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Issue #1095
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Russ

Sus

The Ontarion

Hey There,

The summer heat hit with a vengeance last weekend and seems to be sticking around for the foreseeable future. Last Saturday Squamish was the hot spot of the whole country with the old thermometer topping 36C. Sunday and Monday were just as hot but places like Litton and parts of the Fraser Valley were a tad hotter. It was suddenly too hot to ride the bikes. My neighbor on his Honda and I on my Enfield had gone out to ride some of the forest service roads up the Upper Squamish on Saturday morning and by the time we got back we were exhausted from the heat. With the exception of first thing in the morning, it’s just way too hot out. And unfortunately, the heat and hot winds burn through the mountain snowpack at a very accelerated rate. That’s not good on several levels. At the very time many parts of the province are starting to deal with forest fires, they are also dealing with flooding from the snowmelt. And yes, the fire season has started. Alberta is getting most of the media attention but BC is having it’s fair share of the fires. And as usual, most are being started by careless people who either don’t know or don’t care. There is currently an out-of-control fire up the Upper Squamish that was started by some moron. This fire started the same day we were up that way on our bikes, but is located a few miles further up than were we were. Now the whole area is out of bounds due to fire fighting activity, as it should be. Somehow, some people just don’t seem to understand that they need to stay out of the way of the fire fighters.

By Tuesday some moron had started a fire just north of here near Cat Lake which is just above Alice Lake. And so here we are in fire season and it’s only mid May. By the end of this week the air had become smoky with an ever increasing haze blanketing the sky. Just in time for the long weekend, the Squamish Valley was closed to everyone except residents due to the on-going fire up there and the fact that the river is in full flood because of the snowmelt in the mountains. Fire and flood. Hmmm. The untold number of people who had intended to camp for the weekend in the valley are out of luck. Thats just as well because those areas tend to get over-run by wild young party types who end up starting more fires and end up getting swept away by the raging waters. And that’s how it goes.

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We were up at the gondola the other morning for a coffee. Because it’s been somewhat on the hot side, they have the doors open to let any breeze that might be breezing to blow through. Otherwise, with all the windows in the lodge it would become unbearable in there. The down-side is that wildlife, specifically chipmunks and birds, can and so find themselves inside. Often, they can’t find their way back out and that becomes a problem. There was a frightened Stellar Jay in there that morning and all the ‘shooing’ in the world could not convince it to go back out through the door. So, one of the young women who works in there tossed a plastic lid up to where the Jay was perched and the now frightened bird took off straight toward an upper window which it collided with. The poor bird was knocked out and fell to the floor. The poor woman was devastated and heart broken. Her attempt to chase the bird out had resulted in the bird being injured.

At my advice, they threw a towel over the Jay in order to shelter it from further damage and in order to keep it from freaking out as it was starting to struggle again. Once carried outside it was placed in a quiet shady spot where it would either recover and fly away, or pass away, depending on how badly it was hurt. I felt badly for the bird and the girl as she looked like she was going to cry. Life is hard. Sometimes trying to do the right thing doesn’t give the results you want. Didn’t do much good to tell that to the girl or the Jay.

doug

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From Russ

Dandelions - Part Two

There she sits, day-after-day waiting for the 'inevitable', when I asked her to guess what topic I've chosen for my weekly newsletter she replied, "Dandelions". How did she know?, I asked, "Because that's all I see out my window" she replied, and went on, "I don't think I have ever seen so many as this year!"

Theresa is a 'girl' who is my friend, but she is not my "girlfriend", I met her 13 years ago in our church, she was a widow, I am a widower, we were both lonely, and could use the company. We went to the local restaurant for brunch after church each Sunday, and she got me interested in joining the "Friendship Club" in Point Clark. She has a great sense of humour, a contagious laugh, young for her age (only 92), and I call her a "kid". I love to here her laugh. I never see her as she is a 'resident' of a "long-term care Home" in Walkerton - and too far for me and my trike. So, we keep in touch via weekly phone calls. She is losing her short-term memory - has her dull days and her sunny days. She told me some things about dandelions I never knew. Here, I'll share them with you as I promised her:

"Dandelions came from England. I once watched two Canaries (Goldfinch) getting seeds to eat from a dandelion that had gone to seed. One slid down the stem and pulled the top down where another could get at the seeds - team-work"

Being curious, research led me to more interesting facts about dandelions: From "Dandelion Plant History and Facts" by M.H.Dyer, 2017.

