Tag: Life

Meandering Obstacles

I got out for a ride today that was just fantastic. It was raining, which I wasn’t looking forward to, but it was still somewhat warm. My friend and I took a meandering route through the park that had a few technical challenges, but was still a good for cardio. I may not have been out for a while, but my body still remembered how to ride.

I suppose my playing Ulti this summer helped me a lot. When you aren’t concentrating on how hard you are breathing, you can concentrate on the trail. My legs felt plenty powerful so I could still power over small obstacles and rocks.

It felt great to be on the trails, and to catch up with my friend. Socializing has always been a big part of my riding and today was no exception. We didn’t run into too many people due to the weather which was neat since it felt like we owned the trails.

I was wearing a jacket to keep warm, but that always traps my body heat soaking me through. I was still working up a good sweat and every time I looked down water was streaming off my helmet, down my face, and off my nose. A few times my eyes were stinging with sweat. My hands were feeling particularly wet, and I was able to clench a fist and see water streaming to the ground.

Wet rides will always be special to me. Some of my best and favorite rides are in the wet.

Arriving home I unloaded my gear, grabbed a quick shower, then had lunch with the family. What a great Sunday morning.

Overweight Popped

Thursday morning before workI took Yoshi for a walk at Macaulay Point. As we rounded a corner, I could see two other people walking dogs, one coming toward me, the other away.

The one walking away had a rather rotund mix breed that seemed interested in the other dogs. The owner was screaming at his dog to come (it was about 4 feet away). The lady walking toward me muttered something about maybe the dog would follow if it weren’t so overweight.

As I got passed the lady, the man was still yelling at his dog. I couldn’t help but think that if I was the dog I wouldn’t want to come to him either. The man backtracked and put the leash on the dog. As Yoshi and I got close the dog put on the brakes wanting to see Yoshi. The man tried to keep walking, clearly exasperated at his dog. As he tried to drag his dog, the collar popped over the dogs head.

I stopped and waited for the man to retrieve his dog. I actually crouched down and the dog came up to say hi. The owner never said a word to me even when I said Hi to him. With the dog on leash, Yoshi and I continued on our way, happy to be past that miserable man.

Backup Expires

I bought a Western Digital My Book from Costco a while ago. We originally bought the 500 GB version, but before opening it, I returned it and upgraded to the 1TB version.

Today I finally got around to unboxing it. The packaging was very easy to open and everything inside was neat and tidy. I plugged in the drive, and when it powered up, it asked if I wanted to install the software. I said yes, after unchecking the crapware that it would have installed by default.

The backup software installed without a hitch.

The first hitch occurred when I ran the backup software. It was trial ware, and I could buy it now, or try it out for 30 days. Uh, 30 days? That seems like an odd trial period for back up software. I plan to backup once a month. That means I get to try their software once, maybe twice, before it expires.

I’ve been looking at open source versions of backup software, so I think I will try them out next time.

Dark Plot

Sox and I got out to see the Dark Knight. We enjoyed it, but both felt it was too long. I thought there was a great place to end the movie, before Harvey Dent became Two Face. The effects were good, but some of the gadgets a little too over the top.

One of the reasons I liked the Batman Begins was that the gadgets weren’t too over the top, and they were generally introduced well. This time they were glitzy gadgets made to fit the plot.

Heath Ledger was an amazing Joker. He made the movie. Without that character he created it would have been pretty dull.

This was also a fun time out for Sox and I, and it would have been better if the family behind us hadn’t brought their kids (ages approx 4 and 6). The 8pm showing of this movie is not for kids. They were tired and at one point the daughter said “I want to go home”. They stayed and the parents seemed mad at the kids. This made me angry. The kids were taken out to the lobby and the parents took turns watching the movie. Not the right move if you ask me.

Destruction Drivers

I was out at Western Speedway’s Eve of Destruction this past Saturday night. The event writeup read like this:

DEMO CARS “EVE OF DESTRUCTION”, CRAZY CANUCK CAR JUMP, DEMO TRUCKS, MINI FIGURE 8’s, MINI VANS, BUS JUMP, TOTAL DESTRUCTION DERBY and FIREWORKS

Basically a hit to pass night on steroids. Man was it a hoot! The demo cars and trucks were awesome and loud! Lots of tight racing action and lots of good spinouts. The mini figure 8 drivers are still crazy, but intensely entertaining. The minivan class is just getting going and they really need more vans out there. The small group they had were good though. Hit to pass, with a ridiculously bad turning radius meant the drivers were trying everything to get their vehicles sideways around the corner. So many times the vans were up on three wheels.

They played a trick on the crowd and made us believe this van was owned by someone. They picked it up, drove it down the front stretch, lifted it up high in the air and dropped it!

The Crazy Canuck did his car jump, and I was too busy watching to get a good movie. I forgot to start recording! Doh! I got something though.

Then it was time for the bus jump. They drove a bus off a jump into the cars. The first attempt (got a good movie this time), was hilariously unimpressive. He tried to drive it away and got it really stuck. They brought in the big loader, pulled him off, and he drove the bus back for another shot. The second jump was much more impressive and had the crowd on their feet cheering for a long time. Same problem where I forgot to start recording.

The final race of the night was the boat race. All the cars, trucks and vans had a boat chained to their vehicle. When the light went green they took off. At the end of a predetermined time, the driver with the most boat left attached won. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. There was so much chaos and destruction. Before the first turn several boats had been ripped from their chains. Next time around they gunned for the boats.

One driver ended up with his chain wrapped around his wheel. As he drove the chain shortened until he stripped his own boat off. McFly 33 below was the winner by a long shot. He dragged the shell around for a long time and kept slowing down so people could hit the boat. One car got lodged in the boat and dragged a little ways. Another truck took a good run at the boat and ended up launching into the air.

The fireworks show ended the night. I was prepared for something a little lame, but they put on an excellent show that was quite impressive.

All in all a most entertaining evening, and all for $18. Can’t beat that.

Police Command

After the Salt Spring Island day trip we decided we needed a few days at home to rest. It was a busy week. Sox had heard about the Victoria Police’s 150th birthday celebration at the Empress. After asking Sprout, he was in, so we headed down to check it out. There were demonstrations, a marching band, dog demo’s, firetrucks, emergency vehicles, bicycles, motorcycles, and more

Sprout enjoyed pretty much everything and wanted to see it all. We caught one of the dog demos and a funny thing happened. There was someone in the crowd that brought their big German Shepherd to watch. The spectating dog was barking and causing a bit of a scene. The police dog got distracted and actually started running toward the spectators barking. A quick sharp command from the handler brought the dog under control, but I was a little shocked. First, why bring your own dog to such an event? Second, I thought police dogs were trained to not get distracted?

The motorcycle drill team did their performance, and it was pretty amazing. One of my favorite moves was their figure 8. They kept making it tighter and tighter until they were within inches of one another. My other favorite was when one rider came flying at the group and each pair in the group had to deak out of the way. Very cool.

It was a pretty fun event. More pics are here.