The Squamidian Report – Aug. 26 / 17
Issue #796
Including:
From Lorne
The Ontarion
Hi All,
First off, I'll deal with this little health scare so we can move on.
As some of you know, I spent last Saturday evening in the emergency
ward at our local hospital hooked up to a million wires and on oxygen.
Breathing simply wasn't working and my oxygen levels had dropped way
below the safe level. It took about 4 hours for my oxygen level to come
back up high enough to be turned loose and let go home. That was a real
bummer because Saturday evening was when my last evening gig of the
summer was supposed to happen up at the gondola. I had to call in, at
the last moment so let them know I couldn't make it as I was rather
laid up. Anyway, the emergency doctor was being run off his feet by the
endless line of injuries that were coming in. This is a town full of
sports junkies and back country athletes so weekends at the hospital
are hectic. The tests he did didn't show any heart or lung issues, just
a very low oxygen level so I was instructed to follow up with my family
doctor which I did as soon as possible which was Tuesday. All the test
results had been transferred to him and because he has all my past
medical results and numbers he was able to pin it down to simple
dehydration. Well, not 'simple' because it can and was quite serious.
Bottom line is, dehydration triggered sever stomach sickness which made
the dehydration worse, and so on, a snowball effect. So life is getting
back to normal. I just need to drink a lot more water and stuff like
Gator Aid which contains electrolytes. Enough of this, case closed.
Well, my blueberry season is over. I hadn't expected one at all after
our hard and seemingly endless winter but most of my bushes had at
least some berries on them, perhaps about half of what would be normal.
What was surprising was that because it turned so hot and sunny, the
berries actually had a chance to ripen. Most years we don't get enough
sunshine to fully ripen them. This year they were nice and sweet, and
very good. Their season started over a month late and now its over. I
did my last picking this week. Thats at least a couple of weeks earlier
than normal as well but I guess the sunshine really helped them along.
Anyway, much to my surprise there were some berries and they were good.
Be interesting to see what next year brings.
And now for some total lunacy, due to the solar eclipse, gas prices in
the Lower Mainland of BC jumped about 10 cents per liter. The
explanation believe it or not, was that because so many people were
converging on the eclipse path through Oregon, gas station in
Washington and Oregon States were selling a higher than anticipated
amount of gas and obviously the solution was to raise BC prices. Thats
how it seems to work. Usually our prices go up when a coffee machine in
a lunch room of a refinery somewhere down in Texas breaks down. Then
its certainly justifiable to bump up our prices because face it, it
could take hours to get a new coffee machine up and running. The real
issue is, our governments at all levels gave away our resources and
business to the US and to the multinational companies years ago and
since then we get hung out to dry at every possible opportunity. We are
a country of 'sheepeople' ruled by idiots that continue to sell
us out. I better go have another drink of water before the Nestle
company finally manages to have that resource privatized into their
hands and we will then purchase it from them and out of the States.
And speaking of the eclipse, even though our location was north of the
path of totality, we had a pretty darn good showing here. We had pretty
close to 80% coverage. For us it started about 9:30am and the place to
be was on the deck of the lodge at the gondola. On a normal Monday
morning there would just be a few people heading up at opening but this
time there was quite a lineup and there was a very fun excitement in
the air. It was like a big party up there. I had brought along several
viewing methods that let me let most of the staff and many of the
customers have a look-see. One of the best methods was to use
binoculars or a telescope and focus the rays coming through onto a
sheet of paper. Solar glasses were obviously great but they were few
and far between. Welding glass worked well. The pin hole projectors
worked too but I hadn't found the right instructions relating to the
size of the hole so my holes were too big. Turned out all that was
needed was a pin hole size of a pin hole, but that made for a pretty
small projection. I showed some people how to use their binoculars, and
one of the head trail people put my old spotter scope to use the same
way. I had donated that scope to them shortly after they opened in
hopes that they would see a need to have their own units but that never
happened so my old scope has been getting lots of use all along. It was
a great eclipse party and everyone is looking forward to the next time.
There's a problem with 'next time'. It does't occur until April 8, 2024
and will not be visible from anywhere in the Canadian west. It will
however be visible in Southern Ontario and on out to the east. It will
be at its best about 7:30 or so in the evening and places as far north
as Hamilton will see the full totality. North of the path, like the KW
area will be almost full. So, mark that on your calendar and plan a BBQ
or something. Might even see you there.
