The Squamidian Report – June 22 /19
Issue #891
Including:
From Russ
From Lorne
The Ontarion
Hi All,
When we moved here 17 years ago there was a young family just up the
street. They had a couple of little boys at the time and within a few
years added another boy and a girl to their numbers. The whole family
was always very friendly. The father was from Collingwood Ont and
whenever his parents came out for a visit we’d have some nice
conversations with them. The father would at times pop over and we’d do
a bit of jamming on our guitars, just for the fun of it. Something that
caught my attention back then was how short all their kids were, I used
to refer to them as ‘the world’s shortest kids’. The years passed too
quickly, as they always do, and their kids grew a bit. There were other
little boys living on this same street at the time, about the same age
and one summer, the family’s oldest boy was all of a sudden riding
around on a unicycle. Don’t know how he learned to do it but he did.
Within a few weeks his brother and two boys from just down the street
as well as one boy from a bit further down were all bopping around on
unicycles. It was the coolest thing I ever saw. These kids spent that
summer and the next few riding all over on their one-wheeled bikes.
You’d see them headed off to school on them, headed all over the place
on them.
Then, the family with the four kids they moved away. That was sad as
they had been great neighbors. Shortly after one of the other family’s
left the area. The remaining family with the two boys stayed for
several more years before heading off to Alberta. The unicycles never
reappeared. The boys of the family that stayed the longest became surly
teen agers and lost their friendly tendencies and where once they had
always said “hi” and smiled, they frowned and ignored all of us old
codgers. They just had changed, as kid do I guess.
Where this is leading is that just before Sue and I had left for our
Ontario road trip back in early April, we had run into Jeff, the father
of the four kids. They had moved to a rural property, up the side of
the mountain, just outside of Squamish. Not far away as the crow flies.
In fact, they can see the town through the trees from their house. The
suggestion was made that we should drop over at some point. We then
heard from them a short while ago and a time to drop in was set, along
with directions as to how to find the steep backroad that was in fact
the lane up to their mountain retreat. So, we dropped in the other
evening. First thing we noticed was that the ‘worlds shortest kids’
were now all well over 6 ft tall. One just finished high school and
would be headed off to university in the fall. All were just as
friendly and well behaved as they were when little.
Jeff and I played a few tunes together, probably the same tunes we
played years ago, and we enjoyed a very nice evening. While there, a
thunderstorm rolled through. Thunderstorms aren’t all that common
around here. It poured rain for about half an hour. We sure needed that
rain. Not near enough but anything we could get was welcome. But
thunderstorms are very local. As said, they are only a few miles away
as the crow flies. By the time we got home it was obvious that there
had only been a bit of a short shower at our place. Oh well.
Anyway, a good time was had by all and now that we have become reacquainted, we will do it again.
doug
****
From Russ
June
“June is bustin’ out all over, all over the meadow and the hill!
Buds are bustin’ out of bushes- - - “. Rogers and Hammerstein.
I can still remember that old song. It was popular when Big Brother,
Lorne was of the “urge age” and a girl in his class whose name was June
(June Kepkie sp?) was becoming noticeably “busty”; hence Lorne et al
were singing her praises.
Hey Lorne, I might have some of the facts wrong, but you definitely had your ‘roving eye’ on her “buzzoom”.
The words to that old song could well apply to June, 2019 here in
Southern Ontario. Rain, rain, and rain dominated our cold weather
pattern all Spring long! At least, up here in Point Clark on the shores
of Lake Huron, things were slow to develop, then, after a few warm days
suddenly – June was bustin’ out all over! Every flowering plant, bush,
and tree SUDENLY burst into FULL BLOOM! And the blooms seemed much
larger, and smelled nicer. The Lilacs especially are magnificent! The
shear weight of the larger-than-normal blooms pulls the branches down
where one can easily ‘stop and smell their sweet aroma’!
My Spirea (or Bridal Wreath) are, as we speak, mostly ‘ground cover’,
as their blooms, normally the size of a ‘Loony’ are now the size of a
‘Twoony” , and it having rained AGAIN last night, the branches are
weighted down to the grass! I feel tempted to go out and give them a
good shake so they will stand up again, but I’ve already had my shower
for today. The Hosta’s which grow along-side my handicapped ramp have
already reached their normal full-season growth, some are about to
bloom- - and Summer doesn’t start until Friday, June 21st.
Needless to say, the Evergreen trees have enjoyed all these Spring
rains, as they are certainly showing a lot of ‘new growth’ And just
look at my lawn (actually just a field of green weeds), it needs mowing
again - - just like Greg Payne’s, but unlike Greg’s, my ‘lawn’ has
never been fed, rolled, or airated. (Having air-holes punched
into soil)
Just a final word about Lorne’s friend June Kepkie; when she was ‘in
full bloom’ I was just a little sprout. I dreamed about her. No, not
THAT kind of dream you guys! No, it was actually a nightmare!
I was out of bed, in the upstairs hall (where the pee-pot was
domiciled), when June K. appeared before me. She, who normally had
light coloured hair, now had silver hair which surrounded her deathly-
white face. I was terrified but was unable to run – I was ‘clamped’
about my waist, in the floorboards’!! She was getting right up close,
and just as she was about to ‘devour me’, I woke up. I looked down and
was standing on the ‘loose floorboards’ where I had earlier pried them
up in order to use as a ‘hiding place’ for my ‘loot’ to keep from my
nosey, and always broke, brother Howard.
Now Howard is gone, June is likely gone, and June 2019 will soon be
gone forever, but that silly, yet terrifying dream still recurs now and
then. Brrrrrr!! I still shiver just thinking about it!
Your ‘crazy’ old Uncle, Russ.
