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The
Squamidian Report – June 24 / 23
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Of This And Past Issues >>> The Big 1100th <<< Including: Karl Russ Nova Scotia Sus Carol The Ontarion
Hey There, Welcome to the Big 1100th. * Wow, did we ever have a thunderstorm a few evenings ago. It was like a good old fashion Ontario storm, lightning strikes all around us, constant thunder cracking and rumbling. The sky was a strange yellowish colour, the winds were high and gusting higher. We sat out on the back deck, under that overhang to watch the storm. It was almost scary and quite exciting. The heavy downpour of rain was a very good thing as those lightning strikes could and would start fires where ever they were striking. The mountain tops were being hit over and over. The drenching downpour apparently managed to extinguish any fires that may have started so that was good. We woke the following morning to no electrical power in our house and throughout the neighborhood. It may have been a coincidence, or not, but a transformer blew sometime during that night and left our area in the dark. I had opened the windows after the storm had passed to let some nice fresh cool air into the house and by morning it was down right cold both in the house and outside. It took well into the day for the electrical company to find and repair the transformer, as they had to check all the transformers in the neighborhood. While we had been sitting in the cold house having a cold breakfast of cold cereal (which would be the same breakfast we’d normally have anyway), I pulled out an old battery powered radio in hopes of finding out what had happened and hopefully get an update on when the power would be back up and running. Unfortunately, this valley is surrounded by high mountains and we’ve never been able to get much in the line of radio signals. The only two stations the old radio could pull in was a rather high-brow CBC variant that had no ‘local’ content or information at all, and the ‘local’ version of Mountain Phloem (mountain FM but locally known as mountain phloem). That station has always catered to the party type ski bums and plays nothing but commercial diarrhea music made up of the worst ear worms imaginable. And, while claiming to be ‘local’, they are actually based in Burnaby and know nothing about anything, period. So, the radio was of no use at all. We like to have both vehicles and both motorcycles parked in the garage but because I had taken one of the bikes for a short toot in the afternoon just before the thunderstorm, I had left the truck out on the driveway. That turned out to be rather fortunate as our garage doors are powered by electricity and we didn’t have any when we wanted to go out. The only way to open the garage door without electricity would have been to detach the door from the motor equipment and then lift the door manually. Not complicated but a bit of a bother, and not necessary because the truck was sitting on the driveway so it all worked out fine. We headed off the gondola for a coffee, then picked up some groceries and by the time we got home the power was back on and the house had warmed up a bit. Just another day as the saying goes. * Well, here we are. It’s now officially summer and the days are getting shorter. Where did the year go? Or at least the first half of it. And, as we all know, this is the 1100th issue of this letter AND our last issue before we break for the summer. I for one am looking forward to having the summer off. I won’t have to be constantly trying to think of things to write about. Thinking is hard. I can’t thank Nova Scotia Sus, Russ, and Greg enough for their support and commitment. We wouldn’t be here without them. As for the rest of you, your comments and inputs and occasional stories have been very welcome as well. It all adds to the variety and content and that helps keep it interesting for everyone. I’ll ‘poll’ the reader list sometime near the end of August or so to see if and who is interested in starting back up. In the mean time, enjoy your Squamidian-free summer Saturday mornings.
