via Gadgetopia
The biggest difference was that they found a cavity that will need to be filled. Ugh. It’s not necessarily the sound of the drill I hate, but rather the vibration in my head, and the smell.
I also detest the freezing they have to use. For whatever reason the dentists have to use extra freezing to get the effect they need, so it lasts a really long time, and the unfreezing process always weirds me out.
Blech. I really hope that Sprout gets Sox’s good teeth.
Some people I know are organizing efforts to stop this fencing. Please visit
savehatleypark.com and sign the petition and get involved if you can. As of this writing work on the fence has been halted pending a review by a federal heritage agency. It is important that we stop this fence.
From the pictures on a recent canada.com article, and savehatleypark.com this fence should be abolished. When I read a fence was going to be erected, I was thinking stone fence a wood fence or maybe some other nicety. Apparently a chain link fence looks good these days.
If I wasn’t against fencing Hatley Park before, I am definitely against it now. This is truly an abomination, and I just can’t imagine what the Royal Roads committee was thinking when they gave the green light to a chain link fence (regardless of it following historical fence lines). Royal Roads is a university, and really should not be in the tourist business. The gardens on the site cannot stand the traffic of tour busses. How disruptive to schooling will it be to have tour busses driving in and out of the grounds, and large crowds flowing across the grounds?
I just wonder why Royal Roads feels it necessary to embark on this? Before taking over the grounds they should have done their research and know what would be involved in the upkeep of the gardens. The gardens that are so beautiful and rich obviously cannot be kept in good order for free. Even I know that.
Please get involved if you can.
Gorgeous sunny day for the photoclub. Too bad I was the only one there. It was awesome to get out and enjoy the day. Sun, slight breeze, camera, and some tunes (listened to my iPod for a while). After shooting for a bit, one other person showed up, and I ended up taking a small break and talked with him for a bit. Had’t seen this particular person in over a year.
The location was Lampson Street School. Picture taking went well. The challenge wasn’t the location, but the sun. Harsh direct light, creating harsh shadows, cool blue textures, and dappled light from the abundant trees. Still it was great to get out for a bit and leave home stuff behind. Get out, enjoy the sun, breathe the clean air, relax, and think creatively.
Controlling the depth of field was hard sometimes since lowering too far would create an overexposed shot. Raising the f stop to get the correct exposure would not give the shot I wanted.
In the end I am not 100% thrilled with my shots, but I am a little rusty, and I am happy with the results. My biggest hangup with shooting is remembering to examine the scene through the viewfinder, and ensure that it is what I am aiming for.
This shot is an example of that. I should have moved the camera closed to the cement pillars to remove the green background. I love the depth of field being only the first pillar. I tried having more pillars in focus, but I didn’t like the results as much. I like this shot, but for me to love it, I would have to get rid of the green.
One thing I have learned about Yoshi recently is that he is also very patient.
Early April Sox and I had some family visitors. They brought their son (let’s call him H) who is just over a year old, and is walking.
At one point during the visit H was eating some cheese. He walked up to Yoshi with the cheese, held it out, rubbed it on Yoshi’s nose, then walked away with his cheese.
Yoshi never did anything. He didn’t try to steal the cheese, he didn’t get up from his bed he was sleeping on, he didn’t even bat an eye. I was pretty impressed by this.
We are after all talking about a dog that let’s me balance treats on his nose (he will do almost anything for food).
Sure enough yesterday when I got home it was in bloom. Gorgeous. I snapped a few pictures. This morning when I got up the bloom was done. Very glad I was able to get some pictures.
Update: this is called an Apostle Plant or Neomarica gracilis. You can see from this University of Hawaii Botany page that their picture of a flower looks exactly like mine.
My offical time was 4:36. Looking at the expert times that would have put me in 22nd out of 28 (if I had been in the class). Not so good. How did I fare against the beginners? Well, 4:36 would have been a winning time of the 21 other racers. Just re-inforcing the fact that I placed myself in the right category.
I expect that a little local knowledge helped my on the trails too.
This first picture is post practice run. Lookin’ huge thanks to the armour.
This pic is post race run. Hmm, to match my bike I think I need yellow shorts. That would look awesome.
I got to the race site at 9:30. I figured just over an hour to get to the top and do my pre-run, register (another 20 minutes or so), then take another hour to get to the top of the course. Racing started at noon so this timing worked well.
When I arrived at the dump I lucked out and got a parking spot in the lot. I talked to a few others there, and found out that registration was under way. I grabbed my wallet and headed down. Plate number 56 for me today. Cost me $57 to get a membership to a club and enter the race. Good karma? I dunno.
I zipped back to the truck, got suited up, then headed up for my pre-run. I hiked to the top, zipped up my armour jacket, tossed on my jersey, got set on the starting platform, and rolled in. Instant tunnel vision. I was focused on the course very intently. For Snakes and Ladders I followed the lines I wanted, pedalling hard, but not enough to exhaust me. I flowed the dips and turns, lifting my wheel around corners, prejumping logs, sneaking pedal strokes when I could.
Coming up to Shar’s Choice I noticed a newly exposed root. That was when I made the most elemental mistake when mountain biking. I stared at that root wishing myself to miss it. I fixared on the root. I hit the root. My front tire slid out, skidded across the gravel, and down I went. I slid a bit, then impacted a tree with my shoulder. Armour to the rescue. No harm done on that crash.
