Ahh, loverly night last night at the Oak Bay Marina. A few of us from the photo club met there for our latest meeting. Loads of really nice boats, and pretty decent conditions too. The light was a little harsh, but at least the wind wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately for me I wasn’t feeling too inspired, so I ended up leaving early. Strange really. There were some awesome lines, and really nice reflections too.
The pics I did take are here.
This past long weekend saw myself, Sue, Yoshi, and Digger travel to Long Beach to camp with Steve, Rhae, T, and Steve’s sister Gina and her husband Stuart. We also took Digger with us for company for Yoshi. The Green Point campground has a “bare” policy (which means everything except your sleeping necessities must be kept in a vehicle when you are not in your campsite or are sleeping). As a result of this policy, we asked K if we could borrow her van for the dogs to sleep in, and she readily agreed. I admit that having it was a very big bonus for the trip, but Sue and I both agree that it is better to borrow than to own! 🙂
The weather didn’t really pan out like it was supposed to. The reports leading up to the trip indicated it would be sunny and warm (up to 26C), but really it was foggy almost the whole time, and not exactly hot. IT was interesting how each night the fog would clear away for about 3 hours or so, just enough for us to see the sunset.
Pics are here.
Sue and I headed up on Saturday, then came back on Monday. While there we walked the dogs on the beaches a few times, flew the kite a bit (including extreme kite flying with Steve), visited with everyone, and kicked back with a few drinks each night. The really nice thing about Long Beach is that although it is always quite wet there, this means that campfires are usually permitted. This weekend was no exception. Camping just isn’t the same without a campfire.
Other notables from the weekend: T is a real cutie. Naked babies wandering the beach are quite funny. Specially when they squat and pee in the middle of the blanket! :O
While sitting around the fire Sunday night, Steve decided to make some s’mores. He had been having trouble cooking all day, and this was no exception. His first attempt ended up with two wasted marshmallows. I saw him throw one away, but the other one had disappeared. Steve went about making some more that were much more successful. While he was enjoying the fruits of his labour, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something whitish moving. I glanced over, and saw a shadow dart away. I grabbed flashlight just in time to see a mouse stealing the marshmallow that Steve had dropped on the ground! Cute little guy with huge ears! That would have been one huuuge sugar rush for him though; the marshmallow was as big as his body.
Monday morning we learned that Gina had fallen ill in the night. She spent most of the night in the bathroom, and it wasn’t a good scene. Her husband took her to the hospital to get checked out, and the doctors there felt she will be just fine. Scary for a little bit, but we know she will be fine in the end.
Our last walk on the beach was after Sue and I had torn down camp, and packed the van. We drove to Wickaninish to walk them. They went nuts as soon as we let them go. They were running as fast as they could down the beach, right towards a trio of people. They were watching the dogs head straight for them, and you could see them tense up. At the last moment the dogs seperated, and split off in two directions, passing within a few feet of the people. Sue and I were worried that they were going to take them out! Later Digger beatled off into the logs, and was scampering along them. At first we thought he was looking for a place to relieve himself, but we quickly learned what he was doing as soon as he started rub his shoulder against a log. Yelling at Digger, he jumped up and stopped after a couple of good rubs over a dead seal. Yep, that wasn’t a log, but a rotting corpse instead. Dogs are disgusting. Luckily the dead seal was pretty new, and wasn’t horribly stinky. Sue took Yoshi on leash away from me and Digger, I picked an enticing stick, and took him to the surf for a quick dip. I managed to get the stick and digger together right as a wave broke a couple times. It was funny to watch his reaction to a wave breaking over his head! In the end he was a little “fishy” smelling, but not too bad.
The drive home was pretty uneventful, but the lunch at Coombs was awesome! The OCM burger at the Old Country Market is wickedly good! That was our weekend, the next one is almost upons us!
