
chiseling here and there we were able to fit it perfectly in place.
Once we had it in place, we separated it once again and applied some
carpenter’s glue and clamped it back together with four straps that we
tightened around the pillar. After leaving it to dry for a couple of
days, I removed the straps today and of course the glue is holding my
column perfectly in place. It looks like we removed a wall and
uncovered an original treasure that now holds up the upper floor of the
house!
SO, once again another project is completed and all is well in the Payne household once again!
Carole will be painting it and caulking the edges in the next few days and the column and hallway will be back in perfect form!
Live goes on and so do the projects that come with home ownership!
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>
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad!
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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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