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The
Squamidian Report – Mar. 4 / 23
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Of This And Past Issues Issue
#1084 Nova
Scotia
Sus
Hey There, It would seem the whole country has been dealing with interesting winter weather lately. We certainly have been having our share which is good in a way because there has not been as much snow up in the mountains as there needs to be. (Its not so much the volume of snow that causes the avalanches but the type and quality of snow). A good deep snowpack is necessary for keeping our streams and rivers running during the spring and summer. Thanks to these latest blasts of winter that snowpack has been building quite nicely. But here’s the rub, the blast of arctic air we had a couple of weeks ago was my fault. I had the audacity get my hair cut. It happens every time, no matter what the time if year. I get a haircut, the temperatures drop right through the floor. We had been having nice early spring temps and the day after my cut we were enduring -25 windchills, and my head has been cold ever since. Then the snowy weather hit and that too was my fault, and Ryan’s fault as well. Both of us together were responsible for that. You see, we had the unmitigated gaul to go to a motorcycle dealer and not just look at, but test ride a bike. That was a cold day (due to my haircut). The very following day after looking at and riding the bike at the dealer, the snow started and has been on and off ever since. It’s a good thing we didn’t get the car washed or we’d be dealing with floods as well. The bike we were looking at is kind of interesting. It’s the Royal Enfield Himalayan, an adventure touring style of bike. It’s over weight, under powered, very simplistic, and immensely popular all over the rest of the world. Riders have been using them for going pretty well anywhere including all around the world as they are at home on paved roads and goat trail. They are too under powered for high speed supper highways but do just fine on pretty well anything else, and they are a lot of fun to ride. We both still have our Harley’s but it was fun to check them out. Royal Enfield is an interesting motorcycle company. They are actually the oldest continuous motorcycle manufacturer in the world. They started out in Britton and built bikes there from about 1901 up until the early 70’s. After that they moved to India where they have been building smaller bikes that were made for the rough roads and trails, made to carry a whole family including their chickens and goats across town and through the back country. A few years ago they began to enter the world market again with small bikes that are rugged, easy to repair if repairs are needed, and very affordable. Where the big main motorcycle makers have been competing with each other to build the fastest, biggest, most powerful and expensive bikes, Enfield has been quietly taking over the smaller, cheaper bike market. My first ‘real’ motorcycle was a 1969 Royal Enfield 750 Interceptor. At that time is was one of the most powerful bikes on the road. There was nothing back in good old KW that could touch that bike in those days as I rode around town. Then, by the early 70’s Honda had come out with that CB750 which was an inline 4 and basically re-wrote the book on motorcycles. They pretty well put most of the British and European manufacturers out of business. Some of those manufacturers have made comebacks after being gone for a few decades and are now making those big, powerful, expensive bikes that are popular now but Enfield never went away, they just moved away, and concentrated on the easy-to-ride end of the market. The Himalayan is a good example of what they are now doing, even if riding one causes winter to come back with a vengeance. And speaking of winter coming back with a vengeance, we woke last Sunday morning to 20 inches of nice white snow. It was kind of fun to get out there again with my good old snow blower. It hasn’t had a whole lot to do this winter but that morning gave it a good workout. Tuesday morning gave us another 8 or 10 inches and the week wasn’t over yet. Then, the weather forecasters predicted snow for the rest of the week with about 6 inches per day expected. And, true to form, we didn’t get any of that. What we got was sunshine, some rain showers, and the occasional flurry and so on. Go figure. This is what it looks like when the weather forecaster calls for 4 or 5 inches but delivers 20 inches. It hadn’t all finished coming down when we tackled the driveway the first time.
The next morning we enjoyed a coffee by the fireplace up at the gondola and then headed out through the ever deepening snow for a usual hike. One of the people we often chat with there decided to tag along. She had never been out that trail in the winter and was quite blown away. Thats her standing behind Sue on the lookout deck.
