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The Squamidian Report – June 15 /19
Issue #890
Including: From Russ From Lorne The Ontarion Hi All, I was invited out on a date with a sweet young lady on Thursday. The pre-school day care place that Olivia (my 3 ½ yr old granddaughter) attends was having a father’s day party where they would do a little project with the help of their dads and then have little banana splits. Olivia’s daddy is in Europe right now on tour and she would have been heart broken if she had no one with here when the other kids all had a parental representative. So, I filled in for Ryan. She was quite excited about the idea and looked forward to sharing her class time with me. She did however have one concern and it seemed to be a big one as she brought up the subject several times during the days leading up to ‘banana split’ day. You see, she was aware I had made a banana split last summer and I had put tomatoes on it. Yes, tomatoes. I had been curious as to how it would taste and had decided to try it. (It was edible, rather bland and not worth repeating but not disgusting or anything like that). She however was mortified at the idea and was deeply concerned that I’d want tomatoes on the one I’d be receiving there, or would bring my own and put them on. I guess to a 3 ½ year old that would have been a social disaster. Several times over the days leading up to the event she told me “no tomatoes” and I had assured her that there wouldn’t be and there wasn’t so her fears were groundless. When I and the dads in attendance and another grandfather were led into their classroom she was sitting there waiting for me, clutching a tiny little chair, the size she was sitting on in order to ‘save’ it for me. I must say, sitting on the little chair was very hard on my old knees as they were bent right up to my ears. We worked on her project together, creating a beach in a bottle. You put some small sea shells in, some clean sand, and then fill the bottle with water. Put the lid on tight and give it a shake then lay it on its side. Once everything settles, it does, sort of, look like a tiny bit of beach. (Imagination required). Once the father’s day celebration was over, granny came in and got us and as it was time to go home, we went back to their place for a visit before heading back to Squamish. It had been fun and kind of special.   I had wanted to go there on the bike but it was just too darn hot. I did not want to be stuck in Lower Mainland traffic with enough heat coming up off the pavement to cook and egg. So, we had gone there in the car, with the A/C running overtime. And its been a very hot dry week again with no end in sight. Hard to sleep, hard to do anything outside. And oh so scary how high temperatures tend to bring out the bad drivers. They seem to get groggy, inattentive, hot tempered and so on. The highways becomes clogged with short fused idiots. No place for a tired old guy on a bike, with an old granny on the back. We went in the car. We managed to get home safe and sound and I don’t regret leaving the bike parked in the garage and taking the car. There are times when it just seems prudent to have a big steel cage around you and A/C in good working order. doug
**** From Russ What else!? His nurse said, “We’ve received the results of your echocardiogram and Dr. Soong(stooge) wants to see you ‘right away’ can you come in today?” I already had an appointment booked for that same afternoon for some follow-up. Why wouldn’t she know? I asked her what it was about, and she answered, “You have a ‘restricted aorta”. That sounded bad! So, I ‘Googled’ it. You probably know all this: “The aorta is the main artery carrying blood from the heart. Blood is pumped by the left ventricle across the aortic valve into the aorta and the arteries of the body. Aortic stenosis causes restricted systolic opening of the valve leaflets. When the degree of narrowing becomes significant enough to impede the flow of blood from the left ventricle to the arteries, heart problems develop. To date, no medical therapy exists for the treatment of degenerative aortic stenosis”. GREAT! Now, I’m in his office. I remain silent as he “brushes-off’ the issue of a “restricted aorta”, saying, “It’s not that bad – we’ll keep an eye on it” WHAT? He’s more concerned about my pneumonia. X-Rays show something in my left lung. “We’ve been treating you for pneumonia and this ‘something’ is not responding, so it’s not pneumonia – I’m not saying it’s cancer, but we’ll need to take another X-Ray”. I’m now booked for another X-Ray of my chest at Kincardine Hospital, July 12th. Question: Don’t this Dr. Soong(stooge) know I’m 90 years old and my ‘parts’ are badly worn?? SHUSH!! I guess I should be thankful he’s not given up on me. Your ‘very old’ Uncle Russ.
