The Squamidian Report – June 29 /19
Issue #892
Including:
From Russ
From Lorne
The Ontarion
Hi All,
We had the girls here last weekend. Nothing new about that, they tend
to like being here and we tend to like them being here. One of the
‘fun’ things they try to talk me into is taking them for a ride in my
little old pickup truck. That doesn’t happen often as there is no way
of anchoring their car seats. There is however two small jumper seats
in the rather tight area behind the front seats, jumper seats that are
just the right size for the girls and in fact were designed for small
kids, back in the days before every kid was supposed to ride in a
custom fitted third-party safety seat of some sort. The girls love
riding in those jumper seats, its an adventure for them and so once in
a while I do take them for a ride in the truck, just around the quiet
streets of the neighborhood. We headed out and had gone up the street
them over to the next street and up and down it. As we were headed back
to our street I had the idea to take them a bit further so we went down
the hill and turned onto Glacier Dr. where low and behold, we came upon
that same momma bear and her three cubs that had been in our neighbor’s
yard a week or so ago. Well, if this wasn’t exciting for the girls
nothing would be. We watched as the bears crossed in front of us (I had
come to a full stop so they could cross). We watched them mill around
on a front lawn before disappearing down a side yard. So, now truck
rides aren’t just fun in themselves, they include bear watching. Not at
all sure how I’m going to top that next time.
*
On
Sunday mornings I normally ride down to Horseshoe Bay for coffee with
my riding friends. Thats what I started to do this past Sunday after
waving to the girls as they watched from the upper front balcony as I
departed. I had heard small bits of info about a fire somewhere between
Horseshoe Bay and Lions Bay but the news didn’t have any real, helpful
info, not enough to be of much use. Once I had left Squamish heading
south I didn’t encounter any vehicles coming the other way. There
should have been endless vehicles headed north to Whistler but the
highway was bare. I rode all the way to Windy Point, past Britannia,
past Furry Creek, past Porteau and never encounter a single vehicle.
That told me that the highway was closed. So, I pulled U-turn and
headed home. By then the news services had picked up on the fact that a
forest fire had broken out sometime during the wee hours of the morning
and was now 3hecters in size and zero percent contained. The highway
was indeed closed as the fire had started right at the highway and the
fire crews needed the north bound lanes for their equipment. They did
eventually split the two south bound lanes to permit single lane in
each direction but it made for traffic tie-ups for the rest of the day
and the rest of the week with constant full closures.
By mid morning there was several water bombers and a couple of
helicopters fighting the blaze but by day’s end it was still out of
control, burning its way up the mountain side. By mid week it had
spread to about 4 hectors and was still flaring up at times where they
thought they’d extinguished it. We rode down to Horseshoe Bay on
Tuesday evening and smoke and fire could still be seen just above
the highway. And of course, it was started by another brain dead moron
flicking his (or her) butt out his car window. So maddening and such a
waist of resources.
As well, by mid week there was a new forest fire over near Pender
Harbor as well as one still burning by Port Mellon. The Pender Harbor
one was human caused as well, the Port Mellon one may have been started
by some electrical equipment.
The good news is that it rained all Tuesday night. That ¾ of an inch of
rain is more than we’ve had all spring. Wednesday dried out again but
thankfully Thursday was wet, giving us a nice soaking. ‘Nice soaking’
is a relative term. With it being so dry, an inch of rain really just
wets the vegetation and the surface of the soil. Kick away the top
quarter inch and its bone dry. And one of the problems here is that our
soil isn’t really soil at all, its just a thin layer of duff made up of
decaying vegetation and is very flammable when dry. So when a mountain
side goes up in flames, so does the soil.
I think this is a long weekend we are having. Not sure but I heard
something on the news about extra heavy traffic etc. Being retired, we
don’t get long weekends. A total rip-off when you think about it. Oh
well, no now said life is fare. What I do know is that now that
‘summer’ has started, we are only about 2 weeks away from those
annoying ‘back to school’ adds that will be played over and over until
kids are indeed back in school. And, the days are now getting shorter!
The "has been".
Having attained the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason, many of the
Brethren stop attending Lodge Meetings, but continue to “pay their
Dues”. Some call them “trowel Masons”, others call them “has beens”.
That makes me an “official” has been.
Another way to become a has been is simply to grow old and unable to do
the things one used to do. Let’s take a look at the things the writer
has been:
A child
A juvenile shoplifter
A teacher’s pet
A victim of ‘child abuse’
A would-be preacher
A good boy
A bad boy
A news-boy
A lover-boy (puppy-love)
A dishonest boy
An honest boy (at times)
A curious boy
A Cub (but never a ‘Boy-Scout’)
A country-school school kid
A high-school Lad (but dropped out)
A nose-picker (still do when necessary)
A watermelon thief
A gasoline thief (during WW2)
A smoker of ‘weed’ (Monkey weed)
A smoker of ‘weed’ (police training)
A heavy smoker of cigarettes (2 large packs Daily)
A non-smoker for 73 years
A “wire-puller” (nick-name for an electrician)
A “wire-puller” (you know)
A foot-beat cop
A cruiser patrol cop
A “plain-clothes” cop
A Juvenile Division cop
A Corporal (plain-clothes)
A Sergeant (plain clothes)
A Police Instructor (Ont. Police College)
A Postal Inspector
A college teacher
An ‘observer’ with the “Pussey-Possey”, Metro PD
An ‘observer’ with the Ontario Fire Marshal
A ‘peeper’ (girl’s out-house Centreville School)
A sheet-metal worker
A furnace installer
A roofer (worked for Pop)
A Journeyman Electrician
A Master Electrician
A hunter (poor shot with rifle/shot-gun)
A very poor shot with a police revolver
A somewhat poor shot at Police Competitions
A Range-Master @ Seneca College.
