Issue #939
Including:

From Russ
From Al
The Ontarion

Hi All,

As is the case for so many of us, there really isn’t all that much going on these days. ‘The Wife’ has the back yard looking like a park with well tended flower beds, well mowed grass and so no. That keeps her busy so it’s a good thing. We all need to be kept busy. Funny thing is, when there is very little that actually has to be done, it seems to take a lot longer to do anything, at least for me. The rhododendrons have been in full bloom for a couple of weeks now, and some are pretty well finished. The flowers are all in various stages of their cycle. My blueberries have bloomed and have now dropped their blossom petals. Getting back to the mowing of the lawns, we’ve been using a Ryobi cordless electric mower for several years now, long enough for the batteries to be getting a little bit tired. They still hold enough charge to do the job but if the grass is a bit damp they go down fairly quickly as damp grass requires a lot of power to mow. So, we decided to pop into the local Home Depot to pick up another battery. The mower came with two but uses one at a time so you can switch as needed. A third battery would mean we can do all the mowing without any waiting for batteries to charge, assuming they were all charged and ready to go when we started. Home Depot, like so many places, has arrows on the floors showing customers where to walk and in what direction to facilitate distancing. That works great as long as everyone adheres to the rules but as usual, there are the young, ‘the rules don’t apply to me as I’m immune’ types who don’t seem to give a rat’s pattewy. One must therefore detour around them as they go about their entitled ways.

Anyway, we found the replacement batteries on a shelf right beside the cordless equipment display and paid for our purchase and headed home. Once home I had the frustrating job of getting the battery out of it’s annoying plastic shell wrapper. I put it on the charger and to my dismay, the charger indicated it was defective. Now, LiPo batteries like that have a little button you can push to show the current charge level. I pushed the button (should have done that at the store) and nothing happened. The first charge level light should have come on to show a minimum charge. Dead LiPo batteries are just that, dead, and can’t be revived. So, back to the store. One thing about Home Depot is there is never a problem returning anything, even if the plastic case it was in is cut in half. The person at the counter asked if we wanted a refund or a replacement battery. I said a replacement battery if I can find a ‘good’ one. At the battery display I picked another one and pushed the indicator button hard enough through the clear plastic case to activate it. The charge light came on showing the minimum charge and therefor indicating a good battery. Our charger found it also to be good and happily charged it. There, I’ve written two paragraphs about absolutely nothing.

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Yesterday, Friday May 22, the gondola did a ‘soft’ re-opening for local pass-holders only, just pass-holders, no ticket sales. Nobody knew what to expect, including them but it went fine, with the new ‘normal’ being rather different from what it was. They are loading every second cabin for the ride up, and ride down. The one in between is sanitized and then let dry. The upper lodge is not open and that’s sad because if it were too cold, too wet or too hot, most of us would choose to stay home as sitting out in poor weather is not an option for us old guys. The trails are all open with some new rules and guidelines. It was great to see most of the staff we have gotten to know.

We rode up with some trusted friends, like we would do on a normal Friday morning, enjoyed coffee on the main deck and socially distanced as necessary. It was good. There is a definite feeling of ‘this is weird’ but I guess we’ve all got to get used to it. Hopefully they will come up with a plan to get the lodge back open, and hopefully this whole thing will pass sometime soon. Until then, the mountain is at least partly open and that’s great.

doug

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From Russ

My happiness:

Hi Doug, just got off the phone with your sister Carol. She called to wish me happy birthday, we had a lovely chat (18 minutes), talked about some ‘days back when’. A pleasure - don’t get to talk to very many relatives of late. (But, while I’m typing this, have received a call from my priest, from the Friendship Club, and from a neighbour)

Sitting on my deck yesterday, drinking coffee and listening to the many, many, chirping, whistling, chortling, trilling, Spring birds; when the phone chirped. It’s hard to quickly abandon my ‘zero-gravity chair’. One ringy-dingy, two ringy- dingy, three-ringy-dingy, four ringy-dingy -HELLO! HELLO! Too late, they’ve hung up. I miss a lot of calls that way – takes too long to get to the phone. Hey STUPID! It’s cordless! Learn to take it with you, like when you go to the bathroom. People ALWAYS call when you’re indisposed!

Checking who’s call I missed this time, turned out it was my house-keeper (she wanted to see me. No cleaning for the past two months – now it’s OK, so she likely wants to clean my wee cottage, and wishes to set a date) Yes, come on over – I’m not going anywhere.

As she stepped out of her car I noticed she was carrying a vase of flowers and a large, square, plastic, covered container.

What a pleasant surprise! The flowers, picked from her home, and perfectly arranged in the vase were; red, orange, and yellow Tulips; yellow, and white Daffodils, and a few, blue Forget-me-nots.

But when Diane opened the box I saw a WHOLE LEMON PIE! She knew my LOVE for lemon pie, and had baked for my Birthday.

Someone else loves lemon pie as much as I, so we’ll share it. That ‘someone’ is my son, Greg’s wife, Bettie. She and I once ate a whole lemon pie in one sitting (But, we don’t talk about that). Pigs, eh?

Your old, Uncle Russ. Still riding, reading, and writing!

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From Al

Hi Doug, I know it’s late for a contribution but we just got back from the Homestead, lots to do there these days. I have a theory about your tire problem. Most radial tires these days are built with a steel belt in them. These belts are constructed of a steel mesh and wire combo encased in a thin layer of rubber. They are laid on the carcass of a (green tire) then covered with the tread. If for any reason the tire is put out of whack, hitting a curb for example, the belt will shift and the tire become useless. There is nothing that can be done including balancing, alignment etc. In your case it seems like a manufacturing problem. I went through this with a 2 year old vehicle I bought in 78. Anyways it is a sharp truck and I’m sure you will have many good years out of it. I don’t know how many more new ones we will have. Every-one take care.

