Oscur Watur

Weee! This iz my furst post heer. Greg wasnt looking so I made me account.

Twoday wuz fun. I got to plaa with Oscur at the beech. It wuz a new beech though. Greg called it Albrt Hed. It smelld different from my beech so I mayd sure all the dawgs new I wuz there.

Oscur and I ran lotz and swam in the watur lotz. I run into the watur very fast, but Oscur wuz slow geting in. He swim good for a yung dawg.

I got cold from swimming and Greg wudnt let me swim ane mor. We ran lotz more. We had to leav and I still wantd to run. No fare! I slept well on the wey home thou.

It was reel fun!

Rainbow Debris

What a crazy day yesterday! Holy smokes. I got up early and met up with Todd and Lisa. We headed over to the Dallas Road near Ross Bay Cemetary to cheer on some friends that were in the Royal Victoria Marathon. Congratulations to Laurie and Jeanette for completing the half marathon, and big congrats to Duncan for completing the full marathon! That is awesome you guys.

Around lunch time I bundled up, grabbed some gear, got Yoshi in the truck and headed up to Nanaimo for Thanksgiving dinner number 1. It was an eventful drive on the way up. It was raining and windy the whole way, but the cooles thing was driving through the ends of a rainbow. Twice! Yep, before this one corner, the rainbow ended right on the highway, and right after the corner was another end of a rainbow. It was pretty cool!

Just south of Ladysmith there was a three car accident that had occurred just a couple minutes before I got there. The people were out of their cars and walking about, there was debris all over the highway, two cars were off the side of the road, but one car that was prety badly mangled, was resting in the left lane against the median. One person was out directing traffic, so there was a real slow down right there. I have always hated rubber neckers, and sure enough I was stuck behind a real bad one. The older guy in the buick in front of me slowed down appropriately, but then started gawking at the wreck. He started slowing down even more! I was watching what he was doing, and I couldn’t belive it. He was being pretty dangerous. I honked at him a couple times to hopefully get his eyes back on the road. Like I sai, there was debris on the road, but there was also people walking alongside the highway. He absolutely needed his eyes on the road. :grr:

After that the rest of the drive was clear sailing. Dinner with my mom and sister was excellent, and Yoshi had a good time too. My original plan was to stay the night and head back to Victoria on Monday, but I ended up coming home last night. I am happy to say that nothing stupid happened on the drive back.

Tuckered Americano

Yoshi and I went for a grand walk today. After stopping at Starbucks for a loverly Americano, we headed to Elk Lake park for a field walk. It was slighlty cool out so the Americano kept me perfectly warm. As soon as we got there Yoshi was revved up and ready to go. As soon as I opened the truck door he exploded out onto the field. We started the walk with Boomer the 11 month old Doberman Pinscher. He was a cutie, and you could definitely tell he was young. He weighed over 70 lbs though! The other dog in our small group was a greyhound. Wow, I thought Yoshi was fast, but compared to the greyhound, he seem average.

We parted out ways with the other two dogs and walked a long way. Two people and their dogs caught up to us, and we all stopped and talked for a long time as the three dogs played. Again, one was a pup, and the other was a large dog named Timber. Their respective owners were pretty nice and we swapped lots of funny dog stories.

Indestructable Circles

Krista got Yoshi a toy for his birthday. Last night was our first opportunity to use his brand spankin new Jawz ball. We have had a Chuck It for a long time, but Yoshi would destroy the tennis ball in just a few throws. He would still want to play, but throwing a no-longer-round tennis ball is difficult.

This new ball is all but indestructable, fits in the Chuck It, and floats. It is a wonder ball. Oh, and for anyone who has a dog who loves to retrieve, you simply must get a Chuck It.

Anyway, back to last night. Yoshi and I got to the field, he was all prepared for running his butt off. I started off with a short throw, and he scampered off after it. He dropped it halfway back like he normally does. I picked it up, and gave it another short throw, with the same result.

Now, by this point Yoshi was getting pretty insistent and whiney. I picked up the wonder ball, and gave it a good throw down the field (about 3/4 the length of a soccer field). Yoshi goes tearing off after it, he slides to a stop on top of it, grabs it, the spits it out and comes running back to me. That stinker left it at the other end of the field! :O

With Yoshi walking circles around me I walked down to pick it up and threw it again (not quite as long). He ran to it, picked it up, spit it out, and came back to me. :O

I couldn’t believe it. I figured that he must not think it is his ball since it would have felt a lot different than a tennis ball (what he is used to). I walked to it again, but this time I picked it up with my hand and tossed it to him (about 5 feet). He grabbed it, ran at me and dropped it. I repeated a couple times until he realized this strange rubber ball was his.

After that I was able to use the Chuck It with the Jawz and give his a really good run! He was pretty happy last night.

Frazzled Ducks

Tonight was the latest shoot of the photo club. It was rough shooting tonight. Fading light, wind, rain, and having borrowed a friends camera all added to the difficulty level.

Our shot was located at the Government House. I had never been there before. Tres cool! There are lots of neat gardens to shoot, a small waterfall, a duck pond (with some wacked out ducks), and of course the mansion itself.

The camera I was using proved rather taxing. About 5 pictures into the shoot, the battery warning started flashing. Then, I was having trouble focusing my shots properly. There were all sorts of blinky lights going off, and none of them were green. Perhaps RTFM should be my motto from now on. I was getting a bit frazzled by the end.

