The Squamidian Report – June 16 / 18
Issue #838
Including:
From Russ
The Ontarion
Hi All,
The neighbor down the street had gotten a new puppy about 3 years ago.
That puppy grew up thinking our dog was her mother and our dog Willow
in turn thought Zoe was her pup. It was a year ago last March that we
had Willow put down but Zoe still remembers her and in fact comes
looking for her. They had been quite remarkable together with Zoe being
a rather overly exuberant brown Lab and Willow being the stately
motherly type. There was a playfulness and a tenderness between them
that had to be seen to be believed. While Zoe is now about 3, she still
has the enthusiasm and energy of a pup to the extent that whenever her
owner accidentally lets her slip out without a leash attached, she
heads straight to our front door where she makes her presence known by
banging on the door. We have no problem with letting her in at which
point she dashes all around the house looking for Willow. This desire
to come visit works out very well for her owner because when she does
get loose she can not be caught given the fact that she is still young,
full of energy, and any attempt to catch her is seen as a game that
only she can win. So, when she gets loose, the easiest way for her
person to catch her is to simply say “go get Willow”. No matter what
Zoe was being distracted by or how much fun she was having playing
'just try to catch me', she immediately heads to our front door where
she sits and waits to be let in. Her person can then connect her leash
and Zoe, being a typical Lab with a very short attention span, happily
heads home, under control whether she knows it or not.
We are often out on our morning walk when we come across Zoe and her
person on their walk. Now a full grown Lab that is determined to come
and greet us is not all that easy to hold on to so her person simply
lets go of the leash and we brace ourselves for the imminent impact of
a big brown projectile that has launched herself at us. The further
away she was when launched the better because a longer charge at full
speed uses up a small amount of energy, lessening the impact. And some
how, at the moment of impact, that dog manages to get her nose smear
all over the INSIDE of my glasses. We learned long ago to have our
mouths shut tight in order to avoid being deep throated by her. Short
of wearing a full face motorcycle helmet (which in fact works great as
a way of keeping dog tongue out of our eyes and ears) we usually end up
slobbered on and licked but thats ok, thats what dogs are for.
And then there is the pair of crows that come to see us. We used to
have Stellar Jays coming all the time but had to discourage them
because they make such a mess. They become demanding, bossy, and
basically poop all over everything, especially the deck chairs as they
perch on them while looking in the windows to spy on us. It got to the
point where we felt like we were being held hostage. So, now we just
feed the humming birds, and we have lots of them coming to the feeders,
and the pair of crows. When the weather was nice way back in May the
hummers didn't really bother with the feeders as there was lots of
natural food available for them but once June hit and acted more like
January, well, the hummers are quite happy to except our contribution
to their dietary needs. But getting back to the crows.... this pair
seem quite happy to clean up any food scraps we put out for them, and
its a great way to get rid of some of those scraps that would turn
smelly if they were stuffed into a garbage bag and put into the bin. In
the old days we fed those scraps to the dog, now its to the crows.
One of those crows actually needs our help a bit. She (just guessing)
has a deformed beak and has trouble eating. The scraps we put out are
cut up into very small pieces making it easier for her to pick them up.
Once she has picked up some pieces she then drops them into the water
tray we have sitting on the deck rail, and from there she picks up the
now wet food items and swallows them. I guess that helps them go down
easier.
This pair of crows have not been messy, at least so far, and have not
been bossy or pushy with us. They ignore the humming birds and the
hummers ignore them so everyone is getting along just fine.
doug
****
From Russ
This will be short and sweet as I can’t sit for long, due to a chronic back problem.
“bump” > (verb) 1 push, throw, or strike 2 move along in a
bumpy fashion 3 hit or come against with heavy blows 4 bump
off (slang)
“bumpy” > (adj.) having bumps; causing bumps; rough “There’s a bumpy road ahead”
“Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me; I want people to
know ‘why’ I look this way. I’ve travelled a long way, and some of the
roads weren’t paved.” Will Rogers
And I might add; there have been plenty of bumps, and try as I may, I
couldn’t dodge them all! There are many bumps on the road of life, but
this time, Lord...you gave me a mountain! (when my wife of 57 years
died)
Bumped-up can be a good thing (when I was promoted to Sergeant)
Bump up can be a bad thing (every long week-end they bump up the price of gas)
I bumped into an old friend at the supermarket and broke my glasses.
We were stopped for a red light when he bumped into my rear end (I won’t even try to explain that one)
Things that go ‘bump’ in the night (your partner coming home drunk again!)
The hike in the ‘minimum wage’ has caused merchants to ‘bump up’ the cost to consumers. (Thanks, Kathleen)
Why is it, whenever I go to drink while driving...we hit a ‘bump’ and it spills onto my lap? (Distracted driving?)
“Where’d you get that ‘bump’ on your head?”
“I ‘bumped’ into a doorway...that wasn’t there”
I ‘bumped into’ an ‘old girlfriend’ the other day...gee she’s aged!
And finally. Kathleen Wynne was ‘bumped badly’ in the Election, and we
congratulate Doug Ford and the PC Party in their majority win.
Now, if the US could only ‘bump’ Trump!
By Uncle Russ.
PS
My doc made an appointment for me to see a “spinal surgeon” in
Kitchener next month. Maybe he/she can do something for this
*^#+<@* back of mine!!!
