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Wednesday, August 9, 2000 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER A7 COMMENT Roughing it is tine, but never compromise yourpalate I n the classic sun worshipper's stance - face up to the sun, legs dangling over the side of the front deck, cold drink near at hand - they sit, soaking up the rays. While cyclists and roller bladers zip by on the winding shoreline road, the three sun worshipper's perched on the front deck of their cottage don't move a muscle. This is a summer of taking the sun shine when and where you can. For these three sun wor shipper's, out in the late after noon sun, it's a time to kick back and enjoy. Everyone, I suppose, has their favourite time at the cottage, be it an early morning walk with the dog along the beach or watching the sun set as you take a last dip in the lake. For us, it's that hour or so before dinner when everything and everyone is winding down. The kids grab their rafts for a last paddle out near the rocks jutting out of the low water levels, a boon if you like to hop rocks. The dog wriggles happily on my towel and begins to snooze. We are content to do little more than watch the kids lazily from the shoreline and toss the odd stone into the waves. Oh, we might get around to wondering just when to light the barbecue,but that's about it. We might even get up and walk for awhile along the stony beach, keeping an eye for the odd rock spiders that can scuttle out of even the tiniest stone. We'll wave the kids in and saunter up a small grassy embankment to our temporary home for a month or so, a home that offers a spectacular view of the lake from almost every corner. It also has the most odd assortment of stuff we've seen: the mounds of old books from "Investment Terms and Definitions" to "The technique to mak ing films". There's a quirky type of grater that only grates garlic and not cheese; a few windows that don't open (just to make us feel at home); and an old ouiji board that makes the kids howl when they try to conjure up spirits in the pitch black night. We know little about the owners; last minute tenants such as we were didn't have much choice when we scrambled to find a place in a little over a week. But we feel lucky to here, on this scenic shoreline road just south of Southampton. It has all the usual things you like at a cottage: the beach for the requisite marshmallow roast, a bathroom door that has a rock to keep it open, dresser drawers that stick when you pull them out, old lamps and handmade quilts. It has everything we wanted and more. If only, we plead, they had a decent coffee maker. Believe it or not, this is how we make our coffee every morning. My spouse, off to work up here, boils water in the kettle and I toss in about a mil lion scoops of bad coffee grounds into a metal percolator. Then we both hold the antiquated thing and hope for the best as the water trickles through and begins to drip. In a few minutes, you get black stuff that makes espresso look mild. The coffee is, to say the least, vile. I know, I know. This is, after all, the cottage. So what is there to complain about, really? I have no problem washing the dish es and fighting for a dryer at the laun dromat. The view is worth even elbow ing people out of the way for the best Maytag in the place. But coffee that tastes like mud? Please. Even on holidays, it's a bit too much to ask. So I have invented excuses to ped dle into town and shuffle up to the cap puccino bar and inhale some decent coffee. It's pathetic, I know, but what the heck. A friend of ours used to say on canoe trips that he wasn't about to com promise his palate just because he was roughing it. That's what I say up here. By all means, schlep the laundry into town by bike; and then hang it up on a piece of rope strung between the trees. But never compromise your palate. And if the homemade pizza sticks to the pan, eat and be merry. Then sit on the shore and watch the sun set. It takes any old irritation and just tosses it away. I promise. ROYAL BANK FESTIVAL OF CLASSICS In as s o c ia tk m w ith TH E O A K V IL L E C EN TR E FOR THE P E R F O R M IN G ARTS p n ts n a ls T here's nothing more invigorating than a middle-of-the-night dash up north to cottage country. You gas up and pack the car the WILLIAM night before. You go to bed early