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The
Squamidian Report – Sept. 16 / 23
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Of This And Past Issues Issue
#1112 Carol Russ Karl Nova Scotia Sus The Ontarion
Hi There, Road trip….. Well now, it looks like our road trip to good old KW is going to happen. Nothing unforeseen has popped up to prevent us from going. As of now, our departure date would be September 28th and we’d be ‘tripping’ for about 3 weeks. The drive each way should take about 5 days leaving about 10 days for visiting and dealing with family business etc. That means I will be away from my computer for 3 Saturdays (Sept. 30, Oct. 7, and Oct. 14) so I won’t be able to assemble and send out the Squid. So it’s up to you guys, the faithful readers, we can go without for those 3 weekends or one of you could step up and do the honors. That would be cool if someone would but if not, well, that’s how it would be. If anyone of you is interested in manning the old editor's desk, let me know.
Bear in a pear tree….. We are being over run by bears these days. Well, at least by 3 bears. A very big one. This guy is the biggest black bear I’ve ever seen. Then there is the medium sized bear, a ‘normal’ one, and lastly, a small young one. They are all hungry and desperate for food. Due to the droughts we’ve been having for the last couple of years there is no natural food for them to eat up in the mountains so they are forced to forage here in the subdivisions and around town. Right now it’s the fruit trees that are attracting them. The big guy simply gives a tree a shake and lets the apples or pears fall down so he can eat them off the ground. He is too big to climb a tree, it would simply collapse under his weight. The medium sized bear takes the opposite approach and climbs the trees. Last Sunday he spent the afternoon up in the loaded pear tree across from us. He’d eat his fill, climb down to have a big dump on the lawn, and then climb back up to eat his fill again. It’s amazing just how much fruit a bear can pack away in one sitting and then do it again, over and over. Here he (or she, don’t really know which) is, poking out from inside the branches as it eats the pears.  This shot is of the bear sitting right on the top of the tree. I don’t know how the small branches held it up there but is munched away until every pear it could reach was devoured. The bear pretty well removed every pear from the tree. It came back that night and finished off any that were left on the ground.  The next day it came back and started eating the apples from the apple tree that is beside our front yard.  Doug ****
A Note From Carol
Here it is mid September and I feel like I missed summer this year. In July I had, first a failed hiatus hernia repair followed by a successful thoracotomy operation. I went into this blissfully unaware of how serious my condition was and how invasive the surgery would be. The fact that the surgeon saw me less then 2 weeks after the gastrolagist referred me and he booked the surgery so quickly should have been a hint. At home, with a lot of support from my husband, daughter and granddaughter I slowly started getting better, until I wasn’t anymore. The surgery left me with 2 unexpected side effects; an overpowering smell in my nose that makes eating and trying to drink enough water unappetizing and a continuous cough. The cough became worse but when I saw the surgeon for my follow up appointment he felt it would get better on its own and was more interested in seeing how my incisions healed. I had 7 small incisions and 1 very large one. I went to my family doctor about my increasingly worse cough and sore throat. She gave me a puffer to try and sent me for a chest x-ray. The x-ray results were some fluid, not in my lungs yet, by where the draining tube had been and a partially collapsed left lung (the lung that they had to deflate temporarily to do the surgery). I was to continue to use the puffer. I went back the next week because I had coughed so much I lost my voice. Now she heard congestion in my chest, sent me for another X-ray and a 5 day prescription for powerful antibiotic. The new X-ray showed infection in the lungs. Each day I felt worse, constantly cough gagging up phlegm and bile. Back at the doctor she gave me a different puffer and a different kind of meds. Should I not get better she wants me to go to emergency in the hospital I had the operation because she doesn’t no where to go from here. Right now I try to sleep sitting up but am lucky if I can go 2 hours without cough/gagging myself awake. I’m hoping things start improving soon. Al doesn’t wear his hearing aids in the house and I can only whisper so he is deaf and I am dumb and whenever I write a note he has to scramble for his glasses to read it. No arguments happening here. Actually one good result of all this is I no longer take my husband and family for granted, I am truly blessed by their love and support.
