Morning thoughts

This photo perfectly expresses my mood today.

Morning sun capturing the steam from brewing coffee. The house is quiet, even the cats are quiet. I just saw one of my neighbours out for a walk, but the street is otherwise quiet. As a pro tip, after I add water to the fresh ground coffee, (Uganda Bugiso if you're wondering), I also add it to the mug and thermos, so the coffee stays hotter. It's the little things.

I've just finished my morning reading, going through some web pages, Facebook, blogs, Twitter, email. Curtis has taken over my lap, which makes it a bit difficult to run the laptop. I'm fairly sure that he resents the electronics that distract me from the magnificence that is him.

Yesterday I finished reading Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall. It's the first book I've actually finished in a while. I've been wanting to do more reading. Somehow it's always been just a bit further down my list than I get to. Look for the list on the right side, under the blog archive, though there isn't much on it now.

But I like maps, and this is a book about the consequences of making political maps without fully considering the relevant geography. He talks about those consequences in a way that makes it easy to understand what happened, but without getting bogged down into details of some ancient feud. This is extremely readable.

If you read the paper and wonder why "those" people can't get along, this is an excellent primer, and has a bibliography for further details if you're so inclined. The first is  Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, which is excellent! Marshall talks about Russia, China, United States, Western Europe, Africa, The Middle East, India and Pakistan, Korea and Japan, Latin America, and the Arctic. Given the subject matter, it's a good thing that Canada doesn't get mentioned much.

It got me thinking, though. Lots of human conflict involves being horrible to other people in the hopes they will knuckle under. The USA is particularly good at this, being horrible to nearly everyone, especially when it comes to air power. If there is one thing they're good at, it's dropping bombs and firing missiles at targets. Pity they aren't very good at picking the right targets.

We know from WWII history that bombing didn't break the spirit of people in British Isles or in occupied  Europe or in Japan. They carried on as best they could, and didn't stop until Russian boots walked through Berlin, or the atomic bombs were used in Japan.

Now we are running into asymmetric warfare, where a small group of people are opposing a regular army. The best example is in Afghanistan, where they have successfully repelled the Victorian British Empire, the Russians, and now the Americans. You'd think it would be clear by now that dropping bombs on such people isn't going to work. What would work, eventually, is the rule, "if it's alive and isn't one of us, kill it." That worked better before there were War Crimes Tribunals, and independent journalists.

The first rule to solving a problem is to stop doing the things that make it worse. Being horrible isn't working, and in fact makes things worse. Drop a bomb on a wedding party, and the survivors would have to be saints to not hate the people that did it. Why is anyone surprised they would seek revenge? If you want something bad enough, you will find a way to get it, even if it costs your own life.

It's hard to stop being horrible. The people you've been horrible to aren't easily going to believe you've stopped. Anybody that has ever listened to Donald Trump will never believe he will stop being horrible. His future depends on it, and sadly, there is an audience that likes him being horrible. So part of the solution is to deal with that, and get rational candidates for high political office.

But let's take a specific example. There are a huge number of refugees languishing in various tent cities. Often the camps are in countries that can't really afford to deal with them. Rich countries take a trivial number of refugees, and the USA is busy clutching it's pearls over numbers of Syrian refugees that can easily be counted in the dozens.

Enough of the dicking around. Build a town, a real one. A small city even. The idea behind the tent cities is that supposedly, the people will go home. Well, for all too many of them home doesn't exist anymore. Build a new home. Many of them. Provide clean drinking water, treat sewage, pick up the garbage, and all the various other amenities that cities offer. Many of the refugees themselves will have the skills needed.

Many people have the idea that refugees are poor, and poorly educated. That isn't always true. Maybe Canada got the cream of the crop, but from what I've heard, they have a burning desire to work, to contribute, to become part of the society. Why wouldn't you take advantage of that?

