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Issue #980
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From Russ

The Ontarion

Hi All,

Well now, this is both sad and disappointing…. We put the snowblower away, back to where we store her under the back deck. This was the most open and disappointing winter we’ve ever had living here. I think there were only about 8 or 10 nights where the temperature dropped below freezing and maybe 3 days where it stayed below freezing. We had an almost endless amount of rain with just above freezing temps that would have been snow had the temp dropped just a degree or so. I started the blower 3 times, and used it twice. The first time I cleared about an inch of slush and the second time about 3 inches of snow. In both cases the stuff would have melted away by the afternoon of that day. I like winters that look like winter. I like going for walks in the snow. I like blowing snow with the old blower. This probably would have been the old blower’s last winter as she is pretty well warn out. (The engine still starts and runs like new). Over the years she has blown an incredible amount of snow, has never let us down, and yes, has had some required maintenance as auger bearings etc wore out but thats to be expected. I had intended to finish wearing her out this winter and then replace her in time for next winter. I guess I’ll just push that idea back by a year and try again next winter.

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One morning last week, while we were out for a coffee and to watch the world go by from the vantage of the car, my cell phone range. It was someone from Visa, asking to speak to me. Of course my first thought was that it was some kind of scam and I therefore might have been a bit abrupt with the caller. However, he convinced me that he was genuine and that he needed to talk to me about my Visa card as it looked like there was some unusual activity on it. Yikes! It would appear that someone had gotten my card number and had made some purchases, purchases that I had definitely not made. These purchases had taken place just the day before this phone call. I seldom ever use my card and my last ‘real’ use was to pay for a dental appointment. After some discussion he informed me that the unauthorized transactions would be reversed and that they would immediately freeze my card and issue a new one that would be sent to my bank branch within a few days.

I must say I was impressed with the fact that their computer algorithms or whatever that watch credit card activity was able to spot and flag these transactions quickly. I was also impressed that I didn’t have to argue with them, they simply reversed the charges. There were 2 charges. The first one was for $1.29. I assume the creep who had my number was fishing to see if the card number worked. The second one was for just under $100. It was a ‘skipthedishes’ charge. Both seemed to be done in Manitoba. Be nice if the creep ended up choking on his food order.

The guy from Visa said that my card was now frozen and that a new one would be sent to my local bank branch in about 2 business day. Monday afternoon, my branch called to say the new card with a new account number was there and could be picked up any time. Cool. Now I have to go on line and update my info at several sites where I have accounts that do monthly charges, such as my website host site. Actually, I think thats the only site. Aside from that kind of thing, my card doesn’t get very much use.

As for HOW someone got my card number, I have no idea. Like I said, my card doesn’t get used very often and I’m very careful. There is one possibility that I can think of, over the years I’ve done on-line shopping at Long & McQuade music. They would have my card on record as well as my email address. Several weeks ago their web site was down for a week because it had been hacked. It is possible that my card number was harvested at that time. Lately I’ve also been getting a rather high number of scam and junk emails so perhaps thats all tied together. Anyway, all is well now.

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Ok kids, this weeks entertainment is an old song from the swing era, I think perhaps about 1937 or so, called ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’. There is really not much to say about it except that I don’t have a swing band or any such thing. The lyrics are interesting in that we could never say the things the singer in the song these days without getting into trouble. Lines like “I will never ever let you go, I love you oh so much”. The singer is a bit on the bossy and controlling side but lets not judge a past culture by our present ideas. Society does that way too often. Anyway, just enjoy the song and leave it at that.

Save The Last Dance

doug

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From Russ

Don't eat the yellow snow!

We probably shouldn’t eat the white snow either.

It is a sunny, late winter day, I’m in the bush helping my dad cut firewood on our small farm on Natchez Road, RR1, Kitchener. Being thirsty I’m eating handfuls of snow.

“Be careful you don’t eat any ‘snow fleas’” dad cautions.

“No such thing” says I.

“No?” he asks, “take a handful and examine it closely – see anything?”

“Yes – only some black specks of dirt”.

“Keep watching – does the ‘dirt’ move?”

“Holy shit! sorry pop – what are they?”.

“Snow fleas” he replies calmly as if I should have known.

“As far as I know, they don’t bite, and won’t hurt you eating a few dozen” he explains, as if that should make me feel at ease!

*

Years go by quickly – I research these creatures: Hmm, they are not real insects, although they have six legs, and therefore aren’t real fleas either. They are quite active, sometimes in large numbers, during sunny winter days. Like me, you might look at them and think it’s just dirt – some say,

“It looks like black pepper”, but don’t taste it .