**** From Lorne
Most have seen Doug's pictures of the mother bear and her 3 cubs out front of their home. Well, back some years while at Doug and Sue and looking out from the same spot where the young family is seen, I too was seeing strange things. Look, a mother and her 2 cubs ! Others come rushing to have a look as well. It turns out that the bears were not bears at all but 3 garbage cans that until the removal of eye cataracts, looked to me just like 3 bears. There is no mistaking with Doug's photos. I too have wild animals all over my front lawn. Starting in early evening, wild bunnies or rabbits if you prefer, congregate. There are adults, juveniles and newly born, smaller than a chipmunk. Counted 7 all enjoying the tender green grass. Is that an indication that at the moment, we here are free of predators ? Was not always so. Lorne
**** THE ONTARION REPORT Hello everyone! It’s that time once again to bring you the latest. The latest what I don’t know but I’ll try to think of something before the column is finished for this week. This week has been a busy one for us around the house. What with weeding the gardens and mowing the lawn every couple of days and dodging rain the rest of the time we’ve been kept busy for sure. The lawn has turned out exceptionally well this year and we’ve gotten many compliments on its perfection from passers by. I even had a gentleman stop me from blowing the grass bits off the sidewalk so he could ask me what kind of fertilizer I use on the lawn and how often I fertilize the lawn each year. He was totally complimentary and said he and his wife have admired our home for many years. He lives down the street about 20 houses away from ours and I have often thought his place was very nice as well. It was great to receive such a positive comment and to have a nice conversation with a neighbour. I’ve seen this man many times before while sitting on the porch with a cup of tea. He walks his little American Spaniel dog by for a pee on our lawn on a regular basis! LOL! I guess that shows me that his dog appreciates our lawn as well! Hahahaha….! Or maybe he just likes a soft surface on which to do his business! Either way, no harm no foul I guess. The lawn really has turned out to look like a lush green carpet this year so it draws attention for sure. With the weather breaking and giving us a sunny day on Wednesday of this week I finally got the MG out of the garage and took it to attend “Cruising At The Pond” which is a cruise night held in Baden Ontario each Wednesday evening from 5pm to 8:30pm weather permitting. Last week was the first week for this event for 2019 and it got rained out so this past Wednesday was the actual first evening for the gathering. They had a very good response to their first event and there were about 200 vehicles of all sorts in attendance. They had everything from “cab over” car carrying trucks from the 50’s to British sports cars on display in mint condition. It’s amazing how much effort and money goes into restoring classic vehicles. There were only about a dozen British vehicles in the show but they were well received by the crowd. There were two vintage Mini’s in attendance and the made me want to find one for my collection! LOL! I have had several Minis over the years and have always loved them. I also saw two Triumph TR6’s and a TR250 as well in the show. The TR250 is the fore runner to the TR6 and it looks very much the same body wise. I also talked to the owner of a perfectly restored TR3. It belongs to Lee Jukes who owns a company in this area called Jukes Signs. Lee is someone I met when we attended a show of the same vehicles on Belmont Ave in Kitchener last year. He had a lovely red Jaguar XKE from the mid 60s in that show but has since sold that vehicle and replaced it with a 1956 Ford Thunderbird. Being the owner of a successful business I guess he can afford to have a collection of classic vehicles. He’s a down to earth guy that just enjoys his classic vehicles. I’d have a few more too if I could afford it! Oh well, I’m quite happy with the MG that we have and especially now that it’s restoration is finally complete. I had quite a few compliments on the looks of the MGB that evening and when I get the chance this summer I hope to attend more of these gatherings on sunny evenings. The only other British vehicle in the display was a 1948 Jaguar but when I struck up a conversation with it’s owner, he told me that it is actually a “kit car” that is made to look like an original Jaguar. It looked pretty nice for a “Kit Car” and from a distance nobody would realize it wasn’t the real thing. When attending these cruise nights, you register your vehicle upon arrival and are usually given a ticket with a number on it. At the end of the night they have several draws for vehicle related prizes given by local businesses. Wednesday’s show had about two dozen of these prizes given away at the end of the evening but as luck would have it my ticket was not drawn as one of the winners. My number was 118 and ticket numbers on either side of 118 were drawn and several others quite close but I guess it just wasn’t my night to win one of the prizes! Oh well, maybe next time. They also had a 50/50 draw that raises money and at the end of the evening they draw one winner for half that jackpot. Wednesday’s amount that went to the holder of that ticket was a whopping $600.00. That would have been a nice pocket full to take home! Like I said earlier, maybe next time! Last weekend, I finally installed the new “Wind Blocker” that Carole and Adam gave me for the MG on my birthday back in January. There was no need to have it on the MG earlier than this because we’ve had no good weather for cruising anyway until lately. The “wind blocker” is a device that sits up behind the seats of a convertible and it blocks the wind that usually blows on the backs of the necks and heads of the people in the convertible. This makes riding in a convertible uncomfortable when the weather is cooler and the roof is down. It works very well and it can be folded down behind the seats when not needed. When I was driving home from the Cruise Night the weather had cooled off considerably and the new “wind blocker” worked like a dream! I’m glad to have that feature now and it’s likely the last addition to the MG that I’ll need to make to complete the restoration. It should make for more comfortable drives this summer and fall. 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: Happy Father’s Day to all the Fathers in the Squamidian Group!****
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. |