I’m a fan of the Blue Man Group, so after viewing this from a Facebook link, I had to give it a post.
Category: Nature
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Message to Earth
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The Story of Stuff
Hsve a look at this presentation. Quite well done, funny & scary all at the same time.
The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.
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Coffee on the dock
It’s 6:30am and I’m just about to head down to the dock with a couple of cups of coffee and some reading material, it’s a clear sunny morning.
Yesterday was a bunch of firsts for the year as we wend into Kenora by boat to pick up a few things. First boat trip, first Starbucks in Kenora, first sighting of a water skier without a wet suit, first time we docked at Annishinabie Park and walked up to Wal-Mart. I can’t believe how much shopping we did on such a nice summer weekend. Well, some of it was almost mandatory as we needed eggs and a wireless router. Yeah, the Linksys was acting funny the lat time we were out and this weekend it was dead, no lights, no blinking no nothing.
I thought I’d just get another Linksys, but ended up with a Belkin and saved $25 plus it has a couple of features the Linksys doesn’t and a life time warranty. That could come in handy.
I can hear the eagle out the front windows, so I think I’ll take the camera and my reading material and head off to the dock. There is a light breeze building, who knows, perhaps there will be some sailing. Where is my sailing buddy?
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Smells
Smells can really trigger strong memories. Occasionally I’ll catch a wiff of something and it will instantly take me back 30 years to a very specific time and place. Sometime, I’ll smell the perfume my mom used to wear and a flood of memories will instantly come back to me. It’s quite an experience.
Wow, that was a little of track from how I thought this would go. A couple of days ago while riding to work in the morning I was really hit by how much closer to life you are on a bike vs. a car when moving around the city and it was the smells on the ride that gave me this thought. As I went up the street there was a freshness in the air, a smell that would be hard to describe, a spring quality. To me it was as if I could smell the “green” of the grass.
Well, at the top of the street the relaxing and refreshing scent of spring was quickly swept away by a VW TDI diesel exhaust stream. We’ve been looking at a new vehicle and the TDI has caught my attention mainly because of it’s incredible mileage, but I’d forgotten about the exhaust and diesel smell and the clanking of the engine. This car was almost out of site and I was still sucking in the fumes.
From there it was back into a brief reprieve of fresh air on a bike path and then into the fragrant mix of heavy rush hour traffic downtown. Actually, this is the most fun part of the ride as I get to pass most of the cars, weave in and out of traffic and try not to get hit or be too obnoxious, but it is a bit of a rush. I’m certainly awake when I roll into the office.
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Running Water
We’re at the lake this weekend and the weather is great. We’ve actually been suntanning on the dock! As you can see from the photo, there is no running water yet, just me, running for water.
After fetching some water, it was breakfast and then a couple of cup of coffee while I tried to make a router think it was a wireless router. Then some reading on the deck. I’m reading The DNA of Relationships, which I’d highly recommend for anyone. It’s all about taking responsibility for your self and how you think and feel.
Only a couple of time in the history of the cottage have we conducted a pre-opening before the May long weekend. May long weekend has always been in my family the weekend that we made the first trip of the year to the cottage and “opened up”. This mean things like getting the water running, putting in the boats, and doing a little spring cleaning. This year, while it’s quite warm this weekend, I won’t be turning on the water just yet. There is still lots of ice on the lake
and temperatures are still going below zero over night. But, I’ve prepped the boats, re-connected most of the water system components, re-assembled the septic system where possible (the holding tanks are still frozen), and set out the chairs and loungers on the dock. Whew, all that work called for some lazing around on the dock, and lovely snack prepared by Shirley and a small cat nap.
It’s too nice to sleep the day away so I grab the camera and head out to the point to check out my trail and take some photos. As I emerged from the trail back on to the road I was greeted by two guys leaning on an ATV, and it seems like they were waiting to talk to me. It was quite interesting, ask me about it sometime.
Back at the ranch, somebody is sleeping. Zzzzzz, Zzzzz, Zzzzz. The lake has a tendency to slow you down a little and make it seem quite exceptable to nap the late afternoon away.
