Wondering how Yoshi is doing? He is actually doing quite well. Monday evening after we brought him home from the vet he was not a happy camper. Still on drugs he was very mopey, not very interested in food (yet still ate), and was very quiet. Today he is a nutcase. Well, maybe nutcase is the wrong word, but he is crazy with pent up energy. We have been walking Yoshi 3 times a day for various lengths, and he still wants more. The problem is that he is required to be on leash still. Aaargh.

Wednesday I had a small emergency with him though. I noticed there was some blood on one of his beds. This was caused by one of his incisions bleeding a little. In a hurry I bundled him into the truck and zipped over to the vet to make sure he was fine. He was of course. This was a normal course of action that we hadn’t realized would be normal.

He eats more slowly now. Not sure why, but he takes FOREVER to eat. Yoshi has to wear a cone for another week still, so we have to watch him eat, and cone him when he is done. He was slow before, but seems way slower now. I watched him chew one mouthful of kibble 8 times before swallowing! WTF. What kind of a dog chews. Other dogs I know are done their meal in 8 swallows with no chewing at all.

I think Sox and I have figured out how to give Yoshi pills. He is sneaky sometimes and will keep it in his mouth pretending to have swallowed it. When he is allowed to eat, up comes the pills, down goes some food (slowly).

Letting him pee is hard too. If we just put him out in the yard, he runs around. This is still a no-no for another week, so we have to walk him. I can’t wait for next Monday to arrive.

What can I say. Sometimes I am amazed at humanity, other times I think there is no hope for humanity. Monday’s ride home definitely tarnished my hope for humanity.

Read on to find out what happened

I witnessed a vehicle strike a cyclist. Then I witnessed said vehicle leave the scene. I witnessed a hit and run on a cyclist while I was on my bike. At the time I couldn’t believe it was happening.

Let’s backup and give a more detailed description. The cyclist was waiting for hte lights to change, and was doing some loops on the road. Not very smart (the guy looked a little sketchy). As he lost his balance, he moved over to the left lane. The traffic in the direction I was going got the green, and the car that was in the left lane proceeded as he should. I watched the car approach the cylcist, who was quite oblivious to the car (he was looking the opposite direction). As the car got closer and closer I kept expecting to see the brake lights and hear the horn.

I never saw the lights, and the horn never sounded. I did hear a sickening crunch, and did see the cyclist on the hood of the car. The driver then braked, and the cyclist tumbled to the ground. I was stunned. I was still riding at this point, and I approached what had happened.

I saw the car backing up, and immediately I thought that I should look at the plate in case he took off. I started reciting the plate number to myself. The car pulled around the cyclist on the road, and turned off. I thought/hoped that maybe he was simply getting out of the road. The driver never came back.

As I got close to the guy on the ground I yelled for him to lay still. I put my bike up on the sidewalk, and went over to the guy. Here we were on Esquimalt Road, cars passing within inches, barely even slowing down. What the fuck is wrong with people? I was incredulous that people were so callous about this. So conceited that they couldn’t even take a second to slow down and make sure everyone was alright. I slipped off my pack, then my jacket and put it over the guy.

I started retreiving my cell phone from my pack. As I was doing this drivers were now asking me if I had a cell. Still, noone else had stopped at this point. They just kept driving by. Finally another car stopped on the other side of the street. The cyclist and me were still standing/laying in the middle of a very busy street with nothing but hope that noone else will hit us.

Finally some guy in a Dakota pulled up and blocked us from traffic. I was shaking from adrenaline as I dialed 911. I gave as much information as I could, but I was trying to remember the plate number, talk to the guy on the ground, talk to 911, and field questions from passersby, and drivers going by (a bus driver was asking if we needed help). Too much for me to handle all at once. I asked someone for some paper, and wrote down all the infor I could think of. As good a description of what happened, when, who did what, the plate number, and a description of the car.

More people showed up. A pedestrian saw the car pull onto a sidestreet, and followed them on foot,but the car never stopped. The police showed up, and started filtering things out, getting some of the people on their way. The ambulance showed up. I gave all the info I had to the police. The whole time I was there I was hoping Sox wouldn’t drive past and see me at the scene of an accident (I knew she would worry). I asked the police officer if I could take my jacket and go. I was still shaking at this point.

