Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Posts

  • Great Fall Weekend

    It was actually a hot weekend for this time of year with temperatures in the mid to upper 20s. Both Saturday and Sunday were totally clear blue skies. On Saturday, I was up late and after fixings a technical problem with the blog it was off for a cycle. The FOG guy were off for a BBQ at one of the guys cottages which didn’t quite fit my schedule so I rode solo. Wow, it’s a lot more work when you’re riding alone. I took the “short” route back up Henderson, instead of the lap around Birdshill Park, for a 76km ride. Plenty given the warm strong south wind which was pretty much head on for the second half of the ride.

    Saturday night we drove out to the lake and joined Eric & Dez for Sunday. I was up early to catch the sunrise. After making a cup of coffee to go, I was off in the kayak for a 2 1/2 hr. paddle around the bay and out to Copper Island. The wind was picking up on the paddle to Copper making it a nice workout. Later, after brunch, Eric & I did a little bush whacking in the area that my hold a future construction site. It seemed to get warmer through the day and stayed warm and very breezy through the night.

    Monday was cloudy but still warm. A coffee on the dock and a little reading started the day. Then Shirley and I went off to Rushing River to look around. We hiked the lower river trail and got caught in the rain. Back at the cottage it was a late breakfast and a nap. The nap was the result of reading this book about all the wonderful benefits of napping, so of course I had to try it out. Later it was still cloudy and raining so we packed up and headed into town. Another great weekend.

  • Ring of Fire

    I’m at work writing a report and listening to the iPod on shuffle mode. Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash just came on and it brought a smile to my face. You know what I mean? 😉

    Inside joke perhaps.

  • A Colloquial History of Lake of the Woods

    Just so I wouldn’t lose this link to A Colloquial History of Lake of the Woods Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. from the Kenora newspaper archives. A story about this work appeared in the Holidayer for the week of Aug 22, 2007 on page 4.

    Welcome to Living in Kenora

    A Colloquial History of Lake of the Woods

  • Mission Accomplished




    On the Roof

    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

    I spend most of the weekend putting on the gazebo roof you see in the background. It took a little longer that anticipated, but now for the reward. It’s a nice clear sunny warm afternoon, and I’ve packed a lunch and I’m off to enjoy the kayak for a couple of hours before heading home.

  • 1.6

    That was the temperature when I left the house this morning for the “coolest” cycle commute to work so far this year. I actually broke out the leg warmers. It was a good ride and great to be back on the bike now that traffic is back to full strength with everyone back from summer vacations & construction is at it’s peak in the down town core. Both these factors are really messing up the commute for car drivers, but no problem when you’re on a bicycle.

    The number of bikes in the lockup compound at the office is way down. I think the temperature has killed off a few cyclists, much like the first frost hits your garden. Only the hearty survive.

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  • Construction at the Lake


    Thompson Lumber
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

    We’re at the lake this weekend and the Gazebo construction project in well under way. I helped Gord get the roof rafters in place and now we’re putting on the tounge and grove cedar roofing and it’s really looking nice.

    The Thompson Lumber shop apron brought back some good memories. There are a couple of them at the lake and we used them extensively when we built the cottage 25 years ago. The have lots of good memories of working with Dad. The year we built I took six weeks of vacation and spent many weekends working on the cottage. This was just before Eric was born.

    The apron also has some other good memories of Thompson Lumber and the owner Mr. Fred Lees. Fred and my Dad were the main builders of the cottage. They spend many hours together working on the project. Fred is a life long friend of my parents and our family. Thompson Lumber was at the corner of Des Meurons and Marion for many years. Because of the family connection, I had an account at the lumber yard any you could just walk in, order some stuff, and walk out and they knew your name, who you where and trusted that you’d pay your bills. If it needed delivery, it just showed up at your place. No fuss, no signing, no agreements, just trust. It was the same at Crawford’s garage, just a block away. You could drive up, fill up, and drive away. They knew you, and trusted you. That’s doing business the old school way with class. Not too many places like that any more. It’s too bad

  • Winnipeg Dragon Boat Festival 2007


    Dragon Heads
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

    On Friday night we were down at the Forks to see the start of the 2007 Dragon Boat Festival, and especially to watch Dez race with her team mates from Price Waterhouse Coopers.

    She was in two heat and their team performed well. They will be back again on Sunday to compete again. The weather was a little cool and it from watching the participants you get wetter that you think so by the end of the evenings racing there were lots of chilled folks looking for dry cloths and trying to warm up.

    In the very first race there was an odd maneuver by one of the boats where it suddenly cut across the path of two of the other boats almost causing a collision! The boats race four at a time and have clearly defined lanes which they should stay in. The boats should always be travelling in parallel, but as you can see from this photo something has clearly gone wrong. Fortunately, there was no collision, but the race was really messed up.

  • Total Eclipse of the Moon


    Lunar Eclipse
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

    Hey, isn’t that a Pink Floyd song on Dark Side of the Moon? No, the song I was thinking of was Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart.

    Anyway, we rolled out of bed this morning at 3:45am to catch the event. Initially, it was a little cloudy but the skies cleared for a perfect view of the total lunar eclipse, the first in the 21st century. About half way through I went back to the cottage to pick up the camera and get a few shots. As the eclipse proceeded and the moon dimmed more and more, the stars really started to pop out in the night sky. Some more photos and a NASA explanation of the event

  • Riding in an Echelon

    Echelon: a paceline of drafting cyclists grouped in two staggered lines, one moving forward into wind, the other moving backward sheltered downwind by the others. (source)

    On yesterdays FOG ride I experienced my first taste of riding in an echelon. We’d just turned onto Hwy 206 and there was a fairly strong cross wind and the next thing I know I hear some yelling about “Up on the right and back on the left”. This was followed by lots of coaching comments which helped me a lot since I was a newbie at this maneuver. I found it quite a lot of fun, but it was very busy and you really had to pay attention. With only 12 riders you were looping up to the front quite rapidly. This went along well until the traditional breakaway as we approached a hill entering into Birds Hill Park. At 75km into the ride I don’t yet have the legs to keep up with some of the faster guys, which today was almost everybody.

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  • Crazy Stuff

    On Thursday we’d been out to dinner with friends and were back at our house just chatting on the street before calling it a night when a young man starts walking up the street talking very loudly. At first we thought he was just talking on a cell phone to friends, but it turns out he was calling home for help and when he spotted us he came our way for assistance.

    It turns out he had just been sprayed point blank in the face with bear or pepper spray by some kids around the corner and he was in agony. Well, what was a quite evening got quite exciting! We took him around the back and had him flushing his face and eyes with water. This provided some relief but not much. Shirley called 911 and help was on it’s way. It also turns out we know his parents through a mutual friend, so Shirley calls around and gets his home number. It turns out nobody’s home because his Mom is already driving around trying to find him from the previous cell phone call.

    Soon there is the sound of sirens and the firemen arrive, followed by an ambulance followed by two police cars. The street is now blocked off and blinking like a Christmas tree on steroids. The firemen ask for milk, and proceed to flush his eyes, nose & face with it. This helps take the sting away much better that water as it turns out. Everything wraps up in a few minutes and they take him off to the hospital to get checked over just as him Mom arrives. Quite the night.

    There are some sick kids out there. Who’s just hanging around looking for somebody to spray with pepper spray? We find out from the police, that this was the second incident in the neighborhood that night.

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