The Squamidian Report – Jan. 5 / 19
Issue #867
Including:
From Lorne
From Russ
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Well look at that, another new year and we’re mostly all still here.
More or less depending on your outlook. Some are ‘more here’ than
others but probably always have been. Remember 19 years ago?, Y2K for
those with a short or none existent memory. Half the world was
surprised we were still here, most of the other half didn’t really care
one way or the other, and the remainder were disappointed. Just goes to
show you can’t please everyone.
*
Normally
we don’t bother going up the gondola on the weekend unless there is a
reason for going up. That reason is usually that the kids are here and
thats a great place to take them because they get to play outside, play
in the snow (seasonally of course), go for hikes etc. The kids had been
here over Christmas but then went home for a few days. Last Saturday
came along, dark, windy and pouring rain by the bucket, and kid-less.
So, we figured what the heck, being it was just the two of us and that
there probably wouldn't be many people up there, we’d go up for a
relaxed coffee by the wood burning fireplace. We were the first and
only customers in the parking lot although more did come along later.
The ride up almost qualified as ‘fun’ by my standards. Winds can make
those cabins swing pretty good and I tend to like that but although we
got slammed a few times by some interesting gusts, we’ve had ‘funner’
rides. The ‘real’ wind was right at the top, along with rain so heavy
it was like being in front of a fire hose. Just going from the gondola
cabin to the lodge door was fairly wild. Inside we had the place to
ourselves, well, along with the staff working there.
At the wood stove there are tables with soft chairs for those lucky
enough to beat the crowd. This is where we usually have our morning
coffee as even when doing a hike first, we tend to beat the masses. At
the table closest to the fire were several of the outside workers,
mostly kids (that being young adults) who had been working outside and
looked like drowned rats. They had soaked coats and gloves and boots
piled on the iron railing that protects stupid people from the hot
stove. One of them was down in the washroom trying to dry out his socks
using the hand blow dryer. The rain was pelting past, horizontally, one
set of doors kept blowing open. It was kind of cool, and interesting.
We enjoyed our coffee and chatting with the staff. After a while the
storm let up. More customers started showing up, and we headed back
down. Not a bad morning at all.
Then, on Sunday morning we did a ‘meet in the middle’ to pick up the
kids again. Both parents were working over the New Year so it was
simply easier to have the girls back up here. The Park Royal shopping
mall is about half way between us and Maple Ridge and the roof top
parking lot on the north side is usually pretty quiet so it makes a
good spot to hand off the kids. On New Years eve we did a ‘kid level’
celebration and were all done with long before 9pm but face it, 9pm is
midnight back east so that works too.
*
Last
week Lorne mentioned the infamous orange, the one he craved only to
endure watching an aunt peal and eat it herself. Well, believe it or
not, I had a somewhat similar experience when I was 8 or 10 years old.
Not with an orange but with a grapefruit, and not with an aunt but a
set of grandparents, the paternal ones. Hear’s how it went, at least by
my recollection…. A weekend was approaching and my grandparents
inquired of me as to if I’d like to make some money by working for them
on a job that would probably take all weekend long to complete. I doubt
if I was very happy to give up a weekend of freedom from school but the
thought of making some money was irresistible. It turned out that they
wanted the window shutters on that big old white two story house
painted. They had been a faded weathered red and apparently needed to
be re-done. How hard could that be. I was too small to move the ladder
so an adult had to do that for me as needed but I could certainly climb
the ladder to reach those upper shutters. I worked all weekend, the
only thing keeping me going was the promise of a payment. By the end of
the weekend the job was done, the paint and ladder put away. To this
day, I still remember walking in to that back kitchen, an expectant
smile on my face, and telling them I was done and was there for my
reimbursement. (I probably used a word like ‘pay’ rather than
reimbursement). At that point grandpa set a grapefruit on the table.
