Author: gfox (old content)

Pumpkin Passes

Today we headed out to Galey Farms to go on a hay ride and pick our pumpkins. We met up with a friend of ours and her two children. The four kids had fun on the ride, but Amy was not interested in picking out a pumpkin.

After getting our pumpkins we went and got some hot chocolate and mini donuts. After ‘lunch’ we visited the petting farm area, played on the playground and watched the train go by.

The kids started to get tired so we headed to the car. Right as we got to the car, one of the owners of the farm was walking by and asked if we had a good time. Then he asked if we had ridden the train yet. After we said no, he asked if we wanted to. He then gave us some free passes for the train! The kids were all over that. The owner is really supportive of families and wanted to make sure we had a good time. We thanked him, then went and got in line.

The kids waited patiently for our turn and when the train came back we all climbed aboard. The ride was about 15 minutes, and the kids loved it. Now thoroughly worn out we got into the car and headed home. Lots of family fun!

Park Pooping

Wednesday I had the kids at Veterans Memorial Park in Esquimalt. It was a nice sunny day and the park was full of kids and families. While my kids were playing I watched as a woman came into the park with her two dogs.

She then let them off leash. Actually, not just off leash, she took their collars off. This is already not allowed, but I figured maybe her dogs were well behaved. She then pulled out her cell and did her best to ignore her dogs. The dogs stayed on the grass, but the larger one started having a poop. She kept her back to her dog ON PURPOSE. I know since her dog was having an issue pooping and waddled in front of her. As soon as the owner saw this, she turned some more so she couldn’t see her dog. This went on for a couple minutes.

I could see she had no bags with her, and I could see by her body language that she wasn’t interested in cleaning up the mess. I started to get angry. I was going to head over and give her an earful, but I refused to do that in front of my children. I did look through my wagon to see if I had any waste bags with me and unfortunately I didn’t.

As soon as her dog was done, she headed out of the park with them.

This is a memorial park that lots of kids play in. Off leash dogs are not allowed. There is an off leash park not too far away (less than a 5 minute walk). I’ve had my kids come home with dog crap on them from people like this.

In retrospect I should have said something to her to let her know that I saw what she did, and wasn’t impressed. I regret not taking that action.

Today CFAX has a new poll related to whether it is worth $50,000 a year to supply dog waste bags. I quickly voted yes, but there is no way to provide comments. On Wednesday if there was a bag dispenser in the park I would have grabbed a bag and walked it over to her. That would have sent a clear message.

Please note that I am a dog lover and do my best to clean up after my dog. I quite often clean up after other people’s dogs, and quite often carry extra bags with me. I’ve used the bags from parks when I have run out, and I’ve used the bags to clean up messes other people have left behind. $50,00 is not a lot of money from the city’s budget specially consider what the City of Victoria spends to remove discarded couches ($125,000 in 2007). Anyone who has had to clean dog crap out of their child’s shoe will agree. Perhaps increase the dog licencing fee to help offset this cost?

Waste Chuckle

On the weekend I managed to get some yardwork done. Pruning some trees, cleaning up some leaves, mowing the grass, and weedeating. Gorgeous day for it.

By the end of it, my truck was stuffed with waste for the municipal yard. I always line the truck bed with a tarp since it makes unloading much easier.

As I pulled in to the yard there were a few other vehicles there unloading. I backed in to the pile right next to another truck whose owner was unloading some branches. I always back up so the tailgate is over the pile so that the pile doesn’t widen too much.

As I got out of the truck the guy next to me scoffed a little and said I was a little too close. I looked and figured I was just fine. In all of 30 seconds I unloaded my whole truck, packed up the tarp and was ready to leave.

The other guy was still unloading his branches by hand. I wonder if he still thought I was too close? I also wonder if he learned something? I got a good chuckle out of it though.

Uber Lengths

Tonight was swim night again. At first the lane was pretty free since there was just me and one other gentleman. Gradually more people showed up until there was 5 of us trying to use the lane.

There was one guy doing a breaststroke, one woman going very slowly, one guy going uber fast, and one guy the same speed as me. The speedy guy started shortening his lengths so he could get around everyone else. I just did my best to stay out of everyone’s way and I think I did pretty well at that.

I swam a total of 700m tonight too. A 200m sprint, another 200m sprint, then a final 300 m sprint without stopping. Some day I might want to try and learn the kick flips. Besides looking cool they sure speed up the turn around process.

On one of my last lengths there was this woman who was treading water in the length lane. As I touched the wall and started back she asked me if I could see her key. Turned out she was trying to find her locker key that had come undone from her swim suit. I could see it, but there was no way I could swim down to get it. Someone else was able to help her retrieve it though.

