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The Squamidian Report – May. 11 /19
Issue #885
Including: From Lorne From Russ The Ontarion Hi All, It snuck up on on because we weren’t paying that much attention, this early in the season. Our shrubs and plants needed watering. Here we are well into May and as yet we have not had ANY spring rain. We didn’t even have much of the late of winter rain. So, when we finally did pay attention we noticed that the blueberries were showing signs of stress, looking very dried out and wilted, as was most everything else. To that end I’ve been watering every evening and it took a few evenings before the water would even soak in but at least now the bushes are starting to look a bit better. I’m also watering the tomato plants. We planted them a week or so ago and when we dug up the area to get said area ready we noticed how dry the soil was. Once I’d dug the holes for the plants I poured water into the holes in order to saturate the soil before sticking the tomatoes in. That way the dry soil wouldn’t rob the plants of any moisture in the roots and potting soil they were in, in their pots. So, every evening until such time as we do (hopefully) get some spring rain I’ll be watering. And unless we do at some point get a lot of rain, we are in for another season of out-of-control forest fires. Thats scary in this part of the world. Speaking of watering the plants and shrubs, our rhododendrons are flowering like a son-of-a-gun. That makes the hummingbirds happy. Here’s a pic of the one at the side of the driveway.  And thats it for me for this week. doug
**** From Lorne I mentioned that a new laminate floor will be installed in the computer room replacing the old carpet that tends to roll up in places causing me to trip and fall. That means removing everything from the room including the computer and components, the wire connections, the table / cupboard containing 12 drawers full of accumulated stuff from 70 years of marriage, plus many pictures and photos. Also wills, bank records, funeral information of not only wife and parents, but grandparents on both sides. Oh, did I mention church records and insurance? Last but not least is the vast amount of sheet music accumulated over nearly 60 years of singing barbershop plus some choir stuff. The contents of the drawers had to be removed and stored some place until I get around to sorting, retaining and dumping. Now we can move the offending cupboard/table out of the room. but where the put it? It's 10 feet long. The 12 drawers plus all the contents are pilled throughout the house leaving narrow little passageways to find things like bathroom and fridge. Could any of you readers out there come to my rescue? The morel of it all is, don't do anything through life like take pictures, get married, have kids, have parents, join groups, pay bills or have a bank account. Lorne
**** From Russ Hi there. Just in case anyone is interested, I’m recovering slowly, but nicely from my exploits of late. Still can’t take a deep breath, and am coughing up light servings of lemon pudding. Which is strange, as I haven’t eaten lemon pudding in ages. Cracked/broken ribs must be left to heal on their own, as they don’t bandage them anymore, and my Doc says “pain management” is my only recourse. He also says I can take up to 8 pain pills a day – I’ve never taken more than 3 or 4 as ‘they are constipating’. He’s right there! And how does he recommend we handle that? I should drink 8 pints, or 8 500mL bottles of water daily! What am I a Camel? But I will say – if you can ‘keep it down’ it sure is a ‘predictable laxative! My 3-wheeler suffered no damage, so I’ve mounted her two times since my accident – but avoiding, like the plaque, the place where ‘she threw me’. That’s all I have to contribute this week, but always remember “It’s better to ‘throw-up’ your bed than to ‘throw-up IN your bed” Uncle Russ.
**** THE ONTARION REPORT Hello everyone! It’s been a busy week for me this week, especially this past couple of days. First I decided a couple of days ago to check the oil in the MG and found that it was for some reason looking blacker than it had a week ago when I last checked it. Oh well, I just figured that my eyesight wasn’t as good as it used to be or maybe when I last checked the oil I didn’t have the bright light on in the garage that I usually turn on when working on the engine of the MG. So I headed to Canadian Tire and picked up a new oil filter for the car. Then after checking the cost of the type of oil I like to use for the purpose I decided to head to Wal-Mart to see if it was any less costly there than at CTC. To my surprise it was about ten dollars less for a five-liter jug at Wal-Mart! Happy about that I went home and started my project. This time I turned on the light and proceeded to drive the MG up onto a set of ramps that allow me to crawl under the car to reach the oil drain plug. I managed to get down onto the floor and reach under the MG far enough to loosen and remove the drain plug. Then all I had to do was wait until all the oil had drained into my catch pan. I realized that this takes a good few minutes before all the old oil is out of the engine. At this point, I then had to get myself up off the floor unless I wanted to lay there for 20 minutes on the cold concrete. I had a sheet of cardboard between the floor and me but that was no insulation from the cold cement. I then struggled with the task of getting back up onto my feet. Wow was that a chore indeed. However I managed to do it after contorting my body into several unusual positions. Whew! After catching my breath I felt I had earned a cup of tea to help myself recover from the effort. There’s nothing like a good hot cup of tea to rejuvenate one after such a daunting procedure! After letting the oil drain for about a half hour and found it was slowed to the odd drip. I decided it was time to pour the new oil into the engine. Wait a minute I thought, before I do that, I’d better put the plug back into the drain hole on the oil pan of the car. This meant that I’d have to once again get back down onto the floor on my back to accomplish this