Issue #948
Including:

From BC Sue
From Russ
The Ontarion

Hi All,

This is kind of a cool time to do a bit of star gazing if you happen to be able to stay up late enough to have a nice dark sky, and if you happen to have a clear sky. When our cold wet weather moved out it was replaced with down right hot temps. Don’t like that but it was also replaced with clear skies. Do like that part. Of course the big thing in the news these days is the NEOWISE comet. We were never able to see it from out place in the early mornings because our north east horizon is way too high. There is literally a mountain in the way. However, once it became visible after sunset in the evening we could see it as north by north west is looking up the valley more or less. Successful viewing requires the sky to be dark enough to see the stars, so at least an hour after sunset. From my back deck the comet is a faint, elongated blur as a naked eye object but through binoculars it is spectacular. The comet is a glowing ball of light trailing an incredibly long tail, almost like an old steam train’s trail of smoke. Interestingly, the comet’s tail has nothing to do with the direction of travel. The heated dust and gas that the tail is made of is blown off by the solar winds. In other words, the tail stretches out away from the sun, regardless of the comet’s direction. The comet won’t be visible for much longer so get out and look for it if you have the opportunity because you will be over 60,000 years older when it makes it’s next return pass and there is a good chance your eyesight won’t be all that good by then.

Strangely, the media goes on and on about the comet which is understandable, and it even gives time to the usual summer meteors. But, it totally ignores the other spectacles in the night sky. If you are standing somewhere, looking at the comet, simply turn around and be amazed. You will be looking at both Saturn and Jupiter, both of which have just passed through whats called ‘opposition’. That’s a fancy way of saying both have just come through being in a straight line with the Sun and the Earth. Or put another way, the Earth has just been right in line with each of those planets and the Sun. The reason why Earth’s shadow doesn’t eclipse them like it does the moon is that the Earth is so tiny in comparison to size and distance that it’s little shadow doesn’t reach out any where near far enough and wouldn’t be any where near big enough. And then there is all the other stars, constellations etc so get out there and enjoy.

If you want to try to see it but don’t know where to look, this link will take you to a web page that has a picture of the big dipper and the location of the comet in comparison depicted by date.

Where to look!

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Ok, I did another one of those little music videos. This time I used my mixer to balance the guitar and voice and then ran it through one of Ryan’s ‘toys’ that I borrowed. The thing is an audio interface for an iPad. Using it, the inputs into a mixer can be mixed and balanced and then run out and into the gizmo that plugs into the iPad like an external mic would, but delivering a much better signal than an iPad mic would, or than the iPad’s internal mic possible could. It’s also why I’m using my mic in the vid. It’s sort of in the way but it does hide my face a bit and no one will complain about that. Both the mic and the guitar are plugged into the mixer which in turn runs into the interface which is plugged into the iPad and so on. I had thought again about trying to add harmonies and other instrumentation but decided against it. When I do my audio recordings I add vocals and instruments because thats what that is all about. But, when I do these music videos it’s just me and my guitar, as true and simple as possible, exactly the way it would be if I were playing a live gig. Thats my story and I’m sticking to it. I’ll do more in the future and expect them to be the same, one me and one guitar. I’ve uploaded this vid to my Facebook page last weekend so some of you may have already seen it. Sorry about that. But if not, just follow this link if you’d like to give it a look-see.

I Guess It Doesn’t Matter Anymore

doug

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From BC Sue

A couple weeks ago, Lisa, my neighbour asked me to chicken-sit for her overnight as they were going camping and if she couldn’t find someone to chicken sit, she wouldn’t be able to go with her husband and daughter who would go without her. She gave me detailed instructions for their evening as well and morning care of her 4 new chickens (the littles) and 3 bossy experienced chickens as well. They eat their evening meal around 9pm and want breakfast promptly at 7am. Apparently 1 of the experienced chickens had a bad cough and she was concerned that it might choke to death. She also thought that the experienced chickens might peck the “littles” to death. She said the experienced chickens are very cooperative with her and gladly go into their chicken enclosure and up the ramp into their coop. Very reassuring for the chicken sitter…

Even with all that information, I said I would look after them.

At 8pm I went over to feed them and get them ready for their night routine. All 4 “littles” were still alive and hiding in the corner and the experienced hens were ready to be fed. Of course there were two types of food that I put out as instructed. The cooperative head chicken did not want to go into the roost after eating her food as well as the food for the littles. It was now 9pm and Doug came over to see why it was taking so long.

I finally decided to catch the large chickens as they would head up the ramp and immediately jump off when they reached the doorway. So I grabbed each big chicken and threw it in the back door and as I had locked the front door. Then I had to do the same with the 4 littles. I electrified the cage and left. (electricity is live overnight to discourage cougars, coyotes and bears from eating them).

Next morning, all went well as I de-electrified the pen so that I won’t get zapped. The experienced chickens quickly ran down the upper ramp after I unlocked the door to the coop and I had to let the “littles” run into the main area while I fed them their appropriate food pellets as they don’t eat the same thing.

All went well no one perished.

Sue

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From Russ

Summertime and the living is easy. Fish are jumping and the cotton is high.