with THOM AS the last minute list sitting on the kitchen All The World's A counter reminding you to: add ice to the Circus cooler, place coffee and muffins on the dashboard, shut all windows in the cables by going through the backseat house, make sure dog does his busi from the inside of the car and you know ness, make sure you do your business, this had to happen ... I step in Jake's put water dish on backseat floor. water dish. Once on the road you stop only at Now we're a half an hour behind the gunpoint of an O.P.P. officer who schedule but ready to leave, as soon as shows you his badge as he is speeding I get my hands on Jake, who just bolted along beside you. around the side of the house, probably As I've mentioned before, guys do chasing a squirrel. not stop on car trips. We'd rather risk Now here he comes wet and breath kidney failure than lose ten minutes of ing hard with his ears and tail pointing travel time. Because when you get down and YEOWWW!!! I guess in the there you want to be able to say to the dark a squirrel could look a little like a first guy you meet: skunk. "Five hours! Waddijahave a flat? I Jake had been drenched from head made it in four hours and had to drive to haunches by nature's little can of around several stalled cars with fami mace. lies who were stranded and waving So instead of clearing the Burlington white hankies at me!" Skyway at this point of the trip, I am on So it's four o'clock on Friday morn my knees beside the bathtub with a ing and if everything comes off just wooden brush giving Jake repeated right, we can get past Toronto before it washes and rinses with warm water, becomes a parking lot. shampoo and - who keeps cans of Cooler's filled, coffee's hot, every tomato juice on hand for just such thing's off and shut tightly and my emergencies? - Extra Spicy Mott's trusty companion Monica even shows Clamato Juice. If it bums a little, I think up on time which both pleases me, and to myself, it's a bonus. makes me a little suspicious. As the grayness of dawn begins As I put Jake's water dish in the to replace the black of night, I now back I notice the side door is ajar. have a dog that can't travel, a car I can't Which means the interior light was on turn off and a big bottle of vodka in the all night. Which means Monica has to kitchen cupboard that just lost any help me push the car down the drive chance of ever becoming a caesar. Plus way and out to the road, where she can I have a soaker. Did I mention I love manoeuver her car into a position, these family forays up north in the mid where her battery is on the same side as dle of the night? my battery, like nobody in a hundred With a bathroom strewn with towels years of designing automobiles ever thought to put the battery in the middle or make the jumper cables longer. With the hatch back completely packed, I have to retrieve the jumper I'll have to bum when I return, we set off with a guilt-ridden, stinking dog in the backseat, two edgy adults in the front, and a car that's now overheating and running low on gas and I think to myself, if only I had overslept, none of this would of happened. So we stop for hot coffee at Tim Horton's, we average minus twenty kilometres per hour getting through Toronto, stop again for fruit in Newmarket, gas up in Kleinburg, buy more and harder liquor in Barrie, and we arrive at our original destination, the town of Haliburton, the following Friday. And the dog still stinks. But the neat part is we drove all the way with the air conditioner on to keep cool and the windows down to get rid of the smell. And the dog is as happy as a clam. It doesn't seem to matter to him that he smells like a bad one. Actually we arrive by one o'clock and once settled into our Willow Beach Cottage on Lake Kashagawigamog, the one that allows dogs, the first order of business is to tell a lie to the owner. "As a matter of fact, Don, I did have a flat." (Sometimes it's just easier that way.) The second order of business is a long walk along the trails near the golf course, a walk that is calmer than usual because all the critters Jake would nor mally chase and tree have smelled him coming from a long way off, and en masse, they've relocated to Gravenhurst. The ducks next to the cottage weren't so wise. And the screen door never stood a chance. So my trip to the cottage is a series of