The
Squamidian Report – Nov. 10 / 12
Issue #546
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Baby Kyra just turned 10 months old and you can almost see the cringe in poor Willow’s eyes as the little kid zeros in for the ‘attack’. Its incredible what that dog puts up with, and doesn’t even really seem to mind at all because she never makes any attempt to leave or even get out of the way. And there is a good reason we now call her the ‘attack’ baby. We can tell she has a target in mind because she starts to make a little huffing noise with her mouth as she crawls at blinding speed toward what ever it is that has caught her attention, and too often that is Willow. She will grab and pull the tail, or a foot or an ear. She will try to grab an eye or nose. She grabs Willow by the skin and fur as she pulls herself up, or just crawls right onto or over the dog. For her part, poor Willow will usually just ignore the baby, or roll over onto her back in hopes that one of us will feel sorry for her and give her a nice tummy rub to help take her mind off of being tormented. Willow will often give the kid a good sniff and then proceed to lick whatever parts apparently needed licking, be it a hand, or ear, or nose. She also knows well before any of the people in the house when the kid needs her bottom end changed, but is quite willing to leave that duty to one of the people willing to deal with it (that means anyone but ME!)
We do need to keep an eye on things because should Willow roll over at the wrong time, or even just get up to walk away, she could do some damage. After all, she weights over 100 lbs. But she somehow manages to be incredibly gentle and careful. She does get a bit jealous over the attention the baby gets, and tends to want some of that action for herself. She also eyes but never touches the baby’s toys. Can’t say the same for the baby who sees Willows toys as fair game. Willow would also like to be spoon fed like the baby, but that’s not going to happen. What will happen some day, if I get my way, is that when baby Kyra learns to talk, she will (to the dismay of her mother and grandmother) start referring to Willow as ‘Big Aunt Willow’.
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We had our first icy streets this week, a sure sign that winter is on its way. This is actually quite late in the season because normally we’d get our first ice in mid October but we haven’t had any of the clear weather needed to let the ice form. Its called ‘black ice’ because you can’t see it but it makes the roads very slippery, and it forms when heavy dew forms on surfaces and then freezes on clear nights when the temp drops below freezing. So, when its overcast this time of year it doesn’t get cold enough to freeze and of course dew doesn’t form the same way. Along with our first clear cold days have come the clear cold nights and that lead to slippery streets in the morning. So, we’ve had our first salting of the streets and that has left a thick layer of crunchy salt all over them, another sure sign of the approaching winter. With a few sunny clear days to enjoy I’d normally be wishing the bike were insured so I could be out riding but with the salt residue all over the place I’m happy the bike is tucked away, out of sight and out of temptation. And look at that, I almost made it though a whole issue without mentioning motorcycles. Wow.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
I just read an article in today’s RECORD paper about the upcoming winter months. The head of Canada’s Weather Systems Analysis unit is now predicting that our winter will or make that could be as cold and heavy as his American counterpart predicted last week! He said with the only “el Niño” being a very week one, it’s not likely to influence our winter to be a mild one as it did last year. He said he thinks our temps won’t be quite as cold as the American forecaster predicted but he does agree that it’s possible that we’ll be getting more than our share of snow to deal with here in southern Ontario at least! Most of Canada he claims will be blanketed by at least the usual amount of snow that we tend to get most winters here in the Great White North! I’m sure glad that my snow blower is tuned up as I mentioned last week so now all I have to do is dig out my best and warmest winter outdoor snow gear so I can stay warm while putting the TORO through it’s paces! Now I’m getting excited about winter and I hope my feeble arthritic hands can handle the abuse they’re about to receive! Gotta make sure I’ve got my warmest mitts ready to go along with the rest of my snow gear and I should be all set! It was also stated that this winter will be at it’s worst in November, December, January and February and most likely March as well. If it’s going to be heavily snowy for those five months, we might as well just dig in and live with it! On the other hand, maybe I should have said “dig out” and live with it!
I’ve found over the years that if you have the right clothing to cope with the weather you’re having it’s much easier to do whatever it is you have to do while living through it!
That’s about it 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
PS: Something To Think About>
The report said I had type A blood, but it was a Type-O.
PPS: My hands are killing me this week again so I must apologize for the short report!
Hopefully they’ll feel more limber next week!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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