Gutsiest Pool

Ironman Canada 2003 is over and done. It was quite the experience. From forest fires to floating in the canal. From thick smoke to clear skies. From warm temps to more warm temps, this was one eventful trip.

It started on Friday with our arrival in Peachland. As we were gassing up we could see a large plume. At first we thought it was a cloud, but we realized later it wasn’t. The gas station was super busy as people were heading out of the area. It didn’t help that Penticton and Summerland were without power due to the Vasseux Lake fire that has just started that afternoon. We made it to Penticton, and to our chosen motel.

Skip to the pictures

Saturday we took in the athletes meeting, floated down the canal, played some pool, relaxed, and went to bed early.

Sunday morning arrived very early. 4:30 am we crawled out of bed, headed to Lenny’s for some grub, then off to the start line. I will let some pics tell the story for a bit.

It was an amazing experience. Watching the pure joy as some people came down the finishing chute. Seeing just how fast the pros are on the run portion after swimming and biking so far. Witnessing some of the gutsiest performances. Truly an amazing experience.

The one thing that struck me as truly miraculous was the city of Penticton itself. The race officials had to reroute the swim and the run. The run course was through the main streets of Penticton. The town quit literally was shut down from 7 am to midnight while the race was conducted. The superfans were in awe that a city would allow this since we all know that something like this could never, and would never be hosted in Victoria. Victorians complain enough when a race shuts down a couple roads for a few hours one day a year. Penticton is a wonderful town to visit, and truly a gracious host for such an event.

Interior Grief

In the end it all worked out. The IronFans treked to the interior and settled into a long day of watching some pretty inspiring performances. It was pretty smoky in Penticton on race day, and surely it affected some racers, but for the most part everyone looked great. It is remarkable how fast the pro’s are during the marathon. Good grief. How can someone run a sub 3 hour marathon after swimming over 3.75 Kms and biking over 180 Kms? Astounding. I hope to get a more complete write up a little later.

Stressed Forest

Another road trip begins. Me and a few friends will soon be on our way to Penticton to watch Ironman Canada. The past few days we have been a little stressed wondering if the forest fires in the area will force a cancellation of the race. It sounds that besides a little smoke in the air, Penticton is fairing pretty well. The Ironman Canada organizers have confirmed that the race will go ahead, and no changes are going to be made. Good news (right now anyway).

This could all change if the winds turn the wrong direction so again, :cross: your fingers for us. Hopefully I will come back with some good action shots. T minus 20 minutes until I leave home, and T minus 1 Day, 21 hours, 8 minutes until the starting gun!

Wreaking News

Gaaah! What to do, what to do? A bunch of friends and I are supposed to be heading to Penticton to wacth Ironman Canada this weekend. The forest fires in the area are wreaking some major havoc. The course may have to be rerouted, or if the fire danger increases, they may have to cancel! :jawdrop:

:cross: your fingers, watch the news sites, and just hope it all works out (for everyone in the area, not just us). The problem is, do we travel up there and hope the race goes on? Do we not risk having to be evac’d and go elsewhere for a guys weekend? Not sure since we are supposed to leave tomorrow morning. My gut says to just go up there and see what happens. Not my decision though. If we do go, you can bet I will try to take some pictures of the fires.

Incredible Threepeat

Ok, time to rant here. I picked up a half yard of very wet sand for Elizabeth’s sand box today, and while on the way to deliver it, came across a very stupid driver who deserved to have his licence revoked.

Around 5:15 tonight I was driving down Cook St, where it is still two lanes. Traffic was backed up from a light, but had started to move. Dorkwad in front of me waits for another person to turn left. The person turning left cannot go since he can’t see the other lane of traffic. I honk at Dorkwad, he glances up in his rearview, and glares at me, but starts moving. Veeeeery slowly, obviously in an effort to piss me off. Whatever. He was trying to be nice, but he was just holding up traffic, so I honked at him. Instead of holding his ground until the left turner went, he caved and became very immature by trying to piss me off.

Shortly we come to an intersection. The light goes yellow, so Dorkwad jams on his brakes instead of going through the intersection like he should have since he was so close. I see the front of his car dive from jamming on the brakes, but I but never see any tail lights, cuz THEY DON”T WORK.

Remember that sand? Well since he stopped so quickly, I hit my brakes but my truck wasn’t slowing like it normally does. I got a little scare, but luckily I stopped in time.

I sat at the light contemplating whether or not I should go tell him that his tail lights aren’t working. I can see this turning into some kind of road rage incident (him not me, I was laughing at his stupidity and immaturity), so I decided not to. Just before the light went green, I noticed a car seat in the back seat of Dorkwad’s car. Incredible. This guy is stupid and immature, yet has kids. I sincerely hope there weren’t any kids in the car today.

This guy gets Revoked for a threepeat: the stopping in rush hour traffic for someone who can’t turn, the slow starting after the honk, and the lack of tail lights. Sayonara Dorkwad.