The weekend of July 24-26 was Molson Indy Vancouver, and some friends and I snagged some tickets to it. What a fun weekend. Fast cars, hotter than hot temps, and rednecks galore (from sunburns).
On Friday we got to the ferry terminal on time, and got in the line up. Once on the ferry we zipped up to the cafeteria lineup. I had one of those AHA! moments while in the lineup. Whitespot has had the BC burger on their menu for a very long time. Being from BC, I assumed that is what it stood for. My AHA! moment was when I realized that it really stands for bacon and cheese! I can’t believe I never figured that out before. On with the story. After getting off the ferry we bombed over to Marc’s place, and dropped our gear, and grabbed the beer. His apartment was a little stuffy, but we made due by opening all the windows, and spending most of the time on his deck.
Pics from the weekend are here.
Saturday morning arrived very early. Dragging ourselves out of bed we got ready, then went for breakfast at Slickety Jim’s Chat n Chew. Excellent breakfast eats with very unique names for things (french toast was hungry man honey butter). From the restaurant we walked down to the track to check things out. We saw some of the SCCBC practice and qualifying, and we watched the champ car qualifying. During the day we also wandered around the SCCBC car paddock, then went to check out science world. We never really figured out where their evolution of speed display was, but we saw a couple of the bond vehicles.
Eventually we made our way to the champ car paddock and began to walk amongst some of the most amazing racing machines I have been close to. While I was walking around, I noticed a scooter zipping towards me. Paul Tracy (the eventual winner of Molson Indy Vancouver) was piloting the machine. Cool.
At the end of the day we decided to head out for dinner to the Cactus Club, good eats, and good beer too. After going back to Marc’s place so we could shower, I noticed that the t-shirt I had worn that day was covered in salt crystals. I had been feeling a little guilty that I had drank 2 powerades throughout the day, but after I saw that, I didn’t feel bad at all. Apparently I was sweating a lot. It was pretty damn hot so I shouldn’t be too surprised.
After getting cleaned up we piled into Marc’s car again, and headed downtown to watch a movie: the Bourne Supremacy. Very fun movie. I am not so sure it was as good as the first, but I definitely enjoyed it a lot.
Sunday morning was supposed to be an early one so we could get to the track and see everything. We also wanted to watch Lance Armstrong win his 6th Tour de France. Lance won. We stayed to watch his victory. When we did leave we again headed out for breakfast, this time to a slightly different restaurant. Big pancakes were on order that morning, and they were excellent. We then drove to the race site, and were very amazed at the amount of parking there. Our spot was a block and a half from the track. Very strange, but very nice that we were so close.
We had decided that we weren’t going to use our paddock passes this day, so we attempted to sell them to a scaper. Most wouldn’t deal with them since they were saying the paddock closed an hour later. We eventually found one guy who bought them for $20. Not great, but at least it helped defray the cost of beer.
There were lots of people giving things away at the race too. Near the gate we walked in was an entry booth for a Molson giveaway. The grand prize was an all expenses paid trip for two to see Molson Indy Montreal. This included VIP passes and everything. Very cool prize. Anyway, we entered on Saturday, and although it wasn’t difficult to fill out a ballot, we wanted to go check things out before the racing started. We walked past the booth, and told one of the women manning the booth that we weren’t interested, and that we already entered. We got heckled by her as we walked away! It was funny though.
We wandered the grounds a bit, watched some of the warmup laps, then watched the Atlantic series race. Good action there.
Soon it was time to hit the beer garden! 🙂 Mmmm, beeeeer. Eeeewww, Molson Canadian for $6 a glass. Oh well, when in Rome … As we were enjoying drinking our beer, another Molson rep came around to entice us into entering their draw. Fine, since we were already sitting there, we all decided to enter again. After filling in the ballot, she came back and read them all. For some reason she really liked my name, and repeated it out loud several time commenting on how cool it was. Then she saw my answer to one of the questions and changed it. The question was for how much beer I drink on average. 🙂 weird experience.