****
From Lorne
The latest adventure occurred involving a purchase at Canadian Tire
Corporation, a place I almost never set foot in. My father used to call
it Canadian Tire Corruption. For no good reason at all, I
purchased a miter saw. It was $ 229.95 plus tax. Brought it home and
its still sitting in the porch not completely assembled. Every time I
pass by and look at it, I wonder why I did such a thing. After all,
$229.95 is $ 229.95 plus tax. My weak time was May 25. This week
their flyer came and low and behold, the same saw listed on sale for
1/2 price. This was just too much. I called the store and spoke to a
lady in the store office and explained my plight. She, in her weakest
moment asked if I still had the sales slip. I did. Read it to me, she
said. I did. She then made the error of a lifetime by advising me to
come in with the sales slip, that they would honor a sale price up to
30 days after purchase, and adjust the price accordingly.
Well I returned with the slip as well as the flyer and was told at
costumer service, who was expecting me, that I was given the
wrong information. That policy is only good for 4 days. However, I was
told 30 so I walked out of the store $ 114.95 plus tax, richer. Now
when I walk past the unassembled saw sitting in the porch, I don't feel
quite so foolish.
Lorne
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
I hope you’re all looking forward to a cooler and wetter than normal
summer this year. According to Environment Canada, we’re in for just
that here in Ontario and the rest of central and western Canada is in
for hot and dry weather that’s already started to show it’s ugly face!
It sounds like the west will experience more forest fires and more
evacuations this year so I hope the governments both provincial and
federal are ready to handle the situations that will arise from this
weather change! Instead of sending millions and millions of our dollars
overseas to bail out the poorer nations of the world, they’ll have to
think about keeping our tax dollars here in the Great White North to
look after our own people for a change! With the amount of moisture
we’ve been having and should expect here in Ontario it looks like we’re
in for more flooding than usual as well as other things that so much
water brings. Not only are the Great Lakes rising to record levels, but
the ground for the food producing farmers is so saturated that they are
having trouble managing their crops this year already. Last night on
the late news they reported that this year will also be one for a
bumper crop of mosquitoes and of course that fosters more health
problems and will cost millions more in health care for the population.
I sure hope our government is ready to manage this bumper crop of
problems!
*
Have
you noticed that the political commercials have started to show their
ugly faces on TV already? I’ve seen one where there is a quartet of
older people sitting around a table discussing the Liberal Governments
problems and talking about how inept Justin Trudeau is at managing his
federal commitment and how he’s lied about different situations as well
as how poorly he treats his female cabinet members! That, as well as
how he tried his best to cover up the SNC Lavalen situation. This is
just the beginning of the political avalanche I’m sure. We’ll be seeing
many more confrontational ads in the coming months. Even the provincial
ads are starting to show up with one saying how Andrew Sheer doesn’t
have the intestinal fortitude to stand up to Premier Ford should Andrew
get elected with his PC party! We’ll just have to wait and see how this
all pans out come election time. I personally think that Justin has had
his last kick at the can in Ottawa and will be on the unemployment line
after the coming election! I’m not so sure how Ford will make out as
it’s still a bit early to tell for his PC’s in Ontario. He’s only got
one year under his belt so far and already he’s shuffled over half his
cabinet members around to lesser positions. He didn’t even give his
finance minister much of a chance to get his office in order and
already he’s demoted him and stuck him with a less important office of
“Minister of Job Creation”! Kind of shows how much faith he has in his
own initial judgment, doesn’t it? Oh well, only time will tell!
That’s almost enough political coverage for this week!
It’s Thursday evening and we here in Waterloo Region are on the verge
of having a new mode of transportation here in our fair cities. Well,
in at least two of them anyway! Kitchener and Waterloo will finally see
the inaugural run of the ION trains starting Friday at 11:53am after
all the city and Regional officials finish their speeches stating how
wonderful they all are for setting up this system of trains that only
cost the citizens of Waterloo Region a tad over two billion dollars!
For the first week of operation, there will be no charge to riders of
this system but once that week is passed, who knows how much a ride on
these trains will cost. I have not heard how much the fare will be to
ride these rails but I’ll be willing to bet it won’t be a small amount!
Does anybody know what the cost of a ride on the ION will be? I may
just skip on down to the ION line and take one of the free rides from
Fairway Rd to Conestoga Mall and back for the heck of it!
The last time I was even on a city bus was back in 1964 before I was
old enough to get my driver’s license. In fact, back then the buses in
KW still had hardwood railings in the isles that you could grab to
stabilize yourself when standing to ride! So, a ride on a modern train
style conveyance might just be a thrill! Speaking of trains, there have
already been four pretty good crashes between the ION trains and motor
vehicles on the rails of KW! With the first one causing damage to the
front bumper of one of the ION trains and to repair it only cost the
insurance company a mere $30,000.00! I’d hate to think what it would
cost if there was actually some significant damage to one of these
monsters! Mark my words, it won’t take long before we hear about
someone being killed by an ION train due to drivers of vehicles as well
as pedestrians in KW not being used to regular operations of these big
trains on our city streets! This system will take some getting used to
just like the many “roundabouts” we’re now seeing all over the city
streets! I guess we’ll eventually get used to dealing with these
different modes of transportation so until then, I hope people slow
down and open their eyes to watch for these trains rather than keeping
their eyes glued to their iPhones while driving! I think the ION trains
will be a hazard for the first year at least! IF I take a ride on the
ION train system, it’ll be a one-time event for sure. Although, since
I’m paying my share of the cost for this system in my taxes, I feel
that anybody over the age of 50 should ride free for the rest of their
lives on these trains! This might just be something to bring up at a
city or regional council meeting in the near future! What do you think?
That’s about all for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
Learn to think in particulars rather than generalities.
It gives you a sense of strength and a feeling of power.
You deal with facts instead of assumptions.
****
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.
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