The Squamidian Report – Oct. 27 / 07
Issue #283
Also in this issue:
Hi All,
You may remember about a month ago when a tree branch fell and hit the hood of my truck. It finally went in this week to be repaired. (The truck, not the tree branch.) Of course being without a vehicle creates its own problems when you have to get to and from work. I’ve got two motorcycles but it is way too cold here right not to use them. For one thing, I’d never park the Harley at our work yard any time of year, and the little street legal dirt bike has a fairly poor lighting system for driving before daylight, and with no windshield, riding it would be down right arctic.
So anyway, I dropped the truck off last Wednesday morning long before the body shop opened and stuck the key through their letter slot as per instructions. The estimated time for repair and re-paint was minimum 3 days. From there it is only a couple of blocks to the work yard. Just a short walk. At the end of the day I was supposed to be given a work truck to drive home with but the one I would use didn’t have a serviceable parking brake and I would have had to back it up my steep driveway to park, as I wouldn’t want passerby’s to see any of the equipment in the back. So I declined the truck and bummed a ride home from one of our laborers who lives in a totally different direction.
Sue was heading into the city about 6:30 am on Thursday morning so I caught a ride as far as Horton’s with her. I could have walked to the shop from there but one of the bosses was there picking up his caffeine so I jumped in with him. I had actually again considered using the dirt bike to get to work but the pre-dawn was just cold enough that black ice could be a problem and like I said, it’s lights aren’t all that great and motorists are not programmed to ‘see’ bikes in the early morning this time of year. Could be dangerous.
At the end of the workday I could have taken a work truck home but I would still have had the problem of the equipment in the back so the same laborer offered me a ride. Fine. About mid evening the phone range and it was the body shop telling me they had finished the truck ahead of schedule and if I could get there right away I could pick it up. Otherwise, I could get it once they opened the next morning. So I gave them my credit card number so they could leave the truck out and I could pick it up once Sue got home. Problem here was that she chose that night to work late. That meant picking it up about 10 pm which is way past my bedtime but now the truck is back and the dent is gone.
I didn’t get to use the dirt bike for getting to and from work because of the cold weather we are having, but that same cold weather means some much needed clear non-rainy weather. That means some nice stargazing. The moon is too full right now to permit the viewing of faint objects as it tends to wash out the sky with it’s reflected light. However, the main attractions are there, especially in the early morning sky. Venus, Saturn and Mars are easy naked eye objects and the winter constellations stand out nicely.
doug
****
Hi Doug:
An article in our local newspaper triggered a memory. You may want to include it in your next Squam.
The Record Oct. 23/07
Civic Centre named heritage district.
The city’s oldest neighbourhood -the Civic Centre - will become a heritage conservation district.
The Civic Centre area, bordered by Queen, Weber, Victoria and Lancaster Streets has 350 residential properties.
The C.C. neighbourhood was home to the industrial, civic and commercial elite of Berlin and later Kitchener.
C.C. features include globe-style lighting on Queen St. N.
*
As a 17 year-old, employed by the Public Utilities Commission (P.U.C.)of Kitchener as an electrical apprentice, I was involved in the underground service installations on Queen St. N., which included installing the globe-style streetlighting before mentioned.
That was over 60 years ago! And those lights still look new and beautiful to me!
I was hired as an electrical apprentice because I wanted to learn the Trade---but I was the only apprentice on the payroll.....the other young men were hired as electrician’s helpers and did the same work as me, but were paid much more!
I really was not an apprentice at all, they never sent me to Trade School, nor did they give me any training beyond what the helpers received. What a rip-off! They took advantage of this naive country kid. But eventually I earned my Journeyman Electricians License and spent 15 years in the Trade.
Professor, Faculty of Law, and husband to my wife of 54 great years.
****
Greetings everyone.
Well, today is a typical fall day, gray skies and wet weather. Last Sunday was so gorgeous that I went out for one possibly the last motorcycle ride. It's just great riding along and looking at the great fall colours on the trees but it was still amazing how many trees are only starting to develop there fall colours with still a lot of green leaves. This past week we also finished up with the salmon egg collection and now its just a waiting game until the eggs start to hatch in the hatchery. We have noticed that there are a large amount of dead eggs(turned white) from the first gathering in Owen Sound. We have been told it was because of the warm water temperature that up to 40 to 50 percent may die because of that reason. Hopefully that those numbers do not happen.
Today I have to go into the trailer camp and help close up about 10 trailers by blowing out the water lines and putting in plumbing antifreeze in the lines. This weekend is pretty much the end for all the friends I have in there coming up other than a day here and there to rake up the leaves.
Well I have to sign off now and go to work closing trailers (maybe the rain will stop) soon. Have a good and safe week.
****
http://www.thedougsite.net/Warren/quading3.htm
*
(Picking up where Part 2 left off…)
A short distance back from our bear encounter we find a branch road
heading up the mountainside. About a km of steep climbing and the road
turns to permanent deactivation. We stop to study the unusual texture of the
limestone rocks and take a few samples for Doug, the geologist to study
when we return home.
We spot something in the underbrush up the slope above us and so I
investigate. Sure enough it is a large loader machine that had rolled down and
settled into this precarious position. Back in the days when logging companies
could do as they pleased, no doubt. In this case, the cost of retrieving the
wreck was more than it was worth.
