Autumn gardening in Calgary, and a rant

The plants have had a big year, growing tall, developing their roots and bulbs, and blooming their little faces off. That takes nutrients. Linda has noted the soil level has fallen quite a bit since the garden was planted, and has a plan. The delivery guy was helpful in dropping the big bags right where they were wanted. It saves me much wheelbarrow work. I am thankful.

Plus we are starting to get frost at night. The white fabric is cheap. The pelicans help to protect the plants.

Here's some more plants all draped up. We have plans for Halloween to use this fabric. Hopefully there will be a little breeze, and we can send billowing clouds of the fabric towards the little trick or treaters.

Others plants are still working on their blooms. I call them optimists. I'm not sure if they're behind because of recovering from the many hail storms, or they are late bloomers anyways. I am rooting for them, being a bit of a late bloomer myself.

The big event this weekend is the photography course put on by the famous Neil Zeller. I'm so eager to go I'm already packed.

Lets see, what haven't I talked about. Oh yeah. Running. Last you heard we ended the 26 K run at 22 K. I've been hurting in an achy way ever since.  Twinges in hams and calves. I woke up the other day to spasming muscles in the back of my knee, extending down into the calf, and up into the thigh. Not hard and painful like a charlie horse, just little contractions that I didn't ask for. My resting heart rate has been elevated, and my sleep has been crap the last several nights. I suspect over training, or my body not recovering from the last workout.

Doing easy mobility work has twingy moments. The Tuesday swim was ok, but the water running after didn't last long. Fighting off a runny nose cold hasn't been helping.

The Saturday schedule calls for 28 K, and I'd been thinking of moving that to today. I don't think I can cope with staying up late (for me), doing a long run, and then going out for another late night, and then spending all day working with the images.

Now that today has arrived, I'm asking my legs what they think. 28 K is right out. In fact, I'm dubious about 10 K. Stay tuned.

I was into Chinook mall to check out the screen on the new 27 inch iMac. Along the way I saw this totally incongruous sign.

(Rant on!)
What's wrong with this picture? To start with, there isn't a lot we can do about the adults addicted to tobacco. I feel for them, and I weep for the impact it has on our so-called health care system. But we should be doing everything in our power to prevent people from getting the habit in the first place. Tobacco is a foul, noxious product that has absolutely no redeeming societal value, and should have no place in the modern world. None.

That said, it's been legal, and we need to deal with the consequences for much of the next human lifetime. Places like Shefield should exist to supply the unfortunate, under strict conditions. That should be the only place to legally get tobacco in any form. And those places should not be next to a child oriented store. They should be regulated similar to the places selling alcohol.  Test them by sending in underage kids, and if they don't check the ID, they are shut down.

I was thinking about the health care system as I woke up this morning. There is a whole wave of pre-geezer people that are going to be putting increased demand on the system as their bodies fail them. I'm one of them, healthier than most, but the path is inevitable. All we can do is manage how steep the decline is, and how many rocks are in the path. The health system should make this easier, and keep people out of hospitals.

Let's take automobile collisions, or as I like to call them, demonstrations of driver incompetence. DDI for short. One of the unfortunate side effects is cluttering up the medical system. People don't get killed nice and clean, oh no. There are whole teams of highly trained people devoted to getting the injured out of the mangled vehicles and delivered to a hospital. Some of them die sooner or later., how sad for them and their families. Some are injured to a lesser degree, but might take up a bed for much longer while they recover, and many never recover fully. In some ways that's even sadder. Even those not injured will likely be assessed, which takes valuable medical resources.

I've said it before, I'd like to see car simulators built to objectively test people's driving skills, and measure the lack. And boy do I see a lot of skill lacking, or the willingness to employ the skills, which comes to the same thing. You see it too, don't lie to me. Such a test every 5 years or so upon license renewal seems fine, and of course, after a DDI. We should be doing lots more to reduce the number of dead an injured, not just for their sake, though that's reason enough, but to lessen the burden on the health system.

We should be looking hard at people that are involved in any sort of a DDI. Those single vehicle "incidents" we hear about on the radio so often? If it's not a medical event, it's a DDI, unless you convince me the driver was distracted by some amazing event like a meteor strike nearby.  Changing weather doesn't count, this is Canada, the weather changes abruptly so drive that way. After a DDI the driver(s) involved should have to justify why they should be continued to be allowed to drive, and should have to pass an advanced driver safety course. The course and following drivers test should be marked by the infamous Russian judge.

Just yesterday I watched a woman trying to get out of a tight parking spot in a big vehicle, while holding a phone to her ear. I was watching carefully so I didn't get run over. I caught her eye, did the phone holding gesture, while shaking my head at her. She just got angry and revved the engine more. Fortunately I was beside the vehicle, not in front or behind, but I was beginning to worry about the surrounding vehicles. What could be so important that she couldn't complete the call while parked, then devote her full attention, such as it is, to the difficult task facing her? I don't think she had completely grasped the concept of turning the steering wheel this way, while backing, to make the front of the car point that way. Sigh.

I wish I knew what caused people to make choices that they know are bad for them. Driving is one of the most dangerous things a Canadian can do. The manufacturers have made cars ever safer, yet people are devoting less thought to driving. They know they can't (not in the legal sense, but that it's nearly impossible to) text and drive, but seem compelled to pick up the phone.

People know that smoking tobacco is a disgusting habit that will damage their health, and that of the people around them, yet they continue. Worse, they somehow start.

People make poor food choices, sometimes because that's all they can afford. I've been asked at work where I get the food I bring for lunch, it smells so good. I tell them it's often what we had for dinner the night before. Yes, they say, but where did you get it? Umm, Linda cooked it. They don't get it. Many of the people I worked with over the last while not only don't cook, they can't cook, unless heating up canned contents counts. Not.