task. Ouch, grunt and groan and back down I went onto the cardboard. Once again I reached the spot and installed the drain plug on the engine’s bottom end and made sure it was tightly installed in its place on the oil pan. Then of course I had to make my way back onto my feet once more. With much huffing and puffing I was once again upright and was then able to pour the new oil into the motor. This entire task took me about an hour and a half by the time I had done some work, taken a tea break, done more work, taken a bathroom break and finished with the pouring and checking of the proper level of the oil. I used to be able to do an entire oil change on the MG in about a half hour but not any more. I guess with a combination of getting older and the change in my physical condition and stamina it’s just going to take me longer by far than it used to take to do this and many other household jobs. Oh well, it could be worse I guess! I’ll just have to resign myself to working slower than in previous years. While I was busy in the garage, Carole was busy putting bag after bag of topsoil in the gardens out back. She likes to have the gardens refreshed each year with a couple of inches of dark soil. Once I was finished with the oil change, I went out back to see how her task was coming along. She was sitting having a tea on the patio and said she too was pooped out after emptying 16 bags of the new soil and spreading their contents throughout the gardens. We decided to call it quits for that day and finish the garden work another day. It just so happened that the weather the next day was good enough that finishing the soil spreading was on the agenda once again. I offered to do the soil spreading of the last 6 or so bags and found it to take quite a bit of effort just to do so. Nonetheless, the job is now finished! The next day we observed that the grass had grown quite a bit since the last cutting which was only about three days earlier. Oh well, someone has to do it so I decided to get out the mower and take care of that chore. I guess maybe we shouldn’t fertilize the lawn and then it wouldn’t grow so fast! LOL! Anyway, I finally had the lawn mowing finished and the grass looks fantastic for being so early in the season! The resulting good looks of the lawn is of course worth all the effort and I’ll just have to keep it up every few days for the rest of the summer. The gardens are blooming like I figured they would be by mid May and all of Carole’s effort looking after them is also paying off! Like I said last week in the Ontarion, when you own a house, you just have to do the work it takes to keep it in good shape. It’s part of home ownership for sure! *
I
mentioned last week about the Robins having moved from their usual
nesting place on a shelf on our patio to the flower box on our front
garage wall by the porch. Well, they had three lovely blue eggs in the
nest and we were looking forward to having little Robins in that nest
this year. On Thursday morning when Carole stepped onto the porch to
retrieve the mail, she checked the progress of the eggs in the nest and
found that they were all gone and the nest was in a fuzzy mess! Some
dastardly invasive bird such as a starling had invaded the nest and
taken the eggs! What a disappointment to see that such a deed had
happened! I’m sure the mother Robin was upset to have her home
ransacked like that and her soon to be babies missing! Carole was quite
upset at the thought too and decided to move the nest from the front of
the house back to it’s usual place on the patio shelf. She had only
placed the nest out back on the shelf about an hour or so when we
decided to sit on the patio to enjoy a morning tea. As Carole exited
the house to take her place at the patio table she noticed that a Robin
was perched at the nest on the shelf out back. This of course was a
delightful surprise since we weren’t sure the Robins would find their
old nesting place once Carole moved the nest. Hopefully the Robins will
still have the strength to produce more eggs this season yet and have
another few babies. With any luck, the starlings won’t find the new set
of eggs once the Robins lay them out back. Just have to keep our
fingers crossed for success this time!*
I’ve always said what a small world we live in and today I had an example of that presented to me once again.My cousin and I decided to go out to Mel’s Diner for a breakfast today. We were sitting in a booth enjoying our breakfast and just talking about whatever came to mind. We were talking about the events of yesteryear and somehow the conversation got around to people we’ve come to know over the years. I mentioned my connection with Doug’s uncle Russ. I explained how I came to know Russ and happened to mention his last name and the fact that Russ was a police officer for the city of Kitchener at one time. My cousin was interested in that fact since he was a police officer for many years as well. We chatted about that fact and his experiences as an OPP officer as compared to a city cop like Russ had been. When we stood up to leave the restaurant, the fellow that had been sitting behind my cousin in the next booth got up to leave as well. He turned to me and said “That fellow, Russ Brubacher that you mentioned is an acquaintance of mine as well!” I was surprised to hear that this fellow had been listening in on our conversation in the first place but also surprised to hear that he knows Russ! I asked how he knew Russ and he said he worked at the Bruce Power station for years and that he had come to know uncle Russ from living in the area. I asked his name and he said his name is Fred Gregory. I told him my first name is Gregory and we laughed at the coincidence! I told him that I would mention meeting him and say hello to Russ the next time we talked. SO, although we are not directly talking today Russ, here’s a hello from Fred Gregory as promised! Just goes to show you how small a world we live in doesn’t it! That’s about all I have to talk about 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>It truly is a small world isn’t it? ****
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. |