I say start building the city. Cities. Call it a speculative investment if you must. Think about the Marshal plan that rebuilt Europe after WWII. In a few short decades the Germans and Japanese when from being enemies to being foundational states of the Western economic system.

Yes, when you say billions of dollars, it sounds like a lot. But two things. That money builds something that could endure for generations; but a billion dollars spent on bombs only buys destruction. Think about where the money goes. It gets spent to buy material goods, to buy people's time. What do they do with the money? Spend it on goods and services till they get caught up. Money is like manure, best spread out.

I think it's worth trying. What's the worst that could happen? As near as I can tell, nothing worse than what's already happening.

On the fitness front I've been feeling like I'm verging on overtraining. The run is going really well, but the swim has been tough lately. I skipped a run and swim at the end of the week just to rest up a bit.

The runs on Monday and Wednesday went really well, 5 and 8 K respectively, about a 6:30 pace. Then Saturday was 15 K. I hadn't run around the reservoir in a while and Michelle was up for it. This morning, just by accident I found a blog post about the very first time I ran around the reservoir. You can find it here. We did the same route, in the same direction. 15 K, 1:43:30 for a 6:53 pace. For a long time we did long runs at a 7:30 pace, and the last few have been a bit quicker.

We were both feeling strong, starting at just over a 7 pace, and settling in just under that. Except for going up hills, this was a chatchatchat pace, her a little more than me. My quads and hams were feeling it a little, but not enough to slow down or stop. No walk breaks at all, compared to the last long run home from work, which was a bit of a shambles in comparison. What's really good about this run is that the last 2 K were fast. We went from a 6:45 - 7 min pace, to 6:25 then 6:18, and could have gone faster yet.

It was a beautiful day for a run, warm with a bit of overcast. Lots of people were out having a picnic along the path, but we weren't having to dodge too many dogs walking their idiot owners. We stretched after, watching the kids playing the water park at South Glenmore park. My bammy was talking to me a bit.

Bison burgers and lamb shish-kabob. So good.

The great camera adventure is going well. A software disc came with the camera, but my laptop doesn't have a disc reader. The replacement I downloaded turned out to be not quite the same thing. I was wondering why it wasn't "seeing" the camera images that I knew perfectly well were sitting in a folder right there. I had downloaded version 3.14, and needed a version 4.xx. Once I got that I was cooking with gas. I'm still figuring out how it works, and what changes make for a better photo.

One thing I tried was comparing the camera to the iPhone 6. Here's two shots of the garden from the iPhone. The first is the normal setting, and the second is zoomed in all the way, using the metal yellow flower as an aiming point.

Now, here are two photos from the Canon, shot from exactly the same spot, with the camera on automatic. The regular size looks much the same field of view. The iPhone actually looks like it zooms in a bit further. You can see a pink flower off to the left of the Canon photo, but not the iPhone. Maybe I didn't center it exactly.

Part of the trick here is that I'm not quite comparing apples to apples. The iPhone photos are JPEG's, with the phone and software doing whatever it does. The Canon photos are a RAW file, viewed in Preview, and captured in a PNG screen shot. The file sizes are similar. I'm not sure what they would look like if I opened with the RAW editor and captured a screen shot from there.

Here's the difference, enlarging part of each photo. The first is the iPhone. The Lamb's ears are blurry and discoloured and the back ground is completely blurred. The Canon photo zoomed in to about the same place shows much more detail and natural colour. The background foliage is clear as well. I can zoom into the photo even further, to where the edges start to pixilate. Of course, I can't tell what these look like in the published version of the blog. Maybe you're looking at the photos wondering what I'm babbling about.

I had a bit of the same experience watching a Blue-Ray disc of Miss Marple. I've talked earlier about the difference between the DVD version we have and the Blue-Ray. Last night I watched The Mirror Cracked from Side to Side. It isn't one of my favourites, but I think this one shows off how good the remastering process was.