Anyway, it was quite fun to wander around there.

Skip to the pictures

Our next meeting is in two weeks, and I will need to figure out some other interesting place to shoot. By the time 6:45 rolled around tonight, there wasn’t enough light left to shoot easily. I will have to try and arrange an indoor venue.

Any ideas? }:)

Closest Digital Inventory

Do they get the point?

I used FuturePhoto recently, and for the first time I got the pics sent to the closest store (it is only a block away from work). This saved on shipping fees, so that is a bonus.

I get there, and wait for a couple minutes until someone finally comes out to help. I showed him the order number, and he hunts around under the counter for my order. When he finally finds it, he flops a binder down in front of me and asks me to fill out the next row. What?

They have this great piece of software that uploads your prints to their server for printing. Digital images, digital computers, digital software. All digital, yet I still had to fill out my order number, date, name, phone number, and signature.

As I was filling this out I couldn’t help but think that this guy had already handed me the pics (without requiring ID).

A) I could have filled out any old thing I wanted to.

B) Why didn’t they have some sort of digital system set up? You know a computer setup with a scanner, scan the bar code on the package, voila, confirmation done.

So, while I was in the process, I asked the guy why they needed all this info. He stammered and searched for an answer. The best he could come up with is that they needed some sort of way of tracking picked up packages so that they can update their inventory.

Hmmm, perhaps come up with a better system. Something that can’t be easily forged.

Autumn Sticks

Yesterday Sean and I zipped out to the dump for a rip. Great ride. I brought Yoshi along too and boy did he have a great time!

We started around 10:45 and finished around 1:30. It was a much needed, very mellow ride. It was a nearly perfect autumn ride. The air was crisp and cool, the traction excellent, the dust non-existent.

We ascended Skull trail, headed down inventive, up the regular way to the switchbacks. We took various breaks along the way and chatted lots. Our destination was the new boardwalk on South Ridge.

Yoshi was full of piss and vinegar the whole time. He really needed to run, and he took full advantage of it. Even while Sean and I took a break at the top of Hot Cherry, Yoshi was scurrying about playing with sticks and generally being a bit of a pain.

At times the fog dropped in on us and the temp dropped a little. I could feel teeny tiny droplets of water in the air.

Sean and I talked about how Autumn is our favorite time of year to ride. Typically the trails are in excellent shape, the air is cool enough that wearing armour won’t cause you to overheat, and there aren’t as many people out as there is in the summer. It is the perfect time of year to ride.

When we got to the boardwalk I was quite surprised by the construction of it. It was done very well. The main boardwalk is wide enough for anyone to ride comfortably. The skinny route is quite a challenge! Is it 8 inches wide, except for where there are kinks (they built up the corners). It is also high enough to make me think twice, but not high enough to hurt yourself on. I applaud the addition of traction material, but I actually found it too grippy. The metal traction made it more difficult to turn.

After the ride we stopped at Francelli’s for a coffe and quick bite to eat.

At home I hopped in the shower and cranked up the heat. It felt great!

Injured Barking Elk

Sue left today for 10 days of travelling. I am back to my bachelor roots 🙂 It is fun to do for a few days, but I miss her already. After I dropped her off at the airport Yoshi and I met up with Digger and KaptainK for a walk at Elk Lake. It was a fun walk and Yoshi ran LOTS. He has all sorts of pent up energy from his time spent nursing his injured paw. Finally he is allowed to run and run and run.

While we were out, the owner of the house we are renting had stopped by to install some doors on the fireplace. When Yoshi and I got home, before Yoshi had even stepped into the house, he knew something was up and started barking. It startled me since he doesn’t bark that often (usually when he thinks he hears a doorbell or a knock at the door). When I walked in the door I saw some tools and parts on the floor and figured that the owner had taken a break.

Me and Yoshi then went over to Krista’s to help her set up her new website. It isn’t ready yet, or I would have provided a link. We have to wait while the DNS changes get propogated, then we can finish the final setup.

Camera Fuels

Friday is here at last! I have a bunch of things I have to do this weekend, some more things I want to do, and a few things I don’t want to do.

Sue leaves on Saturday to head East to visit a friend in Montreal for a few days, then she will meet up with her sister and mom for a few days. She is gone for 10 days, and I know I am going to miss here a lot. Sue is taking my camera and I think it is going to be weird to be without it for that time period. I have grown accustomed to taking it everywhere.

Columbia Fuels is stopping by today to top up our tank. This means that Yoshi doesn’t get to spend any time outside this afternoon. Poor guy. Columbia Fuels has weird customer service.

I guess that is it for now. I just need to finish this day of work, and then the weekend can begin.

95000 Incapacitated Officers

I am done with the dentist. I was lucky and all they did was a filling (no root canal). True to my thoughts though, I hated the experience. Now I sit here with a frozen face, and I feel gross. I am not allowed to eat anything solid for a few hours, but at least it was painless (for the most part)

As an aside my regular dentist is incapacitated right now. They think it is a herniated disc. Ouch. The fill in dentist was pretty nice and I think did a good job.

In other news I passed 95000 km’s on my truck today. In celebration I booked an appointment for its next servicing.

While on my way home from my appointment, I was driving along Esquimalt Road, and when I rounded the corner with the 30 km/h zone I saw a cop car parked in the middle of the 4 lane road. The officers were standing on either side of the car but weren’t stopping anyone. Weird.

muddylaces

Spreading mud since 1975.

Author: gfox (old content)