Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Category: Activities

  • First cycling commute of the year

    It rained.

    Last year I never rode in the rain all summer.

    I was soaked but not too cold. The challenge will be to see how well my gear dries during the day and if I have to put on soggy cold clothes to ride home in. I hope not. Other that that, it was a great ride with no problems with the traffic. The Seine river was up from yesterday flooding a short section of the path which was easily circumvented by a bush trail. So far the bridge is still out of the water. If it comes up too much I’ll need to detour around that section completely.

  • Back on the bike

    Just came back from a solo ride along the traditional route out to Assiniboine Park and back for about 33km. I was a little tired along the second half and when you don’t have anybody riding with you it’s easy to slack off. There were a couple of challenges however. One guy pulling a trailer with a sleeping child in side gave me a run for my money. Good grief a guy with a trailer! Well, he did look a lot younger than me, but really a trailer! Then I was really slacking off when some smart guy came blasting by me. Well that was the final straw. Up put of the saddle and I was quickly riding his rear tire and he knew it!

    I think I start the summer bike commute to work this Monday.

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  • Road Trip – Day 2

    From a Starbucks in Grand Forks.

    We checked out a cool Swedish design furniture store across from the HoDo and then headed off to the Fargo Air Museum. Then it was off to Schells, a totally awesome sporting goods store and a stop at Cold Stone Creamery for a treat for the road as we drive back to Grand Forks for, you guessed it, more shopping!

    More pictures of planes & Schells. Wakeboards for Dez?

    More detail later, we’ve got to hit the road. 

  • Road Trip – Day 1


    The Donaldson Hotel
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    We’re taking a road trip to the US which is quite unusual for us. It’s the Easter long weekend and we headed south after making a Starbucks stop for a couple of ventis. The border crossing was backed up with travellers with the same idea at 9am but, thanks to Shirley’s skillful navigation we ended up in the fast lane and were quickly on our way after about a 15-20 minute delay.

    The next stop was a rest stop, an impressive convenience in the US that Canada could do well to copy, assuming we had an interstate. Most amazing, besides the quality if the facility and it’s cleanliness was this. Only in America.

    Back on the road it was a quite, sunny drive into Grand Forks for the real purpose of the trip, shop til’ you drop! We hit a few of the big box stores on the way to the Columbia Mall. We even bumped into some church friends doing the same thing. After cruising the mall and lunch at Applebees we were back on the road. Shirley had a nap and I listened to Maxwell on the iPod. Next stop, Fargo.

    We checked into the HoDo and surveyed the room for a few minutes, then moved on to more shopping. West Acres for over 2 hours! I think I dropped after the first hour. Thanks to John Maxwell on the iPod and some comfy leather chairs the second hour was quite enjoyable. Dinner at Paradisio (mexican) and a litte sight seeing (Horbachers grocery store – wooo hooo!) we were back at the hotel, WOO HOO!!!

    The hotel is very nice, quite artistic, but not very soundproof. The resturaunt had live jazz and the bar must have been busy, because there was quite a lot yelling and screaming. We’re also one block a way from a very active rail line in the heart og the city, which means a lot of whistle blowing. I slept through some of this but the 8am wakeup train could not be ignored.

    Lots of wireless internet around besides the complementary hotel system, so that’s quite nice. We’re just enjoying the second cup and a snack from the complimentary breakfast and then we’ll be off for the day. More shopping, but a bit more of a focus on sight seeing, I’m hoping for the Air Museum.

    p.s. – Scott, the Blue Man Group was in town yesterday, but we didn’t go (review). 🙁

  • Spring arrives

    The temperatures are on the rise and the snow is melting fast and I saw a sure sign that Spring has arrived on Friday. No, it wasn’t a robin, it was a guy on a motorcycle, and at 6C it still makes for a very “cool” ride. I can remember riding my motorcycle late in the fall to put it away at my parents for the winter in those temperatures. Definitely cool if you’re not dressed properly for it.

    Saturday was a busy day with an afternoon wedding that was very nice, and then we went to see the Cannes Lions winners in the film category at the Art Gallery. The Film Lions are awarded to the best commercials of the year. A lot of the commercials were uproariously funny, some quite poignant and a few quite tasteless, but overall it’s a great show. This is one of the Gold winners.

    Lots of laugh out loud stuff and quite a few “how did they do that?” moments. Perhaps a few “Why did they do that?” moments as well. Like what’s with the frog jumping out of the drain pipe on the Sony commercial?