> important compound of traditional Chinese medicine for at least a thousand years;

> believed to be native to the Mediterranean, were well known to the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians.

> Medicinally, dandelion roots and leaves were used as a tonic to remove toxins from the bloodstream, acting as a gentle diuretic to improve the function of the digestive system".

Ancient docs knew didely-squat about nutrition and vitamin deficiencies, but they knew dandelions helped with a whole bunch of ailments, including; warts, scurvy, fevers, toothaches, constipation, anemia, arthritis, diabetes, gall bladder problems, heartburn, skin irritations, stomach, kidney, and liver disorders.

Modern herbalists now understand that growing (green) dandelions are rich in Vitamin C, E and A, as well as Calcium, Potassium, Zinc and Iron".

Dandelions were also appreciated for their beauty. She may be a wallflower at a dance, but she is a dandelion in bed! (I know - it's an oldie, but it fits here.) Dandelions also make good dye - roll around in a patch wearing a clean, white shirt and find out for yourself! And if you are thrashing about in a dandelion patch you may find purplish stains as well, these come from the inner ribs of the leaves.

And let's not forget, some gardeners make wine from the dandelion plant - my mother-in-law, for example. The story goes - she made a large batch, bottled it while it was "still working (fermenting)", hid it under their bed, and soon their sleep was disturbed by "popping corks!" My wife and I tried making dandelion wine one time, using only the yellow flowers (because Bobbie remembered picking many, many of the flowering heads for her mother's wine) Ours was a waste of time, effort, and money - a complete 'flop'!

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Because dandelions are so proliferous, and seem to grow almost anywhere, maybe they could be cultivated to provide a nutritious food source for the "starving millions" in the World! Instead of spending many Dollars on 'killing them', we should be spending those Loonies on the poor, and starving nations? After all, the whole plant is edible - from top flower, to stem, leaves, and roots. Can be eaten raw or cooked. Carol wrote she's eaten dandelion raw in a salad (although somewhat bitter-tasting), as have I. Just be sure the dandelions have not been 'sprayed with weed-killer', and that you don't try eating the stems - that's where the bitterness comes from.

As to where dandelions came from (some are native to North America), Historians believe that early European settlers introduced the two most familiar species; red-seeded Dandelion, and the common Dandelion to the New World for their nutritional and medicinal benefits. Both types have now naturalized and growing dandelions are now found across the country - just look out the window - see? Theresa was right!

The Weather Network has promoted the theme: No mow in May. "Why?" you ask. Simply because the 'honey bees' need all the nectar they can find to make that delicious honey we all love, and to feed their young. Without bees (and other pollinators) no vegetation or fruit would grow, and the Human Race would eventually die off!

This has been an education for me, a pleasure to share with you, and I will be the first to admit I'll miss writing my weekly articles during our Summer break which begins in July.

Russ

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From Sus

I got a call the other day from my yoga instructor that all classes would be cancelled until the fall. My first thought was .....not a lockdown again! No she said she dropped an

axel on her foot. That was a shock. This woman runs her farm all on her own and loves every minute of it. She is amazing at raising sheep, goats, cows and chickens and on the side runs a thrift shop where people donate their stuff and the money raised goes to charity. I offered to help in any way I could. She thanked me kindly. She is so independent and very rarely has asked for help. She explains that it is more work for her to have help from someone that doesn't know what they are doing. She lives at the end of a dead end road. Only one old farmhouse is beyond her place and it is vacant. During the hurricane she had to evacuate and stay at the firehall in Scotsburn for the night. For once she accepted help from people of the village to clear her road of debri and trees so she could get home to look after her animals. Now I hope her family will come home and help with all her chores.

I've been doing yoga with Griselda for years, even tried belly dancing but only for the exercise. Griselda had a dance troupe that travelled around performing at functions. They were all amazing and so entertaining. She has had to retire from all that mainly because of not much demand in our neck of the woods. Also she is now in her seventies but you would never know it.

I think it might be a good idea to stop the Squamidian for the summer. It's nice to have more time for other things in the summer. It's been so great having so many readers and writers involved.

Sus

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The Ontarion

Hello everyone!