Trinkets like the iPhone are all very well, but there's lots of days I think there are some fundamental things wrong with our society. Do you agree? Stories you can share?

I shut up and ran.

I looked at the dawn of a new year, and contemplated going for a run. In the end I decided that coffee and breakfast first was a reasonable choice, and ran about noon. It was below zero though, so it's not like I weenied out or anything.

Still, I was thinking of a recent blog by my blog buddy Beth Risdon. It isn't what you'd call delicate, but then, she isn't a delicate kind of girl. She tells it like it is, and gets out there to do it. (Those of you who read her blog regularly realize how delicate *I* am being with the 'do it' part of that statement.) I want to bring a bit more of this shut up and get on with it attitude to my workouts. Within reason of course, and the limits of my tired old bod.

So, me, today. I'd started with more writing this morning. The coffee was so good! Writing and coffee go together so well.  Things have been going well. I'm up to 23,500 words. Some of it conversational blither, of course. I woke up to a great scene, but I'm not sure what the point of it was, or where it belongs. Maybe I should write it down anyway, so the idea fairy keeps bring ing more ideas. I decided to shut up with the words for a bit, and go run. 5 K, 35 minutes nice and easy, trying to relax my hams, and not provoke my left calf. It's feeling a little cranky. It's a beautiful day, clear and sunny, a few degrees below freezing. The run felt great, not many other people out yet.

Yesterday was a nice swim, though still no hot tub. 1.5 K, 29 minutes, feeling very slow in the water, like my arms were going around and around, but not getting a grip. Water ran with Katie after.

The exciting part of the day was some shopping. Costco first and what a zoo that was! I had to park across the road. All sorts of inconsiderate people shambling around like half slaughtered oxen. Just in front of me a couple people got into the store, and stopped right there, looking at the tv display. I didn't recognize the movie or show, but I did recognize the copious amounts of drool. Ick. There was one old geezer with a loud and fatuous voice that I couldn't get away from. They moved the cheese.

Co-op next. Not so many people, but they were all trying to get in my way, I'm sure. I didn't actually trample any of them.

While in Costco I picked up the 3 season set of House of Cards, the American version. I have the British version with Ian Richardson, and loved it! So far, (2 discs) I'm loving the American version, which is a bit of a surprise to me. I hadn't planned on staying up till midnight, but the show carried me along.

So here we are, 2016. I'm not going to inflict any summary of the year on you. Nor am I going to list out my resolutions. I'm not a resolutions kind of guy, other than the afore mentioned desire to be less of a slug, and to get on with the things I want to be doing. There might be a bit more trampling in the year to come. I'm quite sure I reached peak patience several years ago, and my supply is declining.

So far I've got 3 months of work lined up, and who knows if that will actually happen, or what will happen after? I've totally loved this couple weeks off, even though I didn't get to sleep in much. Afternoon naps are nice.

The cats. Here they are, both ignoring me, paying attention to the human in charge.

The manly art of -11 C BBQ

Here we go.

Yet I had the hankering to do, and eat BBQ. Linda had some chicken in the fridge, soaking up marinade. I just had to. Here's the starting view from the back door.

After some shoveling to get to the barbecue. See the smiley face?

And there's the path to get to it without wearing boots. This is the snowfall in the last day or so.

Much of the snow went onto the flowerbeds to help insulate the plants from the chinook that is coming. Nobody knows just when, but it will come. Non-gardening Calgarians will be happy. The roads will turn to crap, and the beautiful snow will be gone. The gardeners worry about the plants waking up and starting to grow, thinking it's spring.

Chicken thighs, with a maple syrup based marinade. Greek salad. Fresh baked scones with orange zest in them for dessert. The only thing hard about this is making sure to wear a jacket, and knowing when meat is done by poking it with the tongs. Because it's dark, that's why.

The swim that started today was great! From the first strokes I knew my arms had recanted their Pastafarianism. 500 m, 8:50!! Yay me! This is a new record for that distance. (First time I've timed that distance at race pace, but hush.) 3x100 on 2, all sub 100 seconds. 100 m in 88 seconds. Lots of noodling around, working on stroke, playing with swim toys. Coffee after had a side of Australian accent.

I was beginning to wonder what I had got myself into, though. I saw geezers on the way into the pool. The locker room was full of them. One of them had on a shirt, tie, jacket, socks and shoes, but was all too noticeably lacking underwear and pants. I was beginning to wonder if he'd totally forgotten and was going to leave like that, and was wondering even more if anyone would say anything. A couple guys leaving as we got into the pool but I'm not sure they were actually geezers. A super-not-geezer swam in the next lane for a while. We watched a geezer drive her car into another one while parking, to the distinct tinkle of something breaking. More geezers at the mall where I dropped off my jacket to have the zipper repaired. I fear that one day I will have become a geezer and not notice.

Onto the bike afterward for a short, moderate spin to wake up my legs, lots of stretching after.

More words. Since Monday a week ago I'm up to just under 19,000 words. This is comfortably over NaNoWriMo pace. I love my characters. They constantly surprise me. Dwen foils a kidnapping attempt because she smuggled a large caliber handgun into a formal meeting, hidden under a ruffly blouse, and used it. I hadn't known that she knew how. I'm wondering what she gets up to next.

You look like a maniac ax murderer, she said

At least it wasn't someone I was trying to get into bed.

But the day started really well.

The pre-stampede parade traffic downtown was still light when we got into Talisman. I could see one person cheating on the parking; they were clearly going to the parade, and not coming in for a workout. Both of them, and the kids should have picked the workout.

As almost always, it was a lovely swim. We had a lane to ourselves, and we churned back and forth. The improvements Michelle has made! Her right leg still gets off the reservation, but she is swimming quite well. Soon she will be able to cope with a triathlon wave start.

