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Issue #1030
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From Russ

The Ontarion

Hi All,

Just to be different, we took the Harley for a nice long truck ride. All the way to Abbotsford and back. The reason? Well, there is a performance shop there that specializes in upgrades and related things to Harley Davidson motorcycles. As this riding season gets under way, I wanted to have the bike run a bit cooler and sound a bit deeper. The stock mufflers are ok but just ‘ok’. These air cooled bikes run hot from the factory in order to meet California EPA rules but that is hard on engines. They need to run a bit richer, and when doing so, they run smoother, better, and put out more power. So as well as replacement mufflers, the bike got a nice shiny new high-flow air intake and a software upgrade for the on board computer system. The byproduct of tuning the bike to run better is about a 25% increase in torque and horse power. Thats kinda cool.

So, I made an appointment to have the shop (Jarz Performance) in Abbotsford do the upgrades. I figured that it should be done before they get too busy in the spring and that I could certainly load the bike into the back of my pickup truck and bring it to them. With the help of a neighbor who has a snowmobile ramp, and another neighbor who is also a biker, we easily loaded the bike. I used lots of ratchet straps to tie it down and it didn’t move of bounce or at all, it was locked in solidly. Because they wanted it there for 9am Thursday morning, we drove to Ryan’s on Wednesday afternoon. The shop is only 40 minutes or so from his place in Maple Ridge so that made it easy. While the bike was there we simply hung out in some shopping malls without buying anything and basically killed a few hours. Once the bike was ready to go, we loaded it back into the truck and headed up the highway. The same neighbors helped unload it here and the bikes ready for the next sunny afternoon.

You might ask why I trucked the bike instead of riding it. Well, I have been out for several nice rides over that past couple of weeks but they have been mid day rides. Our temperatures tend to drop to near or even below freezing at night and that means black ice on the streets until the sun can warm things up. I’d have to leave quite early to get to the bike shop and that would mean unsafe riding. Tooting around town at noon is one thing, heading down the highway at 6 or 7am is quite something else and not something I would want to do this time of year. So, now you know.

doug

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From Russ

Black Leather

Last week our Hero, Doug, informed us he'd discarded his old chesterfield (sofa in US), but saved the 'precious black leather' which had covered this piece of valuable, pricey furniture. Now that its been saved, what to do with it? There are many uses for black leather; let's look at a uniform cop: the first thing one will probably notice is his/her leather holster (the pouch that carries the pistol).

By the way, when I was a cop the most frequently asked question by school-children is,

"How many bad people have you shot?". My answer was always, "none" - (which disappointed some kids)

Getting back to looking at said uniform cop - you may notice a black, leather strap going over his/her shoulder, and another black leather belt around his/her waist, this assembly was called a Sam Brown. A bunch of heavy stuff is hung upon this belt; a fully-loaded pistol, ammunition pouch, handcuffs, night-stick (or 'Billy-club') and possibly a 3-cell flashlight - without the Sam Brown - his/her pants would fall down! More than a few times, when "caught-short" while walking my 'beat', and having to use a Public washroom and, slipping the shoulder-strap off my shoulder - my uniform pants fell to the filthy, wet floor! UGH!

Of all the 'uniform issue', the black, leather boots are the most critical - without which, one could not "walk-the-beat!". I might add, the ankle-height boots are also the most painful (at least, for me!) I still have a pair never worn, which I keep for 'sentimental' reasons.

A uniform cop is inspected by an Officer each time before 'marching - single-file' out onto the street ready to 'Serve the Public". All leather must be highly polished, all caps (with leather sweat-bands) on strait, over-coats buttoned up tight to the neck. Being certain mine was buttoned-up, when the Officer shouted,

"Button-up your over-coats!!", this 'smart-ass' looked at him and snapped. "I won't!" (He never liked me after that) And he had no sense of humour.

At one time, Kitchener was known as "The Industrial City" - just about everything one could think of from buttons-to-beer was manufactured or brewed in this enterprising city. Let's talk about 'leather'; there were three factories in operation: Lang Tanning, Breithaupt Leather, and another on Madison Ave., South, near Schneider's Meatpacking, the name of which escapes me.

