Tempus Fugit

The Trap
Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

Perhaps that’s a little too dramatic. We’re actually talking about a very humane relocation, perhaps to a nice park in the neighborhood, or someplace very far away.

The nice cute little squirrel that we see scampering around all winter long has taken up residence in our shed. Now I don’t really have a problem with that, everybody has to be somewhere, but this guy is quite a messy tenant and he really needs to go. So, stage one, the trap is set and we’ve had a little experience with catching squirrels, so I’m quite optimistic that we can resolve this peacefully, with out a loss of life.

Sleigh Ride at the Festival du Voyageur
Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

For the first time in a long time we went over to the Festival on Louis Riel Day no less. The place was packed out but we managed to avoid the line-ups and the gate charges (accidentally of course) by hiking up the river bank from Notre Dame St. and Thibault St. to Fort Gibraltar. We bumped into this nice pair of horses. We checked out the snow sculptures and a few of the events before heading over to Starbucks for a EH,CDL and a couple of cookies. Came across a wise bird as well!

About a week ago, I went out to the Conservatory to take some pictures of the flowers with Scott and Shirley. When we arrived there was a lot more that flowers going on. There was a bride pulling up in a limo, to get married with a very emotional dad. This turned out to be just one of three weddings that we saw in our short visit.

But the best of all were these young ladies that I’ve dubbed Fairy Princesses. There were all dressed up in very fine attire and being quite attentive to the Queen of the Fairy Princesses, who was reading them a story and later singing and helping them with some craft work. It was quite a sight and never having had young daughters (yet) it was quite fascinating and heart warming to see them all having such a good time at what appeared to be somebodies very special birthday party.

We did get around to taking some photos of the flowers and Scott Orchid shot is excellent. Later we enjoyed a late lunch together at had a great afternoon.

Phone, PDA, touch screen all in 1992!

IBM Simon – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The IBM Simon Personal Communicator was the first attempt to market a commercially viable smartphone and was a joint venture between IBM and BellSouth. Simon was first shown as a product concept in 1992[1] at COMDEX, the communications industry trade show held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Launched in 1993[2] it combined the features of a mobile phone, a pager, a PDA, and a fax machine. After some delays it was sold by BellSouth in 1994 in 190 U.S. cities in 15 states and was originally priced at $899[3].

Besides a mobile phone, the major applications were a calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail, and games. It had no physical buttons to dial with. Instead customers used a touch-screen to select phone numbers with a finger or create facsimiles and memos with an optional stylus. Text was entered with either a unique on-screen “predictive” keyboard or QWERTY keyboard.

The Simon smartphone appeared in the movie “The Net”, released in 1995 (see http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/net/, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113957/).

Thanks to Bill over at kinnon.tv and his post on two shirts I end up reading…

A Life of Gifts | Pastoralia

I remember exactly when I first realized our fun little experiment had swerved completely out of my control: it was the day I learned someone had given away a grandmother.

which leads to reading….

About | TwoShirts.org

Our Vision

Twoshirts is a community of gift-giving where people freely give and receive all kinds of different things in our items listings, from appliances, to clothing, to help and services.

Twoshirts members have given away over 1000 items to each other since we started in January, 2008. We simply think generosity is a better way to live.

In fact, our vision is to connect the world in relationships of generosity.

which has me thinking about stuff, all the stuff we’ve accumulated and really don’t need and really can’t even figure out where to put the stuff half the time. I remember a time when Acts 2:44-45 had a big impact on me. Perhaps it’s time to do more and “give to each other”.

I had a great time at the Winnipeg Icebike race yesterday. Friends and family were out to watch and cheer me on which was much appreciated. The course was fast with fewer obsticals that some years, except for the crazy section on the freshly Zamboni’d skating path, which I don’t think anyone was able to ride. I’m hoping that my time and ranking was better than last year at 27th and 54:02, but there were a lot more competitors out this year.

Update:
Just checked the results,  Rider: 618 Garry Stewart   Time: 49:14  Place: 43

So, faster this year, but 43rd in a field of 57 vs. 27th in a field of 45.

Maybe next year I should try this one….

 Arrowhead Winter Ultramarathon

The Arrowhead Winter Ultra is a non-profit human powered ultramarathon on bike, foot or skis, covering 135 miles across the Arrowhead Region of Northern Minnesota from International Falls near the Canadian border to Tower, MN. The course follows a scenic, hilly, State multi-purpose trail under extreme winter conditions the first Monday of February.