After work today Sue, Yoshi and I all went for a walk on the beach. It was great to have enough light to get out to the beach and go for a walk. Yoshi spent the entire time sprinting around through the scrub brush. He sure was pooped later that night. I love walking on the beach, and Island View is a nice place to go.

I am finally feeling better. After 4 days of being sick I am ready to get back to my normal life. This past Wednesday I woke up feeling slightly sick. I ended up going home early that day, and not going to work on Thursday or Friday. I spent this weekend indoors doing nothing. I have watched a lot of TV, played cards, worked on the computer a bit, and played a little PS2. I am getting bored of this place.

I hate being sick. I always have. Part of it that I dislike relying on others, and I really dislike havaing others dote on me while I am under the weather. I have come to at least let Sue get me things, but it has taken me a while to get this far.

On Thursday we left Victoria headed for Big White. Mike and I left with plenty of time to make the 3 pm sailing. Too bad it was full! Luckily for us BC Ferries decided to put on an unscheduled 4 pm sailing! Happy day.

Read on for the rest of the story (it is pretty long), or check out the pictures I took. I did want to take some while boarding, but never did. Digital cameras don’t do too well in cold temperatures.

Besides the ferry incident, the drive there wasn’t too bad. The worst part was between the snowshed and the toll booth. Just before the snowshed the snow began to fall. As we entered the snowshed we caught up to a rig. Nearing the end of the shed he began slowing down and moving left. As we came out of the shed we saw a rig jackknifed off to the side of the road. The rig we were behind started slowing down until he was barely moving. He was blocking the road so it was hard for me to pass. Finally he started to move over a little, so in an effort to keep my speed up, I passed him. That was when Mike and I saw his wheels spinning, and saw him start to jackknife beside us. I had slowed down so much that I didn’t think we would make it up the hill without chains. Luckily my truck pulled us through. After the toll booth the roads were clear but snow was falling. It was falling and swirling and I found it very distracting. I started to become mesmerized by the snow, and I had to shake my head a couple times to get my eyes to focus on the road instead of the snow.

All of a sudden the snow just stopped, and the roads were clear. It was like some invisible barrier. It made for clear sailing all the way to the mountain. The road up the mountain was snowy, but still had great traction. We finally got all of our stuff into the cabin around 12:30 am. After a couple beer, we headed to bed.

First day. In a word : wicked. The group we were boarding with is definitely better than me which forced me to push my limits. One trail we went to (after taking the T bar to the top of the mountain) was the cliff. The cliff was too steep for me, and I was tempted to back out. Actually I did try to back out, but Alex convinced me to give it a try. With a little coaching through the first few turns, I made it down. I even managed to link a few turns. It was certainly an ego booster for me. Without being forced down that run, I know I would have gotten discouraged by not going, and it would have ruined the rest of the day, if not the weekend. After a few runs on the Black Forest chair the group headed in for lunch.

After lunch we headed to the Gem Lake chair looking for some powdery tree runs. It was a bust, but I had an excellent run down a mogul run. For some reason I figured out how to ride the bumps. I was slow, but I didn’t stop. I felt pretty good after that run, but we ended up heading back to the other side of the mountain in search of pow.

After a couple more runs off the Black Forest chair, we then headed in for the day.

Saturday’s first run was delayed due to wind. The whole mountain, except for the plaza chair, was closed. We were a little bummed. We decided to head out and walk up so we could at least get one run in. When we got outside, we found the lifts open and running. Yay! We headed over to the Black Forest for a couple tree runs before deciding to take the T Bar up and try the cliff again. My tree runs were awesome, and I was starting to get more comfortable on steeps, and in the trees. Then the T Bar. It was pretty windy and cold on the way up, so I tucked my head down.

After quite a while I thought I should look up and see where I am at. As soon as I looked up I knew I was in trouble. I had been veering right, and was heading straight for a pole. I dug in my toe edge as much as possible to try and move left, but it was too little too late. My board hit the pole, and got tipped vertical. I jumped as quickly as I could, and got my board back down on the snow, but it wasn’t enough. The T Bar twisted and got away from me. There I was alone, on an unfamiliar mountain, in very windy conditions, kicking myself mentally for allowing this to happen. Alex came by and told me to cut across the mountain. I did my best, but I couldn’t cut over very well. The wind pushed me down the hill more than I was cutting across. Add on that the very soft wind blown snow, and I knew the only way to hook back up with the guys would be to either hike up, or head down to the Black Forest, and hope I saw them on the run sometime. I headed down out of the wind, and rode the Black Forest trees for a bit. I never did run into the group before I decided to head in. I made the traverse across the mountain, and got to the last cat track above the condo. I knew I needed to duck into the trees somewhere, but I couldn’t remember exactly where. Out of the blue, Ross came sailing by me, then ducked into the trees. From there it was an easy tree run to the condo, and the waiting beer.

Sunday was an easy day. We only rode the morning, an easy day before heading home. Still lots of fun. Big White is such a good mountain compared to Mt Washington. I can’t wait to get back (Big White not Washington).

Going home was quite a treat. The sun was out, and the roads were completely clear. There were a few interesting bits though. A cop came up behind us quite quickly at one point, I was speeding, so I moved over to the right and let him pass. He continued past me and kept going a few minutes later we rounded a corner and we saw him on the right with his lights flashing. 100 yards up the highway a pickup was on fire. Not just smoking mind you, but flames coming out from the wheel wells. The tires were already completely melted too.

Just past the snowshed, there was an accident scene involving two vehicles. Ambulances were already on the scene, so there was only a short slow up while the traffic passed.