Carol ****
From Russ
Homelessness is not a new problem. Let me take you back, way back to the end of WW2; they were called "Returned men", those lucky enough not to be killed on the battlefield. But, how lucky were they? Jobs were scarce, the jobless - plenty. Men 'rode the rails' traveling far and wide looking for work. I saw them standing in long lines at the employment shack at BFGoodrich Rubber Company on King Street, West in Kitchener - only to be turned away at the end of a long day of waiting in hope. Few were hired. Then, the big sign went up out front of the factory; EMPLOYMENT OFFICE CLOSED In our ignorance, we referred to them as "bums & hoboes". I remember my mom talking about "tramps" when the same shameful thing happened after WW1. Now, after WW2, when I was a kid living on Highway #8 in the Village of Centeville we had poor men coming to our home asking (begging) for a 'handout'', being poor ourselves, mom could afford only bread & butter and tea. They were so hungry, they ate the food as fast as mom could prepare it! Some would offer to do work - any kind of work to repay for their food. Mom did not have any do work, but offered them a place outside where they could rest for a while. Being a curious kid I watched this one poor man when he sat down: The first thing he took off were his warn, dusty, shoes and wet stalkings. I watched from a safe, but close distance - I couldn't believe my eyes!! The man had live maggots between his toes!!! I ran to tell somebody - anybody, nearby what I'd seen - nobody believed me, but my dad. He told me the maggots were placed there to eat the stuff that forms between his toes. Because hoboes don't get to wash their feet very often, and "toe-jam" forms. I always believed what my dad told me - but this?? But, I believed what I saw, and I saw several live maggots between the poor man's toes! It is a sight I'll take to my grave, where, no doubt there will also be maggots, eventually. They gotta eat too.
Russ. ****
From Karl
Hi All how nice it is to be back reading all the latest stories of what has been going on WELL here in the Southern hemisphere its getting warmer and Spring has sprung so getting the garden ready my Orchids are flowering what more can you ask for BUT one thing I’m worried about is the coming Summer NOT looking forward to the HEAT and what comes with that Bush Fires but life goes on I still get to go into the City and walkabout taking photos and get my exercise in average 7-8k walk around the City there is a lot of sports going on the grand final will be happening soon and the entertainment will be the one and only KISS can you believe it ha ha still going strong I will post some photos from my walks so have a great weekend everyone and stay safe. Karl..   
****
From Nova Scotia Sus
Well it looks like we are in for another hurricane , hopefully it gets downgraded to a tropical storm. Even that is too much. We have tied down everything and making sure all windows are closed in the house and out buildings. Lots of food and water for the chickens too. The generator is sitting ready and all gassed up. At least we have less trees to fall from the last hurricane September 2022. When driving around we see less trees on properties. The owners have decided to completely go treeless. Sometimes i wonder what will happen if there is nothing to break the wind. Will the houses suffer more? Its a waiting game.
Sus ****
The Ontarion
Hello everyone! Well we’re finally getting some of the projects that Carole and I planned done! We had talked about putting up a fence between our house and the people beside us so Adam went and picked up the wood to finish that project and he also picked up his trailer from storage and got a half yard of P gravel to spread as a base for the opposite side of the house so we could lay our planned patio of flag stones. The weather being good and warm allowed us to lay the P gravel bed and today we picked up the flag stone for the patio. It was a small trailer load of flag stone but they weighed in at 589 lbs. His little old trailer was groaning when that load was put into it but it did the trick! Adam spent most of the day laying the flag stone and I helped when and where I could. With each stone weighing in at approximately 50 lbs, it was quite a back breaking job for him and also for an old codger like me too! I’ve gotten too feeble to do much heavy lifting but I could do a little to help where I could! The new patio is all done now and it looks amazing to say the least! Now all we have to do is build the short section of fence between our house and the neighbours and we’ll be ready for winter! The last project will be to plant Carole’s garlic bed. Adam had all of the soil ready for the garlic bed so it’s just a matter of planting now! I don’t think I would make a good landscaper or farmer at least not at the age I’m at now! Both of those jobs would moat likely kill me for sure! Just too much heavy lifting for me!
When I was a kid, I was thrilled by the Royal Canadian Air Force’s aerobatic team and wanted to be one of the pilots for that team. However, that was not to be as you well know. The closest I came to that was hooking off school in grade 11 to go flying with a classmate of mine who had a pilot’s licence and we’d spend the afternoon out at the Waterloo Wellington air port flying in his father’s Cessna single engine plane. His dad owned an insurance company in Kitchener and they had lots of money as you might have guessed! It’s been years since I’ve been up in a small aircraft like that but it was fun while it lasted. I have another friend who has a pilot’s licence but he’s too busy fixing cars since retiring as head mechanic for the Waterloo Fire Dept! Maybe some day I’ll get up with him but no plans for the near future! He has offered to take me flying sometime but so far sometime hasn’t come yet! Well, 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! Ps: That team of pilots were known back then as The Canadian Golden Hawks! Now they’re the Snow Birds. Bye for now ……Take care and be safe…. Greg. ****
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