I played with fish stroke a bit more, and at one point actually ended up in the next lane, to the startlement of me and the girl swimming in it. At least I didn't run into her, though I totally surfaced into the lane ropes once. Good thing nobody had a video camera running. My inner shark showed up briefly to laugh at me. Thanks buddy.

Part of the technique was to work on reach and catch. It messed up my kick, such as it is, because the timing is subtly different. I was really working on keeping my elbows high, and I could feel my shoulders hard at it. It's funny, I was pushing hard, and felt fast, but the clock said 93 seconds (100 m long course). A bit later I tried again, felt slower and more thrashy, even though I was working HARD on form, and the clock said 91 seconds. Some days I don't know. The rest was regular drills and stuff, with lots of kick drills.

Did you know you can't currently buy crushed brick except at Burnco? The problem is the delivery methods discussed on their website involve a dump truck or a big cubic yard bag. I need about 2/27th of that amount. Maybe tomorrow or Sunday I'll show up with a couple pails in my car trunk and see if they take pity on me.

Then it was off to renew my business corporation thingie with the Alberta government. It used to be $20, and that bastard Prentice raised it to $55. Good thing I didn't vote for him. Oh well, it's a deductible expense.

I also had to renew my drivers license. What SHOULD be happening here is that I make an appointment to sit in a car simulator, and they run me through a standardized test to see if I still have the reflexes and skills needed to be on the roads. This should happen to everybody, every 5 years. None of this age-ism shit. More often when you turn into a geezer, but I admit the geezer-o-meter is not yet perfected.

If they can train airplane pilots well enough in a simulator that the first time they actually fly the airplane it has passengers in it, then they can make car simulators for testing drivers. I have this vision of the simulator starting at the bottom of the City Hall parkade. The simulator has a camera looking at your eyes so it knows where you are looking. If you don't look the right way, a pedestrian appears, and gets splattered all over your windshield, and you fail. Maybe they scream a lot. Come back in a month sir or ma'am, and by the way, your license is revoked. You are too dangerous to be allowed on the road, and can buy a bus pass at the kiosk in the lobby.

For training male teenaged drivers I'd be merciless. They make a mistake, and they crawl out of the simulator with bruises from the seatbelt and airbag, their ears ringing, and with wet pants. Again and again, as often as necessary, and in the meantime they are not on the road. There would be one section of the regular test where people try to text on a cell phone while driving. Remember what I said about wet pants?

It sounds harsh, but thousands of people are maimed or die on Canadian roads every year. You, yes you, are almost certainly a worse driver than you think. How can 80% of us think we are above average drivers? Listening to the traffic report any weekday ought to disabuse you of that notion.

I digress. What actually happens is some paperwork gets signed, and they take a photo. This has not been my strong suit in life. The camera loves some people, and I am not one of them. There are fewer than a dozen photos of me that I like. It's not as bad in recent years; I'm not sure why.

But when the first picture came up, she exclaimed, "Geez, you look like a maniac ax-murderer! Let's do that again." I have to admit, those eyes were pretty scary. I dialed it back a bit, and it was ok. So why can't I turn that on in work meetings, and quell people that are disagreeing with me because they don't realize I am right and they are wrong?

Which leads to another topic, those disagreements. It's actually a sign of respect. I'm helping them because I like them, or respect them, and am helping them to realize the error of their ways. I can see the pit ahead of them, and I'm trying to stop them from ending up in the pit. Or more to the point, to stop them from dragging me into the pit. Often they don't know there are hungry predators in the pit.

Some people I've worked with (I'm looking at YOU, Lucy, and 3 of 9) I could see the path lying open and clear to the pit. For them I slipped ahead and woke up the predators. You don't need to think very hard to understand what I thought of them.

And then there was the branch of the Stampede Parade through Coop, the toddle of the geezers. Holy cow. They were everywhere. I was in because I'd finished off the sunscreen and will need more soon. Really soon. I was disappointed they didn't seem to have the 100 SPF, and had to make do with 50 SPF. I'll just put on two layers and look elsewhere for the good stuff. I need it.

I need to get a good night's sleep, and be ready for my photo shoot tomorrow.

 The blog sound track.

Trooper (Three dressed up as a nine)
Trooper (The boys in the bright white sports car)
The Knack (Good Girls Don't)
Cheap Trick (Dream Police)
Cheap Trick (Ain't that a Shame, Live at Budokan, video!)
Cheap Trick (Surrender, Midnight Special)
Golden Earing (Radar Love)
Blonde (Heart of Glass) [How on earth can Debbie Harry be 70??!!]]
Sparks (This town ain't big enough for both of us)
The Sweet (Ballroom Blitz) [Do any of you remember the album cover that slid up and down to produce a wink?]
Deep Purple (Smoke on the Water)

Whip the wine hard!

That's what the instructions say!

Here's what the white looked like before getting started. You can see the layer of yeast down on the bottom. Left to itself it would all settle out, but it would take a very long time, and probably go off in the meantime.

So a couple things. One is to get rid of the dissolved C02. Normally power tools and wine don't go together, but stirring is the best way to degas wine. What is stirring but making things go around and mixing it up, and what is a drill but a tool for doing that? Voila.

There are a few ingredients added to kill the yeast, and help clump the wine together so it settles faster. For the white, the instructions say to stir the sediment back in, though often you rack it to another carboy and leave the sediment. This makes sense when you think about it. Whites often take longer to clear, and leaving the sediment in gives the finer particles something to clump to. Note the froth on top, that's the gas leaving. It looks almost like milk at this point.

Here's the tool in action.

After a while you can already see that it's starting to settle out.

Then it was on to the red. This is the sediment that's left at the bottom of the primary. It's essentially bright purple sludge.

It produces interesting swirls and patterns when poured out into a sink. Note when you do this for yourself, that this will stain anything that it touches. Forever.

Here's the milky white and the red together just after I finished with the red. You can see the faint layer at the bottom as the yeast starts to settle.