WHAT A GORGIOUS DAY!

Just got back from a gratifying bike ride to the Point Clark Lighthouse, followed by a relaxing cup of coffee enjoyed on my deck. Temp. 25 and quickly rising into the mid 30s. Lots of people walking, cycling, jogging, dog-walking, and yes a fair number of cars and trucks. (nearly got hit by a large, white one!). Two wild boys about 12 years came out of a side road on their bikes and into my lane (they breached a Stop’ sign) nearly side-swiping this old guy, and all they could shout was, Wow! No apology! Once they get to “cottage country” there are no rules!

But, on Monday, July 20th two ‘tame’ people arrived on bicycles whom I had anticipated. It was especially pleasant as I hadn’t seen him since Lorne’s Funeral in March. My nephew, David Brubacher and his friend Michele had planned to tour Southern Ontario on their ‘spectacular new wheels’, but due to circumstances, had to reduce their objective for now. They had rented a cottage near the lighthouse, and were now planning to tour the shore of Lake Huron up the Bruce Peninsula and back.

They already had done a long ride from K-W beginning on Friday, July 17th through 20th.

After a very enjoyable visit, they headed north. I didn’t look at the time of their departure, but around suppertime they arrived back here at my place. They are both obviously capable of long-distance cycling, as neither was out-of-breath, and only David had beads of sweat on his brow. (I didn’t check Michele for signs of perspiration). David said they had a great ride, saw interesting, if not beautiful scenery and covered 176 Km, averaging 16.7 K/ph. Before departing for their Point Clark cottage, they described all the wonderful features of their ‘cycle machines’; special large tires for sandy areas like beaches, 14-speeds, front and rear shocks, but a seat about the size and shape of a paper stapler (ouch!). Both said they were going to change their narrow seats for some ‘gel-types’ - -and soon!

Your old Uncle Russ.

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello Everyone

It’s one of those weeks when I have so little to say it’s hard to sit here and write anything worthwhile! However, I’ll give it the ol’ college try for sure!

I guess there’s always the latest on Covid 19 that I could talk about. In fact, the latest around here in the Waterloo Region is the mandatory wearing of face masks or coverings as they call them. This law came into effect on this past Monday and so far there has been a pretty good response to the bylaw. On the news tonight, there was a report of 11 people that were refusing to wear a mask when entering a local business. The owner or proprietor asked them to wear a mask and I guess each of them refused and got pretty upset when asked! When the owner asked them to don a mask, they got belligerent and when he threatened to call the authorities on them they quickly left the store before the police or by-law officer arrived on the scene. There was one elderly man (78) that got pretty cantankerous but fled the scene once again before the police arrived. He apparently was swearing and yelling at the store owner before he left the store. Why is it that some people just won’t comply without good reason, other than “I don’t want to wear one!” If it were my establishment, I’d demand they wear a mask or they would receive no service! For the most part when Carole and I went out to do some shopping for groceries etc, the people in each store were wearing masks and we only heard one couple complaining that they couldn’t breathe properly with the mask on! They are likely people that hadn’t worn one for the past few months so now that they have to in public places they just weren’t used to breathing through one! We find, the more we wear them the easier it becomes to breathe through one! We have exceptionally good quality masks that Adam ordered three months or more ago from a company called O2 MFG in Waterloo. They were quite expensive but are N95 Quality and filter both when breathing in and out as the regular “medical” masks only filter when breathing out! Our masks have changeable filter pads that came with the masks when we received them.

When we were at Costco the other day and heard the couple complaining about the difficulty breathing with the masks on Carole made a good point as we talked about the situation. She said the complainers should be asked “If you think the masks are difficult to breathe through, how would you like to try breathing with the use of a ventilator stuck down your throat?” How true! I think the alternative is much easier to accept and get used to for sure! Just man up and comply with the local by-laws that are being enacted to keep everyone safe during this pandemic! If everyone were to comply without complaint we’ll get through this Covid situation much quicker! I say “Clam up and wear the mask for everyone’s sake! It ticks me off that some people can be so darned selfish!

Earlier this week on garbage day (or rather Recycle day) I experienced something that also ticked me off and it keeps happening over and over! The recycle guy that collects at our place seems to like to pile the empty blue boxes into each other when he’s placing them back after emptying them! He not only sets them gently down in that manner, but he jambs them together so that they are darned difficult to separate when I want to bring them in from the curb! This past Monday when I tried to separate them they were jammed so tightly I had to place my foot on the edge of the bottom one and push for all I was worth to try to get them apart! Once the bottom one finally let go of the top one, it snapped so hard that I took a serious rap in the shin and it actually caused me to bleed! I think I’m going to have to wait for the collector to arrive next week and ask him not to jamb them together like that from now on. He’s done this every week for months now and each time it’s a task to separate them. Time for some gentle diplomacy I guess! Would it be more difficult for him to leave them sitting separately on the boulevard? I think not!

Well, 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 time in The Ontarion Report!

Bye for now … Greg

PS: Something To Think About>

What are you doing these days to break the boredom of the Covid 19 lockdown?

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Take Care And Be Safe
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