I am still pretty incredulous at what happened.

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One thing I have to say though. I hope the driver is OK. I also hope he turns himself in. I know what it is like to be involved in an accident. When I was I was pretty shocked, but rendered aid as best I could. This guy got spooked and took off. I just hope he does the right thing.

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I am most upset at the people and cars that just drove by right after it happened without helping at all. They just didn’t want to get involved at all. It riles me up when I think about that.

I am also dissapointed in myself that I never asked the guy his name. It never occured to me to do this. When I talked to him I let him know help was on the way, that I had called 911, that I had seen everything. Never asked his name though.

I am proud that I was together enough to get the plate number. However after I gave it to the officer, I began to doubt that I memorized it correctly. Adrenaline does funky stuff.

Anyway, be careful out there folks. Don’t be afraid to get involved. I thanked the Dakota driver for shielding us from traffic. Simple things can make a big difference.

Our yearly October trip was Ottawa. Last year it was a cruise to Mexico,this year it was Ottawa. Hmm, it may not sound right, but it really is our destination. We are visiting some of Sox’s family, and spending some time in central Canada (it is NOT eastern Canada as I have been told).

We flew out of Victoria bright and early on a 7 am flight to Vancouver. With a slight layover we boarded our next plane to our nations capital. So far so good (besides getting up at some ungodly hour). Breakfast was served on the flight, and I will come right out and say it: the food was good.

Yes. The plane food was good. The scrambled eggs were tasty, the waffle adequate, but it had hidden underneath some cooked spiced apples that were very good. Alongside was some bread, some fresh fruit, and a small glass of OJ. All in all a tasty breaky.

The hours on the plane passed quickly. I read almost an entire novel since it was so good. Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress was my book. Once on the ground we collected our things and grabbed our rental car.

What was supposed to be a compact car, turned into a mini van. Ugh. A Chevy Uplander. Not a vehicle we will ever own, but perfect enough for renting.

Once situated at Sox’s families place, we visited for a bit then went to bed. Waking the next morning, I felt 100% adjusted to the time difference. I got up at 6 am, and had mind warp thinking it really was 3 am. I just jumped in with both feet and told myself that it was 6.

On Sunday (Oct 2), we went for a nice walk in Gatineau Park in Quebec. Beautiful place. The leaves were lagging a bit in their fall colors, but as a photographer, it was enough to give me a taste, and make me salivate. This hike though was a couple hours long, and I did stop to take a bunch of pictures along the way. Gorgeous area with lots of criss-crossing trails. Gatineau hiking pictures are here.

Monday was our touristy day. Taking a map we bravely headed out into the city headed for the war museum. It was fascinating. It was huge, so after the first hour I started skimming many of the displays. The museum felt new, and was all shiny and presentable. It truly is magnificent, but in a scary sort of way. The displays showed this history of war in Canada, from long to ago up to present. Sobering. I could spend another couple days poking around and reading. War museum pics are here.

Next up it was the parliament buildings. What better place for a Canadian to do when visiting their capital? We wandered around the grounds a bit, then got in line to enter the building. Tight security. As tight as the airport. Baggage was X-rayed. People walked through metal detectors. Owners of cellphones and laptops had to be demonstrate that they were working devices. Inside I was blown away by the amazing attention to detail. Truly works of art in themselves. The tiny details were inspiring.

We got in line to go up in the peace tower. 9 floors up the doors to the elevator opened, and there was a 25 foot by 25 foot room with windows. Somehow I was expecting something bigger up there. It was still incredible though. Back down on level ground we collected our van then headed “home”. Parliament pictures are here.

Before it got too dark we headed for Montreal to visit a friend of Sox’s. We were going to stay there for a couple days to catch up with them, and to allow me to experience Montreal. The drive itself was pretty. We were on the North side of the Ottawa river following a smaller highway that was much more scenic.