Soon it was time for the Champ car race. During the parade lap, one guy got a little to enthusiastic when trying to get some heat into the tires, and crashed into the wall close to our seats. We got to watch the clean up, and that was kind of interesting. I felt bad for that driver though. Our seats were at corners 6 and 7. I quite liked them since we got to see the cars going at a relatively slow pace through the corners, but still got to see how each car handled the different lines. Paul Tracy dominated the race, and that was fun to see. Scary moment for him when he tagged the wall, then a few laps later went into the pits. It turned out he needed more gas, and not due to damage. He had built up enough of a lead that he never lost it while stopping for his splash and go.
As with many events I attend, I was very surprised by how many empty seats there were. Attendance was around 68,000, and for some reason I thought there would be many more grandstands than that. I guess if they can’t sell out 68,000 then why would they go through the effort of trying to fit in more grandstands?
The last event of the day was the SCCBC race. We headed over to a different grandstand for a slightly different vantage point, and were we ever glad we did. The corner was at the end of the longest straightaway, so there was lots of action. Add to that the SCCBC races 4 different classes of cars all at once, and you get instant fun. It was quite an exciting race to watch.
An interesting note for the weekend was that there was there was a dentist from Victoria racing in the Atlantic Series race, and in the SCCBC race. This was Dr. Souliotis. When I mentioned to Sue that a dentist from Victoria was racing, she jokingly asked if it was Souliotis. She didn’t believe me when I said yes. Turns out that this was her dentist!
In all it was a very fun weekend, where I ended up spending more money than I meant to. 😀
I know you have all been waiting to hear that news. Next up, Gallery!
UPDATE: my galleries have been upgraded now too! Exciting, ground breaking news!
As I mentioned last week Yoshi had to go to the vet for an XRay. At lunch time last Thursday we went in to get the results. The news could have been better, but it certainly could have been a lot worse.
He has a mild case of hip displasia. That isn’t the bad part. The XRay showed some bony growth on his spine. This is called spondylosis. This can occur near a joint that isn’t as strong as it should be. The body is attempting to make the joint more stable by making a bridge from one side of the join to another. The vet thinks that the hip displasia was brought on by Yoshi compensating due to pain in his back.
What does this all mean? Well, we must modify his exercise regime. We have to severly limit his retrieving (his absolute most favoritist game), and be careful about how long he runs. Swimming is good for him since it is no impact. He shouldn’t go on really long runs with Sue any more, but shorter ones are okay (half hour or less, and off leash is vital). It is also probably not a good idea to take him mountain biking anymore (unless it is a short ride). This make Sue and I sad since I love taking him riding, and Sue loves his company while running. Also, on long walks we need to take breaks every now and then to give him a rest.
We have also started him on supplements to help regenerate the cartilage in his joints. Glucosamine now gets sprinkled on his food every day. The first couple meals he was suspicious of the powder on his food, but now he rarely hesitates. 🙂 Also we have some anti-inflammatory meds to give him when he does over do it. We were advised to give them before heavy exercise, but on the advice of a physician (thanks Andy), we have decided to not do that. The reasoning is that pain is the bodies indication to slow down, and if we give him pain meds before exercise, he won’t slow down and will injure himself more. Someday thought he might have to go on anti-inflammatory meds on a daily basis.
We can’t reverse the damage that has been done, but we can limit the spread of it. Some time in the future we will take him back for another XRay to see how his disease has progressed. We most likely won’t do that until he starts showing more symptoms though.
One thing the vet mentioned is that she thought Yoshi hid his pain really well, which is completely opposite to Sue and I thinking he was a big wimp. Now Sue and I are really noticing every little noise he makes, and wonder if he is feeling pain or not (Yoshi makes all sorts of whines, groans, and growls on a very regular basis). I think that in time we will return to how we thought of him before, but right now this is in the foreground of our thoughts that we wonder if his idiosyncrasies are really something else.