I grabbed my bike, descended Shar’s Choice, then messed up the chundry section while bottoming out my fork quite harshly. Onto the fireroad I pushed like my plan laid out. I crested the hill and while coasting I recovered. On the next flat section I started pedalling again and was feeling pretty good. Down the last fireroad section I could see the turn off to shortcut. 100 metres away I hit the brakes and pedaled as I downshifted. Over the log, up the tiny incline, then down the other side.
I hit the road gap with a bit of speed. Unfortunately I was off my line. I landed with too much speed lined up with a tree. I spiked the brakes and skidded into the tree. Thankfully I slowed down enough that crash 2 didn’t hurt either. Untangling myself I hiked back up to redo that section. Second time through was much cleaner.
Shock Treatment was a blast as well. No problems there.
So, 2 crashes on my pre-run. Hmm. Must remember those on the race run eh?
I went back to the truck to swap out my camelbak for a bottle of water. No sense wearing a pack if I don’t need it. I grabbed a different set of gloves, then headed back to the bottom of the course.
The hike up for my race run was pretty slow. Didn’t want to tire myself out. I ate a Clif Bar along the way. At the top there was a lot of nervous energy. The beginner male racers were up first, and lucky Darryll was 3rd out of the gate. Next in line were the beginner females.
When they called the intermediate men, I learned I was first in line. Great. First intermediate male down the course. I ran through my checklist making sure all gear was secured properly, my bike was in the right gear, and mentally reminded myself of sections to take care on.
All too quickly I was up on the starting block. I remember 40 seconds to go. I heard 10 seconds to go. I heard 5 seconds to go and started my stop watch. 3 …. 2 … 1
I was off. I was feeling great. I had way more speed than any previous run. I was hitting lefts and rights with ease. I was shifting correctly in all the rights spots. I was “on”. Nearing the spot of my first crash I saw the root again, and reminded myself to not look at it. Down Shar’s Choice faster than every, turned into the chundry section and blasted it. I almost slid out onto the fireroad, but managed to save the bike from going down.
I quickly got back up to speed and recovered on the downhilll portion in prep for the uphill fireroad. That was killer. I have no idea what gear I was in but as I crested my legs were burning and I had slowed considerably. I sat and spun out to higher gears on the back side and when the fireroad went flat I stood and pedalled. At one point I was on a different line than previous practice runs and at the last second noticed a huge root that I was able to bunny hop in time. As I practiced so many times before I came screaming down the road and as I hit the brakes I downshifted to get myself onto Shortcut. Hitting that I made the road jump no problem (and avoided the tree), then down Shock Treatment. My only bobble of the race came on this section. I took an incorrect line that slightly cost me a little time.
The last chute to the TTA was a blast and I straight lined in. I crossed the finish line, and was very, very happy with my run. I hit all the lines I wanted, and only made one mistake. I wasn’t breathing too hard at the end so I guess I could have pushed a little more, but who knows I could have crashed. I finally stopped my watch at the 5 minute mark. I knew I had done a sub 5 minute run. Very happy with that.
My legs were starting to seize so pedalled around a bunch to flush out the lactic acid. I watched the finish line for a while and saw a couple spectacular crashes, and one amazing finish (huge jump that made the finish chute look smooooooth).
Fun, fun time. Too bad there was no food being sold there. I noticed that preliminary results were out. My run was 4:36. Woah. Very surprised I was that quick, but that made me very, very happy with my run. I could immediately see a couple other runs in the 4:15 and 4:30 range, so I am pretty sure I didn’t make top 3. It would be great if I could make top 10 though. I think that is possible. I left soon after getting my results. Now I wait anxiously to see how well I actualy placed.
Notice I said “like”. Lots of changes to the course, none of them good. The first thing I noticed was that this course had not cut out some of the loops on Snakes and Ladders that had a fair amount of uphill climbing. Suxor. That will such the life out of me if I am not careful.
Next the gulley section had been cut in favor of Shars Choice. Again, suxor. Shar’s choice is fun, but way slower, and more dangerous due to the tight trees one must negotiate at speed. A couple inches off course and blam. I’ve been known to hit trees so I will have to go slower than I would like here.
Also, much to my dismay they blocked off the Gay Terrace Drop. That is such a fun drop and allows racers to carry lots of speed into the fireroad. Instead there is a chunky, chundry section that is really slow, and has a tight left turn onto the fireroad that sheds almost all of your gained speed. Suxor.
Once on the fireroad there is a long section with enough downhill to make it fun, but enough uphill to make you feel pain.
The other big change was the lack of Skull trail. Instead we pass Skull on the fireroad, head down towards Pooh corner, then turn in to Shortcut. Tight corner, on a downhill, off camber. Again, you must lose all your speed to make the corner. Shortcut crosses the fireroad with a fun jump, then it is into Shock Treatment, along the fenceline, then down into the TTA via a tight twisty trali that I have ridden countless times. I’ll miss Skull since I love that trail and I think it was a great addition to the course.
Todays practice consisted mainly of running sections a few times to make sure that I knew the line I wanted to take. Some sections I repeated many times, others just one pass. The turn in off the fireroad to Shortcut I hit a lot.Get off course there and I will lose lots of time. I also practiced the chundry section from Shar’s Choice to the fireroad a lot.
I feel confident that I know the course, but I just hve no idea how my cardio will come into play. I am going to conserve my energy on Snakes and Ladders, push hard on the uphill fireroad sections, recover on the downhill fireroad, then push as hard as I can through Shortcut and Shock Treatment. That’s the plan anyway. 🙂
More tomorrow on how I fare.