doug ****
From Karl
Hi everyone, first thank you for the great read every weekend. First I would like to say a very dear friend passed away some would know him Tom Schneider he lived next door to us at Old Chicopee Drive. He worked with me on a few jobs while at school. It was a shock to hear about his passing. I will have great memories of times we had at the farm RIP Tom. For this last one before the Summer I will post a few photos of Melbourne now in Winter but we do get some great days to get out and take photos. Im still waiting to see some photos from Greg. I know you have a nice camera NOW well you have all Summer to take photos right? LOL ,Doug when I walk around the City I see a lot of Bikes and I take pictures of them I will post one I really like. Russ keep your great stories coming you write so well I can visualize the story as you write no matter what you write about. Thank you. Sus I love to hear about your stories from out East. Karin and I lived on the farm next to Schneider’s place and I loved the farm life and was great to bring up the kids there as well, Doug what can I say you are SO talented you sound like so many singers just love to hear them. Well that’s all from me take care and have a great Summer everyone “CHEERS" Karl
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From Russ
Peter C. (Conclusion) Some of our readers wanted to hear more about Peter Cottontail, so here's the conclusion. Last week I was telling Peter about my son's pet rabbit - Rudy, and how the rabbit had the run of the house. We had a take-away dinner of spaghetti and meat-balls which I was about to eat while sitting on the sofa, when Rudy got up on the back of the sofa and decided to jump onto my plate! He sniffed my meal - decided he wasn't in the mood for spaghetti, and decided to jump off. His powerful hind legs slipped splashing the stuff all over me! Face, shirt, and my pants were a mess! Rudy landed on the carpet where he sat, calmly licking his feet. What are you laughing about? Hahaha! I have no sympathy for anyone dumb enough to have spaghetti for take away!! Would rabbits eat spaghetti and meatballs? Another of your dumb questions - NO! I've often watched you eating out on my lawn - would you tell our readers the 'mechanics' of your method of eating? You and your big words! Shush! We generally eat while standing on all four of our feet - sometimes flat on our white tummies. OK, that's when you're eating 'short vegetation' like grass and clover, but what do you do when you want to eat a tall flower? We use a step-ladder. You're kidding - right? Do I have to draw you a picture? We stand on our hind legs as you do, and using our front paws, we bend the plant down to our chompers. You rabbits are 'fussy-eaters' - right? Ain't you? I'll ask the questions if you don't mind. OK. If we're eating "wind-falls", we push the fruit around with our noses to find the cleanest part - free of sand and 'yucky parts'. Makes sense - like I said, you're a fussy eater. And speaking of eating habits, you use a behavior called "Coprophagy" to help meet your nutritional requirements, do you not? Who are you trying to impress using them big words again?! Sorry - I wanted to be 'delicate' - you 'recycle' your waste, right? Recycle - icicle - bicycle!! Use words I understand!! Sorry - I don't want to embarrass our readers, but there is no way to avoid it, so I'll ask you straight out - do you eat your own 'poop'? Of course - doesn't everybody? Not generally. Get this straight, Whitey - we eat only the 'fresh' pellets - the ones still warm, and green - the second time through, those brown pellets, have no 'food value' - we leave to the dogs. What do 'new-born' bunnies eat? What do baby human's eat? Like I said - I'll ask the questions!! OK! - Ok! Don't get your shorts in a knot! Our kittens drink mother's milk - they suckle - just like your babies. When do your 'kittens' begin to eat solids? When their mom's don't let them suckle any longer - between 21 and 25 days. We see rabbits all over Ontario - do you have relatives in the United States? Do you? You gotta be a tad chippy, don't you Peter?! We Cottontails brag that there are 76 varieties of us and that we're spread all over southern Canada, Eastern Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. WOW! Yup! Did you know that in your area, the southern part of Canada, there are 24 varieties of us Eastern Cottontails? To what do you attribute your great success? We're built light weight - 1.1 to 1.2 Kg. We're fast; from "freeze-in-place" to 18 Mph in 3 seconds - then, continue running in a 'zig-zag' pattern to confuse predators. Peter, can you explain why there are a lot of Cottontails around - then sometimes we see very few? Yup, just like your Stock Market we "crash" every 7 to 10 years. Thanks to predators - mostly your dogs and Coyotes. We're almost done with the questions, Peter. Are Cottontails 'Polygymous? There you go again - with your big words! Poly-shmally!! Sorry, Peter, I keep forgetting you didn't go to school. I'll try to put it in simple terms. Some creatures 'mate for life' (like me - 57 years = life!) Cottontails don't - - one buck may mate with several does. Like I said - mating is the best part about being a Cottontail - - lots of tail! On that note I'll end this interview! * I may have some GOOD news. The other day, two-pair of human eyes saw twin fawns, alone in our neighborhood. They were not accompanied by a doe. I did not see them, but I saw a juvenile doe alone while biking. It was too young to be the mother of our twins - but, could she be a "surrogate" mother? * Have a great summer everyone. Thanks for your kind readership and helpful comments. Russ. ****
From Nova Scotia Sus
I'm sitting here in my shop while my 101 year old client is relaxing under a hair dryer. She has been my client since the eighties and such a faithful client she is. Now that she has moved into a nursing home she could get her hair done there. But no way...is she changing hairdressers. Her family follows her wishes and she has an appointment every two weeks for a shampoo and set. As I look over at her now she has fallen asleep and her hair is no longer under the dryer. It will take a little longer today. I used to make a coffee for her give her a ginger snap for a treat but she can no longer hold the hot cup without a good grip. Over the years her and I have had wonderful conversations and also joked around. Once in awhile she brightens up and then she doses off. I've learned how to put her hearing aids in and out since her hands do not work well. I didn't mean this to be a depressing story but more about what an amazing women she is. Since this is the last issue for the summer I would like to thank everyone for all the great reading. I look forward to fall where we can all connect again.