small dog disasters, just enough to keep me on my toes. Relaxation? Yeah, that's for when I get home. H U G H ADD flB Q U T N O T H IN G SHAKESPEARE'S roimmtic comedy directed by M IC H A E L SH AM A TA M ONDAY to SATURDAY at 8:00 pm CORONATION PARK O ak v ille Tickets $15 · General Admission (905)815-2021 ROYAL B A N K F IN A N C IA L G R O U P ' JU LY 19th to AUG UST 12th 2 0 0 0 P U B L IC N O T IC E H A L T O N R E G IO N P L A N N IN G A N D P U B L IC W O R K S DEPARTM ENT W astewater Pipeline Construction Across Regional Road 25 Construction o f the wastewater pipeline for the Halton "B ig Pipe" Project w ill take place across Regional Road 2 5, north o f Dundas Street, as noted below: P ipeline C rossing: Start: W ednesday A u gu st 9th @ 9 :0 0 p.m . End: T hursday A u gu st 10th @ 6 :0 0 a.m . be an of of Lane restrictions will be in effect during this period and delays can expected. Motorists are advised to avoid this area if possible by using alternate north/south route between the QEW and Britannia Road (west Regional Road 25 use Appleby Line). In the event o f rain, construction the Regional Road 25 crossing may be delayed. Questions related to this work can be directed to: C onstruction Supervisor: T elephone: R ob D 'O razio D 'O razio In frastru cture G roup (905) 693-0514 Q f O A K V IL L E 8 4 5 -6 6 0 1 L a u g h te r, th e B e s t M e d ic in e 1 8 As a recent immigrant, my fatherin-law took English-as-a-sccondlanguage courses. A few months after he began, he caught a cold. I got him some medication, and he, as was his habit with every item that had writing on it, read the label. That evening my cousin's toddlers arrived at our house, and, unlike his usual self, Dad kept saying to them: "Keep away. I just had my medication." Later I asked him why he had told the children to stay away from him. He explained that the medication label had cautioned, "Keep away from children." -- Harjeet Hunjan 1. NOTICE OF SURPLUS AND SALE BLOCK `B', PLAN M-17 BEING PARTS 1,2 AND 3, PLAN 20R-13686 TAKE NOTICE THAT: The Council for the Corporation of the Town of Oakville at its meeting of August 2, 2000, declared certain lands surplus. These lands are described as follows: Block `B', Plan M-17, being Parts 1, 2 and 3, Plan 20R-13686, Elmwood Road, Town of Oakville, Regional Municipality of Halton. 2. 3. This notice is in compliance with the Town's By-law 1995-71. A copy of a plan showing the lands to be sold is available for inspection at the office o f the Manager, Realty Services at the address shown below, by appointment by calling 845-6601, extension 3022 during normal business hours (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.). www.region.halton.on.ca Maynard Millman, AACI, P.App., Manager, Realty Services, Legal Department, The Corporation of the Town of Oakville 1225 Trafalgar Road, Oakville, Ontario L6J 5A6 THE CORPORATION OF THE TOWN OF OAKVILLE IVDigest. _____ www.rcadersdigest.ca ohwiiav < mDeader^ TENDER FOR: TENDER NUMBER: ONE (1) NEW, 4-WHEEL DRIVE, ARTICULATING BUCKET LOADER /TOOL CARRIER T-17-2000 AWNINGS S um Is H m er e r e SEALED TENDERS on forms provided will be received by the Town Clerk, 1225 Trafalgar Road, Oakville, Ontario, L6J 5A6 until 2:00 p.m., local time on TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2000 Specifications, tender forms and tender envelopes may be obtained from the Town of Oakville Purchasing Department, 1225 Trafalgar Road, Oakville, Ontario L6J 5A6; Telephone 905-338-4197. Tenders will be opened publicly at a meeting of the Tender Opening Committee at the Oakville Municipal Building, 1225 Trafalgar Road, Oakville, Ontario on Tuesday, September 12, 2000 at 2:30 p.m. local time. The Town of Oakville reserves the right to reject any or all tenders and the highest or lowest as the case may be will not necessarily be accepted. !! Enjoy the outdoors under th e com fort of a fabric retractable aw ning. W e offer a diverse line of styles an d fabrics to suit your h o m e decor. Call or visit our showroom for a free estimate! A FAMILY BUSINESS SINCE 1966 R.J. Coumoyer, C.I.M., P.Mgr. Director, Purchasing and Office Services Tender advertising may be viewed on the O.P.B.A. website, http://www.vaxxine. com/opba JA N S 4187 Upper Middle Rd. Burlington Aluminum Products (905) 335-3733 1225 TRAFALGAR ROAD · OAKVILLE, ONTARIO · L6) 5A6