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The Squamidian Report – Aug. 31/19
Issue #901
Including: From Lorne From Russ The Ontarion Hi All, Apparently, and for reasons that totally escape me, this is a long weekend. I just found out a few days ago when asked “what are your plans for the long weekend” to which I answered “huh? What long weekend?” The point is, because people like me don’t get long weekends, we don’t tend to be aware of them. We may wonder why there is so much traffic on the roads, or why there are so many people around, but unless the topic comes up we are not in the loop. I’d love to get a long weekend, where I get an extra day off, get overtime, or whatever but due to some form of permitted seniors discrimination, that just doesn’t happen. Oh well, the up-side is that once this particular one is over with, the volume of tourists clogging everything in sight will be cut in about half and by the end of the upcoming month tourist volumes will be halved again. After that, its all good. *
Its
now been 3 weeks since the outrageous damage to the gondola. The site
is for the most part cleaned up as they have removed all the cabins
that were either left dangling on the severed cable or had crashed into
the trees and onto the rocks. They had lifted the cabins out by
helicopter, bringing them down to the parking lot where they could be
inspected and dismantled. I don’t know how they got the cable out as it
would have had to be pulled over the boggy pulleys of each tower
without doing any more damage to the tower equipment, but they did
manage it somehow. All that is left now is the towers and the center
cable which is actually a communications line. There has been no more
information released to the public except to confirm that the damage
was intensional and the cable had definitely been cut. No one knows
when the gondola will be back up and running, they are still saying
sometime next spring. However, I’ve heard through an acquaintance that
they have tracked down an available cable somewhere in Europe and it
could be sent here as early as late October. There is no word on
replacement cable cars, or on how long it will take to install the new
cable and rectify any tower equipment damage. Hopefully the perpetrator
of this crime will be caught before repairs are underway because as
long as he or they are still out there, they are a very real danger and
the thought of this being done again is more than most of us can bare.This acquaintance is a retired NASA engineer who summers here in Squamish, the guy I was sort of working with last September when we tried to set up a star gazing night, only to watch it get rained out. Anyway, on that fateful morning 3 weeks ago he went out the Spit (that narrow strip of land jutting out into the Sound on the other side of the bay) and took some pictures of the visible damage. The pics were from quite a ways away and not very clear, given they were taken through several kilometers of sun-lit atmospheric haze. He sent me several and I found I could run them through my computers on-board photo editing program and clean them up enough to make details visible. So, if you’r interested in seeing what could be seen by the public from available vantage points, here are a few pictures. For me, they are heart-breaking. Dangling cables at tower 5.
 Cable car hanging against the rocks below tower 6.  Hanging cables around 5 & 6.  Cables and pulley system danging as well as another cabin at towers 9 & 10.  doug **** From Lorne under the mattress. Tuesday I am scheduled to attend the law office to sign the final documents. Posted herein are pictures of fallen tree limbs across the front lawn. They crashed down while I was not home but Gale was here tending her garden. The weather was fine, no wind but their time had come. By chance, Tim arrived on his Harley and used the chain saw to cut the timber into movable chunks. They now rest in piece on the island, encircled by the driveway. I want to thank both Tim and Gale for doing the cleanup. If anything that heavy came crashing down on the house, it would keep on going down to the basement. Had it hit someone, we can only hope they have their estate in order. A parked car would be hard to identify. Therefor, a professional tree trimmer will be employed to clear any overhanging branches that pose a danger and may decide at any time to go along for the ride down. Another dip into   **** From Russ Giants For three quarters of a Century they continued to climb ever taller, seeking the sunshine. They withstood fierce Winter storms rolling off Lake Huron; through their great strength they remained standing erect though burdened with tons of ice, coupled with East winds that fought hard to take them down. And now they lie motionless forever. This is the sad story of our stately Ash trees which dominated the skyline here in Point Clark. The Point will never look the same – and what caused this mass devastation? A tiny beetle that left Asia via wooden shipping pallets, and finding no natural predators, and an unending forest of their favourite trees, began doing their thing. The ‘invasion’ started in the States and, being excellent flyers spread their offspring into Southern Ontario – then, ever Northward until every Ash tree 10 or more inches in diameter was doomed to ‘starve to death’! And that’s how they ‘do their thing’- the larvae literally “suck the life” out of the mature tree by eating their way just under the bark leaving their telltale squiggly trails, as the tree is unable to draw the sap up to the top branches – and thus the giant dies a slow death of starvation from the top down. So very sad. You may recall the trees that concerned me were not on my property, but on my 98 year old neighbour’s property immediately to the South. They towered over my wee cottage and each time