The Squamidian Report – June 23 / 18
Issue #839
Including:
From Russ
From Lorne
The Ontarion
Hi All,
We've just finished enduring a week of very hot weather. A for-real,
good old fashion heat wave. Only thing is, I don't like 'hot', never
did. Around this area we hit highs in the low 30's, further inland it
hit into the high 30's. Anything above about 24 is too hot for me.
Luckily for us, when it gets hot here it always manages to cool off
very nicely at night, dropping down to the mid or low teens. Gives us a
chance to get the house cooled back down. We don't have AC, most places
here don't, unlike back east its not really needed for those occasional
very hot spells. AC back in Ontario is not an option, its a necessity.
Here, well, we can usually get by by simply closing the curtains and
opening the sky lights. Its only those hottest hours around 4 pm or so
that become a problem. Interestingly, when it does get hot here, there
is virtually no humidity, which is why the forests dry out so fast. Our
humidity will drop to the low 20% range or even lower at times. Add a
bit of wind and suddenly its tinder dry all around. Back east when it
gets hot the humidity climbs to the point where it becomes unbearable.
Not fun at all.
Its a bit different in the Interior of this province where there is
more humidity than on and near the coast. They get enough for the
atmosphere to become unstable and trigger thunder storms. Those storms
bring lightning which ignites forest fires. And thats what happened a
couple of days ago. After a week of heat and very dry conditions, a
line of thunder storms ran up the center of the province sparking over
100 fires. Until now and so far this year most fires were caused by
careless stupid people. There has been a few small ones in our area
lately that were the result of morons, usually via camp fires or
cigarettes. One fire up near Whistler was cause by some one shooting a
gun and the bullet sparked off a rock, setting the surrounding forest
on fire. Of course the perpetrators don't bother to stick around, they
just high tailed it away and hoped to not get caught. That kind of
irresponsible behavior seems to be the norm these days.
On a different note, here's an interesting piece of info I saw on the
Weather Network.... they were talking about Wednesday, the equinox,
being the longest day of the year in the Norther hemisphere. Of course
the length of the day is the same as its been for some time now, its
just the amount of daylight they were referring to. (The length of the
actual day has in fact slowed down considerably over the 4.6 billion
years this planet has been around but thats another story). On the
'longest day' of the year its total daylight at the geographic pole but
pretty well stays unchanged at the equator. So, the further north you
go, the more daylight time you get. They had a chart that gave the
differences at the major cities in the country. Turns out that
Vancouver, being quite a bit further north than Toronto, got a full
hour more daylight than Toronto did. The down side to that is that on
December 21st Vancouver will get an hour less daylight than Toronto.
So, it all balances out in the end.
doug
****
From Russ
The readers of the Squamidian may wish to read about a few things I want to get off my mind before I go.
As some of you know, my dear wife, Bobbie, is buried in the United
Church cemetery here in Point Clark (Oops! First mistake; she was a
staunch Anglican, and would “not be caught dead” in a United Church
plot!) As we were “not yet Members” of St. Luke’s Anglican Church, and
“the few plots left in the Anglican side (North of Church) were
‘reserved’ for Members and their families”, and they wouldn’t sell us
one; I spoke with the cemetery guy(Gary Courtney) and he said there was
a plot “near the Anglican side”, so I agreed to purchase a double plot
(sight unseen), and he made arrangements for the “opening and
closing”. Coutes Funeral Home in Cambridge, prepared the body for
viewing, and after the funeral service, which was held in Trinity
Anglican Church, Cambridge, the coffin was driven to Point Clark
for the Interment Service. The family was there, and we watched as the
coffin was slowly lowered. Part way down they stopped and asked if I’d
like to “bid the final farewell”....We kissed the coffin, turned our
backs and walked away. Sad.
One of Bobbies sons, Greg, and I picked out a tombstone (Oopes! 2nd
mistake; it wasn’t “heart-shaped” as Bobbie wished) However, we had the
red granite headstone inscribed, as is traditional, with Bobbies
credentials on the left side of the stone, and mine on the right.(only
thing blank on my side is the date I died.....and, I’m coming to that!)
In due time, the headstone was mounted on a substantial concrete base,
and as we stood there admiring it....it suddenly dawned on us....Bobbie
is buried in the wrong plot!! (Oops! 3rd mistake) Now this
can cause considerable problems when they open up a hole for me!!