Here's a better look at the yeast settling out of the red.

One more of the bottom of both carboys several hours later. 

Another month and I'll be able to bottle these two, and start another pair of kits.

After all that I warmed up and tried a run. It's so nice outside since the first time in a very long time. Shorts and a tech shirt! However, my knee and quad were dubious about the whole thing. I promised them I'd bail out if they complained. There were minor complaints the whole time, but at 3 K I decided they were serious and walked it back. Stretched. Hot shower. Some rolling, more later, like as soon as I finish the blog.

After the shower I was nibbling lunch, fighting off the cat snore-ons. I would imagine that not many of you remember Captain Scarlet and Mysterons from the late 60's. A pair of zeros would float over the screen and "The voice of the Mysterons" would intone, and people would fall asleep. Cat snore-ons work exactly like that, except there is no zeros, and no voices, just purrs and wheezy cat snores. I was out for a couple hours. It was very nice.

Let's see, a bit of catchup. Swam on Friday; it felt pretty good. I managed to have coffee with Michelle after work, meaning about lunch time. I had left my pack at my accountant's office, and that office is right across the road from where Michelle works. So that was all good, aside from minor worries about dementia.

But there are other examples, fortunately in other people. Like the person that parked their truck at Talisman on Friday. They were one of the first people there, and my goodness did they ever do a crappy job of parking! Then the parking lot in front of the British Chippy was almost as bad. You'd think when drivers could see the parking lot lines, they would park better, but no.

Often it seems that winter parking is done better. People spread out a bit more. The parking is a bit free form, and maybe it's not quite as efficient in terms of absolute numbers of cars in the lot, but how often are the parking lots that full? Maybe we should just remove the lines altogether?

I shouldn't have been surprised on Friday, but my geezer alert was going off. Big time. Dinner at the British Chippy. The entire shop was filled with elderly people, with a couple of exceptions. We were in line, waiting for a table, doing the table counting thing. You know, you've done it too, wondering how long it will be.

One elderly couple was just about done, as in plates going crusty, and cups empty. Another elderly couple walked in, waved, sat down with them. Ordered, having successfully jumped the line. The elderly couple at the front of the line were shooting them some major dirty looks. They all chatted. We had a bit of a wait for our meal, in spite of the very considerate advance order done by the nice staff. We ate, not rushing, but not dawdling either. There was a constant line waiting for tables. The first couple had another coffee. Then their guests finished eating, and there was another round of coffee. They were still going at it when we left. I get that they wanted to chat, and a restaurant is a nice time. But holy cow, they probably cost the restaurant $200 in lost turnover. The time to chat is during off hours. During the rush, have some consideration for the staff and the other prospective diners.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day, and if my knee doesn't complain too much, I might try to run again. Maybe. 5 K would be nice. I had hoped that for this marathon I'd be able to build up to running nearly the full marathon distance, then tapering, then doing the race. Well, race day is less than two months away now. There is no way I'm going to be able to build to any reasonable volume. I'm pretty certain that even running a half marathon before race day is going to be a bit of an achievement. I've just been looking through the registration site. Non-refundable, non-transferable. Oh well.

Where to begin, a rant

Friday I ran 5K in 35 minutes, nice and easy, avoiding puddles. There are still many puddles where the storm drains are frozen. Today I've been wanting to go for a run. I think the extra stretching, rolling, ball rolling, and such has been having a good effect on my legs. Tomorrow I'll find out if that's true. Dawn runs are so nice.

Today was pick up day. The road to Red Deer was full of pick ups. I think the majority of the vehicles I saw were trucks. Most driven fast and aggressively, but there was one driven by a weenie getting in the way. If someone in the right lane was coming up behind him, he would move over to the left lane to get out of their way. Idiot.

The other pick up was wine. Here they are. The first three are the ordered kits. The last is an extra one I picked out because I'd saved so much money. One way of thinking about it is that I paid regular price for the 3, and got the 4th free. The Pacific Quartet is already started.

The kits are complete, coming with their own labels. All I need to buy is corks. I choose to buy shrink wraps for the bottle top for one simple reason. We have a dusty basement, and with the shrink wraps I KNOW the cork has not been compromised. I also buy bottled water from Co-op's reverse osmosis machine because the chlorine that's in the City water supply tends to be hard on the yeast. It also gives the wine a funny taste. 

A few times a year I have to clean out all the containers out of the garage to return for deposit. This turned out to be about $20. Mostly milk containers, lots of juice, and a few beer bottles. I usually go to the Tsuu T'ina (pronounced SootINA) which is sometimes a gong show, but today they were waiting for me. Fast and easy. Love it.

Then geezer hell. Except for the 2 kids I saw stocking shelves, I was the youngest person in the Co-op. By far. The taint of geezer was in the air. One woman was making a nuisance of herself between the fruit & veg section and the dairy section, shambling around erratically, being aggressive with her cart. The guy ahead of me in the water line up hadn't thought it through. He had a big container of water, and couldn't lift it out of the machine when full. I pulled it out for him, but he had forgotten a cart. I put it on the floor, and started on my bottle. He hadn't come back when I finished so I left. Beats me if he ever came back.

Then a couple paying for groceries with a cheque. I couldn't believe it. I thought such barbaric practices had been abolished. They've got the tap Visa machines that I love, why wouldn't you do that? Then in the parking lot, another geezer was wandering around looking for their vehicle, up and down where people wanted to drive. Slowly. I figure if you can't find your vehicle, you don't deserve to be driving it.

It made me think a bit though. Even me, in my youth and innocence, have seen the world change immeasurably in my lifetime. This laptop I'm writing on, and the iPad I'm using to exchange twitter comments and flange up a run tomorrow are amazing. Either would give the computer scientists of my youth wet pants. Our cars can't fly, and just as well given the lack of driving skills demonstrated daily, but I'm just amazed at what they come with now. I'm going to need a lesson on the electronics of it when we buy a new car. Then again, maybe we can keep this one going.

