Anti-inflammatory Easter

picture off the back deck of the ferry

What a weekend! Absolutely gorgeous.

As I stated last time Sue and I headed to Nanaimo Thursday night and stayed the night at my mom’s place. I always like to stop there and catch up. Even if I have to leave early the next morning, it is great to sit and talk before going to bed.

Friday morning we got on the 10:10 ferry to Powell River. After arriving at the terminal, we parked, and went for a short walk on the beach. Beautiful area. A little strange though. On the beach we saw a half buried dead sea gull, and part of a deer leg (from the lower joint down). Not sure how that got to the beach, but there it was. The crossing to Powell River, is a little over an hour, and was pretty uneventful. Once in Powell River, it was time to work. We headed out to get a load of wood for Sue’s dad. I haven’t split wood in a very long time. It took me a couple swings of the axe to get used to it again. On the way back into town, we stopped at Dairy Queen. That strawberry sundae never tasted so good! Friday night we had a wonderful Easter Dinner, and basically just relaxed after that.

Saturday I went for a bike ride that Andy had set up for me. Rob and I met at a coffee shop, then headed out for a jaunt around Wess Lake. I had brought along my Bullit instead of the Chameleon since I am most comfortable on the Bullit. That was a bit of a mistake. The trails were pretty soft from all the forest debris. Rolling resistance was very high, so when roots popped up, it was more of an effort to get the tank over them. We completed the hard climbs, and when we were on the other side of the lake Rob wanted to take me on one little side trail. We climbed up a fair distance to get to a fun descent. There were a couple nice rock faces to go down, but the real fun one was the rock drop. A nice 4 foot tall jump to a nicely sloped downhill landing. The take off was downhill sloping as well, meaning I just needed to roll up to it, and pull up to launch. Easy right? I took a few roll ups, did a side jump that wasn’t as big, then decided to go for it. As I was approaching the take off I began to realize that this was going to be a bigger jump than I realized. The ground sloped enough to make the jump at least a 5 foot drop from where I took off. Wee! Like I said, lots of fun.

After I got back to Andy and Susan’s, Susan mentioned that Yoshi had hurt himself on his walk. Poor guy had pulled a muscle or something in his right front shoulder. He couldn’t go up or down stairs very well, limped a lot, and had a hard time getting up from a laying position. He got some anti-inflammatory drugs, and soon felt better. It scared me how much he was walking around on it, and no matter how much you try, you can’t reason with a dog. I tried to tell Yoshi that just because he is feeling better doesn’t mean he is actually better, but he just didn’t seem to get it. *sigh* poor dog. After getting cleaned up from my ride I headed to a local bike shop to check it out. Woah, they had some good deals on some parts: Roach Indy FR Leg Pads for $88! Locally they are $110. Too bad they didn’t fit or I would have bought a set. On my way back to the house I could see the Snowbirds practicing over the water close to Courtenay. Very cool!

Sunday was our trip home. After breakfast we took the dogs for a quick walk to the beach, then back to the house, quickly packed and made our way to the ferry terminal. During the ferry ride, near the end, Sue and I were sitting upstairs reading, and I began thinking the fire that was on a ferry a while ago. During that fire the car deck got so hot that the tires on some vehicles popped. I was thinking about the fact that if there was a fire I would want to go down to the truck to get Yoshi. Scary thoughts. A couple minutes later the fire alarm rang. When I looked out the window, the ship was turning sharply to the right. Yikes! Then I noticed a canoe floating out in the water. The crew needed to investigate why this canoe was so far out in the water. The captain came on and explained the whole situation. A couple crew members got into one of the zodiaks, and it was lowered into the water. The zipped off to the canoe to check it out. They suspected that it had just come loose from the shore and drifted out there. The ferry took off and headed to the dock while the zodiak towed the canoe back to shore. A little bit of excitement to an otherwise boring ferry trip.

Sunday night we went for another Easter dinner at some friends.

That was my weekend, how about yours?