What do they live on? one might ask. The answer? You guessed it – algae that grow on the snow.

To my surprise, I learn there are several more critters that live in the snow/ice: “Rock crawlers” they look like tiny grass-hoppers and live in the snow on high elevations, or glaciers. They are scavengers, and run around on top of the snow collecting aerial plankton that is swept into their cold habitats by the wind.

Few of us even knew these insects existed, and fewer ever seen one! Want to see one in action? There’s a short video on You Tube created by a ‘rock crawler researcher’

“Winter stoneflies” they look like ’cockroaches’, they live in the snow, emerge on sunny days, are cold-blooded with wings, but can’t fly until their wing muscles warm-up. I haven’t a clue what they live on. Never seen one.

“Snow flies” they resemble spiders, are active during winter, they don’t feed – they just “suck snow!” Is their nourishment in snow?

“Snow scorpion flies” they look like ‘down-hearted’ regular scorpions. They survive well in/on the snow, need cold weather – the heat from your hand is enough to kill one of these bugs. And finally, “Ice-worms” look like small earthworms, slim, only 1 to 3 Cm. brown, blue, or black in colour (some are ‘colourless’). Found in glacial ice – spend their whole lives in temps below freezing. They come to the surface in evening or morning to feed on ‘snow algae’.

Your old Uncle Russ.

PS When, and where do we see ‘pink’ or ‘purple’ ice and snow?

Read next week’s Squamidian and find out.

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone

I guess we’re all pining away for spring but all our moaning and groaning won’t bring it on any quicker will it? We’ve all been suffering with this covid – 19 pandemic and hoping for an end to it for over a year now and from what they tell us, it’s not going to end any sooner by our grumbling about it. I think our best hope is to keep on behaving ourselves when it comes to doing the right thing to slow the spread of the virus and keep our fingers crossed that most of us do what the health professionals tell us to do to stave off any more spread. There are many things that this pandemic has brought our way and most of them are happening right here in our own homes. The most prolific happening other than the “work from home” feature is happening right in our own kitchens. They say that there has never been such a rise in home baking “PUN intended” in the history of Canada. We here in our house have developed a liking for baking almost every day. Carole got me into baking our own bread and it’s amazing how much better home baked bread tastes when compared to store bought loaves! I’ve taken on the task of being our resident baker and it’s actually a lot of fun for me to experiment with baking different things! I started out baking a couple of loaves every two days or so and I went from baking white loaves to baking cracked wheat loaves every second time out! Then, Carole mentioned trying to bake hamburger buns for our burger nights that we have about once every two weeks. So, when I got up early one morning last week, I put in a batch of dough and instead of putting the dough into the bread pans, I got out a couple of round baking pans and made dough balls about half the size of a baseball and placed them on the round baking pans with a little space in between and stuck them in the oven like I would have the bread loaves. I baked them at 350 for a half hour after brushing their tops with a little egg glaze. And they turned out amazingly well indeed. We ate them like dinner rolls and also like normal buns for burgers and they were incredible.

This week, Carole and Adam made up 9 lbs of sausage with Carole’s mixer and a sausage attachment that Adam bought. Adam and Carole were talking at the table tonight and suggested I try to make hot dog buns for the sausage they made. I quickly got out the fixin’s and made a batch of bread dough. When the dough had risen enough, Carole split it up into four small portions that looked like they would bake up into hot dog buns and placed them on a pizza pan and stuck them into the oven along with two small loaf pans filled with the remainder of the dough batch and baked them for a half hour and I’ll be darned if they didn’t turn out to be the perfect bun for the sausage meal we had with the “Italian” flavoured sausage that they had made yesterday! SO, now we are trying to think up other items we can bake in the kitchen during our time in “lockup”! LOL!

It’s amazing what this pandemic has caused people to develop during the months we’ve been trapped indoors! We are not only enjoying the home baked goods but we are saving money as well not having to spend what we figured was almost $10.00 per week on store bought bread and buns during this pandemic time!

So, as it has turned out, there are some unexpected good things that have come out of this world wide disaster! Over the next months and maybe years of the pandemic, we’re going to keep on reinventing our home projects and see what else we can come up with! It’s been fun so far and why not keep on keeping on! We’re like prisoners that have learned new skills while in “Lockup”!

Lauren I’m sure can identify with what I’m saying!

I hope everyone that reads this each week has been able to find new skills during their time at home!

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>
As “Ellen” would say, Be kind to one another! And stay safe!

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Take Care And Be Safe
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The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.