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Issue #1042
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From Russ

The Ontarion

Hey There,

This is kind of weird, but I found myself playing a little ‘mickey mouse’ gig last Saturday morning. I wasn’t the first choice, in fact, I guess I was the 5^th choice. You see, the local gardening club was putting on their spring plant sale and they had decided to try having live music at it. (Didn’t and doesn’t make much sense but oh well). They had lined up 4 individual people to come and play, starting at 10am and each person would have 45 minutes of time to do their thing with a 15 minute break in between for logistical purposes such as getting out of each other’s way. The ‘stage’ was the rather small front porch of a the club member’s house, where the sale was taking place. At the last minute, as in 2 days before said affair, the person who was to perform in the first slot came down with the current popular virus that has been going around for a couple of years. I got a short notice call asking if I were willing and available. I figured “why not”, can’t hurt, so I said sure. Actually, it could hurt, especially on the old fingers as we are still having early March weather and temperatures and keeping the fingers warm enough to be flexible could be a problem. But what the heck, why not, it’s only 45 minutes which isn’t really even enough time to even get properly into it. I could tough it out for that long.

The day dawned dark and gloomy with cold rain showers in the area and the usual fresh snow on the trees higher up on the mountain sides. Oh well, the porch has a roof. Surprisingly, by 10am a few spotty rays of sun found their way through the clouds and for a little while it wasn’t all that bad out. I had lucked out. Those sparse rays of sunshine lit up and warmed up that little porch quite nicely. I still needed my warm coat but my fingers didn’t freeze. By the end of my short time in the spotlight, a chilly breeze had started to blow and the sun had crept back behind the clouds and on around so that the porch was again in shade. Even though I felt like I was just getting started, I was glad my time was up. I wasn’t cold yet but I would have been in a short while. The other performers all had to endure the cold shade and breeze.

Usually, the first slot is the unwanted one and the last slot is the preferred one. In this case however they had not thought it out all that well because most of the people attending a garden plant sale come first thing in the morning, not mid afternoon long after all the plants have been sold. So, I ended up with the best time slot and the most audience. It all worked out quite nice, my music goes over quite well and I certainly have more than enough material to do several 45 minute sets. One small and perhaps annoying thing was that one of the organizers, the one who had called me in, was sort of the MC and decided to sing along with me over her own mic. She’s actually not a bad singer but she doesn’t know my material and so spent a lot of time hunting for notes and lyric words. But, that’s small town life. I was probably the only one who found himself cringing a few times. ‘The Wife’ was there with me and bought a hosta plant, and once I was done doing my thing we packed up the guitar and headed for home. It would have been nice to listen to the next performer but parking was at a premium so that was that and that’s ok.

doug

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From Russ

"We're all going to get it!"

My good friend and neighbour Paul just phoned to tell me he had COVID. He said he got his 4th shot on a Wednesday and COVID on Thursday! He has COPD, is over 80, and it hit him really hard. He couldn't stop coughing, and a headache you wouldn't believe. The more he coughed the worse his headache. His doc put him on "those special pills", six a day (which cost $500 - fortunately paid for by the Government). Paul infected his wife Nancy, who wasn't as sick. She also had her 4th shot. It doesn't seem to matter if you've been shot 4 times, you can still get it.

I'm boarding a plane on May 19th, and I'm thinking that's one of the 'best' places to pick up the virus, so I'm in Shoppers the other day and asked if they sell the N-95 model mask,

"yes", said the Pharmacist "they're in aisle #6" - he lied - they are not in aisle #6, and I told him so! He bounded over the counter (I thought he was going to hit me) and squatted down in said aisle saying in surprise,

"They were right here yesterday!" Maybe they were all sold, I suggested.

"I know they're in high demand these days" he said "But sold-out overnight??" He told me not to worry, that they'll be getting more in. Did he lie again? I'm thinking, I'll not get an N-95 mask in time, so I'll wear one of my 3-ply masks I've been wearing for many, many months (not always the same one), and from the time I enter the terminal in Kitchener until my son Mac, picks us up in Calgary I'll simply refrain from touching anything, getting to within one metre of anyone, or breathing. I may have to continue in this mode during my one-week stay, as Calgary is one of the worse places to be right now. My son, his wife, and their kids, and all the grandkids have had COVID. The WHY are you going? you ask. The answer is both simple AND complicated, so I won't go into it.

"We're all going to get it (Covid)" said our priest last Sunday, "It's just a matter of time!"

So there you have it - there's no escaping it - a "man of-the-cloth" would not lie. Right?

Please don't send me any emails while I'm away.

Russ.

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone1

Well, it’s another warm and lovely day here in Ontarrible as Doug likes to call it! LOL! It’s not quite so terrible when you compare it to the weather they’re having out in BC! Take that for a comparison Doug! LOL! Just giving you a bit of a poke in the ribs Doug! In reality, I hope your weather has settled down by now after all the rain and flooding you’ve had out there this spring! We’re experiencing another hot day after 8 in a row this past couple of weeks! It’s been a real pleasure to have the hot weather after waiting so long to get this past winter over with. It seemed to be an extremely long winter this past 6 months and I’m hoping this coming summer will be as long with good hot weather as the winter was cold and snowy! I actually mowed the lawn again for the 5th time over the past couple of weeks. I also made the effort to fertilize and over seed the lawn and that made it grow all that much more so I guess I was asking for it to grow more than usual. LOL! That’s ok, I need something to do these days anyway. The front lawn actually looks like a well manicured golf course fairway and all the neighbours are asking as they walk by how I manage to keep our lawn so lush and weed free! I just chuckle and say “With a lot of hard work!” That’s how! The next project is cleaning and setting up the pump system on the pond out back. We’ve been working hard around the yard to get all the gardens in shape and plants planted to grow whatever it is that Carole likes to grow and eventually cook with, like her garlic green house as well as some onion plants in a small bed out back. We’re still enjoying having the multitude of song birds visiting our Feeder out back as well as Carole’s new Oriole Feeder that she was given for “Mother’s Day”! We’ve actually had a few orioles enjoy the orange slices that were placed on the new feeder so at least we know that it works! We’ve also got a Cardinal nesting in a small bush/tree that’s beside the pond and the female has been sitting almost all day long each day for the past week or more on the three eggs that she’s laid in the nest. So far, the black birds and squirrels haven’t managed to destroy those eggs as they have in the Robin’s nest out back. The Oriole nest is quite well hidden in the center of the tree so maybe they haven’t seen it’s location yet. I hope the baby Cardinals hatch without any problem this time.

I guess We’ll just have to keep up the hard work out back so the squirrels etc don’t bother the Cardinals. I’ll have to work quite close to their nest to assemble the pond pump but I’m sure I can do that while the mother bird is away from the nest. Just have to be observant and careful not to push my way into their nest!

Well, that’s about it 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

Something to think About>

Does Premier Ford deserve another tern in office?

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