Earlier this weekend we visited Vale's greenhouse in Black Diamond. They have an art show once a year. We didn't go on the day they had wine, oh well, but it's still nice to walk through and look at art. Much of it doesn't do a thing for me, but there were a few pieces that really called to me. I hadn't known you could get paint to texture like that. The one wheat field looked like real wheat blistering up from the canvas. Linda got another plant, I think it's called cups and saucers.

I want to get these lilies!

Millarville market opened up this weekend. It's a fun place to go anyways, and my buddy Lori D ran the half marathon. I'd considered it, but decided not to. Some other buddies showed up and we had a good time.

Did I mention that work renewed my contract till August 31? that was a bit odd, in that my boss and I had talked about the end of July to finish up some odds and ends. Then Penn West sold a zillion dollars of property in Sask, so maybe things changed. Still 80% time, which is nice.

And that's enough for now.

Curtis goes for a walk, I go for a ride.

Not together.

We started with this view over coffee and OJ.

It was a beautiful morning to sit outside and enjoy the patio, sipping a nice Crickle Creek dark roast coffee, working on my novel. Sort of, anyways. I almost wish I'd made more coffee. The morning was actually hot already. Eventually Linda put the cats on their harness and let them out. Mostly Celina stayed tucked under the BBQ, but Curtis was a bit more adventurous.

He was scoping out a bird. I think it was a crow nearly as big as he is.

 Here he is up on top of the gate, looking in.

Now looking out, dreaming of conquering new territory.

Strolling along the top of the fence.

Peering around.

If I thought he would stay in the back yard, I'd be happy to do without the harness. But he's a cat. There was one episode where something startled them and they ran for their very lives, till the harness stopped them.

Without the harness who knows where they would have stopped? Probably lost, wondering where those good humans had got to, and what rotten humans they are for not feeding them. Cats. There's no satisfying them.

Later, after puttering with some financial paperwork, I was out for a 20 K bike ride, 55 minutes, nice and easy through Fish Creek and back through whatever that neighbourhood is just south of Fish Creek.

Got an eyeful along the way. I'm riding through the park, catching up to some skateboarders. They're going along at a good clip, about 20 KpH or so, chatting to one another. All three are wearing shorts,and no shirts. It's only as I'm passing that I realize one has a little more happening up top, if you get my drift. All three had pony tails, but only 2 of them were guys.  Good for her. That sort of confidence will serve her well.

The ride was nice, and my legs feel better after, but my butt was talking to me a bit. I haven't been on the bike for a while. No way am I going to join some buddies that are doing Highwood pass this weekend. No way am I up for that. I've got a 15 K or so run booked for tomorrow morning down in Fish Creek. Anyone want to come along, text me quick.

For Sunday I've got the cow bells, still looking for the pom-poms.

More garden photos, just because. I'm loving the brilliant colours.

So, that NaNoWriMo thing, and

It's coming up fast. I started a new document in Scrivener, complete with initial notes. I have an opening scene, and a couple other scenes, all neatly plotted. My thinking was to plot it all out, and then write like mad during NaNoWriMo in November.

But even those opening scenes are not that neatly plotted. And you know? I don't have the faintest idea where the story goes from there. I've tried to have meetings with the lead character. She's busy. I've tried to bribe her with good coffee, and it's not working. Even the other characters aren't saying much. Not sure what that means.

So here I am, a day out from committing to 50K words. In the past I've just dived in, and had fun with it. Almost every day I woke up knowing where that day's writing was going. Which has led me to lots of words and a vague resemblance to a novel, in that there is a faint hint of a story. I was hoping to tighten things up and not make it worse by adding more words.

At this very moment I'm thinking of not doing it, and continuing to work on the words I already have.   Stay tuned and see how this turns out. Either the word counter on my blog will start showing words, or it will disappear.