Needless to say I looked at it with some degree of puzzlement, not sure
how this had anything to do with being paid for working all weekend. He
then took a knife and cut the grapefruit in half, picked up one of the
halves and handed it to me. THAT, was my payment for working all
weekend, enduring the taunts of my brothers and cousins. I can’t
remember what I did with my half grapefruit but I do know I never
painted anything again. Ever!
doug
****
From Lorne
Son Gary and daughter in law Evelyn invited Gale, Dave, Cindy and
myself to his home in Owen Sound over New Years. He also invited
friends in for New Years Eve. Turns out they, their friends are all his
age and chose to return home and into bed by 10.30 pm Dec. 31, making
for a very quiet New Year welcoming. (actually, I wanted to get to bed
too but braved it out). Earlier that day, on the invitation of Evelyn's
friend, we visited a mushroom farm tucked into the deep woods of
Sarawak Township. Not what I envisioned as a 'farm'. The spore is fused
into plastic bags containing hardwood shavings and sawdust. All bags
the size of a 10 lb bag of potatoes. These are labeled then
placed on wooden high stacked shelves that filled large climate
controlled rooms. All doors lead to a small empty room before opening
to another very large growing room. And all doors must be closed before
opening the next. The friend soon found us and explained what we were
looking at and guided us through the cool, dark narrow passages between
the mountains of growing mushrooms. On occasion we would spot a silent
figure moving about. May have been an employee or maybe not. The end of
the tour brought us to an oasis that contained a table, some
chairs and cookies. It was here that our lady host was very
helpful in explaining the uses of their many product
varieties. Also, it was here that we noticed something slowly
moving through the dim shadowy corridor toward us. At first I
thought it was a giant spore gone wild and out of it's plastic bag but
as it came nearer, we could make out that it was a man, her husband and
business partner. He still looked very much like a funny mushroom and
when he spoke he sounded like one. After a brief stop he disappeared
into the dim from which he came. Now the women became very gracious and
benevolent and packaged a large box of her crop for Gary and I to take
home. I have enough to last me the rest of this century.
Lorne
****
From Russ
Bad ending 2018
West Grey Police
Police are on the scene at the South (Beatty) Saugeen River after a
vehicle drove into the river and became submerged. WGPS has located the
body of a deceased male. Hanover Water Rescue & OPP Dive team are
assisting WGPS in the recovery mission. Please stay clear of the area.
11:58 AM – Dec 30, 2018
Bayshore Broadcasting News Centre
Monday, December 31, 2018
Body Discovered in Saugeen River
Police believe the body is in connection to a suspicious vehicle found speeding in Ayton.
West Grey Police are investigating the discovery of a body and a vehicle found in the South Saugeen River.
Police were initially notified about a suspicious vehicle travelling at
a high rate of speed on Victoria Street in Ayton around 4:15 Saturday
afternoon.
They were later informed about a tan coloured SUV being driven into the South (Beatty) Saugeen River around 5:30.
At the scene, they recovered a body of a male in the water.
Hanover Water and Rescue, and OPP Dive Team and helicopter are
assisting in efforts to recover the vehicle but the murkiness of the
water and weather conditions have forced the recovery to be postponed
until 9 Monday morning.
The public is being asked to stay away from the area during the investigation.
Anyone with information is asked to contact West Grey Police or Crime Stoppers.
Note: The vehicle has been recovered from a deep hole in the river 5km
downstream. No bodies were inside. The deceased was identified as Glen
McTavish, age 24 of Wingham, Ont.
His funeral is at 2PM, Tuesday January 8/19 in Ripley, Ont.
He was my Great-Grandson.
Russ.
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Well, we finally did it we made it to 2019!
