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p tribune august 9 1995 road safety warnings heeded st it has become like clockwork every year and on every long weekend the police issue state ments about road and water safety this past weekend it seems the message on highway safety may have finally gotten through or perhaps the advance publicity on the polices gettough approach with aggressive drivers made peo ple more cautious or maybe we just got lucky unfortunately despite the good news on the highways there was tragedy on the water more people dead and injured more needless suffering for the families of the victims the july long weekend took a terrbile toll on the highways many expected the same result after this long weekend on the our view roads but it was not anywhere near as bad ironically this was the first long weekend since the photo radar pro gram was scrapped police are now making a greater effort to stop the destructive behaviour which causes such havoc on our roads here are some of the areas that must be concentrated on drinking and driving despite our best efforts people still espe cially in in the hazy glow of having an extra day off work on a long weekend feel it is a licence to drink to excess and then get behind the steering wheel aggressive driving we still take unnecessary chances by tail- gating passing too close and speeding it is our assertion that people in a hurry to get back from the cottage are among the most deadly creatures on the planet unsafe loads campers piled high with luggage boats bikes and spare tires weaving along the highway are the terror of many drivers getting behind such a load can cause accidents as people attempt to pass in high risk situa tions government cuts to road upgrades are certainly not helping the situation as this province has numerous dangerous roads many of them unfortunately in the north for the labour day weekend lets hope the warnings on water safety are heeded stouffville tribune 6244 main st stouffville ont l4a1e2 905 6402100 905 6492292 fax 905 6405477 wt5 publisher patricia pappas general managereditor andrew mair editorinchief jo ann stevenson director of advertising debra xeller retail manager mike rogerson distribution manager barry j goodyear administration vivian oneil operations manager pamela nichols questions news andrew mair editor joan ransberry julie caspersen roger belgrave reporters sjoerd witteveen steve somerville photographry retail advertising joan marshman catherine dunkeld classified doreen deacon real estate joan marshman distribution arlene maddock i the stouffvilie tribune published every wednesday and saturday it one of the melroland printing publishing and diatri- bution croup of community newspaper which include ajax pickering news advertiser auroranewmarket era ban ner barrie advance brampton guardian burlington post cilvparent collinfwood connection etobicoke guardian george town independentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week markham economist and sun milton canadian champion miasiasauga news north york mirror oakville beaver orillta today oahawawhitbyclaringlon this week northumberland news peterbor ough this week richmond hillthorn hillvaughan liberal scarborough mirror todays senior a uxbridgo tribune contents cannot be reprinted without written permission from the publisher dont chute tin a coward im a coward i scare easi ly i always have my first fraidy cat memory goes back 40 years while most old people can easily tell how they raised their fist to the heavens when hurricane hazel struck i cant courage couldnt find me on that fateful night i was hiding under the bed while the rest of the family kept the farm from blowing away i didnt come out until hazel was long gone i knew what i was doing two weeks ago when i heard the order assume whitewater position i asked what are you doing i didnt get an answer there was no- time i was being introduced to mccoys chute the first of six major rapids on the ottawa river im within spitting dis tance of my 50th birthday while the worst fear in life is to outlive your money liv ing with regret rates a close second i may be a chicken but i refuse to wake up on the other side of 50 and say i wish id done ive had whitewater raft ing on my agenda for 25 years i just never got around to it and the years slipped by when reporter bruce sta- pley told me about a local business that organizes whitewater rafting trips i knew it was now or never time since my man and i were getting ready for a two- week 5000kilometre trip on a gold wing motorcycle i suggested we kick off the vacation with a rafting weekend the man agreed the mans about to salute 55 and there are a few undone things to do whitewater rafting being one rick vendrig and his wife janet own first descent a business offering summer splash adventures ricks a 38year old teacher with a background in alpine skiing kayaking canoeing and rafting when storms hit rick doesnt hide under the bed although rick would eat the bark from the trees hes got plenty of charm he took wonderful care of us all joan and gerry had to do to was show up rick booked us into river run paddling a farmresort nestled on the banks of the ottawa river in the middle of whitewater country marg the owner loves what she does and does what she loves tis a smart way to live rick arranged a sleeping cabin and excellent meals before we embarked on the fivehour river run we were given a safety briefing before boarding the six- man sotar we put on life- jackets and helmets