Oh, one interesting possibility has been re ignited by the interest and
excitement of this eclipse. Myself and some of the gondola management
had tried to get some sort of star gazing events going during their
first year open but due to bad weather, bad luck, and lack of interest
from upper management, the idea was forgotten. Now with renewed
interest in celestial and astronomical events we are starting to talk
again about making that work. Cool. I won't hold my breath, but cool.
doug
****
Homeward Bound
Arriving at Deer Lake Airport, we learned that our flight is being
delayed because of a connection from some outpost, flying late.
This had a domino effect on our return because we missed our turn to
disembark at Toronto, meant a wait on the tarmac for an opening.
Deer Lake is a regional air port with services primarily to Toronto,
Montreal, Halifax and points throughout Newfoundland and
Labrador. Mostly clear sky allowed us to recognize features such
as the St. Lawrence River. Having seen only clear blue seas for the
last while, it was shocking to look down on the brown, purple, green,
red and yellows displayed quite vividly in the river below. Although a
bit late, we are back from a wonderful visit to a still unspoiled and
strangely beautiful part of Canada, especially in the NW part of NFLD
and the historic Basque Whaling settlements of Labrador .
Credits are due to daughter Carol for organizing, care giving and chauffeuring of we ancients.
Lorne
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
I suppose you’ve all heard about the 52-year-old woman that won the US
Powerball lottery this past Wednesday! She takes home $480 million out
of the total of $758 million first prize money. I guess I’d still take
that payout since their government likes to keep 30% off the top. I’m
sure I could manage on the paltry sum she’ll have in her account once
she deposits the cheque and pays the income taxes due. I’d love to have
won that prize since the total in Canadian Dollars was $950 Million!
That’s enough to make President TRUMP sit up and take note! The only
problem is that I’m not sure if they’d let a Canadian take that kind of
coin across the border to bring it home! LOL! Oh well, I guess I’ll
just have to settle for the smaller Canadian Jackpots that are usually
not much more than a few million and sometimes as much as 50 million.
I’m sure I could make due with that sum!
I’ve already picked out my first purchase in the automotive lineup so
I’m crossing my fingers for a win this weekend. I’d like to pick up the
new car while in Toronto on Monday after claiming my Lotto Prize from
this week’s Draw but first I’ll have to wait until Sunday to make sure
I’ve won! Hahahaha…. No sense in visiting the Ferrari Dealer if the
cash isn’t in my account! My choice of vehicle is the 2018 Ferrari
Portofino. A very nice convertible hard top with 584-horse power, nice
indeed! I’ll be sure to let you all know if this dream comes true!
I haven’t heard any more about the Waterloo Fire Bug so maybe he’s been
scared off by the intense investigation going on to catch him! The
other situation in the local news I’m sure you’ve been made aware of is
the creep in Stanley Park who is killing and dismembering cats and
leaving them on different street corners. As an animal lover myself,
I’d like to catch that SOB before he destroys anymore pet lives! What a
sick bugger he or she has to be to commit such sad crimes! I’ve always
said that cat owners should not allow their pets out to roam free and I
think this situation has a lot of them scared enough that they won’t be
letting their kitties out anymore. At least until the authorities
manage to catch this sicko and make the streets safe once again in
Stanley Park. The problem might be prevented from happening again if
the Region of Waterloo makes licensing of cats mandatory with heavy
fines for those whose cats are caught on the loose! I know that cats
wearing a license on their collar can still roam free but with a heavy
fine possible for the owners they might just think twice before opening
that door at night!
Just a quick thought about the weather this summer, are those of you
who live in Southern Ontario a little ticked off with the inconsistency
of our sunny days this year? I’m a tad fed up with all the cooler
temperatures and rain that’s been plaguing our province this year and
I’d like the provincial government to do something about it before the
impending FALL reaches us! It would be nice to have a couple of months
of convertible weather so we can get out and enjoy topless sports car
before winter sets in again. Even when we do manage to get a day with
sunshine it only seems to be intermittent. Driving between the
cloudbursts just isn’t my kind of sunny day driving!
Now, I know there are more serious things in life to complain about but
the weather has always been one of my favourite beefs, especially since
we’re retired and deserve to live out our final 30 years in sunshine
and warmth! Let’s see the Liberals do something with this challenge!
Ha! That’s about all I have in mind this week!
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>
To belittle is to be little!
Sometimes it pays dividends to keep your comments to yourself!
****
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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