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Well, a week has gone by since our new provincial government was
elected. Although I’m not sure of what to think of the new Premiere I’m
hoping he’ll turn out to be a positive force for Ontario. I’ve heard
both good and bad about him and the worst I’ve heard has been that he’s
another Donald Trump! I sure as heck hope that’s not true!
It’s hard to believe some of the shenanigans that President Trump is
pulling when it comes to treating the allies of the USA fairly. I know
that he says he has the best interest of the US citizens at heart but I
don’t think he realizes that in hurting Canada he’s going to cause a
backlash of problems for his American workers as well! Oh well, only
time will tell I guess!
*
I
spent the day weeding our front garden and raking up the small branches
that had fallen from our Birch tree onto the lawn. I guess the wind was
so strong over the past day or two that it’s stripped a lot of the
weaker twigs and branches off the tree. It took me a good hour and a
half to clean up the mess as well to pull the 5,000 weeds that had
infested the small garden we have around the base of the Birch tree. It
looks a lot less like a jungle now that it’s been cleaned up! LOL! I
also spent the day on Thursday weeding the back gardens as well. We had
a Small tree of sorts that overhung the pond out back and it was bare
and without any leaves this year so it was time to cut it down and make
room for something else to fill the space. Now all Carole has to do is
decide what she’d like planted in its place. I’m sure she’ll come up
with a nice replacement that will grow to size over the next couple of
years. In the meantime, we can see the large lime stone rocks that I
built up to act as a water fall when we first built the pond about 10
or so years ago! It’s amazing how quickly the plants grow; it didn’t
take long for them to fill in the background around the pond. I’d say
that within a year or two they were overshadowing the waterfall I
built. That’s ok, since I stopped the waterfall from operating about
two years after I first made it. For some reason the rubber membrane
underneath the limestone rocks sprung a leak shortly after its
inception and rather than dismantle the huge rock falls, we decided to
change from the falls to a lovely spout that sprays water about 18”
high out of the centre of the pond. It both looks and sounds peaceful
when in operation. I have it on a timer so that it starts shortly after
nine am and shuts off at 7pm each day. It’s a nice effect and we enjoy
just sitting on the patio or swinging on the garden swing and listening
to the rippling water. When we first built the pond, we tried having
fish in the pond but I found that the water was so dirty from their
excrement that it was a huge chore to maintain the clarity of the
water. SO, I donated the dozen goldfish to the neighbour of a friend of
ours who also had a pond and wanted fish. I haven’t heard for years now
if he’s still got the fish but if he does I’m sure they are huge by
now! Anyway, he can have them and also have the pleasure of cleaning up
after them as well! I’ve chlorinated the water since removing the fish
and it’s worked out just fine! I put one 4” puck of chlorine in the
water about once a week and test the water like I would a swimming pool
and the water is crystal clear! No slime or algae in the pond at all
and that’s just fine with me!
Today I decided to give the body shop a call that’s going to do the
work in the MG for us. I hadn’t heard yet how much I’d have to add to
the insurance claim to have the whole car painted and since I was asked
to drop the MG off to be repaired on the 18th of June I figured I’d
like to know how much it’s going to cost! LOL!
I called the shop and was told once again that the owner was busy but
would call me back within the hour. Finally I got a call from his
secretary to tell me that the additional cost to me to have the whole
car cleaned up of a few small rust spots and repainted would only be
$1800.00! I was dumfounded when I heard that amount and asked if she
was sure that’s the price and she assured me that I had heard her
right! I guess I should count myself lucky that they’re able to do it
for such a good price. He had told me that depending on the amount of
work required by the insurance claim he could make use of some of the
insurance money toward the entire body and paint job and it might not
cost me too much on top of the claim to complete the job. WOW! I’m
impressed with the quote and I sure hope I’ll be impressed with the
quality of his work! Can’t wait to get it into the shop and get it back
to see the results! I’m sure he’ll do a good job since I’ve seen some
of the other work that they were doing on vehicles at his shop when I
visited to arrange the work on the MG! Anyway, I’m really looking
forward to having it fixed and painted all one colour finally. I’ll be
sure to send out a few photos once we get the MG back home again.
I’ve attended a couple of “Cruise Nights” in Baden Ontario this past
two weeks. They hold what they call “Cruisin’ At The Pond” on Wednesday
evenings from 5pm to 8pm during June through to the end of August and
they attract quite a crowd and about 100 vehicles each time. What a
variety of vehicles they attract too! Everything from Mini’s to
Corvettes and antiques to trucks! This past Wednesday evening they even
had a huge antique John Deere Tractor in mint condition. It was one of
the old style tractors with the pigeon toed front wheels. I’d say the
thing was about 8 feet tall and sounded like a hot rod when the owner
fired it up to leave the site. The tires were at least 6 feet tall
themselves and the owner was at least 6’ 2” tall and weighed in at what
I’d guess to be around the 300 lb mark! He suited the size of his
vehicle, that’s for sure! I don’t know how many times I’ve driven
through Baden over the past 50 years or more and until this month I
never knew there was a pond in the middle of the village! Go figure!
Like they say, you learn something new every day!
That’s about 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>
Life is thickly sown with thorns and I know of no remedy other than to
pass through them quickly. The longer we dwell on misfortunes, the
greater is their power to harm us.
****
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.
|