Rhythmic Scurry

I have always been drawn to the ocean. The rhythmic pounding of the surf. The ever changing landscape. Plants and animals that look so foreign it is difficult to comprehend that they also came from Earth.

Sometimes, during the winter when it is really stormy, I will head down to the beach to revel in the power of Mother Nature. I love the feeling of the wind trying to push me around, the spray of the ocean after pounding the rocks. The howl of the wind as it begins to hurt my ears.

Skip to the pictures?

In good weather I love exploring the beach. Jumping from rock to rock, poking around in tidal pools, turning rocks over to watch the crabs scurry about, are all wonderfully relaxing to me.

For me, the west coast, specifically Long Beach in the Pacific Rim National Park, is the epitome of beach going. This past weekend Sue and I headed up there to spend some time with my Mom and sister (it happened to be my Mom’s birthday too).

In a word, the trip was awesome. We arrived around 8 on Friday evening, spent some time with my Mom and sister, then went to bed. I woke up early on Saturday, so I grabbed my camera and tripod, and headed down to the beach to do some shooting. It was misty out over the water, and the tide was on it’s way out. The waves were breaking and provided a nice backdrop of sound. I headed to a rocky outcropping in search of some subjects, and found lots!

After shooting for an hour or so I headed back and had some breaky. The four of us then headed into Tofino and wandered around the town a bit. Such a quaint little town. We hung around for a bit, then went to visit Sue’s friend Janet who was up there for the weekend doing some surfing.

After lunch, my sister and I walked out to Sunset point. It had started to rain, very very lightly. It was more like aconstantly falling mist. Very neat. There is a high perch above a point, overlooking two different bays. The waves were rolling in, and when they hit the rocks below, it sounded a lot like thunder. Awesome. I took a few pictures of waves crashing and spraying, then we headed back.

For dinner we went to the Tin Wis. It wasn’t my most favorite restaurant, but the salmon I ordered was excellent.

Sunday morning I awoke to the mist still falling, but it ended, and the sun came out. The four us were out looking for shells, taking pictures, and going for a run (only one of us ran, care to guess which one?). My sister headed back to the room, but mom, Sue and I walked along the beach, barefoot. The water was actually warm. The tide was on the way in, so it was flowing back and forth across the sun-warmed sand.

All too soon we had to pack up and head home. This was a very relaxing and fun weekend. I got to take lots of pictures, visit with my mom and sister, eat well, play games, and read.

The only scary part happened on the way home while I was deleting some pictures from my camera. One deletion was taking a lot longer than it should have. An error message appeared on the camera saying something about corrupt data! I was scared I had lost all my pictures. Turns out I hadn’t, but I guess the camera’s index to the pictures got messed up. Phew, close one!

Relaxing Buddy

Today Sue and I head to the Pacific Sands Resort on Long Beach. It should be a nice, relaxing weekend away from home.

Yoshi will be staying at his own little resort. His weekend will include much romping and playing. He is staying at the Thetis Lake Boarding Kennel. Most of the time he stays there his buddy Digger is with him, but this time he is going stag.

Today is a little hectic though. Lots of things to do before I go, and I still have to work today! I just have to keep the end goal in mind. I hope to take a bunch of pictures this weekend too.

Muddy Lunch

Mmm, I love the smell of fresh laces in the morning. On the way back to work from lunch today, I stopped at Sport Chek to check out their sale. Woohoo! New Moles for $30.

More importantly: new laces that need to get muddy!

Big Rigs University

Ouch. Last night while on a photo shoot out at Royal Roads University I got my finger pinched in a door. I was entering the Italian Gardens when it happened. I opened a door, walked through, and when I reached behind me to grab the door, it had swung shut, and my pinky was caught between the door, and the door frame. Ouch!

It was a pretty good place to shoot actually. Beautiful grounds, interesting buildings, wildlife, and to top it off, big rigs and pretty women. There were some professionals there doing a shoot of some new rigs. Not sure why they came all the way here (there were California license plates), but they did choose a nice setting. It was kind of interesting watching the professionals work though. Huge white screens to bounce light, the truck freshly waxed, the ground wet to look nice, the lady dressed in a shimmery dresss, and tons of helpers. People placing the hair on the model, people adjusting lights, people just standing and watching. Very cool.

My shoot went pretty well, but I struggled with the lighting. Everything was a bit cool and dark, and my camera seemed to want to lighten everything too much. Maybe I had the wrong settings. I need to consult the manual. I should have the pictures up tomorrow though.

Unholy Lesson

Let me try on your hand and see if it fits
Don’t worry I won’t touch anything unholy with it
Let it be known today, if you got two hands
You’re supposed to pray

from Hand of God by Soundgarden

That’ll teach me to take care of my own backups. Sheesh. Thankfully my webhost had a pretty recent backup of a few key directories, and in the end I didn’t lose anything I couldn’t recreate myself. Lesson learned. All should be back to normal. Yay!

muddylaces

Spreading mud since 1975.