the South winds blew strongly, I lived in ‘fear of my life’ (if I were in- house at the time, or if not, I cringed at the thought of a mighty giant lying ‘comfortably’ across my only home on this earth!) John Brown (that’s his real name), was scheduled to ‘drop’ the 4 dangerous, dead Ash on August 6th, but ‘Mother Nature’ delayed the operation until August 21st – Swarming honey bees you know, are not welcome when one is 50 feet up a huge tree wearing belt & spurs, and unable to flee the danger! The bees were angry because the first dead tree that was dropped on Aug. 6th contained two huge hives of bees, and they were expressing their displeasure at being driven out of their apartments!! John’s was not a simple task to lay these giants safely down on a property only 50 feet wide with homes on both sides. It took very skilled planning and one heck of a lot of ‘luck’, but, one- by-one they came crashing down with a frenzy of leaves and branches (yes, there was some collateral damage, but that was to be expected as the lot in question is/was a jungle!) . It is incredible the speed the falling tree quickly builds – from a ‘dead stop’ to that of a MLB pitcher! And when 100 Tons of hardwood strikes the ground the WHOMP is just plain “thrilling”!! Relieved that the danger is gone, but as I look up through the hole in the sky where once the stately Ash trees stood, I’m left with a ‘hole in my heart’. These giants need never have died at the whim of the “invasive Emerald Ash Borer”. If only those wooden skids had been destroyed upon reaching Port in America. A sad, safe, but angry Uncle Russ.
**** THE ONTARION REPORT Hello everyone! I attended the last “cruise night” of the year to be held in Baden the other night and man was it packed with both classic cars and people! Both owners and spectators were present. It’s amazing how many people own classic vehicles. There was every make and model of vehicle present, everything from cars to fire trucks and from the 1920’s to the latest electric vehicle on the market. It was a car lover’s paradise for sure. I had one of only two MGBs in the show and it garnered a lot of attention that night. The sky was threatening rain so they called an end to the night early. It usually goes from about 5pm until 8:30 pm but being it was the last show of the year, vehicles were apparently gathering from 2 in the afternoon until well into the show time. The organizers had to turn vehicles away the lot was so full. When I arrived at the meeting place I managed to squeeze into a spot in the middle of the isle between the last and second last row of vehicles. It turned out ok because there were no other cars able to fit in that space. When you register your arrival at their front desk, they give you a ticket for the door prize draws that take place throughout the evening. They usually call out the numbers drawn at the end of the evening but that night they posted the drawn numbers on a white board throughout the evening at half hour intervals. I had no luck that night at winning a prize but they also have a 50/50 draw for money each week. I bought three tickets on that draw for $5.00 just because the amount of cash in that night’s draw was the biggest they’ve had all year. It swelled to over $1,800.00 by draw time. Most weeks it’s about the $500.00 mark. SO it was worth the chance this past week with good odds to win. I stood close to the front of the crowd this week to make sure I heard the announcer when he called the winning ticket number. They had the Mayor of the township draw and announce the winning ticket number and it just so happens that he was an old high school classmate of mine at KCI in the 60’s. My ticket number was 3085757 and the ticket number that was drawn to win the cash was 3085759 ………… wouldn’t you know it, just two digits off my number! Darn it all anyway! Oh well, it was worth a try anyway and much better odds of winning than the Lotto each week and I keep trying to win that one too! LOL! Oh well, there’s always next year! With the sky blackening, all the owners of convertibles were starting to head for home early. I guess they didn’t want to have to scramble to put their vehicle’s tops up if it suddenly started to rain. I waited until the last minute when the sky was quite black and then decided to leave for home too. I was about half way home when the first sprinkles hit the windshield. There was just a fine mist in the air until I was a block from home and then it became a tad heavier. I finally had to put my wipers on to be able to see. I made it into the garage at home just as it started to come down a lot heavier. Whew! What luck at the end of a busy evening! I had better luck missing the rain than I had with my draw ticket so I guess that’s one good thing! LOL! There’s one more major British car event this year and that’s in Oakville Ontario at the Bronte Park. It’s put on in mid September by the Toronto Triumph Club but is open to all British vehicles. I have been attending this show for about 25 years and about 1000 British vehicles always attend it. Last year I entered the MGB in the show to show off our new paint job but with about a 100 MG’s in the show, there wasn’t much chance of winning anything! Adam usually attends the show with me to finish off the year and we will be going to this show again this September as well. It’s always a great show for those who like British vehicles and this year promises to be even better. This year should have even more vehicles on display. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger! In the 25 years I’ve attended it has never been rained out so I hope this year is no exception! That’s about all I have 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> To succeed is to exceed normally accepted standards. ****
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. |