I was thinking of what has to happen for me to touch a small plastic card to a small box to pay for my groceries. In a few seconds there is a very complicated data exchange with computers that live who knows where. Soon I probably won't even need to take the card out of my wallet. The payment machine will talk to my phone. Even now, some people don't use cash. My office roomie doesn't use cash at all. Hasn't carried any for years; he pays for everything with credit or debit cards. 

Even now, what we call a cell phone, is actually used as a telephone only a small part of the time by most people. I use it most as a text machine when I'm on the go. Twitter, email, chat, Facebook, plus Sudoku, when I don't have to pay attention to driving. Turning my parking sessions on and off is probably the most important thing I use it for. I find it hard to believe that something so advanced, that I bought such a short time ago (3 years) is now obsolete. I am eager to see what the iPhone 6 brings this fall. I remain hopeful of actually understanding it.

After getting all that done I settled in. I was seriously considering forcibly cuddling a cat, but how could I disturb him? He was snoring.

I worked on the novel a bit, but mainly I was thinking about today's main errand. We will have driverless cars soon, I'm guessing 5 to 10 years or so. Technically they work fine. Now the lawyers get involved, and all lawyers do is complicate things, and hold them up. Especially the ones acting for insurance companies. The whole situation is calling for a bold stroke to resolve the issue, but the only bold stroke Harper knows is lying to Canadians.

It would be very nice to send a car to drive itself to the wine store. The staff there would load it up, and we'd do a transaction to pay for it. While I had a very nice drive, thinking, and enjoying the silence, what else could I have done with that 3 hours? An attempt at sleeping in might have been nice.

The other thing that will need to change is homes. Right now parcels get left on our door stop. Mostly this isn't an issue for books or DVD's,  but you can bet I made special arrangements for the laptop delivery. The radio was talking about grocery stores thinking again about offering a grocery shopping experience. Presumably the people most interested will be home waiting, but who knows. Even people like me might like to have food waiting when we get home from work, rather than having to stop on the way home.

We will need a way to arrange for packages to be left at a home, with the delivery person getting whatever they need to do so. I suppose if someone really wanted to, they could build a house computer around an iPhone or iPad. Siri is pretty bright in some ways, perhaps she could be trained to deal with people ringing the doorbell. I have to admit what comes to mind is the Star Wars movie where the robots are sneaking into Jabba the Hut's palace. The eyestalk coming out of the door made my week. I'd love, LOVE to have something like that. Something with a spike on it for the religious nut-jobs that come by is a bonus.

In so many ways I'm looking forward to the changes that are coming. It's going to be an exciting ride.

So much for that idea

I was good. I got up early. I shoveled my drive way. My neighbor's sidewalk. My other neighbor's sidewalk and double driveway. I was doing core and warmup. I was ready to go. Well, mostly. It snowed about 5 cm last night. My running buddy had to turn back and change shoes after ice buildup in them.  Didn't sound like fun. I was not heartbroken, and settled into for a nice day inside.

Eventually I went out and got gaiters, which I need for snowshoeing, but made sure they could fit over running shoes too. We'll have another go at running tomorrow. Some other errands. Somewhere along the way, a simple thing like lightbulbs have become very complicated. I was in Rona to get a few more of the ones I need for the pot lights throughout most of the house. The bulbs are about $10 apiece, and I was all set to pick up a bigger pack of them for half the price apiece. Except, they aren't the same size, not quite. I'm glass I noticed.

Down in the basement we still have a few incandescents. The ones they don't make anymore. There was a geezer in the store, cleaning out the shelves. He had a shopping cart full. The other choices are baffling. Eventually I'll have to go there. My only problem is the ones that have mercury in them. Somewhere between me being in high school, where the teacher played with a blob of mercury in chemistry class, and now, they discovered that mercury is a horribly toxic substance. Fine as long as the bulb doesn't break. I hate the yucky pale white light from the newer bulbs I've seen. I hope to find something that works for us.

Here's some photos from the last little while. Curtis had been curled up, then Celina hopped up to but in. Now look where his right paw is. Love it.

The side of the house, snow falling. And falling.

Look! I'm a winner! I'd ordered this shortly after validating, and got a book at the same time. They arrived yesterday. Granted, I selected the cheapest post option, since otherwise the mail would have cost more than the items. But still, a month is a bit over the top for delivery time. Good thing I wasn't planning something from there as a gift. And while I'm on the topic, can you believe I've had only one volunteer beta reader for 88K words?

Here's the pitch. A small group of friends in present day Calgary react to changes in medical technologies over next few years. It starts with nearly instant cures for road rash, sunburn, and blisters, proceeds to an odd treatment for a heart attack, thence to never having to brush or floss your teeth, and to the consequences of advanced stem cell technologies. If you want a taste of what you'd be getting into, you can see some snippets here.  If you're a writer or a discerning reader that can answer a few simple questions, let me know. Please and thank you.

Back to the snow shots. This is just outside our back door. Still nothing to compare to that one photo I saw from the east coast, where the snow was nearly up to the door handle.

Still, there is a lot of snow here. Those 3 covered lumps are more than 3 feet high.

I am now having to be a bit careful looking out the car window as I'm backing out onto the street.

The crowd was terrified, and left us alone

Let's see what order the photos show up in through magic of blogger imports. That's the order I'll write about, regardless of if it makes sense or not. I say BAH! to temporal boundaries.

This is from this morning. One of my blogger buddies was feeling grumpy, and wanted something to cheer her up. Sunrises often do that for me. My thinking is that if something as big and important as the sun keeps coming up, my problems can't be that serious. She liked the photo even if it wasn't the brilliant flame colors we sometimes get.