I can visualize the astonishment when the bucket of the power shovel
strikes the cement vault covering Bobbies coffin!!
“Hey guys! This plots occupied...now, where’ll we put um?”
Which brings me to the point...... how do I resolve this dilemma?
We could have all the carving ground off the face of the stone, and re-do it...switching sides with our credentials. (Plan A)
or,
We could exhume the body, and tuck it in the right place.(Plan B)
Or,
Simply turn the headstone around, with instructions saying, Oopes! Final mistake “See other side”
Next week, your Old Uncle Russ will begin a new series titled, Stories about “stories”........ a New Slant on Old Digs.
O.U.R.
****
From Lorne
I have entered upon a crusade to spend a lot of otherwise descendant's
inheritance mostly on the house and property. A new room downstairs,
the side porch roof rebuilt, the driveway re coated and now the
concrete walk , steps and porch leading to the front door. It, the
concrete was breaking up and after nearly 60 years needed repair. The
'person' contacted to do the work did a thorough job masonry wise
but I had asked for a red brick color added to the cement so it would
never need to be painted. When applied, the color looked OK, but upon
drying, it faded to the most sickening pink I have ever seen. I don't
know if I should tear out the whole mess, paint it, which I was hoping
to avoid or move. I can't live with it the way it is. Any ideas?
Lorne
'person' hard to describe
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Well, the MG finally went in to the body shop this past Monday and they
tell me we’ll have it back in tiptop shape and all one-colour green
within two weeks. I’m hoping they’ll keep that schedule and the “B”
will be home in time for the rest of the summer! When we dropped it off
at the shop the owner Matt Cochrane told me that I am welcome to drop
in any time during the restoration period and give the “B” a hug! LOL!
I guess he clued into the fact that I love my Little British Car!
Hahahaha….. I felt a bit like a parent dropping one of their kids off
at school for the first day of Kindergarten! LOL! Or Sending one off to
camp for a two week summer vacation! It’s funny how one gets attached
to a special vehicle like the MG when one has owned it for almost 30
years. It’s like someone is taking possession of a person’s prize
Ferrari for a few days and you think they’re about to drive the hell
out of it when you’re not there to protect it! The B isn’t any where
near a Prized Ferrari but when it’s special to me I don’t like to let
it out of my sight. I’m sure it’ll be like new when we get it back but
it’s still hard to be away from it for two weeks. Once it’s back home I
still have to install the new roof and also the new carpet set that I
have for the interior or the trunk or should I say, “boot” as the Brits
call it? Either way, it’ll be completed once I have that work done and
I’m sure we’ll enjoy it even more than before the transformation. I can
hardly wait to see the new colour. It’s funny that we’ve had this car
for almost thirty years and I don’t think I’ve ever had the spare wheel
and tire out of the trunk until we left it in to the body shop last
Monday.
Once we got home with the goodies from the trunk of the MG I placed
everything in the garage for safekeeping. I immediately checked the air
pressure in the spare and found it to be flat! I got my air hose and
pumped the tire up to 34 psi as per the instructions on the tire. It
sat for two days and when I was tinkering around in the garage I moved
the spare to a different spot. While rolling it across the floor I
noticed that there was a huge chunk of tread missing right in the
middle of the tire. When I took a closer look, the inner lining of the
tire was bulging out through the missing tread spot. OOPS! I was lucky
it didn’t explode in my face when I had pumped it up the other day. I
immediately let the air out of the tire and took my pliers and removed
the valve stem completely so I wouldn’t be tempted to fill it again. I
have to go out and pick up a new tire for the spare so we have a good
tire in case of a flat when we’re cruising this summer. I have no idea
how long that tire was in such poor shape but it’s likely that it’s an
original tire from when the MG was new and that’s 40 years ago almost!
We sure wouldn’t have gotten very far if anywhere on such a piece of
worn out rotten rubber! LOL! Good thing we never had occasion to find
out! I may just pick up a good used radial for the spare since there’s
no need for a brand new tire to sit in the trunk. The MG has a nice set
of mag wheels on it but the wheel for the spare tire is an original
steel MG wheel from the factory. It was rusted quite badly and didn’t
look very good so I took a wire brush to it this afternoon and cleaned
it up both front and back and brought it back to at least respectable
shape. I then took some gray Tremclad paint and sprayed it so it’s at
least looking clean if anyone looks in the trunk. Hopefully I’ll never
need to use it and it can just sit in there for looks!