we were then introduced to our guide lee hes british quick witted and cute as a button if the truth was known lee eats nails rick would ride shotgun along side our raft hes a hardboader thats a kayak- er who descends the rapids first and watches for the safety of the raft yes sireewed muster the strength and the courage to fight the rapids including one named butch er knife rick didnt know i have lit tle strength and no courage to boot im not fond of knives the first rapid mccoys chute is billed as the thrill of a lifetime thats an understatement moments after we were told to assume whitewater position we hit mccoy mccoy hit back all six of us including lee were flung out of the raft since i was the only cow ard on board mccoy and his sidekick god picked on me while the others were thrown clear of harms way i landed underneath the upside down raft i took stock of the situa tion i was in the river trapped alone and afraid yet i was alive i did inven tory i had an air pocket so i could breathe i was wear ing the life jacket and a hel met and im a good swim mer but the big but is you cant swim too far with a raft on your head it was do or die time i dove down came out from under the raft only to leam that mccoy and god hadnt finished with me i came up in the middle of the rapid i was eyeball to eyeball with mccoy white water is water with a tem per mccoy was bull stomp ing mad i decided to quit i took one last breath id let mccoy and god win id forgotten two things rick and lee they were neither dead nor asleep at the switch the pair might chow down on bark and nails but theyre highly trained professionals rick and lee know about rescue they rescued me the raft was righted we rafters climbed back in one rapid down and five to go rick lee and gerry had a ninesecond meeting they decided to get rid of me i would transfer to a nearby 12man raft the larger rafts dont tip i climbed aboard the giant- sized raft and off we went i wouldnt have missed the next five rapids for all the world it was a bonafide thrill i squealed i gig gled i hooted i hollered i was a kid again as a bonus i rode the rest of the river fearless within a half hour of shore i threw caution to the wind and jumped overboard i body surfed the rest of the way it was grand i dont have to rely on my memory to relive the ride of a lifetime my rafting com plete with joan meets mccoy ordeal was video tapped if you want to see firstclass whitewater raft ing by the very best feel free to borrow the video rsi my new motto is if youre not living on the edge youre taking up too much space perils of pet pillpoppin displaying his usual impeccable sense of timing our feline companion qmoknl was struck down with a dread disease just days after granny pat arrived from across the pond i knew something was seriously amiss on tues day when he failed to tune up for the early morning chorus announcing his hunger this ritual has no i bearing on whether or not there is sustenance in his dish its more of a pavlov- ian thing its dawn there fore im fed eventually he lumbered halfheartedly up the stairs wheezing like a grampus whatever that is his fur matted and dull his eyes running his demeanor distinctly dis mal since there was the odd dollar or two still remaining on the visa card if not in the bank i whisked him without fur ther ado to the vets clutching the precious plastic in my trembling hand qmoknl it turned out was suffering from a par ticularly unpleasant and virulent respiratory disor der visions of diminishing dollar signs danced in my head the good news was he was not at deaths door and therefore didnt have to be admitted the bad nay the horren dous news was he needed antibiotics lb be adminis tered oh horrors orally it is really quite simple said the vet soothingly actually believing what he said as i will demonstrate our vet performing the miracle of popping a pill deftly into my pitiful pet made it look like a piece of cake and he added to try and cheer me up you can do it with two people one to hold him the other to slide the pill to the back of the throat in one nifty move kates corner reality bites and so did- the cat mr wallethead clutching his writhing body and your clumsy columnist futilely attempt- ing to put the pill fig ah into the clenched jaw figi b without connecting with two pawsful ofsharp and painful claws fig c on the third attempt i inserted it between his teeth where it remained for several seconds until l shifted my grip minutely and it hurtled out of his mouth and attached itself damply to my leg the next time i was sure it had been ejected again but since there was absolutely no sign of it we could only conclude that- qmoknl had against his- better judgement swal3 lowed it later that day k was giving him a friendly cuddle when there was a small but distinct sound as of a pill hitting the floor qmoknl it seemed had been wearing the pill somewhere about his long- haired torso we are now about to embark on round four of this gruelling ritua- with another 16 pills still to go and the healthier he gets the less easy he is to con into submission alas the parting wordsi of the vet will continue tol haunt me until the final pill is popped it is extremely impor1 tant to make sure he takesi all the antibiotics or hej could get sick again t i for those of you with- inquiring minds i can now tell you that the shorter oxford dictionary defines the grampus thus 1 any of various blowing spout- ing bluntnosed cetaceans of the family dclphinidae 2 a person given to puffing- and blowing