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New Years Day
It’s New Years Day 2007 and most folks have dug out from the major snow storm that slowed the city down quite a bit for New Years Eve day. We’ve just been relaxing around the house and talking. It’s quite sunny and fairly warm so I decide that some outdoor activity would be good.
Up to this point there has been very little snow and it seems like a good opportunity to break out the snowshoes and go for a bit of a hike. I decide on going to a trail along side the Seine River that I frequently mountain bike in the summer. While driving over I find out that lots of streets have not yet been plowed. Ours was done sometime after 2am last night, but over on old St. Boniface, they are still waiting and the road passage is still single lane.
Someone and their dog has already broken the trail, so I’m just “improving” it with the snowshoes. I’ve got the camera with me and the new iPod. I’d been thinking about getting one for some time, but was really not to excited about the cost of such a “toy”. Yesterday, some very unexpected money came my way, and I decided to splurge. So, while hiking along the trail I’ve been listening to the TEDTALKS podcasts, which are very enjoyable and stopping every once in a while to shoot some photos.
It was a great outing. Next time I’ll remember the gaiters, as my jeans are soaked up to the knees from the snow flipping up my legs with every step in the deep powder snow.
Happy New Year to all, I’m looking forward to the best year yet!
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Snow Angel
As we were walking in St. Vital park, we came across somebody’s handy work in the snow. It’s good to see that there are still some “children” out there that don’t need to be plugged into an iPod, constantly on a cell phone or the latest game console to have fun. Come to think of it, I should have made another one right next to it! 🙂
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Closing up
This photo says it all. The leaves are turning and falling. It’s the Thanksgiving weekend and we’re at the lake to close up for the season.
The weather is very nice on Saturday, hitting 21C with a light overcast. After a couple of cups of coffee on the dock, we’re having breakfast with Scott & Mandi who are down for the weekend with Shirley & I. After breakfast we head back down to the dock to deal with the two new floating docks. In the end we decide to put the good one, the one that got renovated, in between to docks and leave the other one tied up parallel to the dock, pretty much where it’s spent the summer. Only time will tell if this was a good way to store them for the winter. They are just too heavy to get on shore.
With the boat & dock work completed, we take the rest of the day off and head into town. Scott & Mandi do a little shopping and Shirley & I take a walk on the Tunnel Island trails. We rendezvous back at Ho-Jos for some Kenora Mist’s. After a great steak dinner, we play Tile Rummy and Mandi & I clean up.
Sunday it’s all about putting the cottage to bed for the winter. Scott & I handle the outside chores and Mandi & Shirley pack up the kitchen & clean the cottage. By 1:15, we’re done and heading home. It was quite windy all last night and into the day. Thankfully, there was no rain we were sheltered from the west wind.
Farewell to Kenora was celebrated by a stop at the Chip Truck and the Dairy Queen. It was a great summer at the lake.
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Roadkill, what is it?
Well, perhaps not technically road kill, but I did find it on the road dead. It doesn’t appear to have been run over so the exact cause of death is unknown. I also am not sure exactly what it is. Do you have any ideas? I’ll just add it to the wild life sightings this year at the lake.
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Lake – Good Times
We had a great weekend at the lake with Gail, Gord, Crag & Kim, a very relaxing time of enjoying the lake atmosphere, chatting and even dreaming a bit about some new plans for the cottage.
You may have noticed that most posts are accompanied by a thematic photograph of some recent event, but not this one. There were several opportunities for a great picture. There was the Friday night sunset which was one of the most spectacular ones in recent memory, perhaps ever. There were pinks and purples, reds and oranges scattered across the vastness of the sky both in the suns direction and also in the east. It was a virtual whole sky sunset. But there are no pictures.
Then there was the pirate ship sighting. Yes, that’s right a pirate ship, complete with a water canon, pirates and flying a very official looking Skull and Cross bones flag above a make shift sail with a emblazed with a Canterbury Cross. But there are no pictures.
Today was quite windy and there were several big sailboats out in the area. But there are no pictures.
Why where there no pictures? Well, the family camera was otherwise occupied. 🙂
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