Life will proceed at a modified pace, and I have no doubt that Yoshi will adapt. So will we. It is just sad because I am not ready for Yoshi to shows signs of aging (he is almost 6 now). I love him the way he is right now, and I am not prepared for him to change.
Last night was the most recent photo club meeting. I decided we should go to Christ Church Cathedral here in beautiful Victoria BC. It was quite warm last night while we were shooting, but it was an amazing building. The light was quite nice in spots too. At times it was pretty harsh, but using the right angle you could use the harsh light to accentuate, and give lots of contrast. I think it made for some excellent shots.
My submission to Phototime for the Shadow theme. I shot this last night. I thought it was an interesting take on shadow. A light casting a shadow seemed very fitting.
Some random catching up bits
Saturday night Sue and I went out for dinner with her mom while she was visiting. While driving there, there was a loud snapping sound that came from the drivers seat, and I felt myself sink into the seat just a little more. Strange. Time to make another appointment with Tommys. I have so many other things I would rather spend my money on.
Today I was updating my Palm calendar. I had edited a bunch of entries, some in the future, some in the past. When I least expected it, the palm desktop application crashed. I thought it needed a simple restart, but I had a few problems getting it to quit. I had to bring up the task manager and kill it that way. Unfortunately when you do that, you don’t get to keep all your changes (apparently). Crap. I had some problems trying to remember all the ones I had updated, and added.
On the lighter side of things, today was my day to go home at lunch to check in on Yoshi. On the way home I decided to take him to the park for a quick (very quick actually) walk. While there we were crossing a small field, and I saw Yoshi go running off while sniffing the air. He embedded himself into a bush so I could only see his back end. His little tail was dancing all about so I though he either smelled something good in the bush, or there was a bird or rabbit in there. I was wrong. When he backed out of the bush I saw he had found a tennis ball. He was so happy running around with that thing. Silly dog.
On the sadder side, I had to take Yoshi in to the Vet today because he had some gross eye infection. That was minor, and some drops will clear it right up. The sad part is that we learned Yoshi might have a touch of arthritis in his hip. His left hip gets kind of sore when he plays too hard, so I told the Vet about it today. She checked it out and commented that she could feel it click when she manipulated it sometimes, and that after a few manipulations she could tell he was feeling a little discomfort. She then pointed out that his left leg is slightly atrophied when compared to the right leg. Poor Yoshi. He is going to have an XRay done on Thursday so we can see what is really happening with his joint. We are crossing our fingers that it is the tissue variety, and not the joint deterioration kind. It is sad because most likely we won’t be able to play his favorite game (fetch) anymore. We hold out hope that we will be able to control it with drugs and that it won’t affect Yoshi too much. Heh, he is really going to hate Thursday morning since we won’t be able to give him breakfast (they might have to sedate him).
Lastly, tonight I stopped at McDonalds for dinner (I know it’s not good for me, but I really wanted a Big Mac). While I was waiting for my dinner some guy came in to complain. He had ordered this new Tex Mex Salad thing that was supposed to come with Sour Cream and Salsa. In McD’s style the condiments come in packets, and not on the salad. The guy got no sour cream, and what was supposed to be salsa was actually balsamic vinagrette dressing for a different type of salad. He was livid. He reamed out the manager for a long time. Her excuses were pathetic, and certainly didn’t help the mood of the irate customer. I was thoroughly entertained though. The guy wanted the corporate headquarters phone number, her name, the name of his server, and the location of that restaurant. The lady wrote them down, but the guy was insulted there wasn’t a toll free number. Another manager like person piped up that the regional manager is local to Victoria and they could give him his number. The angry customer poo pood that idea saying the regional manager had no authority, then reiterated he wanted the headquarters’ contact info. Meanwhile my order was taking a long time, and my server then realized that my Big Mac had somehow disappeared. He got the guys in the back to quickly make another one. As he was handing me my food, he slipped in a free apple pie. 🙂 The smile crept across my face. Big angry guy complaining was getting more angry, and I was getting free food.