Tuesday we spent in Montreal. Parking downtown was interesting. We pulled into a parkade, and the guy in the booth demanded $14. Rather expensive, but what the hey. Forking over the cash we hit the streets walking. We toodled around downtown, walking towards Old Montreal. Very old feel to the area. The buildings here were quite amazing. As a photographer I could spend days here. Actually, between Montreal and Ottawa I could spend weeks in the area. The photographic opportunities were endless. Montreal pics are here.

In Old Montreal we wandered, poking around in some shops, stopping at a Ben and Jerrys shop for a cone (it was quite warm at 27 degrees), and generally being touristy. Very fun. We headed back to our vehicle taking a different route.

Next up for the day was Mont Royal. With Sox navigating (good job) we made our way up the mountain. We passed a very big and old looking cemetary that would have been a very amazing place to take pictures, in pretty much any conditions. At the lookout we took a few moments and took in the city. We were supposed to pay for parking, but come on, who would pay for parking when you were only planning on spending a few moments there. I guess if we were going to stay for half an hour, or planned to venture from where we were parked we would have, but we spent about ten minutes there.

Back at Sox’s friends house we had an excellent meal, then it was off to bed. We spent most of our next day spending time with Sox’s friend. That afternoon we headed back to Ottawa.

I had to work October 6 and 7 out in Kanata. The work was no big deal. I met with a few of our customers’ employees, put some faces to names, sat in on some conference calls, and did whatever I could. There was supposed to be a laptop there for my use, but someone had taken it back to the Victoria office before I had arrived. Sigh. I got a little bored at times.

I did have a little adventure getting back to our house after my first day of work though. I started for home without having looked at the map. Mistake number 1. While driving I attempted to glance at the map, which was OK since for a long section the rush hour traffic caused some stand stills. At one point I got off the highway to make sure I was still going in the right direction. I needed exit 19A, but got off at the wrong one. Back on the highway I passed 17, then passed 14. Oops, wrong direction (mistake number 2). The next exit was quite a ways fown the highway. Grr. Back on the highway I saw exit 17, then 18, then 19. Crud. I got off at 19 unsure if it meant 19A, or if there was a 19A (mistake number 3). It was the wrong exit, and every which way I turned there was a one way street going the wrong way. Cutting through a parking lot I got going in the right direction, and was able to make it home just fine.

Saturday Sox and I did some shopping and poking around town. Later that evening we went for a walk with some of her family. As a spectacular sunset was emerging, I decided to try and capture it with pictures. I borrowed a car, but being in an unfamiliar city, I had no idea where to head. I ended up at the local university, and snapped a few pictures off. Sunset pics are here.

Sunday the family went for another hike in the Gatineau’s. I chose to part company and spend my time making friends with my tripod. I took pics for 3 hours while the gang hiked. It was quite enjoyable for me, and very relaxing. Unfortunately conditions were less than ideal. Cloudy day, with a wind coming in off the lake. I think I still ended up with some amazing shots, but they could have been so much better. Gatineau hiking pictures are here.

On the way home we stopped at the side of the road in Quebec for poutine. Oh my god. It was soooo good. Actually, the fries alone were pretty damn amazing. Throw in a healthy helping of cheese curds and gravy, and most of us were in heaven. Let’s not forget that we were all just out in the woods for 3 hours too. Definitely a highlight for me. Reflecting on this I can’t help but wonder why I didn’t take a picture of it?

After letting the poutine digest on the drive back, we stopped at the Remic Rapids on the Ottawa river to check out an art installation in the river. Very cool. Someone had built these sculptures out of local rocks, and had balanced them in an intricate fashion.

Monday was our turkey day. The meal was excellent, and was quite a large group of people (13).

Tuesday we were due to fly home. Our flight didn’t leave until later in the evening, so we decided to head to Merrickville to poke around there for a bit. Very quaint little touristy town. Beautiful old buildings, lots of character there. There is a working loch system right beside the road into town we took. We did some shopping, had lunch there, then drove back to Ottawa at a leisurely pace. Wonderful way to spend the last day in the area. Merrickville pictures are here.