I remember thinking when we were kids “I wonder what the cars will look
like in 1969?” Never giving a moment’s thought to what they would look
like in 2019. Here we are 50 years later than my query as a kid and
most of the new cars look alike. It’s hard to tell whether your looking
at a Toyota, a Mazda or a Kia these days since most of them are pretty
much the same shape and most of them are either tan coloured, silver or
white and have a similar shape to them. Oh well, I guess the shape is
due to the aerodynamics to avoid wind resistance for the enhancement of
miles per gallon or the quest for more km per liter these days. I think
the automakers have succeeded in improving the fuel economy in most of
their models. My cousin bought a new Corvette in 2016 and it not only
has 450-horse power it manages to achieve a fuel economy of an
incredible 42 miles per gallon on the highway and in the low 30’s
around town. Of course it depends on how heavy the driver is on the gas
pedal. All the same, that kind of fuel economy is amazing in this day
and age for the power in the engine. I’ll never get the chance to see
that kind of results since I won’t be purchasing a new Corvette any
time soon! LOL!
Guess I’ll just have to be satisfied with the 20 to 24 mpg we’re
getting in the Jeep. I guess it’s due to the shape and weight of the
vehicle when it comes to mileage per gallon on the Jeep.
*
Speaking
of the new year, we were all settled in for a quiet New Year’s Eve here
at home with our snacks laid out on the table in front of the TV and
our movie choice selected when we realized that the weather outside was
not frightful and was actually seeing a temperature of +7c. What a
surprise since the forecast was for around the 0 mark! It’s been a long
time since we’ve had a New Year’s Eve at that temperature. We were
fortunate that we spent the evening indoors and at home. With that
choice we didn’t have to travel home after celebrating the event. We
had given a little thought to attending the free gala at the Kitchener
city hall but decided against it and figured we would be wise to stay
home for the night. Good thing we didn’t venture out after all since
the evening was a soggy one. I guess there were still a good number of
attendees at the City Sponsored event according to the local News. If
we had attended that particular event we could have had some fun
playing vintage arcade games in the lobby of the City Hall and even had
our picture taken in a replica of the Ghost Busters movie car. Not that
I’m a big fan of that particular movie but it still might have been
fun! We managed to watch a new release movie and enjoy the smorgasbord
of fine treats that Carole had prepared for the evening. We even
managed to stay up until midnight without falling asleep on the couch.
At the midnight hour we celebrated the event with noisemakers and horns
etc that Carole had saved from years past. It was our own little bash
to ring in 2019 and we had a good laugh doing so! I guess that Sidney
Australia was the first place on earth to ring in the New Year by a
show of fireworks that rivaled any other in the world. When I watched
the CTV News the following evening I got a chuckle out of one of their
news items. They showed a video of the Sidney celebrations and on the
bridge over the Sidney harbor there was a beautiful huge set of numbers
depicting the NEW year and low and behold wasn’t it put up as 2018
instead of the proper 2019 of the New Year! LOL! Hahahahaha….. I guess
someone on the celebration committee would be in deep doo doo over that
mistake! That should make the party of this year’s event one to
remember for sure! Once they discovered the mistake it was too late to
change the sign! So I guess they spent a million on fireworks to ring
in 2018 all over again! I’m sure that the same mistake won’t happen
again in the future!
It’s nice that the weather has held some warmer temps for us here in
Southern Ontario so far this season and I for one hope it stays mild
for the rest of the season. I’m hoping for a green birthday but it
likely won’t happen. We received 4cm of snow last night but they tell
us we’re in for another couple of +5 days leading into the coming
weekend. Like they always say here in the great white north, “Give it
another day and we’ll see a change in the weather again!” If we hang on
a bit changing to snow tires will pay off again! Just take a look at
the weather forecast for Newfoundland and you’ll be very happy to be
living in southern Ontario! They got two feet of snow the other day and
are in for more over the next few days. I say “No Thanks!” to that much
white stuff for sure! Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we don’t get
hit with that kind of storm around here.
Like I always say, spring can come anytime after New Years and I won’t be sorry!
That’s about all 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>
Kindness is a language, which the blind can read and the deaf can understand.
****
Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.
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