The Squamidian Report – Jan. 21 / 17
 
Issue #765

Including:
The Ontarion

Hi All,

Its not that I don't like getting my hair cut. Well, actually I don't, but thats because I hate having someone hovering around my head, way too close for my personal comfort space. But thats not the point. I hate getting hair cuts because its a pain in the butt to get them. Takes time out of my day, and one has to find a barbershop that isn't lined up. The thought of sitting there waiting for an hour just to have some wool sheared off doesn't sit well at all. So by the time I need one, I usually really need one. I look like a schnauzer has roosted on my head. And when said head has been sheared it always looks like that schnauzer has exploded and is all over the floor. But I digress...

I do have my preferred barbershop here in town. I've been going there for years. Its owned by a friend of a good friend of ours. But thats also not the point. I go there because  one of the barbers there is actually tolerable and somehow manages to cut my hair relatively close to the way I want it which is basically just cut it and get it over with. No fuss, just get it done. Over the last couple of years a problem has crept into the mix. This old barber, a woman that lives in Britannia, has just like the rest of us, gotten even older. She's friendly and interesting and had tried to retire but couldn't quite go all the way with that. She now works 1 day per week. Another problem is that her eye sight is not as good as it should be and her hands tend to shake a bit. So its always a bit of an adventure getting a haircut from her. Heck, the last time she cut my hair I came away missing 1 eyebrow. I didn't notice until I was home and in front of a mirror with some scissors clipping away at the areas she missed. Thats kind of the way it is with her these days. You don't quite know what you got until you check it out. Anyway, I got my hair cut again last week. I was fortunate enough to find the day she was in and there was no wait time at all. And as usual, once finished, the floor looked like the preverbal exploded schnauzer and my head was cold. We were still in that abnormally cold Arctic Outflow and you sure can tell when you've had all that nice warm insulation taken off. I should have waited till spring.

That same Arctic Outflow caused something we don't often see. Shannon Falls froze, completely. Just one big 1100 ft long cascading icicle. Because it had been so cold for so long there was virtually no free running water left up in the high valley meaning very little flow left in Shannon Creek. The Falls had slowed right down and then stopped. Frozen. Same with all those rock faces along the highway where ground water runoff normally creates little waterfalls all over the place as it works its way down to the ocean. The rock faces were covered with huge icicles. And as usual, once that Arctic Outflow came to an end, which it did, all that ice along the highway came crashing down. You had to watch out for falling ice and big chunks laying all over the road. That extreme cold was replaced by weather that was so warm that the temperature climbed almost all the way up to 'normal'. That warm air brought with it a rather generous helping of moisture. This past Tuesday we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 128 mm of rain here in Squamish. Suddenly Shannon Falls was thundering again. The Mamquam River had become a sickly little stream and overnight it had swelled to almost flood stage. And, it rained all week washing a lot of our snow away. Bummer. This time of year snow is a lot nicer to look at than bare ground. Oh well.

For the last month and a half it had been snowing a lot between bouts of extreme cold. Because of that the highways department had to plow the highways a lot. Now, you may but probably don't remember me talking about the type of pavement this highway was paved with when it was being rebuilt for the Olympics. There are section where they used what is called 'popcorn' asphalt. Its porous and not very strong. The purpose is to let water drain through it so drivers don't have to put up with spray from the wheels of other vehicles. That may work just fine way down south where nothing freezes but think about it. Water drains into the asphalt and then freezes there, as water freezes it expands as it turns to ice. The asphalt is damaged. So you have damaged asphalt that is being plowed by a big highway truck. The snow blade starts sinking into the asphalt and before you know it the surface is ripped apart. What looks like gravel along the sides of the road is actually the asphalt ground up nicely. The dump part is they actually keep repaving using the same unsuitable material. But its just tax dollars being used up so it apparently doesn't matter.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