Today was a pre-retirment day. Eventually I will need to produce documentation of my SIN for Linda to get her pension, and that plastic card disintegrated decades ago. Oddly enough my birth certificate is still going strong, though I ought to get it relaminated. So we wandered into a Service Canada centre, and what do you know? We got service. From walking in the front door, to walking out with our documents, was about a half hour, and we dealt with a polite and professional person. This is one of the things our taxes pay for.

We did a bit of shopping on the way home. Four wild boar steaks found their way into our shopping cart, and later onto the BBQ. They were delicious! And a Yum Bakery dessert.

Midafternoon I was on the bike for an hour of fairly hard workout. I'm still getting back into it, figuring out where my bike fitness is, but I think I'm pretty close to where I left off. Maybe Sunday I'll dig out the book and do a time trial. That is, if the morning swim doesn't knacker me trying to keep up to my buddy who is swimming stronger every time. Plus I need a new heart rate monitor. The bands are still good, if I put fresh batteries in them, but there's nothing to display the result. Hmmm, unless I can get an app on my phone to do that. Research time.

Almost forgot. Linda made these awesome scones that are fabulous with morning coffee, as we slept in till dawn. A Brazilian dark roast, with beans shiny with oil, and a wonderful rich smell. I poured just enough water into the French Press to turn the grounds into sludge, then took a big sniff. Wonderful!

This what we saw outside shortly after waking up.

 The lick-fest turned into a tussle pretty quickly.

Keith and the cube ride again

Winter training season just began for me. Even though it's not quite winter yet. The water freezing a little overnight in the garden water barrels just means it's still fall. Winter means it freezes solid.

Even after the bike fit I wasn't out on my bike much this year. Somehow it didn't work out what with all the swimming, and trying to be regular on the run. But I've promised myself to get on the trainer so that next year can be a good bike year. At last.

Starting with cats and coffee. I was watching a lovely sunrise, held down by cats, so this was the best photo I could get. I suspect if you lived a bit further east it was pretty spectacular.

This is where Estela lives between rides. It's time to get her on the trainer.

The semi-famous heat gun trick. Trainer tires are notoriously hard to get on the rim. I had one bad episode a few years ago that involved much swearing. Now I take the time to warm it up thoroughly before trying to mount it. When it's warm I can roll it onto the rim with my hands without working too hard. Do you notice the supervisory cat?

The old cube computer has been off since the last trainer ride. I'm not even sure when that was, but it fired up like a champ. I've got some music going for the ride. Anyone remember the visualizer? I'm wondering what I want to watch during the many rides I've got planned. Maybe the last season of Leverage that I missed.

Here she is, all ready to go.

Curtis likes to snooze on the red blanket. Here he is concerned about the slight humming sound the cube makes. I think that was when the cd was spinning up.

Celina loves to cheer me on and lick my sweaty skin.

I wasn't sure what to expect for the ride, and decided to go with the flow. It took a few minutes to get the trainer calibrated. 15 minutes warm up, gradually spinning faster, in an easy gear at about 125 watts. Heart rate still under 100, breathing very easy, gradually starting to sweat. Then 10 minutes at about 160 watts. Last time I was serious about training this was about the top of my endurance range. My heart rate was about 120, and I could easily breathe through my nose without getting behind. Legs are feeling good.

Then a couple minutes at about 200 watts, still not breathing hard, and my heart rate about the same. Then a couple minutes at 225, starting to notice the work, but still feeling good, heart rate up to about 130. Then a couple minutes at 250, and I can really start to feel it here. My lungs are fine, heart rate just over 140, and my legs are wanting to dial it back. Another 10 minutes of easy spin to cool down for about 45 minutes after calibration. My butt was beginning to talk to me about being on the bike.

Lots of stretching and rolling with the gear roller. Minor clunks and clicks from my back and hips.

I'm pleased and surprised by this. I was working off my old training effort list and I don't think it's too far off for now. I'll carry on with this for a few more rides, getting into the groove again, then I'll do another test to see where my current training zones really are.