It’s been an exiting week this past week! You may remember about 6 years ago when I wrote about my windshield on the MG being smashed by a piece of 2x 4 that bounced out of an open truck on Homer Watson Blvd near the 401 and all that was entailed to have it fixed by the insurance company! Well, it happened again but this time it was the Jeep that took the hit! The last time with the MG the insurance paid the full amount of $2200.00 to have it replaced and with no deductible charge involved! This time I was driving on the Expressway through Kitchener and as I passed under the Frederick St overpass, out of no where something the size of a baseball bounced off the hood of the Jeep and glanced off the windshield! It wasn’t until I got home that I realized that what hit my hood and windshield must have been a rock indeed! It either came up of the wheel of the truck I was following or someone dropped it off the Frederick St overpass onto the hood of the Jeep! Luckily it didn’t smash the windshield, it only put a knick in the glass but it did put a sizeable dent in the hood just near the passenger side windshield wiper! I phoned my insurance company to ask if they would cover the damage to the hood and windshield! The person that I talked to about it said “Yes it will be covered but there is a $500.00 deductible for each of the hood and the windshield if the hood needs repair and the windshield needs to be replaced!” I was shocked and told him about the time the MG was damaged the same way! I asked why they didn’t charge me any deductible and his company was asking for a $500.00 deductible and he simply said “it’s a different company!” I said “but it’s the same circumstances, similar damage and the same situation where I had no way of catching the vehicle the rock came from!” He simply said there was nothing he could do to help me unless I paid the deductible!

Oh well, I thanked him for nothing and decided to take my situation to the terrific body shop in Blair/Cambridge that did the work on the MG and see what the owner Matt Cochrane would do for me! I drove to Blair and Matt remembered doing the work on the MGB. He was very sympathetic and said that some insurance companies are just Greedy! I asked him then what he would charge to fix the hood on the Jeep since the windshield wasn’t badly damaged! He said if they took the hood off the Jeep and fixed the dent the size of a softball, they would have to paint the whole hood and it would cost about $600.00 in total labour and paint work! I said “Is there anything else he could suggest?” Matt then said if it were him and his hood, he’d dab some black paint on the spot where the paint was scratched by the rock and leave the dent there! It wasn’t that noticeable but the scratch might rust if left unattended! So, I asked him where to get the paint and what kind to use! He told me that he would do the touch up right there and then and he’d charge me $10.00 to do the touch up! I thought that was very kind of him if he’d do that for me! So, I waited for about 30 minutes while he finished some other work that was ahead of me and then he kindly had one of his painters do the touch up on the spot!

He said “if you don’t have $10.00 on you, not to worry about it at all but, I did have a ten spot so I paid him and he gave me a small container of the same paint in case the spot went dull or the paint came off later I could touch it up again myself! Matt had restored my faith in humanity and I went merrily on my way! Really, you don’t even notice the dent and the paint scratches are hardly visible now! Thanks Matt!

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Now to a local story that brought back memories!

The city of Waterloo is planning on building a small building at the corner of William St and King St S to accommodate a public washroom so people would have a place to “go” when they were shopping in Uptown Waterloo! It brought back memories during that news story of the times when I was a young boy working in downtown Kitchener! If I was in the old City Hall area around Frederick St and King St and needed to “go”! There was always the public washrooms in front of the City Hall square of the time! The washrooms were on the corner of Frederick St and King St just off the sidewalk of King St in front of the Kitchener City Hall. I’m sure Uncle Russ will remember these convenient structures! I used them many times when in the downtown area back in the late 50’s and early 60’s! They were at the time a dirty hole of a place and had a reputation of not being such a nice place at the time. Although they were handy, they were not very sanitary indeed! It was said or known that many unsavory people would hang around these washrooms both during the day and at night since they were open 24 hours a day!

One of the things I remember about these washrooms was all of the graffiti they attracted both in the Stalls and on the Walls! I’m sure most of the men that will read this will remember some of the graffiti for sure! One example of the creative writing was as follows……. Please read with caution……” Some come here to sit and think and others come to shit and stink, but I come here to scratch my b_lls and read the poems on the walls!” LOL! There were some true poet laureates indeed but with a sense of humour for sure!

This all makes me think of what will happen in days to come in the new Waterloo public washroom they are intending to build at King and William Sts this summer!??? It should be interesting to see how long it will take to cover the walls of this new facility with graffiti! I guess we’ll see how creative our present day society can be when given free access to these new public washrooms! I’m sure it won’t take long to have the first poetic sample on these clean new walls! I’ll be checking things out when I get near Uptown Waterloo one day after these structures are built! LOL!

Should be worth a laugh to say the least! It might be a good idea to cover the walls with chalk boards and leave a supply of chalk for patron’s use! At least then it can easily be erased!

That’s about all I have 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.

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Take Care
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