|
The
Squamidian Report – Feb. 25 / 23
Online
Versions
Of This And Past Issues Issue
#1083 Nova
Scotia
Sus
Well now, This was kind of strange, I accidentally called Russ on Wednesday afternoon (west coast time, not Ontario time). And the call only lasted a couple of minutes before the connection was lost. What happened was we were in the midsts of a howling wind storm with -20 or more wind chills and so on. Our electrical power had been out for a while and when it finally came back on I attempted to phone Ryan, because he had tried to Facetime us. Because our power had been out, our internet router had not yet fully booted back up so our calls were not quite working out. Anyway, the days of knowing everyone’s phone number are long gone. We just look them up in our ‘contact’ list and touch the appropriate icon. Bingo, the call goes through. Well, the text font in my phone is small, my fingers are old and stiff, and I hit Russ’s name instead of Ryan’s. Russ picked up on his end and had no idea who I was because he was not expecting my call. I had no idea who he was because I was expecting to hear Ryan’s voice. After a bit of going back and forth as to who we each were, we finally figured out who was who. Then, once we had settled that issue we started into a conversation only to have that ended by the phone connection going dead and I couldn’t get my phone to connect though again and had to leave Russ on the other end wondering what had happened. Technology is so good until it isn’t. Oh well. Once the power had been back on for a while and everything including the phones and computers had settle down I emailed him with an explanation of what had happened so that he wouldn’t end up thinking that I’m some sort of weirdo stocking him by phone because you never know these days. I did manage to phone him on Thursday and that call worked out fine, and of course it’s always great to chat with Russ. I need to do that more often, and on purpose. The howling winds have forced the gondola to be shut down most of the week which must be very frustrating for them. Here we have perfectly clear skies, sun lit snowy mountains, and they can’t run the lift because the wind speeds are above the safety limits. We’ve ridden that lift when the wind was approaching the safety limit and it can get quite fun as the cabins bounce around. Once the wind speed hits a certain point the computer shuts the system down. If there are people stuck in the cabins, the operations people can over-ride the computer and run the system very slowly so riders can finish getting to the top, or bottom, depending on the situation. I had written about a rather winding adventure there a couple of weeks or so ago. I find if fun, most others don’t seem to like it all that much. The winds did drop by Friday morning so we headed up for a coffee by the fireplace. The temperatures were still way down there and the windchill still about minus a zillion but it was quite beautiful out. Too cold to do the hike but that’s ok. I took these pics from the main deck. This is a view looking west across the Howe Sound valley (fiord). Cold but sunny.
This is looking south east toward Sky Pilot Mnt. Notice that peak on the right...we call it Gorilla Mnt because it looks like the head, arms and shoulders of a big silverback as it reclines on the top of the mountain. Once you ‘see’ the gorilla head, you can never ‘un-see’ it.
Perhaps I’ve been boring you guys with my musical injections of entertainment lately, based on my web site activity, so this will be the last one I expose you to for now. It’s also the last one I have ‘in the que’ so there’s that aspect as well. This song is from 1969, by a guy called Claude King and is called Wolverton Mountain. It just sort of popped into my head one day, out of the blue. I guess we used to do that song years ago and it must have gotten lost but not fully forgotten in some deep dark corner in the back of my memory some where. Anyway, I did an audio recording of it, just for the fun of it, which is why I do any of them. So, click the link, give it a listen, and see if you also remember it. Wolverton
Mountain doug ****
From Nova Scotia Sus One day cold...one day warm...one day wet...one day snow and then we start all over again. Strange winter. At least on the sunny warm days we get lots done outside. Funny thing is we are burning up our firewood just as fast as any other winter. Another thing I have noticed is that during our 15 days without power from Fiona the power bill was no cheaper. I love reading all the stories coming in on the Squamidian. Russell told of all the scary adventures in cemeteries that my Dad was a big part of. I'm not surprised! But then after, he spends a good part of his life selling cemetery lots! My Dad was always full of fun and adventure and less work. Although he did raise 6 kids and we all survived. We moved so many times and every place was an adventure. So good to see Doug and Sue up on the mountain enjoying winter. Keep up the good reports everyone.