On our way out we met a local dirt biker who asked if we had found the limestone caves. Apparently, we had just missed them. From his description they would have been an awesome sight. He offered to take us but the day was getting on and the bear wasn't letting anyone pass. By 5p.m. we are back, crossing the old Kennedy Lake Bridge again with some beautiful picture taking.
Thursday, Sept. 27/ 07.
Wake up to rain and socked in with fog. Decide to go watch the surfers tackle the waves on Cox Bay, a favorite hangout for the locals. Incidentally, a week after we had got home, we had heard on the six o'clock news that a big storm hit this area and swept one of these surfers out to sea, never to be found.
Spend the afternoon walking a part of the Wild Pacific Trail out of
Ucluelet. Here again we find the scourge of the developer at work posting
their 'soon to be coming' signs. Invading, is more like it.
The government has posted tsunami warning exit signs all along this highway. Why would they allow development along this coast when they are warning the public of the possibility of a tsunami?
There's a subject for debate, fellow Squamidians.
Again, I highly recommend to any of you readers, if you ever get the chance to see Pacific Rim National Park take the time to walk this entire trail. In my mind, they should extend the park all the way out to the end of the peninsula at Ucluelet. The trail is already in place, beginning in Ucluelet and runs just short of the Park now. There is talk that it should run all the way to Tofino.
It is an exceptionally easy going path through incredibly rugged terrain about the width of a quad. Too bad people can't drive their quads sensibly like Janice and I. Maybe then we all would be allowed to use these trails for our quads!
Here are some photos of our walk.
Our map of Tofino area had a blank spot on it, beyond the town,
out on the point of the peninsula. The day had cleared and we thought it would
be nice to watch the sun go down over Clayoquat Sound.
Sure enough, a path at the end of town took us down to a small, secluded beach called Tonquin. Wow, almost like the locals didn't want us to find it!
Friday, September 28, 2007.
We wake up to a glorious, sunny day...the day of our departure.
Can't resist one more beach walk before heading out.
This is South Pebble Beach near the parks Interpretive Center.
Tofino is just a 3-hour drive to Nanaimo where we load onto our
ferry back to Horseshoe Bay. Traveling back up the Sea to Sky Highway we are
reminded how beautiful our own territory is.
Enjoy the pictures everyone.
Wildwood
Warren.
****
Hello
everyone!
What’s
this world coming to anyway? I was thinking this morning about the multiple
murders that occurred over the weekend in Surry BC (I think it was). With all
the crazies that are running around this country it’s a wonder any of us is
safe these days. The gangs are to blame for the murders in BC so they say and
as far as I’m concerned, they can keep on killing each other. However when
civilians get murdered in along with the criminals that’s a different story.
The gas service man that was killed in that mess out west was an innocent
victim who was in the wrong place at the wrong time as was the other non gang
member killed but that does little to ease the pain of their families. They
must have walked into the scene and were considered witnesses by the
perpetrators in the act of committing the shootings. Therefore were shot to
keep them from telling what they’d seen. When the news reporter I listened to
said that police suspect the killings were related to the Asian gangs working in
the Vancouver area my thoughts immediately went to our immigration policies.
There is no way our immigration departments can screen the backgrounds of all
the immigrants we allow into Canada. Unfortunately this means we are welcoming
hundreds if not thousands of criminals to our shores every year. We tend to
think of Canada as a clean non violent country as far as our major cities go.
We used to think that we were lucky that we didn’t have the crime that the USA
has and now that way of thinking must change. If we are to do anything about
the organized crime sweeping across our nation we have to crack down on it in a
big way NOW! Having the government spend a much larger portion of our taxes on
crime prevention and fighting is just one way to stem the tide of this crime
wave. We must take a close look at our immigration methods and make major
changes in these policies with regards to our screening process. There has to
be a better way of telling what the immigrant applicant’s past has been like
before giving them the nod to move into Canada. We don’t need the Tong
organization or the Crips and the Bloods terrorizing our law abiding citizens.
We have a big enough crime problem here in Canada without importing criminal
organizations from other nations. I don’t have the answers to these problems
but I’m sure there are professional law makers and law enforcers that can do
something about them before they get too out of hand. Rewriting our immigration
policies to contain much more strict requirements would be a big start to
stemming the flow of crooks and killers into our relative low crime rate
country. I’ve spoken to a couple of lawyers I know and also several police
officer friends and asked if there is any credence to the complaints by the
“liberal” voices in our society that our jails have too high a percentage of
minority prisoners in their population. The matter of fact response that I
received was “There is a higher percentage of minority prisoners in our prisons
because minorities commit more crimes!”
How can
you dispute that?
I have no
proof that this statement is based on fact but I tend to think that these
professionals would have the inside knowledge on this subject.
I have no
reason to disbelieve this statement. Somehow the rising number of minorities in
our population and the rising number of minorities in our prisons seem to be
keeping pace. Is this just coincidence? Maybe you can tell me.
Guess
that’s it for this week.
Thanks
for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next week in The
Ontarion Report.
Bye for now.. Greg.
PS:
Something to Think About>
How do
you know if your neighbour is a criminal or just an ordinary guy?
****
The Family and the Squamidian sites:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/ and http://www.thedougsite.ca
Have a good one..
the
doug
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