The flight home wasn’t nearly as nice as the way out. Sox and I agreed that for some reason the seats just weren’t as comfortable as the way out. How enjoyable is it to sit in an uncomfortable seat for 5+ hours? The food wasn’t very good either. We left Ottawa around 7 pm Ottawa time, and arrived home in Victoria at 11:30 Victoria time (2:30 Ottawa time). This worked out wonderfully. We slept in the next morning, and were easily adjusted to the time difference.

Such an enjoyable trip. We did several touristy things, went on some gorgeous hikes (I got to see the fall colors that aren’t as vibrant as most years), ate some amazing food, visited and got to know some of Sox’s long time friends, and spent time with family. Great vacation.

Saturday night I joined Sox and some of her co-workers for a trip to Western Speedway to see the hit to pass night. Many people have asked me what hit to pass racing is. In a word it is mayhem. To be able to legally pass someone the driver is supposed to make contact with the other car. Rear end him, side swipe him, spin the other guy, or even get in front of the other person and tap the brakes. Failure to do this will resultsin a warning. Fail to do this a couple times, and the driver might get black flagged. Fun!

There were several classes of racing. Claimers were the only non hit to pass class that night. Claimers are an interesting category in that anyone at the track can go to the front office before the night is done and put down a claim on the car. Something like $349. It is a cheap way to get into racing.

Besides claimers there were demo cars, demo trucks, and mini figure-8’s. Demo cars and trucks both race on the full track, with all the hit to pass rules. Mini figure 8’s are small 4 cylinder cars that follow hit to pass rules, but race on a figure 8 race track on the main straightaway. Crazyness ensues. Watching the cars criss cross is a little hairy at times, but thoroughly entertaining. When cars start breaking down, the track gets clogged and the mayhem increases.

Very, very fun night. Add in hit chocolate, a burger, and onion rings. Great redneck fun for little money.

Yesterday Sox and I had the yard sale we had been hoping to have for a very long time. I had a few concerns about it when we were getting ready (cost of the ad was $27, I wasn’t sure we would have enough stuff, would we price thing correctly, would anyone come since it isn’t exactly prime sale season, would the weather behave, etc).

It actually worked out perfectly. We didn’t sell everything, but we did get rid of all the big items we really wanted to unload. Most of our stuff sold, and we didn’t have to drop our prices too much. There was lots of traffic. I’m not sure if the amount of people was due to our location, our signage, or our ad (there was definitley a few people who happened upon us). And to top it off, with only a couple hours to go, the sun came out.

It was awesome. We have a few small boxes of things to drop off at the Salvation Army (or some other equivalent), and we made some decent cash. Love it. It feels really good. Although, our sun room is a little bare now. Perhaps the foosball table needs a companion? We were planning on purchasing a composter, but maybe we need an air hockey table instead? Hmmm …

Got out for a swim tonight with Sox and J. I hadn’t been out in a few months, and I was a little worried about how I would fair, specially considering my bum shoulder that it still on the mend. The first couple lengths were a littlw rough. I swallowed a little too much water and felt like I was floundering. After that I calmed myself, tried to swim a little slower, and improved quite a bit. I think I managed somewhere around 400 metres (maybe more). I was pretty happy with this. I felt great the whole time, but as I tired my strokes got sloppy, and I started taking on more water that I was comfortable with. When I called it quits we went and sat in the kiddy pool for a bit, then showered and went home.

Now I am sitting on the couch watching Monster Garage getting sleepier and sleepier. Time for bed I think.

Yesterday Sox and I took part in the 4th annual Paws for a Cause Walkathon. This is put on by the BC SPCA in order to raise funds. We managed to collect $195 in pledges and are pretty proud of that. I also bought an SPCA T-Shirt to help out the cause just that much more. The walk itself was pretty easy. We also ran into a couple different sets of friends on the walk too. Quite an interesting day.

Pics are here.

The ironman trip started out with a bang. Starting at 6:30 I was picked up and we were on our way. Meeting up with everyone we made our way over to the ferry terminal for the 8 am ferry (no buffet for us). The ferry ride was no big deal, nothing extraordinary there. On the other side, Marc was a little late meeting up with us, but we were soon on our way.

