Issue #922
Including:

From Lorne
From Russ
The Ontarion

Hi All,

The west coast snow has turned to west coast rain, days and days of rain. Therefore, the roads and streets are no longer slippery but they are prone to water pools, ponds and puddles. Those days of snow did however spotlight a rather ridiculous Vancouver policy, a case of misplaced political agenda and special interest rolled into the absurd. You see, when that city was being buried in snow day after day, their’r snow clearing priorities stood out as mind boggling. The first and foremost response was to clear the bicycle lanes and pathways, yet not a bicycle in sight for weeks during the winter. Left untouched until All bicycle lanes etc were clear of snow, ice and anything else were the pedestrian sidewalks. Old people trying to walk, young people trying to walk, parents with strollers, people with disabilities all had to wait until the bike lanes were in perfect condition. And not a bike in sight. Lastly would be the streets because that same agenda doesn’t include the use of vehicles. And there wouldn’t be bikes using those lanes for days or even weeks depending on the weather. But misguided and misdirected interests put the bicycles first, even when they are not there. You just gotta shake your head in disbelief.

Also interesting, we’ve all been watching the aftermath of the Newfoundland blizzard. They got dumped on big time. But what you won’t hear in the media is that many small towns and villages in north western BC got as much or even more snow during the same time period as did St John’s. They didn’t get the blasting winds so they didn’t have the drifting issues but they got buried just as deeply. However, to report on that would be to take away from the NL story, and thats how it works.

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And now, as many of you know, the gondola is set to re-open on February 14^th. That’s a Friday. It will be their grand re-opening. I’m a bit surprised that they aren’t having the opening party on the following Sunday and having the 14^th as a soft opening but I’m not privy to the decision making. What I do know is that our group will probably be one of the first ‘guests’ to ride up, as it should be. I also know that there will be live music that includes me, and that I’ll be playing from 11am till 11:45. Then the ‘pro’s’ will take over at noon. I expect to have more info as we get closer to the date, and will certainly have more info after that date.

All this rain down here has been snow up there so we can and are looking forward getting back out on our snowshoes. Thats something we’ve really missed this winter, that and simply hiking the Panorama Ridge Trail on a daily basis. Certainly something to look forward to.

doug

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From Lorne

I shall try.

Feeling better. Loads of pills. moving easier. Eating better. So, whats wrong? Very little control of hands and fingers. Cant hold a pen to write or cutlery to eat. However, enough gets where it should. Bathed by it seems, the league of nations. To type, I use middle finger when it can hit the proper key. To use cursor, I can hold with right hand while left hand does the necessary function. Estimated time typing for you, 2 hours and counting.

Afterthought. For those wondering what finely happened after my rage with the urinal, we dumped it in the blue box. I felt somewhat guilty realizing it may have been partly my fault too, We retrieved it and now it becomes a vase proudly filled with flowers on the sun room table. Enjoy.

Lorne

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From Russ

Replacing Sir Wilfred

Right now his face is on the $5 Polymer Bank Note first issued in 2013, and for the first time, like ever the Govt. is asking for OUR INPUT to suggest whose face should next appear on the new $5 bill slated to be printed as soon as Nominations close. The internet has gone wild with suggestions; the nominees are: Terry Fox; Don Cherry; Meghan Markle & Prince Harry; Justin Bieber; Stompin’ Tom, and MANY others, and soon to be nominated by yours truly, Gary The Postman.

Why am I suggesting Gary you ask? Consider this; he’s been a Rural Postman for 35 years (his father before on same Route for 15 years). Summer, Winter, Spring, and Fall – no matter what – you could set your watch by him. At 1:00PM sharp, he was at my post box taking/delivering my mail. Always ‘bubbly’, always cheerful with a smile like – picture a Dutch apple Pie; now carve a Happy Face with a smile that goes from side-to-side of the pie – and you got Gary. I ask you – what is more Canadian than Mom’s apple pie? What’s more Canadian than loyalty to the Crown? Between Gary and his Pa they donated half a Century to Canada Post! Gary now retired, spends his time at Tim Horton’s greeting everyone he meets with that ear-to-ear smile and a hand-shake as big and as warm as his heart.

