Tag: Life

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.

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.

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.

Swim Tub

I swam and played a bit in the water last week while at Sproat Lake, but I didn’t actually swim. My last swim wasn’t so good either.

I decided to head to the pool last night, but as I arrived I saw that the two length swimming lanes were pretty packed (around 7 or 8 people). One guy was even swimming lengths with his son on his back!

I almost bailed on the swim, but went anyway. By the time I got to the pool deck most people had moved on and I was able to share one lane with someone else.

I did a 100m warmup then concentrated on not stopping too much between lengths. The last 100m I did without stopping at all. In total I swam 600m.

I would have liked to retire to the hot tub, but it was closed 🙁 Next week.

The one thing that made the night less enjoyable was the super chatty naked guy soaking in the shower.

Saanich Donkeys

Monday we headed out to the Saanich Fair. It was a gross day. It was cold, wet, and windy, yet we wanted to go anyway. The kids had a bit of fun seeing some of the animals. We same some llama’s, horses, rabbits, chickens, pigs, cows, and donkeys.

Since it was raining so much, I also didn’t bring out my camera to take a lot of pictures.

We also got to go check out the inside of an ambulance. I think the kids liked that the best. Closing in on lunch time we were cold, somewhat wet, and had seen enough. We headed out and grabbed some lunch on the way home.

Lochside Ride

I’ve wanted to share riding with both my kids for a while now. I saw Elliot have a great time when we got him his first pedal bike and that brought lots of smiles to my face.

Today we went for a nice ride along the Lochside Trail. We find a section that was pretty flat which was important since this was Elliot’s first ride outside of our yard. Elliot did extremely well. We started before the 14 Km mark and rode past the 15 Km mark before turning around. I’m guessing we rode around 2.5 Kms.


Here we are taking a short break.


Nice form!


Having a good time.


Beautiful day for a ride.


Smiles all around.


Water break.

Here are a couple videos of Elliot in action. After we turned around we took a couple rest and water breaks on the way back to the car. Once there Elliot and Amy played on a playground for a bit before we headed to Matticks Farm for lunch and ice cream cones. Great family time.

Horrible Abilities

To the Ass-Clown in the Grey Dakota:

When I am driving I tend to use my turn signals. It would be swell if you noticed that. In addition, I typically don’t stop in my lane right in front of a road with my turn signal on for no reason. Sometimes the road is blocked, or traffic can’t move (sometimes due to some flaky chick pulling a horrible u-turn). It would be super-swell if you didn’t honk at me, then pass me on the left, thereby making an already silly situation more unsafe. Add on that this was in a residential area and there really is no excuse, nor hurry grand enough to explain your idiotic driving abilities.

Have a nice day.

Island Times

Last weekend we were on Saltspring Island. We stayed at a nice cottage, checked out the Ganges market, went to the beach, went for a hike, and more. It was a lot of fun, but we experienced a lack of sleep unlike anything we had felt in a long time. Both the kids were waking up multiple times in the night, and since we were all sleeping in the one room, well, we all woke up multiple times in the night.

The cottage had a nice flower garden.

The hike was pretty steep, so Amy got carried the whole way.

Snack time.

Snack time silliness.

These trees grew so close together that it almost looked like they were melded together.

Arbutus trees can be quite photogenic.


Arranged Return

Sox and I had a little vacation. After everything that happened at the end of March, Sox was going to surprise me with a two night stay at our favourite cabin at Point No Point. Unfortunately they were pretty booked up and we wouldn’t have been able to get in until September.

Instead, when we heard David Usher was coming to Vancouver, we booked a trip to Vancouver and arranged my Mom to watch the kids. The concert then got cancelled, but we chose to go anyway.

We headed over on Thursday afternoon. The ferry ride was interesting too since it was full of people heading over for an Iron Maiden concert. Great people watching on that boat. In Van we checked in at the Metropolitan and figured out what we wanted to do.

Thursday night we headed out for all you can eat sushi at Shabusen. It was a cool restaurant that also does Korean BBQ. You actually cook it yourself at your own table. Each table had a mini BBQ pit set into it. The sushi was good and we definitely ate our fill. After dinner we walked for a bit, then took in a movie (Iron Man 2).

Friday we had a quick bite of breakfast then wandered around doing some clothes shopping. Sox had more luck than I, but I still managed a few new pairs of shorts, and some shirts.

Lunch was some awesome panini’s at a coffee shop close to the hotel. An afternoon swim and then it was dinner. We walked down to Gastown and had dinner at Steamworks. We had the fish tacos appy that was amazing, and my burger was excellent. Lots of cheese, sauce, and toppings. We walked a little in Gastown then went back to the hotel Later in the evening we went down to the hotel restaurant for dessert. Wow, it was awesome.

Saturday we packed up and went down to Granville Island for breakfast and some more shopping. Then it was off to the ferry and a return home.

The great thing about going when we did was that today felt like a bonus day on the weekend. We had a weekend in Vancouver, but one more additional day before work was perfect.