Author: gfox (old content)

Breezy Film

can't keep me here

Willows beach was my photo clubs latest shoot. It was a crisp cool breezy fall day, but the sun was out. There were kids and parents all over the place, and lots of people walking dogs too! Perfect picture taking environment.

I had both my cameras Saturday, but most of my shooting was done on my Yashica.

After everyone met up, we ended up walking towards the Oak Bay marina. This was a direction I had never headed while at Willows, so it was very interesting. I found lots of neat things to shoot, and now I must get some film developed, something I haven’t done in over a year I think.

Here are my digital pics.

Pedestrian Creaming

coulda been pushin up daisies

Today on my way back to the office, I very closely avoided a horrific accident. I was sitting at the traffic lights on the corner of Oak and Cloverdale. I was facing north, but the cross traffic had the green, so I was sitting at the stop line. On Cloverdale, waiting to turn South onto Oak St, was a large truck with a big trailer.

My light went green, and I scanned the intersection. Noone was trying to beat the yellow so I started to go. On my side of the road, heading south a pedestrian started crossing the road.

As I started to pass the truck with the big trailer, I see the streak of a new silver bug come flying towards the intersection. I see her narrowly miss the pedestrian, and then proceeded into the intersection AGAINST THE RED! I slammed on the brakes as hard as I could, hit the horn (which only beeped a little), and avoided creaming the bug. I looked up and sure enough the chick in the bug had a red. She plowed through a full red (and it had been red for quite a long time), missed a pedestrian, and missed me.

Luckily for bug lady my oncoming traffic that was turning left hadn’t pulled out into the intersection.

It was a very close call for many parties. The scary part is I don’t think bug lady knew what she did. She gets her licence revoked!

Empty Stench

slimyness

A couple days ago the kitchen sink started draining really, really slowly. Then when the dishwasher was running, and the empty cycle was going on, the disgusting water was backflowing into the sinks. It was just nasty, nasty.

Yesterday our landlord came over to see if he could fix the problem. Between the two of us, with him doing most of the work, we got everything unclogged and emptying smoothly again. It was pretty disgusting seeing the crud and gunk that settles into the pipes over time. We could definitely tell when we cleared the clog too. The stench of sewer wafted through the crawl space. :yuck:

Today we are getting the chimneys cleaned. This will be a much cleaner job since we have hired people to do it. 🙂

Samosa Firecrackers

tidbits

Tidbits from the first half of the week.

Somehow I lost my favorite MEC vest. I am so ticked off! :grr:

Yesterday was my latest blood donation. It was insanely busy there. Turned out that the Sikh Community had chosen yesterday for a large turnout. They had a tent setup outside with warm food for donors. After I donated I was offered a samosa. I turned it down in favor of cookies and juice.

Since a week before Halloween Yoshi has been afraid to go into the backyard while it is dark. We think it must have something to do with him getting scared from firecrackers. We used to have to take him out into the front yard and wait while he pees, but last night was the first night he ventures back out into the dark yard. 🙂

I had a good scare at work today. I plugged my Visor in to sync it, but as soon as I plugged it in, my computer reset itself (that happens every once in a while). Everything seemed fine at startup, but when I started Eudora, it complained that two folders were missing. These were container folders that housed mailboxes. Specifically the one housing my work and project related email was missing. I didn’t know what the other one was. After a couple frantic moments, I discovered that they had reappeared. A restart of Eudora and everything was hunky dorey. Scarey for a few moments though.

Lethargic Technique

almost airborn
Sunday morning arrived too early. I didn’t get to bed until some time after 2am, so when my 8am alarm went off, I wasn’t at my best. My goal was to pick up Mike at quarter to nine, then head to Duncan to ride on Tzuhalem.

After eating some toast, drinking some coffee, and getting changes, I was already running late. Shortening the story a lot, I picked up Mike, we zipped up to Duncan, and discovered that James was running late.

When everyone finally showed up and was fully geared up, we started the long march to the top. Tzuhalem has lots of climbing followed by lots of really fast, fun, swoopy downhill, punctuated by a smattering of stunts along the way.

It was a hard ride for me. I was a little hung over, which for me means I was very lethargic. By the time we got to the top I was wiped. I really wanted to ride some of the stunts on Sunday, but I was just too out of it to do it safely. Plus, I wasn’t a big fan of the construction technique used on the stunts. The rung on the ladders were very angular pieces of wood that were set quite far apart. This made traction (in my mind) spotty. Mentally I wasn’t on my game, and I didn’t want to push myself too much, so I took it easy and tried to have fun.

In the end it was a great ride. I was thoroughly exhausted by the time we got back to the vehicles, but I was glad I got out. The whole ride had a wonderful chill in the air. I love fall riding!

Organized Retrieving

almost edible almost edible

Halloween was lots of fun last night. Sue and I had some guests over for dinner and a movie. Before the movie started, we all wandered down the block to check out the fireworks. Some people from the block had organized everything so that everyone with fireworks was welcome to bring them down to get shot off. They also had hot dogs, hot chocolate, and coffee. Very fun! Read more for my shots from last night.

Today Yoshi and I ventured out to Elk Lake. That is where I took the above two shots. We started with a half hour warm up walk, then followed that by a round of retrieving the ball. Great fun for him. Darn chilly for me! 🙁

Tonight we are off to a friends 30th birthday party. Tomorrow I am riding in Duncan, then attempting to do some yard work (weather dependant).Talk about a busy weekend!

sparkler fun
sparkler fun

sparkler fun
sparkler fun
fireworks fun
fireworks fun

Flesh Candles

oooooOOOoOOOoooOH
Last night was the annual pumpking carving session. Loads of fun! We had all sorts of Halloweeny treats, and about 10 adults and 6 helpers all gathered to carve some wonderful creations from the flesh of pumpkins.

Once everyone was done carving we set them up on the front porch and had the ritual viewing/photo session. The wind was pretty blustery and some of the candles had a hard time staying lit. I had lots of fun trying to take quality shots. I think I did better with these creations, than I did with the Government House ones.

View the pics.

Dropped Chance

happy day!

I dropped my new camera off there yesterday and got them to check it all out. I just talked to Victoria Camera Service, and it was all good news. Everything checks out on it, and the only thing they recommended was to replace the light seals, so I told them to go ahead. They are a bit backed up, but the guy said a couple weeks. No problem 😛 I am just happy that there is nothing wrong with the camera. I took a chance on it, and I was a little worried, but not I am just stoked to get it back and start using it.

I wanted a professional to check it out, so that when I start using it, if the shots turn out crappy, I can blame me, and not the camera!