    This afternoon there was another spring time first. The boys were over for lunch and we all went for a bike ride afterwards. No motors, just leg power. It was a bit wet and generally we took it at a pretty easy pace. Well, except for when Scott went flying by me a couple of times, and then the chase was on! We went 26.4km at an average speed of 19.5km/hr, a decent pace for the first time out considering we stopped a couple of times and slowed down to look at some houses on South Drive. We discovered that my rear tire throws the most water, and I got the wettest, which was surprising since I had a fender and Eric didn’t. Later we figured out that perhaps I had it set too low. I’ll check it out on the next wet ride. I was a good time riding with Scott and Eric.

    Technorati Tags: cannes, film, awards, biking

  • Message for the day.

  • Icebike 9

    Today I raced in the ninth annual Icebike race held in Winnipeg at The Forks. It had been postponed a couple of weeks due to the brutal cold, but went ahead today with only -16C and moderate wind.

    I wasn’t really sure about doing it this year but yesterday I registered and after church Shirley & I headed down to The Forks. There were some familiar faces at the race, but not as many as in previous years. Apparently there were 50 pre-registered and it’s been as high as 197.

    The course was quite forgiving this year, a combination of long hardpack snow covered paths, some pavement (rare) and lots of sections of loose snow. Thankfully there was no riding on the glare ice skating paths as in previous years. The hardest part was along the river bank on the St. Boniface hospital side where the track was sloped across the direction of travel and had lots of loose snow, especially on the first lap. By the second lap the traffic had cleared the high side of the trail and if you rode straight and steady you could avoid being pulled into the deep loose snow.

    I rode to work all summer 2-3 times a week, but since the snow came, I’ve only been out once prior to today, so I wasn’t exactly in top riding shape. But, I achieved my goal by completing the 20km Abominable course and not being last. Not to bad for a guy my age competing with a mostly under 30 crowd. Scott took some photos, so there should be pictures later.

    Update (2007/02/19): While at the Icebike the group was introduced to Rune the Viking biker. This guy is cycling around the world and has started in Bolivia, crossed the USA, into Northern BC and was in Winnipeg last weekend. This years race results are not posted yet, so I’ll update that later. Flickr seems to be down right now, so I’ll also update with a link to more Icebike photos courtesy of s2photo

    Technorati Tags: Icebike, The Forks

  • Geocaching and Travel bugs

    I was just checking up on the four Travel Bugs that I’ve released into the wild since I started Geocaching. Regrettably, three of the four have been lost, or in Geocaching terms the cache has been muggled. Kiwi Kritter is the only survivor, but what a world traveler he’s become. After leaving Winnipeg, he criss crossed the US and Canada. Kiwi’s crossed the Atlantic three times. After touring Germany, he’s now spending time in England. Still a long way from his New Zealand destination, but definitely getting around in the world. If you’re a Google Earth user, you can fly by Kiwi’s travels.

    (TBHD1G) Travel Bug Dog Tag – Kiwi Kritter

    Travel Bug Dog TagOwner: Big Dadoo
    Released: Sunday, November 28, 2004
    Origin: Manitoba, Canada
    Use TBHD1G to reference this item.

    Technorati Tags: geocaching

  • Photo Blog from Cell Phone


    Bench Shadow
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    I was just playing around with the ability to send a photo from the cell phone to flickr and then have it post a blog entry. Well, it sort of works. The photo shows up just fine, but my phone doesn’t allow a subject while sending the photo as an email, and the description text doesn’t get picked up either. This is most likely caused by the phone uploading the photo to an MTS server and then sending you a link to the photo as opposed to sending email with an attachment.

    Anyway, that shadow is me, a la Hitchcock, when I was geocaching in Vancouver a while back.

  • greaterIBM and Second Life

    As an IBMer I’ve become involved in the greaterIBM business social network for alumni and current IBMers and their work in using SL to build the community. I attended my first meeting in SL in the IBM Almaden Island and found the experience to be quite enjoyable and fascinating. A while back greaterIBM hosted a block party. Check out the video.

    Wondering what all the business buzz about SL is all about? Isn’t is just something for gamers and people who don’t have a “real” life. Check out this video from the company who proclaims to be the first PR firm in SL to get an idea about the possibilities. She even busts a few moves at the end of the video.
    🙂

    Technorati Tags: greateribm, secondlife