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The
Squamidian Report – Feb. 28 / 26
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#1240 ****
From Gale There has been a lot of chatter in the Squamidian lately (and rightly so) about this long, cold, snowy winter that we are experiencing. In particular, I have been frustrated with the lack of crisp, blue skies because, without the blue, all I can see are shades of white, shades of grey and dull browns. Even the houses look dull and faded. The newer subdivisions are not just greys and browns but are each and everyone identical - a drunken sailor would have no chance of finding his way home ! I remembered the street in Edinburgh where Harry Potter was "born" with the buildings painted in bright colours. And the travel ads for Newfoundland where the houses are painted in bold, primary colours. So, it got me thinking, wouldn't doing that cheer up my winter neighbourhood ? My house is pale grey, the neighbour on one side is dark grey and the other side medium gray. The other homes are mostly beiges and browns. So, if my house was, say, mauve, my neighbours turquoise, the other a sunny yellow and so on, wouldn't that cheer up the sad winter landscape ? But I am guessing that I am being a bit whimsical in my old age (sigh). Oh, but maybe I should go with pink ! Cheery enough do you think ? Gale ****
From Wayne
Hi Squids: I expect that there will be accounts in this weekly report of more terrible weather but once again, not from New Brunswick, at least, not from our part. Yes, we had quite a blow, but not much snow (hey, that rhymes!). There is about 16” of snow accumulated in protected areas making for picturesque trails leading to the sap pails that were put out last week. This one leads to the sap trees along the river:
And this one leads into the bush where we get free firewood.
I know that’s not news, but nothing is happening here! Wayne & Sylvia, Feb 26, 2026 ****
From Gary
Hi folks. On one hand winter is dragging on so slowly. On the other hand it’s the end of February already. With such a yo-yo winter we had major ice buildup along the eaves and valleys. One morning I saw water on the countertop beside the stove. No water source in that area so I looked up to see water dripping from the ceiling. We put a pot under it and had at least a liter of water by evening but another drip started from the ceiling light/ fan. Another pot required. When Max came by to pick Harley up he climbed up and poked holes in the ceiling and water gushed out. The next morning, Saturday 2 weeks ago, Max and I started chipping ice out of the valley near the 1st leak. Shortly after the lower 1/3 of the valley we clear the ceiling leaks stopped. Borrowed a snow rake and chipped out the other valley and the eaves in surrounding areas. Ceiling dried up and the valleys have completely cleared up due to bright sunshine on the exposed black roof even though temperature was well below freezing. I guess there will be a major repair in the spring. Hopefully no more issues arise. Take care and stay safe everyone.
Gary ****
From Carol
As all of you are aware, there are a number of institutions of higher learning in Waterloo Region. Just like on “the Big Bang Theory “ a number of the Phd doctors working there do very little teaching but a lot of lab work and supervision of grad students working on their own Phd. Two articles came out this past week in The Record about medical lab work happening at U of W. One article has to do with cancer research. Researchers have engineered a common bacterial capable of eating cancer tumours from the inside out. This research has been ongoing for a decade but they feel it won’t be long before this treatment can be used on real volunteer patients. If successful it means cancer tumours will someday be cured without radiation and chemotherapy. The other researchers written about are a little further away from experimenting on people but I found it encouraging. Also at the U of W different set of researchers are looking at stabilizing damaged brain proteins using weak magnetic fields and isotopes. They will start working on human brain cells in the lab, hopefully reversing damage. Why this is important to us is because damaged brain proteins lead to both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. A cure won’t come in time to help Sue but a high indicator of getting these diseases is having a close family member already stricken, as was Sue’s mom. Hopefully Doug’s son and grandchildren will not have to worry about their future because a cure is being worked on. I pray that somewhere research is being done that will stop autoimmune disease like type 1 diabetes.
Carol ****
From Doug
As we are all aware, we are supposed to check our smoke detectors yearly, replace the batteries yearly and so on. Some times we do but often that doesn’t happen on schedule because we are all busy and those pesky years do tend to fly by at a ridiculous rate of speed. The result is you start to hear an annoying sharp chirp once in a while (usually in the middle of the night) and the location of that chirp is very hard to pin point. It means that one of your detectors is trying to tell you that its battery is approaching its end of life. So, you eventually find the detector in question and replace the battery. Which I did, sort of. It turned out that years ago I had replace that detector with one that has a sealed battery with a service life of 10 years. I will have done the math at the time of replacement and discovered that the extra cost for a sealed 10-yr unit is well worth it when compared to the annual cost of the batteries that must be replaced over and over. So, when I went to replace the battery I realized that this was the sealed 10-yr detector that I had sort of forgotten about. When I pulled it down and read the info on it I was surprised to see that I had installed in in 2012, and that it was supposed to be replace in 2022. Thats 4 years ago so I guess I got 14 years out of a 10 year unit. Not too bad I guess. And yes, I replaced it with another sealed unit type, and replaced the batteries in all the other detectors while I was at it. * This has been a real up and down week. Sue was discharged from the hospital on Monday. Not because she was ‘better’ or any such thing, but because there was simply nothing they could actually do for her once they had balanced her meds. And of course balancing her meds is a temporary goal because the target is forever shifting. A hospital room is not the right place for her. There is nothing there for her to do, there are no programs or activities so boredom is the result. She shouldn’t be at home but there is no where else for her to go. The wait lists for care homes are years long and growing longer. At times she’s fine, for a 2 or 3 yr old who has no ability to think. Other times is a living hellish nightmare as she goes right off the rails. As long as her meds can keep her calm we do ok. When they don’t, we don’t. Trying to stick to a routine is important, as is familiar places and things, but that's hard to achieve when she often doesn’t recognize the inside of our house and doesn’t know who anyone is. So, that's where we are at this week.
Doug ****
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