A”duffer”
A liar (still am when occasion calls for it)
A ‘half-ass’ fisherman
A liar (about the size of the “one that got away”)
A beer drinker/Scotch drinker/ rum drinker/ gin drinker/brandy drinker.
A home-made beer/wine maker/drinker.
An abstainer for past 20 years.
A liar (and that’s the truth!)
A husband (but only once)
A coward (on many an occasion)
A REAL coward (when it came to marriage)
A butcher, a baker, a candle-stick-maker.
A labourer (Dunker Construction)
A salesman (for Memory Gardens – but not for long!)
A builder of ‘unite heaters’ @ Blower & Forge
A ‘Foreman’ @ Super Motors & Lighting
A singer (Dofasco Male Chorus)
A bowler (a drastically poor one!)
A curler (ditto)
A magazine salesman (Liberty)
A single man 1st quarter century; married man next half century; widower past 10 years and counting!
A retiree for one-quarter century, and
A “Believer” (up until now!)
By your ‘old has been’, Uncle Russ.
****
From Lorne
Life is full of surprises unless it involves son Gary. My expectations
were that he was coming Thursday to complete the floor work that he,
Tim and Al installed in the kitchen and computer rooms. Instead, he
installed an addition to the kitchen cupboards, in the open space
between the stove and the fridge. Am thankful, looks great and will be
a very handy addition to to kitchen. Now all I have to do is
locate a handyman to finish the work on the floors.
Lorne
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
It’s one of those days where things are just too darned hot to
handle. I guess I shouldn’t complain because we’ve had such a
long cold and rainy winter and spring! With this summer off to a good
start weather-wise it’s about time to cheer up and be happy with the
hot and sunny days! I think I mentioned last week that one of my
neighbours from down the street about 25 houses stopped and introduced
himself and was polite enough to ask how I keep our lawn so nice and
green and weed free. Well as it turned out he’s a fellow from England
and had moved here to Canada back in the early 90’s. He was quite
complimentary about our lawn and it’s continued good condition. I
shared some secrets yard work with him and he told me that he was going
to go home and share them with his wife and give my method a try on his
lawn. Well, I haven’t heard from him since about the lawn but will be
sure to stop by his place and see how he’s making out with his
lawn.
I spent the day from 11am until almost 5pm working on our lawn once
again today. I started out by doing the edging with my power whipper
snipper and it took me as I said, most of the day to complete the job.
I had to move a bunch of rocks from along the one edge of the lawn so I
wouldn’t continually be breaking the whipper line on them. Once they
were all moved back from the edge, I was free to edge the grass along
that rock bed. It’s a chore but worth the effort to make things look
good in the end. Once the edging is finished, then I have to bring out
my power leaf blower to blow all the trimmings off the sidewalk and
driveway etc. That in itself is another big job as well. However, I
managed to complete the entire days job and the lawn is back to looking
perfect in my eyes once again. I’m sure the neighbours will like the
look of it as well. Maybe it’ll inspire the ones that live in the house
on our driveway side “Who never maintain their lawn.” to actually bring
out and use their mower too! But, then again, likely not! They never
have given a hoot about their property so why would they start now!
LOL! Anyway, it’s not up to me to worry about the condition of their
property so I’ll just have to continue to be house and lot proud about
the condition of our home and yard.
After
working up a sweat with all that yard work I decided to take a drive
down to the local Super Centre and pick up some refreshments to quench
my thirst! As I was driving down our street past the house of the same
English fellow that asked me last week about our grass, he was standing
beside his SUV and he waved me to stop. He proudly pointed as I stopped
to a green MGB on a car trailer attached to his SUV. I got out of my
Jeep and we talked for about a half hour. I commented about how nice
his new toy looked. He told me that he had just picked it up in
Hamilton. I said what a coincidence it was that he had the same vehicle
I have in my garage. He was surprised to hear that we also have an MGB
and it’s a green one too! In fact, his is also the same year as ours is
a 1979. We talked and I told him I’d gladly share any knowledge of the
vehicle with him in regards to parts suppliers I’ve come in contact
with over the years. He thought that would be very helpful for sure and
said that we’d have to keep in touch and maybe do some driving together
once he has his MGB on the road. So, it looks like I have someone to
share the hobby with once in a while. Like Carole said when I told her
and Adam about this fellow’s car, “Now you’ll have someone to go to the
Cruise Nights with!” It was fun to talk to him about the cars and will
be fun to take the odd drive with him in the “twin” cars for sure!
He told me that he was given a carload of spare parts and other bits
and pieces to go along with his new little British Car. He also said
that his birthday is July the 6th and the MGB is a birthday present to
himself! I’ll have to go down to take a good look at his birthday
present some day soon and compare the two vehicles side by side! His
looks pretty good so I don’t think he’ll have a lot of work to do on
it. He said it’s totally road worthy now and he’s looking forward to
many kilometers of happy summer driving this year! Should be fun to
have someone else close by that likes British cars!
Anyway, 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>
It’s not a sin to fall down or get knocked down, but it is a sin if you don’t get up!
****
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.
|