My thinking over the winter is going to try to swim 3x a week, working on stroke and speed. Run a couple times a week at least, depending on weather, with one long run in there. Try to get on the bike 3x a week, working on intensity and strength for most of the rides, and one long ride at the top of endurance pace, whatever that is. All this is depending on my work situation of course. I might have  much more time for workouts.

I'm still scoping out races for next year, but I'm at least thinking about doing some. I haven't forgotten my goal of running a marathon. There are several to choose from, and at the moment Banff is calling my name. There are lots of Oly distance triathlons out there, and I might pick a couple of them. There don't seem to be many half-iron distance races here with a 2016 date. Just GWN and YYC70.3 and I've done both of them. I was hoping Sylvan was going to run again, but I can't find any info about it. Lets see how this goes.

There's a lamb roast lurking in the bottom of the pot, ready for a wonderful meal.

As I sit with some wine, post-meal, trying to work on my blog, and capture some novel thoughts, this is my view.

Or this.

I'm coming up on a blog milestone soon. I'm also starting to draft a primer about electoral system reforms. Stay tuned.

The wine storage problem solved

After yesterday's afternoon run, and some yummy treats, we were in the mood for a movie. I like to browse through the trailers, and the iTV box has some truly dreadful ones. I very nearly rented 3 Headed Shark Attack. No, really. It looked so deliciously bad. I mean, it had Danny Trejo in it, so what more do you need?

In the end we settled for Ex Machina. I was expecting a bit more of a plot twist about who was an AI robot, but I wasn't disappointed. I didn't know where it was going, and that's a good thing in my books. Much of it was shot in a hotel in Norway, and while it's beautiful, I think I'd be a bit creeped out staying there. Maybe it was dressed up, or down for the movie and looks quite different in real life.

Slept like a rock, and missed the first part of #coffeechat. We had found this great coffee that I was going to share.

The coffee has a reddish tint, lots of big coffee taste without any bitterness. I'll be buying it again.

We ordered lots of wine kits last fall. I'm just making the last of them now, and was trying to figure out storage. I didn't have enough racks, and couldn't get more of what we had. The racks that fit into the Ivar aren't made anymore. They were replaced with a lighter gauge of metal wire that is designed to be supported by a shelf. It's much more expensive, and much less efficient.

Then we were told of the Omar wine shelf. Checked it out and Yay! I assembled it this afternoon. The unboxing.

This is the hardest part of the instructions. It took me a long time to see the difference in the two sketches, and I used to be so good at those 'spot the 12 differences in the drawings' things. Once I figured that out, and that the two pieces form a cone that snug into the grooves on the rod and support the actual shelf, I was good to go.

Here's the first one. It's quite sturdy, and if they sold the rack itself as a separate item like Ivar shelves, I'd buy several more. There's lots of space between the racks. Instead of 6, I think I could get 8 in a section.

Here's all of them tucked into the corner.

You didn't think I'd waste time loading it up, did you?

Summer is the time for BBQ bison burgers. Stop me if I've said this before, but so yummy! No workouts today. I'd say I'm feeling lazy, but I got lots done today. Any time now I'll tackle the business tax paperwork. Yes, any time. Real soon now. Any moment.

Waiting for photos in drobox

The photos ARE coming, and some, only some will be shared. There are many. Some are quite frankly unsuitable for public view. Even private viewing had me covering my eyes. That Ironman Finisher bike jersey is just a bit snug. He said, in an understated sort of way. I should blow up one of them and put it on the fridge.

But first, my coffee moment with Curtis wondering if he wanted to share.

Today was a lovely run up to the South Glenmore boat club. I sang a little ditty to myself as I got there.

There is
a pole
in the aid station,
They call the family jewels
And it's been the ruin of many a guys race
I know
I watched it once.

If you don't know what that is sung to, there is no hope for you. The pole is right in the middle of the bike path, to keep motorized vehicles off the path. It's instantly downstream of where the aid station is. One guy that was trying to open a gel, hold a half full cup, and dodge someone, impaled himself on the pole. Fortunately it's somewhat flexibly mounted, and I think he took the worst of it in his gut, but still. I very carefully ran around it and started towards home.