The only other incident was the BC Ferries. We got to Tsawassen at 6:45. I was hopeful that we would make it on the 7. The guy on the booth told us we re 50/50 for the 9! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He told us that we could transfer to the 8:15 to Nanaimo if we wanted. We got in line for the ferry to Victoria, talked it over a bit, then decided to go to Nanaimo because then we were at least guaranteed to get to the Island. We moved to the new line, then went in for some food. Not 20 minutes later the PA crackled, and they announced an unscheduled 10 pm sailing to Victoria. Grrr, what to do now? I eventually decided that waiting an extra 2 hours in the terminal was better than driving for an hour and a half, so we moved lines again to wait for the 10. We got on it with no problems, and We sailed down the Pat Bay highway at 11:45. I crawled into bed at 1 am and slept a deep sleep.

I sit here barely able to contain myself. The snow is calling me. I need to buy a couple little things still, but I am plenty stoked on the trip. 3 days of boarding at Big White. It is going to feel great to get out of the city for a few days. I love the tingle of crisp cold mountain air in my lungs. I don’t want to work anymore, I want to be driving.

I have a bunch of things to do today and tonight (vacuum the truck is one cuz it is pretty dirty), but I am feeling pretty prepared. My board is waxed and tuned. My gear is half packed. The truck is nearly “winterized” (just need to load the sand bags). Yeehaw, I can’t wait to get out of here.

First a small ferry trip, then on to Abbotsford to pick up one more person, then we hit highway 5, here is hoping the road is clear all the way.

It’s a truck that’s hard to miss. Plus, you can frighten small children and suburban livestock with it. The Cadillac Escalade EXT

I have been thinking about this topic for a long time. The past year or so it has been on my mind a lot. My question is: when will it stop? The nickel and diming of society (and me in particular) is having a huge negative effect. Each pay cheque I give the government a large chunk. More gets taken off for CPP. I drive a vehicle and buy gas. Insurance rates went up, gas rates are going up. Buying anything in a store and there is at least a 7% tax if not the much higher 14.5% tax.

The government is broke and they are cutting back everywhere. The schools have no money. Healthcare has no money. The highways department has no money. The local municipalities have no money. I have no money! It is all being taken away from me in nickels and dimes by new taxes, higher taxes, or new user fees.

I want to know where all this money goes? Where does it get used? It is getting to the point where I now have to think twice about going out for dinner. That is sad, and a huge detriment to the economy. It feels like a downward spiral.

Part of my problem is actually a benefit to me. Right now I am highly motivated to get out of debt. I am putting large sums each month towards credit card debt that I have accumulated. In as little as three months I will be debt free (minus my truck and my student loans). Once I am debt free I intend to continue my thrifty ways and squirrel the money away into a high interest savings account.

Back to my rant though. The nickel and diming is getting pretty brutal. We as a society are paying more and more every day, and getting less and less to show for it. As it gets worse, I (and I assume others) have less free cash for spending (I keep myself to a strict budget). In my mind this means the economy slows down more. As the economy slows, the government and businesses need more money to stay afloat, and prices rise. Hence the downward spiral.

What is rock bottom for a society? What can we do? How do we stop this?

As an aside, I don’t believe the current government is completely to blame for this. I do believe that they are doing their best to clean up the mess that this province is in. They do need to realize that the citizens of B.C. are getting sick and tired of this though.

What a great weekend for riding. I actually managed to get two rides in. This weekend was the first time I had taken my digital camera out on the trails. I have an S30, and I love it. Now that I have taken it on the trails, I love it even more. I bought an Otter Box to keep it nice and safe in my Camelbak.

Saturday I met with Mike B, Shane, Shaun, and Mark. We went up to the Switchbacks, down Southridge, down Green Ribbon a bit, then hit Sofa King. Here are the pictures from the ride.

Sunday was a more mellow ride with Mark (a different Mark than Saturday). I took Yoshi with us and had a great XC ride. I definitely needed that. Before I left for the ride I was a little sore, and was kind of hoping that Mark would call to cancel. Sure enough Mark called. He was going to be a little late due to a flat tire he was fixing 🙂 In the end I was extremely glad that I went out on Sunday. It may have been a little nippy, but the ride was fabulous.

The only downside to the weekend was a very close call. I was almost in a very bad accident. I was driving behind a little white car, and there was a large chevy behind me, then a couple cars behind him. A ways down the road some mountain bikers pop out at the side. When the little white car gets close, one of them darts across the road, but the other one remains at the side.

This white car slammed on their brakes, and stopped in the middle of the road! I then stop as quick as I can. I looked up and the chev was barreling down on me because he hadn’t seen me stop. There was no on coming traffic, and there was a grassy patch on the right. I gunned the gas, steered to the right, and started to drop the clutch. I glanced in the rear view mirror in time to see that the chev had already started to head into the grass. I jammed on the brakes, turn left really hard, and stopped. I looked to the right and saw the chev skating around on the grass throwing mud everywhere. The driver got his truck under control and ended up on a side street. The white car in front of me took off, I followed, and the chev got back on the road behind me. I gave the cyclist that didn’t cross the road a very dirty look, so I hope he gave his friend some shit for his boneheaded maneuver.

Ever wondered what Bluetooth is all about? Well the Lan Addict has a great intro. It is pretty techy, so if you have a tech background, know about networks, and are interested in how Bluetooth works, then this link is for you.

Sunday was Todd G’s annual SuperBowl Sunday ChiliFest. This year it was extended to include wings. I arrived at Todd’s around 2, and had my pick of seats. Mmmm, loads of Chili, a huuuuge pile of wings, toss in some Nacho chips and salsa, and wash down with beer. Sounds like a great Sunday afternoon. Oh, yeah, and there was a decent game on the television too. 🙂