Arriving at the border we were greeted with an hour long wait. Hrrmmph. Not very good. The border crossing was simple, they didn’t ask Marc and I very many questions. We stopped in Blaine at the Wheelhouse for lunch. Hmm, the USA is just different than Canada. We walked in and immediately I was struck with the smell of cigarrettes. We stayed and ordered lunch, which was actually very good, and the beer was very cold. Yum. I paid the bill and we walked out. On the street I realized that I the bill was quite low. 5 guys with full meals totalling $33 US? Nope. I went back and corrected that.

Hitting the road it was 1:30. We were a little late starting, considering that we had initially planned to be on the road right from the ferry.

All pics from the trip are here.

Taking highway 20 was quite a nice drive. Swoopy, twisty, turny. I looked down at my watch and it was nearing 4 pm. The day had flown by, and we still had a few hours travel time.

We stopped for dinner at a little greasy spoon at the side of the highway. Decent food, but their bathroom was a little spartan (no door on the stall for the can). Again with the smoking too.

We eventually got back to the Canadian border just a few minutes before 9 and crossed without problem. Actually, this crossing was even easier. The lady asked us where we were from, then asked how long we had been in the states. She didn’t even want to see our ID or passports.

Back in Canada we motored on to Penticton. We checked in, then took a peak into our room. Tiny. 5 guys and 4 bikes would never, ever fit. We found out that someone had actually just called and cancelled their room, so we snapped that up. Much nicer to spread out over 2 rooms.

With our stuff stashed we headed to the nearby pub for a couple beers and some darts, then it was off to bed. Our plan was to get up early the next morning to go check out the underwear run.

Long day, got up just before 6, and got to bed close to midnight. Long day, with lots of sweat.

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After having breakfast at Denny’s a few of us headed downtown to see the underwear run. More fun than a show really, but it was pretty funny to see a group of a hundred people in the middle of the street doing squats and jumping jacks while in their underwear. After that it was off to the grounds to check out the Ironman setup for this year. Looking through the tents for new gear proved a little fruitless, I didn’t find anything that I really wanted. I did find a nice technical fiber shirt that I contemplated buying, but in the end I saved my $60.

The afternoon saw us tubing on the canal. Mmmm, fun. The kamikaze ducks are still around. They fly up the canal and come pretty close to us tubers. Very relaxing time floating along on the water. Due to a low water level we could only go half way, but that was plenty for me. It was still over an hour ride.

Dinner was a the Black Iron just down the street from the El Rancho. Mmmm, it was a steak house, but 3 of us ordered the Chorizo Penne, and the other 2 got the prime rib. Saturday night we are planning to head to the Lost Moose Lodge which, from second hand experience, is an excellent steak house.

After dinner not much went on since Sunday there is a planned ride. We want to beat the heat, so we are going to start at 6:30.

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The alarm going off at 5:30 wasn’t very pleasant. Eating breakfast in the room and getting ready for the ride didn’t wake me up very much at all. Starting the ride was pretty chilly, probably aroun 8 degrees or so. I tried to get my legs warmed up by spinning along at a high cadence, but that never realy helped. We went along the back side of Skaha lake, then made a turn off on McLean, which was supposed part of the run route. This turn off took us up a rather steep climb. Refusing to drop to my granny ring I powered up the hill. I looked down and saw my heart rate was 188, and just knew that I would feel like crap at the top. Once there, sure enough I felt awful, but at least I got to stop for a couple minutes while everyone else caught up.

Along the top it was a nice rolling hills kind of ride. Very pleasant actually. I stopped a couple times to take some pictures that I hope turn out well. I may see about going back up there early on Monday to take more pics. We’ll see how I feel about that one. The dry desert hills in the background, lush green farmers field in the foreground, and the nice warm early morning light on the sprinklers were quite picturesque. It was hard to not stop every couple hundred metres and take out the camera.

Along we went, then we dropped into OK Falls. Here 3 of the 5 of our riding group continued along the Ironman bike route, while Marc and I headed back to Penticton. We took a slightly different route back than the one out, and I quite enjoyed the ride. It was still a little cool out, but once we got into the sun you could sure feel the heat.