As a 'Journeyman electrician' I did work in almost every plant in Kitchener during a decade-long career. But, let's confine our thoughts to just the tanneries. Raw cow-hides stink! I use the term, raw loosely. Tannery workers must become "nose-blind" as some sat upon piles of hides to eat and to rest! The smell was overwhelming! I won't mention the many flies that hung about nor the few maggots wiggling about on the meat-side of some hides.

The process of 'converting' animal skin to leather is long, and complicated. I was intending to write about it, but if you are interested just 'Google it' and you may learn, as did I why 'leather products' are so very expensive!! Funny, I can't stand the smell of a tannery, but I love the aroma of anything new made of leather. And, would you agree - leather clothing has "sex appeal"?

Speaking of sex appeal - next week I'll be talking about, "Brubacher marries a young widow, and black leather"

Russ

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

If you’re anything like me, you’re sick and tired of not only the Covid-19 crap but also the truckers blockade in Ottawa and all of the other locations across our fair country! It sounds according to CTV news that the government is finally going to do something about the protesters! Not only are the truckers blocking the streets of our largest cities but they have been egged on by radical extremist groups such as “neo Nazis” and other trouble makers trying to make enough stink to overthrow the federal government! I might have expected this kind of unrest in the states or France but not here in Canada! With the theft of a couple of thousand guns in a transport parked in a lot in Peterborough it sounds like we’re in for more trouble from these idiots! I think Trudeau may just have to call in the army to handle this sort of problem. Our police forces can only do so much to stop this sort of trouble from expanding in our fine country. We don’t need the same kind of poop that the US is having with their “Right to bare arms” laws! They say that half the population of the USA own handguns and other sorts of weapons! No wonder you can’t even glare at another driver in any of their cities without taking the chance that the other driver will shoot you in the head! Now the police are saying that they feel that many of the trucks in the blockades are concealing firearms and with the truckers having their children aboard their trucks the police are not eager to start any major confrontations with the protesters!

The government is now bringing in the “Children’s aid” people to take care of the children while their parents are arrested by the police! Of course the truckers and others involved will be released on bail mere hours after being arrested anyway! I agree that the government should revoke the driver’s licenses of all truckers involved just as they have threatened to do! Not only that, they are threatening to also freeze the trucker’s bank accounts and revoke their insurance if they don’t stop their protesting and go home and back to work! I personally think that there are super rich people in the US that are bankrolling this protest to eventually overthrow our government so that the US can invade Canada and make us into 10 more states rather than leave us as a neighbouring country! This could be all nonsense but it’s definitely food for thought! The arrogance of the people of the US is just so that I wouldn’t put such an act past them! The last thing we need is to be part of the USA! We are all paying the price for the foolish acts of these truckers and the other shit disturbers involved in this so called covid injection and restrictions protest! Every darned one of them needs to be held accountable for sure, even if it takes years to punish them for damaging the economy of Canada! I was shocked by the unrest at the White House in the States last year and now I’m doubly shocked by the unrest and foolishness of our Canadian radicals! I thought Canadians were above this sort of unrest! Hopefully it will end soon and our federal government will have learned a hard lesson once it’s over with! The damage done will undoubtedly last for several years but let’s keep our fingers crossed that it won’t happen again here in The Great White North!

I’ve lost all respect for any trucker involved in this situation and think they will have done themselves more harm than good once it’s over and done!

That’s about all I have to spout off about from my soapbox for this week and I hope that nobody I know has been supporting this horrifying protest!

The truckers if that’s really whose behind all this unrest need a good swift kick in the pants and I hope that Trudeau and his government stand tall and don’t give an inch to their demands! They are no better than the anti-maskers and anti-vaxers that have caused the prolongation of the Covid problem! They have caused this virus to last about twice as long as it should have by their resistance to health rules that were put in place for the good of all Canadians and I’m disgusted by their attitude! If I were any less of a man I’d wish all of them to catch this virus to teach them all a lesson but, that would only put more pressure on our health care workers and hospital resources! We really don’t need that, do we?

Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week when, hopefully all this protesting will be history!

Bye for now… Greg

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Have A Good One
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.