By the way, Gary bought a right hand drive vehicle (which came from Japan) for use in delivering the mail – which is most convenient as we drive on the right side of our roads, and the mail boxes are located on the right shoulder of the country roads. Red flag ‘up’, there’s mail in the box; red flag down – mail box is empty. But not always. We had dog poop thrown into our mail box when we lived in RR#2, Rockwood, and I’ve had at least two occasions when I’ve been blessed with dog poop tied up in little plastic bags, placed gently in my mail box, just because some “week-enders” don’t want to bring their dog poop back to their homes in the city!

What have you done with your old right-hand drive vehicle? I asked him one day when we were having coffee in our favourite Tim’s. I still drive it around town when I feel like giving other drivers a ‘thrill’, was his reply.

Getting back to the $5 bills; the official number of them in circulation as we speak, is 1.5 Billion. But, this I can’t believe – If you stacked them the pile would reach a height of over 150 Km’s! That’s officially “outer space”.

It’s been a pleasure.

Uncle Russ.

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello Everyone!

Well it’s been a fairly quiet week since we last talked so things have calmed down after the holiday weeks. The Boxing Day sales are finally over with so the TV ads are back to normal. In fact some of the annoying ads have finally been taken off the air and replaced with different ones. Personally the one that annoyed me to no end was the one for the Canada Insurance Company. It was the one with the little cartoon character that bounced around the screen holding hands with an elderly gentleman among others while he whistled the theme for the company! They have now replaced it with an ad that has eliminated the whistling but has people of various walks of life approaching him while he asks if he can interest them in a policy with his company. The cartoon folks even include a woman with her dog on a leash that stops to pee on a tree while the insurance guy talks to her about the policy. I guess it’s kind of cute but it’s beginning to annoy me almost as much as the original ad. Oh well, I guess I can always mute the TV when it comes on if I don’t wish to hear his babble! At least there are some interesting new TV shows on this season and of course some of last years still on the tube. I tend to like the cop and the lawyer shows and this season there are a couple of new ones that catch my interest. There’s also one show that’s starting it’s 40th season that Carole hasn’t missed an episode since it started and it’s a show that I can almost never remember the name of! It’s called “Survivor”! I have only gotten into watching that show after it started it’s second season. I have gotten hooked on it since then and am still an avid watcher of the program. It’s hard to imagine that it’s entering its 40th season. There most certainly is a lot of money to be made with such a successful TV show I’m sure!

The upcoming show that will start off this season is going to feature 20 of the winners of the $1,000,000.00 from previous shows but this season opener is going to award the winner with $2,000,000.00 in prize money at the end of this season. It’ll be interesting to watch a bunch of millionaires starving and arguing amongst each other while they connive to try to do each other out of a spot in the running for the big bucks! I like Survivor but still prefer to watch shows like “SWAT” since they are more adventurous and don’t drag the same story on for weeks on end! It’s just more interesting when a TV show tells a different story every week. Like for instance, Law and Order, which is another show that’s been on for quite a few years but always seems to have something different and interesting to say each week. I can’t imagine how much money these two programs have generated over their broadcast run but they’ve both made multi millionaires out of most of their cast members not to mention their hosts and producers! That industry is along way away but the film industry is taking hold in Canada too. There has even been a lot of TV shows filmed in locals like Cambridge Ontario. I imagine that it’s cheaper for the production companies to do their filming in Canada rather than in places like New York and LA!

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We have been accumulating some snow lately when compared to the past few months. However we were lucky enough not to have been hit with such heavy storms as St John’s Nfld. They received over 70cm of snow last week and are just now digging out of the worst of it with the help of the Canadian Armed Forces! What a mess they were in after that storm! I wouldn’t wish that on anyone!

They say we here in Southern Ontario will be in for rain and maybe more snow this coming weekend but I’m sure it’ll be nothing when compared to the storms of the east coast!

We’ve been busy this past week or so dismantling one of the upstairs bathrooms and renovating it after having done it over 20 years ago. We had a shower that I installed back then after ripping out the original tub/shower. Now we’ve decided to take that corner shower out and put a tub/shower back in place of it. It’s just the way things go, when you get tired of one thing, you replace it with another. Even if it does seem we are going backwards! LOL!

Oh well, what’s life without a few changes every now and then!

That’s about all I have for this week folks!

That’s 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>

You cannot plow a field by turning it in your mind!

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Have a good one..
doug
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