10 K, 1:10:45, running easy, except for kilometers 6, 7, and 8. I struggled there a bit, falling off the pace. Pulled it together for 9 and 10 though. After all the heat it was lovely running in the sun with a cool breeze. Lots of other runners out. I discovered this graph in iSmoothrun, which I had never seen before. I think it makes things much clearer, though you can't see the altitude part very well, but I'm not sure how much I trust it anyways. It's clear I need to work on maintaining cadence.

My feet felt pretty good throughout, though I think I need to get new shoes. There doesn't seem to be much squish under the ball of my right foot anymore.

After that I sat in the back patio, drinking fruit juice, nibbling a cookie or two (or three) and doing a bit of writing. It's a lovely relaxing way to spend some time.

Michelle and I have been conspiring on photos. Let's see if I can find a couple for you that aren't too bad. These need to be cropped. Here is me desperate to keep up as Michelle pulls away.

Michelle pedaling like mad desperate to pass, me coasting. I am faster downhill, she is faster going up.

Remember the bikes on the fence shot from yesterday? We practiced transitions, so here is the action shot. In a note to self moment, Michelle realized how long it takes to tie shoes, and why triathletes pay for speed laces.

And lastly lunch being a left over bison burger with cheese.

I took apart a printer cassette player combo

Good thing I didn't have to put it back together again.

That was the best part of the week, after a so-so swim on Monday, and a good run on Tuesday. Bailed on Wed morning swim, got pummeled in a massage, and just scrapped through yoga. It was a very tough work week for a lot of reasons. Considering I'm often not in the office at all on Friday afternoons, and out by 3 when I am, you'll know it was bad when I tell you I was still there at 5 pm. Yes, I had a big glass of wine waiting for me at home.

But Thursday was fun. We went to the adults only night at Spark, the local science centre, and had an excellent time! For locals, this is well worth doing, if you haven't. There are lots of hands on displays, and it was great to see adults wandering around playing with stuff. There was a table full of electronic stuff that you could take apart, or you could build something.

I was looking at what I eventually figured out to be a combination half size printer, and cassette tape player (do I have to explain what they are?). When I couldn't figure out how to take it apart in a few seconds, I got intrigued. A staff person told me it had been sitting there a couple of days with nobody getting into it. Yes, they supply tools. Once I got the cover off it was mostly straightforward. I got a whole new appreciation for how stuff is put together, and how it was designed in the first place. Here it is in progressive stages of dismemberment.

And Linda, cuddling one of the steel dinosaurs. The display is extremely well done! Even though you know they aren't bones done in plaster or whatever painted to look real, but rather scrap steel, they looked appropriate. Not real, but realistic. The various claws and teeth looked particularly efficient. Even better, you could pull on cables for some of them and make them move. Fascinating.

Lately I've become interested in crows and ravens. They are extremely smart birds, and there was a huge crow model as well. I suppose model isn't the right word, given it was about 10x bigger than any crow. Something like this would make a great prop in a horror movie. Zombie Crows. I should write out a script and become a millionaire.

Friday I was in the dive tank for stroke improvement, watching Talisman getting set up for a swim meet. I love seeing kids so active, and going through the various drills beforehand. I even picked a quarter off the bottom of the dive tank. Rich!

Saturday Sophia, Michelle, and I were out for a short easy run in Fish Creek. Longish walk to warm up, I ran a hair under 5 K in 40 minutes at a nice chatchatchat pace. Here's the semi-obligatory shoe selfie.

Fish Creek was as lovely as ever!

Afterward they came over to our place and tried the Death Wish coffee, and liked it. See my review from last weekend here. It was lovely to sit, sip, and chat more.

And back to work tomorrow, yes, Sunday. I just hope the testing goes quickly.