The world is not all the same

 I have, at times, heard people say that the world is all the same today. A city in Canada is in many ways the same as a city elsewhere in the world. I have to concede that in some cases, they are right. Modern glass buildings, whether apartment blocks or commercial districts, can often look very similar no matter where these structures have been built.

But then there are things like fences. These two fences, which I found in the eastern Ukraine using Google Street Views, are unlike anything I have ever encountered anywhere in North America. I wonder how old these fences are and whether or not this style of fencing is still be installed in the East European country. And is it common elsewhere in Europe?

Racing at Boler

 

Watching this racer Saturday at Boler Mountain made me think of two of my granddaughters. They have both been taking skiing lessons at Boler Mountain in London for a few years. The oldest is outgrowing the classes and looking for someway to extend herself. The eight week junior ski program at the local ski hill is looking more and more attractive.

$1.449/litre is $4.36 U.S. for a U.S. gal.

 

Gas is getting expensive in Canada. Although a bunch of green onions has been hit harder by inflation than gasoline. One bunch of green onions can run a careful shopper almost $2. Unbelievable. The price of gasoline is still worth a mention.

Gas is sold by the litre in Canada. Friday it was hitting nearly $1.50 per litre at some name brand stations. Although not quite as bad, it was still $1.449 at off brand gas bars. That converts to $6.59 for an imperial gallon of fuel or $5.49 for a American gallon. Why the difference? The U.S. gallon is much smaller than the traditional Canadian or Imperial gallon.

As the Canadian dollar is not worth as much as the U.S. dollar. The price drops to $4.36 per gallon when paid for in U.S. funds. Yanks think they have it tough with gas running around $2.40 a gallon in the States. Americans would be so surprised to know how much stuff costs outside the U.S.

A reverse after school pick-up

 

Usually when the parents arrive at the school at the end of the day it is to pick up the kids. This time was different, dad was dropping off something: sleds and snow saucers. There's are small hills in the park beside the school that are excellent for sledding. The slopes are long but not too long and steep enough for fun but safe play. And so dad made a drop-off instead of a pick-up. If the winter is long with lots of snow, more than one parent will be doing this reverse after school pick-up.

A very complex story with a sad ending for many

 

Champion road graders have quite a history. The first Champion road graders were horse-drawn. When it became possible to make self propelled road graders, Champion made the first ones. When hydraulics came onto the scene, Champion was the first to improve their machines with the new technology. With operations in both Canada and the United States, Champion was a solid company shipping graders all over the world to almost a hundred countries.

Then it was sold to Volvo Construction Group in 1997. Although the promise was "No jobs will be lost," the Goderich plant was closed by the end of 2009. I believe the original operations in the States have also been lost.

Then in 2014, in a move to cut costs, the Volvo Group discontinued production of motor graders as well as backhoes at its Shippensburg facility. Production of both lines was transferred to Volvo Construction Equipment’s Chinese subsidiary. The Shippensburg facility produced its first motor grader only about four years ago earlier when the motor grader line was moved to Pennsylavania from Ontario.

The end result of all the opening and closing of plants was the loss of about 1,000 jobs in four countries, Poland, the US, Brazil and Canada.

Not-for-profit, a win for the community

 

Boler Mountain is a not-for-profit that has been adding to the richness of the living-in-London experience for more than seven decades. Boler opened originally as a small ski hill with very little going for it other than location. For London area skiers, Boler was close and that was its major drawing point.

A trip to Blue Mountain near Collingwood on Georgian Bay takes a full three hours. When the day is done there is another three hour drive to be tackled before one is finally back home. A day trip to one of the ski hills near Pontiac, in Michigan, demands more than another hour behind the wheel. The distant hills may be bigger and the runs longer but the time spent on the road drains a lot of fun from the day.

Five years ago, Boler expanded its existing forty-year-old chalet and that is using the word chalet rather generously. The resort likes to brag that the new chalet has a large modern kitchen. The young skiers could care less. Steaming hot chocolate, crispy French fries plus hamburgers, cheese burgers and hot dogs keep the kids happy. 

And if one prefers bringing their own hot chocolate and brown bagging it to keep skiing cost down, Boler mountain allows that too. But, when one comes in off the hill, a serving of the traditional French Canadian ski hill standby, poutine, is awfully hard to resist. 

Poutine, for those who are unfamiliar with the term, is a serving of French fries sprinkled with fresh, cheese curds and then smothered with hot gravy. The cheese curds immediately start melting and the poutine is ready to eat. Oodles of calories but skiers can handle it.

Boler Mountain has a reputation for snowmaking

 

Ski Area Management, covering the ski resort industry in North America, has short-listed Boler Mountain for the honour of being declared to have the best snowmaking crew on the continent. Boler Mountain is up against such big names as Sugarloaf in Maine and Vail Mountain in Colorado.

Considering how little snow there is to be found on the ground surrounding the small ski hill located in the middle of a London, Ontario, suburb, the snowmaking experts at Boler have earned their place in the annual competition.

And that snow is not cheap. The little hill gets no break from the city but pays the full industrial rate for the water supplied by the City of London PUC.