Sus ****
From Carol
I am really going to miss this publication over summer. I guess we will have to re-read Russ’ books and old Squids on Doug’s website. Speaking of Russ’ latest book, I was struck by how different his childhood memories are from the stories Dad and Evelyn shared. I’ve heard that eye witness accounts given of the same accident or crime often varies greatly. We all seem to look at the world through personal biases without realizing it. I believe if my siblings and I were all to tell a story about an event we all attended, say our parent’s 60th, it would sound like we were at different parties. Last Saturday was Neighbour Day in Kitchener. Hosts across the city held porch for parties and local musicians played for an hour at each event. For the third time Beth and Jamie were hosts. The church across the way partnered with them to hold children games before the music at Beth’s. There was also games at Beth’s plus a fantastic potluck meal. I was surprised how many neighbours came and stayed. A number knew the parents and mentioned how happy they the property stayed in the family. Have a wonderful summer everyone and tell us about it in September. Carol ****
The Ontarion
Hello everyone Looks like we won’t be communicating for a while after today. Oh well, it should be a good rest for all involved and then we will have a load of things to talk about come the new start up in the fall. I sure hope that’s the result anyway! With a hot start like this has been to the summer, we should all be able to compile lots to write about come September! Today was the start to a good beginning of the end of this past year for me. I finally got the MG on the road to start enjoying the use of it for the coming summer! Adam has been doing a lot of work on the MGB for me since I’m no longer able to climb up and down on the garage floor to do any work on the MG myself any more. This past week of good weather has enabled us to do a lot of service on the little British car. I say we but Adam did most of the service work as I stood by and coached him in the process. The first item that needed doing was to change the oil in the Transmission since it was most likely the original fluid from the factory that produced the car in 1979! LOL! I must say that the fluid that ran out of the transmission was supposed to be relatively clear but as it ran out into the pan we had under the tranny to catch the liquid, it was as brown and gooey as chocolate milk that had gone bad from sitting on the counter for a week or more! Haahahahahaha……!Yuck! So, seeing that, it was a good thing Adam talked me into letting him change it! The Next thing we had to do was change the oil in the engine which I do every spring! He crawled under the car to drain the oil from the motor and I poured the new oil back into the engine which was the easy part! Of course the oil change was the easy part and of course included a new oil filter for the season as well. Surprisingly finding parts for this little British car is quite easy! There are several companies that still sell pretty much any part you’d ever need for this fine classic vehicle! There is still a few parts on the car that need servicing and we intend to get around to doing them soon too! The next thing to do is take a look at the brakes since they were last done in 1994 by the head mechanic from the Fire Department who is a good friend of mine and likes to work on the car for me when I can’t do whatever it needs myself! The brakes are still working but it’s been a long time since they were renewed and should be getting worn by now! Since I still have to replace the sending unit in the gas tank that runs the gas gauge so I can tell how much fuel is in the tank I wanted to drive the car today to use up most of what is still in the tank. The sending unit that is not working now if removed to be replaced would cause the remaining gas in the tank to leak out so I had to use up the stale fuel to prevent that from happening when Adam changes the sending unit next week! I decided to take a good long drive to use up the remaining fuel! I took a drive from Kitchener to Elmira, to Listowel, then south to Mitchell and from there east to Stratford and then home. That trip was 175kms in length so that used up most of the old gas in the tank! We should be able to change the sending unit sometime this coming week since we can do it inside the garage good weather or not! I’m looking forward to getting that done as well as new decorative chrome plates on the rocker panels and a sound proofing panel glued to the under side of the hood to make the engine compartment quieter! That’s about the last item we have to add to the MG and then it’s completely done and will be used all summer without any other problems showing up I hope! It’s only taken 34 years of owning the car to get all the necessary work done in rebuilding it! We’re happy to be finally driving a completely redone hobby car and It’ll be a fun vehicle to have at our disposal! * Well, I hope you all will have a fun and enjoyable summer this year and will continue to take notes so you know what you can write about for submissions to the Squamidian come the fall renewal of the Squid! Thanks again for participating and continuing to read all the Squids this past year or should I say this past 23 years! Hope you will all work on your ideas for the next Fall start up! Take care all and have a safe and fun summer!
Bye for now….. Lotsa Love…Greg ****
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