Al

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Ontarion Report

Hello Every

A special hello to Russ on his big day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR RUSSEL, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! These are the words Russ but you’ll have to add the tune yourself when you read it! This is from me, Carole and Adam! I hope you were inundated with well wishes from your many friends and family members! Have a piece of cake for me if you managed to bake one for your special occasion! If not, I hope some kind soul brought you a cake today! Or at least a slice of your favourite pie!

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After all the poor weather lately it was nice indeed to see that Mother Nature was kind to Russ on his birthday by bringing him a lovely sun filled day!

On this lovely “Summer” day we were working outside all day in the back yard. Carole managed to plant her new tomato plants out back and add some other veggie seeds and various types of onion sets to her garden! Hopefully we’ll have loads of veggies from all her efforts!

I was there to help but there wasn’t much I could do to help when planting is pretty much a one person effort! Mixing dirt with peat moss is pretty much all I was good for today! I’m not very good at bending over these days since that usually hurts in my chest and makes me quite short of breath. Just have to do as much or little as I can tolerate in that respect! However, I do like to help where I can I just have to put up with the pain and discomfort! Just can’t work like the horse I used to be before all this health stuff happened! Oh well, at least I can help where I can!

It’s great to be included in any respect when it comes to doing things outside on a nice day! I know that Carole appreciates it when I’m there to help with whatever I can! It’s just nice to be out in the nice weather! Wednesday afternoon I managed with Adam’s help to lower the top on the MG and was also able to reconnect the battery and get the car started for the first time since last fall. Once we got it out of the garage and onto the driveway I left it running to recharge the battery while I gave it a good washing to welcome her to spring! Carole helped me apply on line for the license plate sticker but for whatever reason the system was so backed up our application was rejected! It said to try again later which was today but the same thing happened. So, Adam checked out the website to see why this was happening and found out that there was one Service Ontario outlet open on Manitou Drive in Kitchener. So, I hopped in the Jeep and headed down there to see how busy it was. I arrived to find only one guy standing outside the office playing with his cell phone. He didn’t even look at me as I approached the office with my mask and medical gloves on so I just walked in the door in front of him and was the third person in line for stickers. It literally took only three minutes to be called to the front desk and get my sticker for the MGB. I thanked the lady that helped me and in the blink of an eye I was back in the Jeep and on my way home. The whole trip took me less than half an hour and I was home and the sticker was on the MG! Now we can take the “B” for a drive Friday or Saturday or both without having to worry about the plate not being valid!

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Speaking of wearing a mask, I can’t believe the number of people that don’t care enough for their health let alone other people’s health to wear a mask these days when they are out or their homes! It’s ridiculous indeed! When I see the amount of American people that are crowding their beaches and other places in the US, it scares the heck out of me! There are however quite a few Morons here in Canada as well! A new Chinese Grocery store in Waterloo was the first one to mandate that everybody that works and shops in their store must wear a mask and practice social distancing! When Adam read about their mandatory precautions there were a few comments made by readers of the news posting. And many of the people writing objected to having to wear a mask at all. One of the people that commented, said “Well, they’re one grocery store that I’ll never set foot in!” How careless and foolish can anybody be? If that person doesn’t give a damn about their own health or life, they could at least care about spreading the Covid 19 to anybody else. Of course, that kind of fool is one of those who thinks “It won’t happen to me!” Or they are dumb enough to think that just because they have no symptoms, it means they can’t be a carrier or a spreader of the virus! How damned foolish can some people be?

Oh well, I guess the only thing I can do is make sure I look after myself and my family by following the rules to avoid catching or spreading Covid 19! Like they say, “Stay home! Wash your hands often and well! and wear a mask whenever you leave your house for any reason!” This pandemic is not going to go away over night! I’m sure it’ll last at least for another year of more if it even dissipates by then!

We have been enjoying the wildlife, especially the variety of birds we’ve been seeing in our back yard this year. We have changed to “Song bird seed” and it’s amazing how many different birds we’ve attracted in the past few weeks since changing the seeds. We’ve seen red winged blackbirds, canaries, cardinals, blue birds, sparrows of course, doves, grackles, and orioles enjoying the feeder hanging from our flag pole! We’ve even got a pair of Rose Breasted Grosbeaks that are a very rare site in this part of Ontario! Our robins are back as I have said in earlier reports and they have nested in the small watering can that is on the shelf mounted on the back wall of the house in our patio area. These robins have laid three eggs and they have now hatched just over the past few days and the mother and father are both taking turns sitting on the nest and also feeding the young many times a day. They don’t even seem to mind the fact that we are working and sitting out back within 10 feet of their nest while they attend their young chicks! Adam has taken a few pictures of the robins and their eggs and hatchlings as well as a few of the Rose Breasted Grosbeak. I’ll attach these pictures to my Ontarion this week. Hopefully you will all enjoy seeing the birds etc that I’m talking about! It’s nice to see the different birds as well as hear them singing out back. Even the squirrels are enjoying pigging out on the song bird seed in the feeder. I guess squirrels have to eat too! We even have a chipmunk that helps himself to the seeds of the feeder! He can climb the flagpole with great ease to reach the feeder! The squirrels tend to jump from the fence to the flagpole and onto the feeder but they too have climbed the pole to reach it as 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 week in The Ontarion Report!

Bye for now… Greg

PS: Something To Think About>

Anything that takes your mind of the Corona Virus for a few minutes! Think Happy Thoughts!

PPS: It’s too bad we couldn’t have another gathering this year to help Russ celebrate his birthday but there’s always next year!

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Take Care And Be Safe
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