This is from earlier in the week. Celina occasionally likes to hop up and butt into wherever Curtis is sleeping. He sometimes looks a bit cranky about it.

Company Christmas party on Friday. The party was pretty good, my main criteria being the band not being too loud. I got to chat to a bunch of people I know, though there were a lot of empty places at the tables. Not that I'm expecting culinary excellence at dinner for several hundred, but I was disappointed by the food. Other meals we've had at this venue have been better.

Saturday I had fun going out and trying my new (exchanged) snowshoes. I went a couple of K in the big green space across the road. Only after did I realize that my left foot wasn't quite in the right place. It should have been strapped in about an inch further forward. There was a lot of snow. One drift was well over a foot deep, because that's how much I was sinking in. I really like the feeling of security I get walking on snowshoes. Mine have lots of pointy bits on the bottom edges. Probably not the best shoes for deep and fluffy snow, but there are add on tails if I want to do that.

After getting back in from snowshoeing, I changed and got on my bike for an hour of spin. I figured I might as well get good use out of the hot and sweaty.

While I'm on about it, my life has been bedeviled by small plastic tabs. A part broke off the BBQ earlier in the week. On my Sorel boots, there is a little plastic thingie that helps keep the laces in order, and half of it broke. I've only had these boots for 20 years or so, maybe more.

A few minutes after getting the earlier sunrise shot, I got these two. I thought the clouds were interesting.

This is where the crowds were terrified. The glass carafe on our French Press got broken, fortunately after making this morning's coffee. Replacement was urgent. We had some Sear's gift cards, so we braved the mall. First was the book store. I've got Cmdr Hadfield's book, and I'm quite looking forward to it. Then my bank, and then the mall. Linda burst out of the car and sprinted for the door, getting there just as they unlocked it. She is at the back of the crowd near the centre. They saw her coming and scattered for their lives just after the photo. We got up to the kitchen section unmolested. Unfortunately they didn't have the good ones. Just the cheap plastic ones that last about 3 servings. Lately we've had a string of irons that leak all over your hand as you use them, so we got another one, a different brand. They say it's made in Germany, and weighs like it. The ones that leaked were T-Fal, made in China. Never again.

A bit of web search discovered that Crate and Barrel had them (French Press, complete new ones AND replacement carafes! (Keep up.)).  The associate that helped us was really good, but I wasn't impressed by the entrance/anteroom to the store. Neither Sears or C&B had a waffle maker I liked. The Krupp one could be used as armor plating on tanks in the next world war, but we don't need that many waffles at once. We can do without a waffle maker for a while, though it still sort of works, but having a real coffee maker is a daily necessity. If you have waffle maker suggestions, feel free to leave them in comments.

We strolled around the mall a bit, entranced by this structure in centre court. Santa isn't in his chair, but showed up a few minutes later. You can't see the snaky line up thingie, full of strollers. My considered opinion is that the guy doing Santa is either really hard up for $, or has done something truly dreadful in a previous lifetime and is paying for it now. Probably the parents too.

Sears was full of geezers. I think I only saw two people younger than me, excepting the employees. Sears has changed a lot. Not that I shop there much, and today's experience isn't going to speed my next time.

Once home I limbered up and went out into the beautiful sunshine. I ran 6 k just over 42 minutes up towards the reservoir and back. Dog city. My legs felt pretty good, and I probably could have run further, but didn't want to push it. The lesson I've learned this year is that I'm good for a while, but fall over the edge fairly quickly to having unhappy legs. It was probably about 10 C, and I could have worn shorts. The spike in the graph was waiting for the lights to change. it took a long time for my legs to feel happy running, and I gradually sped up throughout the run.

I'm still gathering questions for the AMA, Ask Me Anything. Feel free to leave your question in a comment, email, or social media. Remember that I'm quite willing to invent questions and attribute to people. As a teaser to one of the questions, the numeric part of the answer is 37, 30, 5. The metaphysical aspects will be covered in the blog later.

I've got nearly another 1000 words written on the novel. Kelly is involved with some snippy verbal sparring with a stuffed shirt corporate type. It's gonna get sad.

Don't forget, AMA, and waffle maker comments.

Recumbent

There is a guy in my neighborhood that has a yellow recumbent bike. I've seen it any number of times, and one day after a run I got a chance to talk to him. There is a full fairing, and though it wasn't on the bike that day, there is a windscreen that quickly fits on. It's a cheerful yellow, and goes pretty fast, since the wind resistance is almost nothing.

He loves it, and started riding it because his back wouldn't let him be comfortable on a normal road bike. The dirty little secret to these is that most people think they are expensive, but that's only if you haven't looked at top end road and Tri bikes. There is usually a bit of space for cargo as well, though you won't want to go shopping at Costco or anything.

Best of all, there is a Canadian manufacturer, in Ontario. You can look them up here, and see all sorts of their recumbent bikes. I'd love to check these out and take one for a spin. It would be a cool way to commute to work, though I wonder what the parking fees would be. I wonder if a guy my height can fit in one; there are lots of cars I can't get comfortable in.

Recumbent can also apply to being seated in a lean back chair. Comfortable. This is a nice thing to do, and yesterday I spent a bit of time doing that. Not much, it's been a surprisingly busy weekend.

This morning I was up nearly for a hard 60 minute spin session, followed by a bit of stretching and core. Yes, pigeon, and some pushups. Not many.

Then the real workout, going to Costco. I remain astonished how cheap TV's are. It looks like I can get a 52 inch in the space we have. For a few minutes I was thinking of buying one, just to get the suspense over. But I didn't. That part of the store, and every other part was afflicted by geezers. These guys just don't care. They abandon their cart anywhere and go for a walk in some erratic direction to look at something, at random times. The Calgary Farmer's market was a bit better. I love going there. It has such a buzz and energy. I watched one young couple get hooked into the knife place. They were staring at the display open mouthed and panting a little. Granted, they have gorgeous knives, but this seemed a bit over the top. However, they were at the right place; if you want good kitchen knives, this is the best place in Canada to shop. Of course I bought something at Yum.