doug ****
From Nova Scotia Sus Another storm is brewing by tonight and into tomorrow. Friday's are not a good day to book a hair appointment lately. My 101 year old client loves Fridays and has been a regular since 1988. At that time all the older ladies of the village would need to look their finest for church and other functions coming up. At that time also the hairstyles were very fancy requiring sitting with hair in rollers under hairdryers for a half hour sipping coffee and even smoking. They loved meeting up with neighbours and friends. I had to control the gossip. The last thing I needed was a reputation of being a gossip shop. That would kill business quick. AHHH those were the days! Sus ****
From Russ
Das macht nichts! Just so you know - our mom grew up in Rye (Parry Sound) Ontario,, where people from Germany settled well over a century ago, and where German was the language spoken in the home, church, school, and community. Let's call it "High German" as opposed to what was, and still is spoken in many parts of Ontario, some Western provinces, and in parts of US as well which, I choose to call Pennsylvania German. The Amish speak a mixture of "Low German" and English in Waterloo County where our dad grew up, so when they were married they spoke a "blend of their own" when they needed to discuss something that was none of our business - as kids! Brother, Wayne, studied German in high school and 'practiced' speaking German at home with mom. Wayne became quite fluent in German and as luck would have it, met his "Sweet-heart" in Kitchener. Her family spoke High German as their "first language", and Wayne married their only child and, in addition to his many other skills is now proficient in the German language. Those of you who were born-and-bread in or around Waterloo County are very familiar with hearing the Amish speaking, and we kids picked-up on a few words and expressions in our home, as well. Here are a few examples pop used: arsch > ass arschloch > asshole scheisse hacken > shitheel (a contemptible person) verdomnt > damn gott-verdomnt > god-damn (never spoken in our home, but heard many times in the village) Mom's polite cuss words included, ach je! > oh gosh! Was hast due? > What's wrong with you? Das macht nichts > It doesn't matter. dopiche > clumsy dum coupe > block-head, dumb, stupid, thick, numb, fool. Note: Both dopiche and dum coupe are 'colloquial' terms not found in German Dictionary. Finally, if a 'local' speaking Penn. German were to visit Germany, High German speaking people would not be able to understand them, and vice versa.
Russ. ****
From Wayne & Sylvia
Loft renovation finally finished. As of last Friday, after 20 months living in New Brunswick, we finally have a finished home, To be fair, the renovations of the loft above the garage only started in January of last year so it took 13 and a half months. My last task was to frame in and trim the side windows beside the sliding door to the deck which was finished just last month. While working there, I frequently looked at the serene view of the river, the forest and the golf course. It isn’t as majestic as Doug’s view of the Rockies but it is very satisfying. One day last week I noticed several large birds on the river and some birds circling above. Six eagles had found a deer that was somehow caught in the ice and frozen in. All day they feasted while chasing away the crows if they got too close. Even after a heavy snow, they found it again and continued feasting for several days. Today they are gone and the crows are sharing what is left with a vulture. This morning I finally unpacked the TV set and mounted it on the wall, more to get it out of the way since we haven’t a TV service provider and we’re not in a hurry to get one. No TV for 20 months and we never missed it! Here is the bump out that was cut into the side of the Gambrel roof. The engineers would only allow 3 trusses to be cut, giving 8 feet of width so we cut out the roof to the next truss on each side giving 12 feet of window and patio door. We had to leave the beams in place.
This picture looks out the patio door onto the deck with the river in the background. That’s where all the action took place.
Wayne & Sylvia ****
The Ontarion
Hello everyone! I’m sure if you grew up around Kitchener you would have heard of Breithaupt Park in the north ward of Kitchener. That’s where I grew up and our house was on the south side of the park. We could stand on the street in front of our house and look into the fields of that park where there was a clear field for playing most anything you’d like to play. Everything from soccer to baseball to hitting golf balls and flying kites made for a fun place to spend a summer’s day! Needless to say we spent most of our summer days in that field doing whatever we liked! One of the most adventurous days that comes to mind, was the day that there were two brothers that lived down the street from us that had every toy and gadget you could imagine. There mother was a single mom but they lived with her live in Boyfriend at the time and he spoiled the two boys rotten with whatever they wanted. One summer, they were each gifted with bows and arrows. Needless to say they brought their new sets of these down to the field one sunny day. They were shooting arrows at a cardboard target they had brought along. After a while, the kids were saying “I wonder how high you can shoot an arrow?” so, the older brother decided to shoot one of his dull target arrows into the air to see just how far up it would go! He shot the arrow straight up onto the blue sky above his head! We weren’t sure where it would land so we all ran in different directions from the launch site. Mike was the only one that stood still and looked up to see where the arrow would land. Well, as luck would have it, it came right back down to almost the very spot from which it was launched and hit Him directly in the right eye! He slumped to the ground and we all screamed in horror! As he rolled around the ground with the arrow sticking out of his eye we ran over to him and helped him to his feet! We were only young teenagers and didn’t know what to do so we just walked with him from the field to his house about 5 minutes away up Floyd St. His step father (?) loaded him into his 56 ford car and drove him up to KW Hospital for help! Needless to say, Mike lost his right eye from the injury and wound up having to be fitted with a ‘’Glass Eye” in place of his own real one! The doctor said that he was lucky that we didn’t pull the arrow out of his eye or it might have caused more of an injury deeper into his head! I guess from that that it was lucky to only have pierced his eyeball! Any deeper and it might have killed him! Also needless to say, that was the end of the bows and arrows fad from then on! Instead of returning them to Mel Weber’s Hardware on Ontario St in downtown Kitchener where they had been purchased, Their mother’s boyfriend destroyed all of the arrows and the two bows when they got home that day! From then on, the only thing that flew in that park was our kites! That’s enough excitement for one Ontarion so thank you very much for reading this week issue. I hope you will all join us again next time in The Ontarion Report and Squamidian!
Bye for now….. Greg ****
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