After my swim I took a short dip in the hot tub, the on to the shower. Thankfully I avoided any chatty dudes this time.

Ride Burgers

On Wednesday I had an Elliot and Dad day. There were a lot of things we could have done, but I gave him a couple choices. He chose to go for a ride. After dropping some yard waste off at the municipal yard, we got our gear ready, loaded the bikes in the truck and headed out to the Lochside Trail again.

The ride wasn’t as long as last time, but I definitely saw improvements in his riding. Recently I raised his training wheels and while we were out on the trail, I could see stretches where the training wheels weren’t touching the ground. I also noticed how fast he can go now. I sure enjoy riding with him, and I can’t wait to see if he enjoys mountain biking too.

After the ride we headed to Red Robin for burgers. Mmm. It was a lot of fun.


View Elliot And Me in a larger map

Some stats from the ride:
Total Distance: 2.34 km (1.5 mi)
Total Time: 20:53
Moving Time: 15:24
Average Speed: 6.71 km/h (4.2 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 9.10 km/h (5.7 mi/h)
Max Speed: 12.11 km/h (7.5 mi/h)
Min Elevation: 2 m (7 ft)
Max Elevation: 24 m (80 ft)
Elevation Gain: 58 m (192 ft)
Max Grade: 1 %
Min Grade: -4 %

Super Break

Tonight’s swim was a bit of a gong show. When I first got in the pool there was only one lane open. There was one other guy in the lane and he was fast. Super fast. I stayed out of his way as much as possible, but then a third person joined our lane. She was slower than I. Now this guy was weaving in between the both of us. Then a fourth person started doing lengths. I hit 600m and gave up at that point. Too much traffic. Too crazy.

The swimming I did do was good though. I swam 200m without stopping, a short break, and then another 200m without stopping. The rest there were a few breaks as I waited for people to be the right distance away.

The hot tub was even a gong show. Some super talkative guy started talking at me after the woman he was talking with left. I immediately saw why she left. He talked and talked and talked about all sorts of random topics without letting me get a word in edge wise. I eventually cut him off saying I had to go then walked away quickly. I just wanted to relax a bit in the warm water. Sheesh.

Mailing Macro

Last week I made a new purchase. A mailing list I was one had someone advertising a used macro lens. I’ve wanted one for a while, so I jumped on the chance. Turned out I had emailed with this person before when I was running a photo club.

I’ve had the lens about a week now and so far I like it a lot. I still need to learn more about macro photography, and to really get a feel for the lens. It also needs a good cleaning. There is something on one of the glass pieces that I am not sure if I want to try and get off myself. I may leave that cleaning to a professional.

Here are some of my first shots. I was suitably amazed by the pictures. I was also very surprised at the low shutter speed needed when close up. A tripod would have been a good idea.


Some bread.


Cutlery


The stucco on our house.


The textured walls in our house.

I’d also hear that macro lenses can make good portrait lenses. So far I would agree.


Swimmers Recover

Last week I swam 650 m. I was pretty happy with that. Throw in that I did the last 150m continuous, and maybe I am seeing some improvements. Weird thing was that as I soaked in the hot tub I bumped into a former co-worker and we chatted for a bit. Then as I left the building I bumped into someone else I know.

This week was similar to last week. I did 650m again, but this time my longest stretch of continuous swimming was 200m or 250m. The lane was pretty busy and I tried to stay out of everyone’s way as much as possible. It was odd that the slow lane I was in had two other pretty fast swimmers in it and the fast lane had a very slow swimmer in it.

The hot tub was nice and relaxing too.

The one thing that I have figured out about swimming is to relax. When breathing I often end up with water in my mouth. During my first few swims when this happened I would panic and inevitably stop swimming to recover. Now I can keep going and recover on my next breath. Sometimes I bump the wall, or the lane markers. This also used to throw me off, but now I can recover mid stroke and keep going. I must be getting better.

Year Things

Today would have been Yoshi’s 12th birthday. Lots can change in a year.

I still think about Yoshi a lot, and I still miss him a lot. Some things really remind me of him. Simple things like the way a dog shakes his/her head, the sighs a dog makes, or even the excited noises a dog makes.

Yoshi was an excitable dog. Start throwing anything for him and he perked up and was happy. Stop throwing and he would get insistent and whiny. It bugged me at the time, but I miss it now.

I am looking forward to having another dog, but I do admit life this summer has been a lot easier not having a dog. There was no need to make arrangements when going away for the weekend, more room to pack with in the car, and the ability to get up and go was nice. Still, I long for that faithful companion. Soon, soon.