Cobs bread had two of them (geezers, not knife shops), trying to decide what they wanted, and both of them were trying to pay with nickels and dimes, rummaging through their purses for a few more when it wasn't enough. Me and the guy behind me were almost ready to pay for them, just to move them along. Then they hauled out the plastic. One had a mitt full of 20's in there. Coop was geezer city, but other than one guy determined to be in my way, it was ok. I managed to beat him to the till.

Then other shopping. It was so nice out I had to go for a run after getting home. I started out easy, intending to run an easy pace, but my legs were having none of it. Within a K I was down to about a 6 minute K, then settled into about a 6:20 pace for most of the run. That was pushing my lungs a bit, but my legs were happy with that. The last K was slowing down for a bit of a cool down. Short walk before the run, and a longish walk after. 6 K, 39 minutes altogether. Very pleased!

More stretching after, and some firm rolling on my quads, IT, and hams. This really must become a habit.

An unfortunate confluence

A few things have come together over this week that have left me feeling that I was way out on the short end of the stick. One was having reached a training peak and needing to back off a bit. Another was several meals of duck and sausage in beans. Another was realizing I was up to 3, sometimes 4 big cups of coffee a day.

The last few days have not been fun. I had not connected all those things until this morning. It just happened that I was cutting back on coffee the same time as I cut back on training. The beans and meat were one of the meals for several days in a row. A rich meal. One that left me feeling somewhat heavy internally. If you really need more of a hint, read this one of SUAR's recent blogs.

I've been a cranky, headachy, sleepy mess for the last couple of days. A huge xl at work requiring detailed comparisons of almost matching data (does the differing ID numbers fit a pattern, or are they really different assets?) didn't help much.

Thursday the main lighting was out at Talisman, so there were restrictions on facility usage. It made for a crowded pool, but I somehow managed to get a half lane to myself. Swam 30 minutes, working on form, noticing that I was finding it very hard to catch my breath after what should be semi-hard efforts, but felt very hard. I liked the dimmer lighting.

Thursday was a very early night. I thought briefly of spinning. Very briefly. The thinking not the spinning, then I went to bed.

Friday morning I didn't even consider swimming. I felt horrible. After doing a bit of coffee research, I got a small cup, half decaf half regular, and felt considerably better soon after. My rule is no more than one cup a day now. Let's see how that goes.

The geezers attacked on the way home. Once was coming out of the classy Brittania shops, where the Sunterra on Elbow is. I'd turned south onto Elbow. A car going south had just passed me, with a signal going to turn left onto 50th Ave. He (it was a he) was starting to move to the left, then changed his mind. Without looking, without changing his signal, he steered hard right across 4 lanes of traffic to end up turning right onto 50th. I saw him coming and got slowed down in time. The guy in the SUV beside me didn't notice at first and must have just about wet his pants. There was a horn.

The parking lot at Kingsland. A geezer (gender indeterminate this time) came out of a parking spot as I was leaving the mall. Once I realized they hadn't a clue I was there, and only the vague realization there was a building there (they nearly hit a support pillar) I backed up into the doorway again. Another couple did the same thing as they slowly drove past. I noted where they were going and went out another way. Scored a rack of lamb, huge. Guess what you're having for dinner on Sunday, Kelly.

A double left turn from Heritage to southbound 14th St. Many people want to get all the way over to the right to get into Glenmore Landing, or go west on 90th. It's a bit of a game sometimes, since the far left turn lane often does not have as much traffic in it. I'm in the middle lane, do my left, and promptly move over to the right. So far so good. A geezer, I think a he but won't swear to it, had been in the left lane, and I think he wanted into my lane. He was weaving all over the place, starting into the lane, then swerving back, even though there was nobody in that lane. At one point I thought he was going over the median. I kept a careful eye on him, and a swerve took him or her all the way from the left lane right into the exit for the mall. I saw him coming in time to speed up and make room. The guy behind me was less pleased. There was another horn. Another day in Calgary traffic.

Stuff like this makes me want to see everyone put into driving simulators to test their skills. I'm beginning to seriously think about how much this would cost, and if I could get the government interested. I suspect it would cost lots to start with, but the savings in gained human productivity and associated taxes, lessened health care demands from collision fallout, lessened damage to roadway infrastructure (do you have ANY idea how expensive it is?) would pay for it pretty quick. I think. Plus there is the intangible of having an objective method of testing drivers. Hopefully it would get the idiots off the road.

Calgary is thinking of spending a billion dollars it doesn't have to put some new bridges over the Bow at Crowhild, to say nothing of razing parts of several neighborhoods. But if we could weed out 10% of the drivers, maybe we could make do with existing infrastructure. Hmmm.

Friday evening I was feeling pretty good, so I tried a spin. One hour, easy spin. It took my legs a long time to get even partially woken up. Anything much over 100 rpm felt really hard so I didn't push it.

Now that I'm home, and my workout (such as it is) is done, here's my reward. Dust and all. Bottled April 2009, and this is the last one. Wonderful. A good start to the weekend.

A day in the life of retirement

It's funny how things come in waves. There will be times when nothing much is happening. This can be good, verging on very good. It gives you a bit of time to decompress, double check your list of things to make sure you haven't overlooked anything in the daily scramble, and just maybe, get in an afternoon nap.

However, even though time was invented so everything wouldn't happen at once, it often does. Book a date with a buddy for something, and the next call will be someone else, wanting just that time slot and nothing else. Or you won't see someone in a while, then you'll bump into them several times in no time at all.