One problem with being a fleshy creature is that we are susceptible to the cold virus. Nasty, icky, cold virii. I hate the sneaky bastards. In fact I have spent most of the last week fighting a particularly nasty one. I woke up last Tuesday feeling under the weather, and it wasn’t until the past Saturday that I was really starting to feel better. Even today as I sit here and write this, I can still feel the little nasties bouncing around inside me.
The thing I really hate about having a cold is the clouded and fuzzy thinking that inevitably affects me. That and getting the sweats really disgusts me. What can you do but rest, eat and drink lots, and gets lots of sleep?
I managed to do all of the above, and still it persisted. Luckily the past few days this cold has been exiting my body through my head. Mmmm, mucous!
This would be the reason for the lack of posting since Whistler.
What makes a person combine some metal, some rubber, and some plastic bits together into a machine? What makes people take that machine and hurtle themselves off/down a mountain? What makes this so much fun?
I am not sure but there is something about mountain biking that I will always love. Even when the sport is cruel to me.
You see, I am more than a little bummed right now. This past weekend some guys and I had planned a trip to Whistler. The trip started great, but ended up going downhill really quickly (sorry about the pun). We left on time Friday, and got to the Nanaimo ferry on time. We drove to Whistler and got there at a reasonable hour. After checking inwe watched a couple bike vids, then crashed for the night. So far so good right?
The next morning it all seemed to come apart. First Sean couldn’t find the phone number for his buddy that we were supposed to meet up with. Rain splattered the mountain on and off the whole day. We then hit the lifts a little later than planned. Then Sean had a bad mechanical with a mangled hub. The rest of us, being the bike geeks that we are, did a couple runs while he got things straightened out.
Some pics here (mostly non riding).
Then the crap started for me.
First I had a flat while riding on Schleyer. Fun trail, but I didn’t even know I had a flat until I started to ride away after a small break. Later that same run, I landed a small 1 foot pullup, it felt like my back exploded as soon as I touched down. The pain quicky subsided, but after that any time I leaned over I was in pain. Not good!
I stopped and stretched for a while, and it seemed to loosen up. After a while we finished the run, and by that point I began to feel alright. I decided to do an easy run to see how I felt. As soon as I got off the lift I knew something bad was happening. I couldn’t lean over at all, and that made riding extremely difficult. I ended up coasting down the easiest trail when I should have taken the gondola down. Damn. My day was done. Actually my weekend was done. I wasn’t in serious pain, but I was feeling enough discomfort that I couldn’t ride, and that bummed me out. I headed back to the condo to get cleaned up. I only got 3 or 4 runs in. 🙁
The guys kept riding until the lifts closed then after they got cleaned up we headed out to get some grub. The old spaghetti factory had a 30-45 minutes wait so that was out. We ended up at the Longhorn where I quite enjoyed my chicken burger.
The next day we headed down to West Van so the guys could ride Cypress while I didn’t. Along the way we came upon a long line of stand still traffic. Turned out that the Alice Lake Triathlon was happening that morning, and the ride route crossed the highway.
After meeting up with Craig I headed to HorseShoe bay and got some lunch, some coffee, and soem gasoline. After that was all done I picked up the guys, and headed to the 3 pm ferry.
My weekend really was kind of crappy, but the rest of the guys had fun. What can I say. I wished I could have ridden more. I did go to Physio on Monday too. The prognosis for my back is good. The doc seems to think that I misaligned a joint in my middle back. He did some adjustments, did some elctrotherapy stuff, and gave me some stretches and exercises to do at home. My back is feeling better now, but it is still a little tight at times.
To see the pics I did take, click here.
To top this incredibly sucky ordeal off I woke up Tuesday with a cold and have missed a couple days of work this week. Somebody put me out of my misery!