Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Month: July 2006

  • Cycling Hazard #23

    A while back I started commuting by bike to work on a regular basis. My route from my house takes me down some residential streets to a paved path to some more residential streets and then onto a major route into the downtown core. So, first thing in the morning I’m not too challenged for the first few kilometers and by the time I’m fully awake, I’m ready for the traffic. Actually, I enjoy riding in the traffic and I’ve yet to have a serious incident. Oh, I’ve been yelled at a couple of times (not my fault), and been cut off a couple of times, not unexpectedly because if you’re paying attention to your situation you can usually see it coming, and I’ve never been “doored”, the thing I’m most concerned about.

    But, today on the way home I discovered that there are other kinds of hazards out there beyond, traffic, pot holes and pedestrians with dogs on long near invisible leashes. There are bees! Thankfully, this encounter was on the bike path and not on the road in rush hour traffic. Suddenly, I hear and feel a thwack on a bug hitting my helmet and then going between the helmet visor and just above my sunglasses, instantly followed by quite a painful sting!

    Wow, talk about a surprise. I’m frantically wiping whatever it is out from under the helmet while coming to a panic stop. I really didn’t want to get stung a second time. It left a really nice red welt and hours later it’s still stinging quite a bit. It’s been a very long time since I’ve been stung like this, however it’s starting to settle down and I’m sure that by tomorrow it will be gone, I hope.

  • News Photographer with NowPublic

    Out of the blue I got an email from NowPublic. According to their “about us page”

    NowPublic is a participatory news network which mobilizes an army of reporters to cover the events that define our world. In twelve short months, the company has become one of the fastest growing news organizations with over 15,000 reporters in 130 countries. During Hurricane Katrina, NowPublic had more reporters in the affected area than most news organizations have on their entire staff.

    NowPublic Technologies, Inc. is a Vancouver-based company. The company owns and operates NowPublic.com, which showcases its platform for citizen journalism. Learn more about the site, our management team, our advisors or contact us with your comments or questions.

    They requested the use of three of my Flickr pictures from a recent trip to the Kennedy Space Center where I had taken some photographs of the shuttle Discovery on the launch pad. They wanted to use the pictures in conjunction with the story about the foam coating coming off the external fuel tank. Since the trip to KSC and getting high speed Internet at the lake I’ve been following the shuttle launch with a little more interest than usual.

    So, does this make me a published news photographer? – The photo credit is as Big Dadoo, my Flickr name.

    After two scrubs it would be great if they could launch on July 4th and mark the day as the Return to Space Flight.

  • Riding at the Lake


    The Ride
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    Unfortunately the ride at the lake doesn’t look like this. The picture is from last years Maah Daah Hey trip (pictures), but the bike is still the one that gets me around. I figure that this year I’ll have logged over 10,000km on this bike since I purchased it in 2000.

    This morning it’s overcast and a little cool at about 20C, a nice temperature for a ride. I went over to Rushing River Provincial Park which is just under 20km, but this is not the flat road riding of Manitoba. First there is getting out to the highway from our cottage with  lots of hills. On the way out the longest and steepest climb is the one out of the gravel pit. I still remember the first time I tried this when the bike was new and I was still getting used to clipless pedals. About 2/3 of the way up I ran “out of gas” and stalled and didn’t clip out fast enough and just fell over right in the middle of the road. Well, things have improved and while the hill was still a grind, there was no stalling or falling off.

    The highway ride is not too bad, if you ignore the traffic. The shoulders are wide in 17 and most folks move over to give you some extra space, which is always appreciated. After the turn th 71, the shoulder narrows a bit but the traffic is lighter and going a little slower too. After 45min. I’m looping around the park. With the cooler weather there is nobody on the beach or in the lake and several campers are packing up. After a look at the river and an almond snack, it’s back in the saddle. Now there is a head wind and some of the long grades uphill are seeming a little tougher.

    Some of my gear selections are starting to slip and skip. I know there is a little bit of excessive cross chaning in the selection, but this never used to be a problem. Must be time for a bit of a tune-up.

    Pretty uneventful trip, no wildlife sightings, no road kill, no interesting objects on the side of the road, just the steady whir of the knobby tires on the road and some time to think.

  • I feel the need, the need for speed.




    Antenna

    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    I’ve always like that line from Top Gun.

    This weekend we put an new addition on the cottage, a little antenna. The little antenna connects us to a big tower just down the road. Thankfully, we can’t see this big tower as it’s a bit on an eye sore, so out of place at the lake, just like so many other cell phone towers plunked around the world. But, here we are supporting this kind of thing. Anyway, this big tower connects us to somewhere in Kenora which in turn connects us onto the Internet.

    Lets face it, once you become accustomed to high speed Internet access there is no going back to dial-up, well only under extreme duress.

    The verdict is still out as to if this was such a good idea. It has it’s pluses. I uploaded some large photo files to Flickr, checked on the Shuttle launch and plan to watch the Sunday attempt. I can work from the lake. Hmm, is that good or bad? There is the temptation to while away hours online instead of disconnecting and enjoying being un-plugged. Oh well, time will tell.

  • Happy Canada Day




    Canada Day Spirit

    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    We’re enjoying Canada Day on beautiful Lake of the Woods and yesterday, while we were in Kenora, I decided to get more in the spirit of things and do a little flag waving.

    Last night there was quite a strong storm with lots of rain but things settled down over night and we boated into Kenora this morning to catch some of the harbor side festivities that were taking place. Lots of folks out enjoying the day and the weather cooperating. a nice mix of sun & cloud, warm an a light breeze.

    We took an untraveled route back from Kenora, investigating a couple of narrow passages and are going to hang out at the dock for a while with a good book.

    Enjoy the day Canada, eh!