Sophia was here Saturday for our run in Fish Creek (link has photos and all), even though it was a little bit cold. Nothing serious by Calgary standards, probably about -10 to -15 C (14 to 5 F) although there was a bit of a wind out in the open driving the apparent temperature down further. And initially the plan  was to run from the house along the very exposed 37 st path down to Fish Creek. So I can hardly blame Leana and Deb for not coming. But it was nice and there was no wind down in the trees.

Then the very next day, Sophia showed up again, first thing in the morning. It was all part of Linda's master plan. The run with me was to get Sophia all warmed up for the full scale rampage and trampling involved in the Millarville crafts market. I was never able to quite figure out if Linda was going to push Sophia through first as a human plow, or use her to distract the masses while Linda darted in for the goodies. In any case they came back with lots of stuff.

Since I was a total weenie, unable to take the carnage, I stayed home and did a peaceable 90 minute spin. Lots of high rpm, and some spin ups to high wattage, focussing on keeping my legs light and spinning full circles. Stretched after.

There was some other stuff, but I can't remember what it was. I know I was reading for a while. Supper was beans that had been simmered with sausage and duck, with wine of course. I finished my book, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, if you want to know, and pretty good it was. Not as good as my favourite in the series, Memory, but I had always wondered how Ivan would end up married.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, and like character driven plot, you have a big treat in store for you. The way Lois McMaster Bujold likes to write is to think "whats the worst thing that could happen to this character?" She is one of science fictions most awarded authors, winning the Hugo for best novel 4 times, (FOUR TIMES! which is something only one other author has done) and nominated for another 6 novels. One of her novellas won both the Hugo and Nebula. Baen Books claims to have sold more than 2 million of her books. Google her Vorkosigan series. It is much, much better than the blurbs make it sound. Read it in order. Set aside lots of time. Last word, I'd love to see Lena Heady play Cordelia Naismith, one of the strongest female characters in all science fiction. Her "shopping trip to the capital" is a classic.

Monday. Retirement day started after dropping Linda at work. Got to the pool a little later than normal and missed some of the morning rush. In the pool for an hour, though it wasn't one of my best swims. It was just a bit slow and awkward. Slow flip turns.

When I was swimming at Renfrew many of the people there were retired. It was very common for them to go out for breakfast after. I only thought of this as I was showering after the swim. My one retired buddy lives in Okotoks. Just a bit far to go for breakfast, and would take way too long. But then I remembered I hadn't eaten at the Galaxy Diner for a long time. My tummy instantly decided that was going to be breakfast. It's one of the best places in Calgary for all day breakfast. The line up says so, though there wasn't one today. It was as yummy as I had remembered.

Home. Puttered about getting ready for a run. Ran 5 K, 33 minutes. Slow start. I don't quite believe the pace chart so I won't post it. The theory was that as I warmed up, I'd try to run each K just a bit quicker. Well, as long time readers might know, I suck at slow builds. Today I found out that I still suck at slow builds. The last one was good, though. As far as I know that's the fastest I've ever run a whole K. Just a hair over a 9 minute mile pace.

Long bit of stretching after, with a bit of core work. But not much. I should do more. But today, I'm channeling a geezer.

The high point of the afternoon was wrestling with a normally amiable 14 pound cat. He was still amiable about it, about as amiable as a cat getting things done under his tail that he doesn't want done, can be.

Linda is having an LRT adventure getting home so I need to zoom out and rescue her.

The running herds of dawn

It seems like it's been weeks since we've seen the sun. People living in Vancouver and other less fortunate places are used it, but Calgary gets a lot of sun. Do not fool yourself into thinking we get a lot of warmth. That would be a serious, potentially Darwinian mistake.

When we don't get sunshine Calgarians get cranky. There's been a lot of that going around.

The dawn was beautiful this morning. It gets me closer to appreciating how primitive people could be come sun worshipers, and celebrating when they notice the days getting longer. I was up early and had to get a photo.

This is from yesterday, just as I was firing up the BBQ. It isn't a good photo of a chinook coming in, but it will do.

We had friends over Saturday, and you can tell the conversation bored the cats.

I waited till the sun was fully up before heading out for my run, but the crowds were there waiting for me. I have never, ever seen so many people running on this path, outside of race days. There were a few times I had to slow down to wait for on coming traffic before passing. Most people were being pretty good. Everybody except one sour puss were smiling and happy. The one big group I passed were a very happy and chatty bunch.

Which leads me to a happy making point. I am normally the passee not the passer during my runs. I think this is the most people I've ever passed on a run, yet I wasn't trying especially to run fast. It was so nice out my plan was to just run what my legs felt like doing. The first 5 K felt easy, then it got a bit tougher. I was struggling a bit between 5 and 7 K, then got it back together for the rest of the run.

Most of the dogs were pretty good, but one pair had particularly stupid humans. It's fine to stop on the path, when nobody is coming, but have a look first. These guys just stopped a few yards in front of me dogs and all decided to chat. I warned them I was there, and maybe that was a bad idea. They panicked and it was cute to see, but unproductive about clearing any obvious track.

One geezer failed his pedestrian license. I'm chugging along. He and his buddy were walking along. All was as it should be. I move over to the left to pass, and he clues in that I'm coming. While trying to look over his right shoulder, he edges over to his left, into my path. His mobility isn't good, so he's twisting further and further, actually beginning to back into my path. I squeaked by him as he was turning in place, standing in the middle of the wrong side of the path. Good thing I wasn't on a bike or that there wasn't oncoming traffic.

Still, it's nice to see so many people out and about on a fine morning. I'll bet everybody cancelled their Saturday walk, and took advantage of the sun as soon as they saw the nice weather report wasn't some cruel hoax.

Walked briskly and ran very easy to where I started, and walked about a K back to the house. Stretched after. There is a thing I like to do sometimes, and I did it this afternoon. I also did it here, here, here, and here.