A post ride cup of Starbucks was the next order of business, then it was off to second breakfast (I didn’t partake though).

Once the other two guys got back from their 150 km ride (they rode almost all of the bike course, save the out and back section), we got prepped for another tubing session. Ahh, such a relaxing way to spend a couple hours. Our previous trip had a breeze blowing up the canal that slowed our progress, so this trip down the canal was shorter.

Back at the El Rancho we showered, got cleaned up, then jumped into the jeep and headed out of town for dinner. One of our group had heard about the Lost Moose Lodge from a training partner of his. The lodge is 7.5 km off the main road in Penticton, but way, way above the town. The view from the lodge was spectacular. It is surrounded by the remants of a forrest fire from a few yers ago. We wondered how the lodge survived the fire, but upon reading the menu learned that the lodge was built from trees that had burned in the fire.

The food there was awesome. It was described as a steak house, but there was so much on the menu that sounded good I would call it more than a steak house. After ordering we sat back and waited for the food to arrive. I had a New York steak with Peppercorn sauce that was excellent. I cleaned my plate, and enjoyed every bite of it. Such an experience. I would highly recommend the Lost Moose Lodge to anyone travelling to Penticton. Call ahead and make the reservation though. You wouldn’t want to drive all the way up there only to discover they were full.

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Sunday morning arrived very early. I think we had set the alarm for 5 am since we wanted to leave our room at 6. The race started at 7, but we wanted to make sure that we were there in plenty of time get in a decent position to watch the start. 6:45 the pro’s started, then at 7 was the age groupers start. After the swim start, en masse, most of the crowd moved over to the swim finish. To get a good position, we stood in the water. It was actually quite nice standing there at 8 in the morning, knee deep in the lake, with the sun just starting to beat down on us.

After seeing Scott come out of the water of his first pro race we decided to head out of town to catch the lead guys topping Richter pass. I was in the back of the jeep, and it was a pretty chill, windy ride, but knowing what the temp would be like later in the day made me feel better.

We got to Richter with a few minutes to spare before the lead male came by. Cheering, yelling, ringing the cow bells, we awaited Scott’s arrival. Seeing him pass we watched a few more people go by before heading down to the exit of the out and back section of the ride course. Standing around in the sun gets pretty tiring after a while. This location seemed hotter than the top of Richter which wore me down quite quickly.

Back in the vehicles we raced towards Penticton, to be greeted with a long line of cars waiting to cross the race course. This happens every year. We need to find a way through using logging roads or something. It took over 45 minutes to get through that mess. In the end a couple people in the group caught Scott’s finish, but sadly I did not. I stopped off at the room to unload my pics.

We stayed at the finish line until midnight like we do each time we watch the race. I even got some swag again (t-shirt and a water bottle). Cool.

I find it very inspiring to watch the people come through the finishing chute. Everyone seems to experience it differently. I saw one guy propose to his significant other. I saw people in unbelievable amazement that they were able to finish. I saw people jumping and shake their fists as they crossed the line. I even saw one guy push his wheelchair bound son towards the finish line, but then stop and his son got out and walked across the line with his dad. Absolutely incredible. I am in awe of these athletes each and every year I watch that race. Truly a spectacle of what a human can do if they put their mind to it.

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The next morning D and T both got in line. In line to register for next years race. In on years time I will once again be in Penticton, but it will be a much different race to watch. While they were in line, the rest of us got packed up and ready to got. We hit Denny’s one more time then hit the road. We ate at Denny’s at least once a day for the 4 days we were there. I think I have had enough Denny’s to last me at least a year.

On the road I decided to take my turn in the Jeep for the open air trip home. Then it started to rain. Eww. That was actually kind of fun. As co-pilot I had the squeegee duties. With no top, and at highway speeds, there is a vortex in the jeep, and it sucks the rain towards the back of the windshield. Rather funny to be driving down the highway with wipers on and squeegee in hand.

In the end it was a very fun road trip. I think it has been decided that we need to start planning for next years trip.