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The
Squamidian
Report – July
23
/ 22
Online Versions Of This And Past Issues (Choose the year and then the date for the online issue you want) Issue #1052
Hey There,
With the weather we’ve had so far this year, I either choose to ride my motorcycle on days were I could or will be caught in the rain, or, I don’t ride at all. So, needless to say, I’ve been caught in the rain several times while out on the bike. Heck, I got caught in the rain twice last weekend. Both times were on rides to and from the Bay. Now, a little rain isn’t so bad. It mostly just makes the bike dirty and my riding gear a bit damp. What I don’t like is when the rain decides to come down so hard that the other vehicles on the road are sending up spray and in some cases waves of water. Thats no fun at all. Visibility becomes very sketchy for everyone and the road surface becomes an ‘unknown’. To add to the danger, there is always the self entitled impatient moron who seems to need to drive way over the speed limit when everyone else is trying to take it easy and be safe. I always wish I’d come around a curve in the road and find the vehicle that just blew by everyone, laying upside down in the ditch. But alas, that never seems to happen.
Having being caught in the rain several times of late, the bike needed a good bath. This little Sportster is way easier than the old Electra Glide to wash and shine. Its way smaller and has way less surface area. So, giving her a good cleaning only takes half an hour where the old bike used to take well over an hour. The down side is, she doesn’t offer near as much weather protection as the old bike did. A trade-off, I guess.
We’ve been having some renovations done to our house. It’s about 40 years old (the house, not the reno’s). They are on-going. Something we’ve also had done is the installation of a heat pump. We don’t and can’t have conventional A/C because we don’t have heating ducts. Our heatings is via base board heaters. So, a ‘head unit’ was mounted to our high living room wall and the ‘base unit’ was installed under our back deck. Heat pumps seem to be all the rage these days, are supposed to be much more efficient than other types of heating and cooling. They don’t create heat or cold but extract it from the air, or put it back into the air. I’ll let you know how well it works and how we like it once it’s been up and running for a while. That could take another week as we are waiting on the electrician to do the electrical hookup. It should supply a fair amount of our heating needs during cold weather and should keep the house cooler during hot weather. That’s the idea anyway.
With the girls here for pretty wall the whole month of July, we tend to get a bit desperate when trying to think up thing for them to do. Kids these days get so bored so easily, have no imagination of their own due to the brain mushing effect of the iPads and other screen type influences. We’ve taken them to Porteau for picnics, truck rides up the Upper Squamish Valley, let them hang out over at a neighbor’s place and so on. As well, we took them down to the Mamquam river and let time muck around in the sand and in a shallow section. The river is running high and fast due to the snowmelt taking place up in the hills. So, the water is icy cold and the current is problematic but there are some areas that are calmer and not a problem as long as we keep an eye on them. Here are some pics of ice water adventures. They don’t seem to mind the cold water at all.
doug ****
Take
Care |