Think I might take Matt up on his offer to drop in to the shop and see
the progress on the MG one day before it’s finished. I’d like to take
some photos of it as they reach different stages in the clean up and
painting of the LBC. It will be something to look back on in years to
come. Of course it’ll be a series of photos I’ll never get the chance
to take again! I have some photos of the MG before delivering it to the
body shop just so I can remember how it looked in the “BEFORE”
condition. Should be interesting to compare the two different
conditions of the vehicle in the photos. I’ll be sure to do an Ontarion
to fill you all in when the car is returned to us completed!
Can’t wait!
*
Well,
Trump is at it again this week! Last night he was on the news shooting
his mouth off about “Those sneaky Canadians” you know, the ones who
come across the border into the USA and buy our shoes?” He was all up
in arms about the fact that we Canadians buy their shoes and take them
out of the boxes and scuff them up and dirty them so they look used
when we wear them back across the border into Canada and avoid paying
the “Tariff” on them! If this guy (Trump) has any kind of education as
to the workings of government it sure isn’t showing in his rants! He
doesn’t even know that there are no tariffs on footwear and that the
only thing Canadian’s are avoiding paying by doing this dastardly
smuggling is the 13% tax on our goods! He’s most certainly a MORON! If
the president of the United States has nothing better to bitch about
than this shoe incident maybe he should go back to school and get
learned better! LOL! What a fool indeed! There are so many Canadian
items that the American people depend on that if Canada decided to stop
the flow of these goods to teach Trump a lesson I’m sure it wouldn’t
take long for this pressure to teach him and the American citizens a
valuable lesson! I’m sure Canada could easily be self sufficient in
short order if we tried! The USA should realize that Canada is not one
of their STATES!
It’s hard to believe how someone that has no political savvy could
become the President of the “Greatest” nation on earth! I’m shocked
that someone hasn’t put a bullet in the head of this fool! With
all the guns being carried around in the USA, someone will likely
finally do the deed and rid the world of this idiot! They shot Ronald
Reagan and failed to kill him and he was a Great President! Why not do
the same to this idiot, only hopefully they’d succeed this time! He’s
so worried about cross border shoe sneaking and football players that
kneel during their national anthem that he has no time to tend to the
real job of running the country! I thought when he first stated that he
was running for President that a big businessman might make a good
president but he most certainly hasn’t shown that to be a fact! I’m
surprised his own companies have stayed afloat all these years! Of
course idiots attract idiots and bullshit baffles brains so he seems to
be the master of that! I think he’s a major embarrassment to his party
and the rest of the USA not to mention how he looks to the rest of the
world! Good thing his time in office is almost up! Hope to gosh he
doesn’t get reelected! He’s making a big enough mess this time around!
*
Last
weekend it was time to re-lay the walkway flagstones that I had pulled
up before I went into the hospital last summer! I had taken them up
about a week before and didn’t get a chance to rebuild the walkway
before all the medical stuff happened. Last weekend Adam and I picked
up 12 blue tubs of crushed bedding stone from a local supplier along
with a few more flagstones. The walkway was too low in front of the
pond and was always filled with water after a rainstorm. So, I lifted
them up and piled the off to the side so I could put new bedding on the
pathway and them re-lay the stones at a higher level to avoid the
“lake” that usually formed. Last weekend Adam and I put down the new
bedding and brought the level up to a strait run and put the stones
back down. The walkway looks like a million bucks and with the rain
this weekend I’m hoping that there won’t be any more accumulation of
water on the walkway! It only took about 10 years to fix the unlevel
original path! LOL!
No more twisted ankles on this new walkway!
That’s one more project out of the way and off the list! Of course you
all know that such work never ends when you’re a homeowner so, on to
the next project when it crops up! It’s a never-ending battle!
That’s 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>
Getting rid of your junk is as easy as placing it at the curb until
someone that can use it spots it and removes it for you! Works like a
charm! I wonder if anyone can use a tire with a hole in it? LOL!
****
Have a good one..
the doug
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