     Well, we now have a new president south of the border and it should be an exciting time over the next few months just to see how much he can screw up relations of the USA with the rest of the world! When Trump first claimed his run for the Presidency I thought that a successful businessman might just be good for that position. However, so many of his comments about what he’ll do once he’s in office have scared the Hell out of the entire world. He’s indeed a loose cannon and one can only hope that the US Congress will keep a tight rein on his wild and selfish nature! He is a very rich man but there are a lot of wealthier men of great power in this world than he so I’m sure it’s possible that one or more of them could buy him out and bankrupt him if he gets out of hand! His arrogance may just be his downfall! Let’s hope that 51% of Americans are right and he turns out to be a great President that is indeed good for the USA and the rest of the world! That’s a big wish for sure but the only way to find out is to give the guy a chance. I’m looking forward to having Prime Minister Kevin O’Leary lead the Conservative party and Canada into success and prosperity in the next Federal Election here in our beautiful country! I sincerely hope he kicks Trudeau butt the hell out of Ottawa before Justin gets a chance to bankrupt the entire country as he plans to do! If Justin gets his way our children’s children’s grandchildren will be paying through their noses for many years to come with little hope of ever getting Canada out of debt! Well, that’s enough political talk for this week and I hope I didn’t spoil your supper!
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     This past few weeks has been loaded with a bunch of special occasions and this one has been no exception. First there was Carole’s birthday in early December, then Doug’s birthday, then Christmas, then New Years, then my birthday on January 11th and then “The BIG one” Carole’s and my 44th Anniversary on Thursday of this week! We celebrated the event by enjoying a lovely prime rib dinner at The Golf Steakhouse on Lancaster St in the Bridgeport area of Kitchener. We arrived on time for our reservation and were seated at a “river view” table in the atrium of the restaurant. It’s surprising how beautiful the Grand River is when viewed from the vantage point of being high upon the west bank in a lovely setting such as The Golf Steakhouse. We spent over an hour admiring the view and enjoying a terrific prime-rib dinner. The only other stand out feature of our evening was the ungodly loud and guffaw like laugh of our young lady server! She was so loud I had to turn my hearing aids down in sensitivity! LOL! She was an attentive and as it turned out, a very nice person but I’ve never heard a laugh like hers! WOW, was she loud! Heeyuck Heeyuck Heeyuck Heeyuck! She sounded like she belonged on “Heehaw” doing the laugh track for the Mule with the straw hat that used to pop up in the Cornfield County cornfield! At first it was a bit of a shocker to hear this sort of response to almost everything we said to her but after a while it just became a humorous part of the evening and is one more memory from our 44th anniversary evening! I commented to Carole that it reminded me of the dinner we had in Dominican Republic on the occasion of our 25th anniversary. We had a group of 4 waiters come to our table with a cake and they sang Happy Anniversary to the tune of “Happy Birthday” to us in a very quaint accent! We’ve always remembered that event and I’m sure our laughing waitress from our 44th will stick in our memories for years to come as well! We’ve managed to reach a milestone that not many couples do and we’re looking forward to another 44 years if that’s possible! LOL! It seams these days that most marriages end within the first 5 to 7 years and we think it’s just because young couples these days give up to easily. Life itself is not easy and young couples nowadays just don’t want to bother putting much effort into making things work during the more difficult times of a marriage! Oh well, they just don’t know what their missing by not hanging in long enough to garner the positive aspects of a long and loving marriage! It’s their loss!
Happy Anniversary to my lovely wife of 44 years!
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     We’ve had a mild January so far and it’s supposed to be above 0c for the next week yet. Like I’ve always said “It can snow over Christmas and then melt into an early Spring” right after the New Year begins! It only serves to make my Toro’s life last longer and hopefully mine as well. LOL!

With any luck we’ll be writing our weekly columns for a long time to come and it’s the daily happenings that keep Doug and I in material to do so! Special occasions such as I’ve just described make it easier to think of something to write about and hopefully are interesting enough to keep our Squamidian family coming back to read the content.

Thanks again 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>
If you can smile when things go wrong, you have someone in mind to blame!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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