Sus ****
A Rather Short Note From Kyra Hello I’m sorry I have not been writing back but today I am So I sprained my wrist and I think my ankle I stayed up till 11:30 pm and I ate food See you next time Kyra ****
From Russ
Quityerbitchin' Time is precious. I have no time for those who complain about 'everything'! Sure, things are not always what we had hoped for or expected, but they certainly could be worse. We could be living (or dying) in Turkiye or Syria where 46,000 humans (just like you and I) were smothered, starved, or crushed to death by a "natural tragedy" two weeks ago; and earlier this week another earthquake struck in the same area killing even more people! This was not our fault (no pun intended), but, a so-called Act of God. Let's look at tragedies that are the fault of us> Hitting us in Canada where it hurts the most, is our inflated food prices - up 11.4% over last year! But at least there is food available - not like many other places in the world where, due to famine, corruption, or gang activity there is nothing for the innocent masses to eat - hence, starvation. Big business and banks are enjoying unprecedented profits while we struggle to "keep the wolf from our door"! The Bank of Canada keeps increasing the cost of borrowing money in a futile attempt to curb inflation (it's not working in Canada!) It is both shameful and sad that we've reached the point where some cannot afford to live in a house, and must resort to living (if you could call it 'living') in a tent or under a tarp with only warm-blooded rats to snuggle-up-to for warmth. Food-banks? Thanks to you who have contributed. But the food-banks are running 'dry', as those of us who have faithfully donated find we cannot continue. Hey, does this all sound like I'm bitching? You bet your little blue or white booties I am! This fortunate guy who used to support many charities - like 20+ could afford only 3 last year! Today the "needy" are not only some "unnamed people out there", but family right on my doorstep! Someone once said, "Charity begins at home" - now I believe it! What's causing all this grief? I don't even pretend to have the answer, but certainly 3 years of the "Global Pandemic", and beginning the 2nd year of Russia's invasion of Ukraine are partly, if not mostly to blame. The "solution" to all our worldly problems is "simple" - Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Yup, simple but impossible!! Why? and who's to blame? Our young Minister did an excellent sermon on this last Sunday. "Instead of pointing a finger, look in a mirror - the 'blame' lies with each and everyone of us - having the wisdom, conscience and 'guts' to admit it"
Russ. ****
The Ontarion
Hello everyone! Well, I’d like to tell you about the “Storm Of The Century” but it just didn’t happen, or at least around Kitchener and Waterloo Region anyway! The weather report from CTV and other major predictors has once again failed to report what was the real truth about an upcoming winter storm called a “Colorado Low” ! It was said on those reporting stations that we were in for a walloping monster of a winter storm for the duration of Wednesday night through to and including Friday. The storm began to blow with a couple of hours of light snow and pebbly type of rain on Wednesday evening and it looked like it would be a dandy winter storm! However it fizzled out by the time Thursday morning came around! We all expected it to be dropping a load of ice on us as well as a foot or so of fluffy snow come Thursday morning but when I actually opened the garage door to start shoveling the aftermath of this so called storm there wasn’t any great amount of anything to shovel! As it turned out, there was about 3” of snow on the roads and a 2” layer of snow on the walkways and driveways with another 2’’ of moderate ice on that and another layer of 2” of snow on top of that! It looked like one of those “Ice Cream Sandwiches that you can buy at the corner store! I tried to shovel it but the icy part of it made it difficult to push the shovel through the entire layer. SO, I pushed our trusty TORO blower to the mouth of the garage and started her up! She performed as good as always and munched through the entire three layer covering as if it were barely there! I spent about a half hour working the blower and the drive and walkway was clear! I don’t know where these weather reporters get their information from but by the time this Colorado Low hit Waterloo Region, it had fizzled out. Now that’s not to say the storm didn’t cause damage to other parts of Southern Ontario but it sure as heck didn’t hit our area with anywhere near the ferocity the CTV reporters yacked about for two days previous to it’s arrival! Once again, they had everybody in our area filling their pants over the terrible possibilities of this great storm! The region shut down our billion dollar rail system because they expected their rail tracks to be too slippery for the costly trains to run on! What a bunch of bologna that new rail system is if it cost almost a billion dollars and a little freezing rain puts a stop to it’s operation! By about 8am, the roads were totally passable and not that dangerous at all! I took a drive to the local store about a Km away to pick up my lotto tickets for the weekend and had no problem at all with the snow! I do have a Jeep with 4x4 drive but didn’t even need to engage that feature to make the drive. Anybody with half a brain and a little experience driving in winter had no problem whatsoever handling the streets around KW! I think that makes it storm #4 this winter that had the entire Region in a panic only to have it be a “Non-Event”! The Waterloo Region also shut down all of the public facilities including the public schools and all of the Catholic schools as well for the day on Wednesday. I wouldn’t doubt that they will stay shut through Friday because of the panic instilled in the public by the “Pre storm” reporting of the weather channel on CTV and others! What the heck is wrong with having the schools open during our average winter storms? I am not boasting or making things up when I tell you that when we were kids of School Age back in the 50’s and 60’s, we often walked to and from School with snow up to our knees and very few days were ever bad enough to warrant shutting down the schools! In fact, I can’t remember ever having a day off school because of too much snow! In fact, I can’t ever remember my mum or dad picking me up from school for any reason! They both worked through my pre and teen years and if I didn’t walk to school even on nice weather days, I didn’t get there! Those days were few and far between for sure. Unless, I played hooky and then it cost me a 5th year added onto my 4 year school program at KCI! Due to that particular bad choice, I became one heck of a good pool player but my marks suffered badly! Joe Doczi and I would sign ourselves out “Sick” at least one day a week and walk down to Ontario Billiards in the back lane off Ontario St and spend the day shooting pool! In fact, I wouldn’t doubt Uncle Russ patrolled that and other back allies of Downtown Kitchener on those very same afternoons we were in Ontario Billiards honing our skills! LOL! I must admit to being foolish to have wasted all those days in the pool hall due to the fact that it cost me a full year of my schooling at KCI! Oh well, by the time I spent a second year in grade 9 I was able to bring my marks up to a pretty impressive level. That was an expensive lesson but I wound up producing some pretty impressive scores and marks during the rest of my high school years! Having spent all that time in the pool hall, gave me a thirst for owning my own pool table some day but alas, it never happened! I don’t think Carole would have appreciated my replacing her beloved dining room set with a snooker table! LOL! Besides that, we never did own a home with enough room for a pool table! Hahahaaaa…….! Oh well, there’s always the pool hall at the Mall if I get the itch to try my skills again! Every time I drive by KCI the memories of my days there come flooding back and I’m happy to say most of them are good memories! I’m sure Ron Filsinger could fill you in on some of those good memories as well! With that said, I’m finding myself out of ideas for this weeks column so I’ll say goodbye for now! Thank you all reading this weeks Ontarion and Squid and I hope you’ll join us again next time in The Ontarion Report! Bye for now…. Greg ****
Take
Care |
