Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Category: Life

  • Surprise

    There are some things that still surprise me, even though I should be getting used to it by now.

    This afternoon Eric surprised me (no that’s not it) by biking over to pick me up for a ride. Either that, or he just need air in his tires. I prefer to think it was to ride with me. We had a great ride out to Assiniboine Park and back to the Osborne area to look at his new house and then back to home. A block from our house he says goodbye, and turns to go to his place. He’s been married for just over a year now.

    I was surprised. Surprised that my son was not coming home with me. It’s an unusual feeling and hard to describe. It’s so much more than surprised. Love you.

    Technorati Tags: sons, family

  • Busy Weekend

    This weekend was a little busier that most, and we had a great time.

    Friday night was a wedding with friends, then Saturday morning we had a birthday brunch with Mandi.

    Saturday after noon was a funeral for the parents of friends who were tragically killed in a car accident. The funeral was a wonderful celebration of their lives and the impact and legacy they have left on all their family and friends. They will be missed.

    Afterwards we drove to the lake for a visit with my sister Gail, husband Gord, their son Craig (Happy 21st) and girlfriend Kim. They treated us to several wonderful meals,and good conversation. Thanks, we love you.

    While we were at the lake we got a closer look at the pirate ship and it’s crew that is marauding around the bay. Still no pictures, but more on that later.

    In one hour we will be at Cirque du Soleil and we’re looking forward to that.

  • The circus has come to town

    On the bike ride in to day I noticed seven semi-trailers around the MTS Center. The trailers contain the gear for Cirque du Soleil who have brought their Delerium show to Winnipeg. Apparently the IBM box has a “restricted view” for this show, so there may be some free tickets with a bad view to be had. I’ve seen two Cirque shows in Las Vegas, and they are unbelievably good.

    UPDATE:  I’ve got tickets!

    Technorati Tags: circus, Cirque du Soleir, Las Vegas, Delerium

  • Victoria Beach

    Dune Jumper

    Dune Jumping
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    We spent a day at Victoria Beach with our friends Chris & Elaine and no day at the beach would be complete without a stroll on the beach of course! This guy & his friends were having a great time performing death defying leaps off the top of the sand dune. OK, maybe not death defying a s they all seemed to live to do it again, but there was no mom’s in sight.

    Along with the beach walk was a trip to the bakery for Dream cookies, a bike ride to look at the latest cottages and a stop to visit some friends in a vintage 1910ish log cottage, which was very cool.

    Speaking of bike rides, somebody (Shirley) on their first ride of the year, hooked her handle bars on a chain link fence and went for quite a spill. No permanent damage, but a few scrapes and bruises. The local tennis pro was quick to run over with his new first aid kit the size of a small suitcase, eager to administer something, anything. Good think he didn’t have a portable defibrillator!

    After a wonderful dinner and some relaxing and some good conversation we packed up and headed back into Winnipeg. Good times with good friends. Thanks.

  • 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.

  • He came all the way

    I’ve been reading the Purpose Driven Life daily devotionals via email, and they are all quite good. Today’s especially hit home, perhaps because I can relate all too well to the authors “peace at all costs” strategy. But the final paragraph really make me stop in my tracks and take some extra time to think about what I was reading. It must have something to do with where I am personally but you probably know the feeling. You see or read something and it has an impact on your heart, a deep down impact that is kind of hard to explain, that makes you stop and think in that special way.

    I’m so grateful that “He came all the way” for me.

    Purpose Driven Life

    If there is a chasm in a relationship, you may have to reach further than you thought to establish peace. You can’t always count on the other person meeting you somewhere in the middle. Thank goodness God didn’t meet us halfway or he’d still be waiting there for us. That’s much too far for us to reach. God did the only thing that could bridge the chasm between us. He came all the way.

  • Quick Trip & Father’s Day

    We made a quick trip out to the lake this weekend going out Friday at about 5pm and back for the Father’s Day service at church on Sunday at 11:30 am. The weather was great at the lake and very hot until late Saturday night when the temperature dropped back into the high teens. This was one of the rare times when we actually ran the air conditioner non-stop for 24hrs. I’m normally a purist at the lake preferring to just deal with the heat by spending more time in the lake, but it was quite nice for sleeping on Friday hight when the humidity was thru the roof.

    Eric & Dez were out and we enjoyed a great sun tanning day on Saturday with them. I took care of the last few “opening up” tasks by fixing the gear shift of the outboard, the one I broke putting the motor on the boat this year. It’s interesting how after doing the same thing for over 25 years, one year you can get a different result. For some reason the tilt mechanism jammed up a bit just as I was lowering the outboard onto the transom of the boat. Instead of investigating I forced the throttle into Forward gear (required to get it to tilt up for the install) but instead of that working there was this funny little “pop” sound as the linkage broke under the hood. Well after being given the wrong part a couple of weeks ago and only finding out last weekend, I got the correct part this week and everything went back together just fine and all is good.

    Father’s Day service at church was very good, and quite an elaborate production with several special events. It’s also interesting how a day that is set aside to value, honor and affirm fathers can cause you to  think  a lot about where you’ve been in your own personal journey as a dad. Not only the things you did that were good and right but also the things you did or didn’t do where there are regrets. On of the best bits of advise I heard this morning when you’re thinking like that is Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)

    13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

    I’ve been blessed with two wonderful sons whom I love, respect and I am very proud of them both. As they get older I tend to think that they need me less and less as they are so much more independent (I guess that’s a good thing as one is married).However, I’m reminded that once a father always a father and no mater what the age or what has happened or not happened to date I can always strive to be a better father to my children in days ahead.

    The best is yet to come, Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads.

  • Rational Rain Storm

    Well the preconfernece day has ended with the traditional poolside reception. I arrived for the opening at 6pm, had something to eat and drink and then is started to rain. and not just a little bit, but a full out thunderstorm with heavy rain. I think the late comers will be out of luck and who knows how they will move the party for a couple of thousand people to another venue. I’d say the food would be soaked before they could put it away.

     Right now I’m hanging around a kiosk waiting for it to let up before I head out to the car. At least I’m not hungry. 🙂

    Speaking of food, bad marks for the fodd so far. Hotdogs & Hamburgers for a fancy party reception really doesn’t cut it. It seems that the conference glory days of the 2000 era are gone and cutbacks are in effect. Funny, they didn’t make the conference any less expensive.

  • Kennedy Space Center

    I spent Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center and enjoyed the day. I thought I’d get up rarely early an hit Cocoa Beach first, but I slept in a bit too much so I went straight to KSC and got there shortly after 9am and caught the first tour.  


    Kennedy Space Center
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    What a great day! The tour was very informative and it’s amazing to see where the space program has come over the last 30 years. We take everything so much for granted now that we don’t even notice when a shuttle goes up any more, only when things go very wrong do we pay attention. I was amazed to learn that the International Space Station has been continuously manned and worked on for over 3 years. And, as the shuttle returns to space on July 1 to continue building the ISS. If you’re interested, have a look at my Flickr photos

    Two of the many attractions were the IMAX 3D movies, Magnificent Desolation with Tom Hanks and Space Station with Tom Cruise. Wow, 3D has come a long way and even though you still need the glasses, the effect is great. Of the two films, by far the Space station one was incredible. I saw it late in the day and was a little tired and had closed my eyes a couple of times in Magnificent Desolation but not so with this one. The footage was exceptional and riveting. It’s totally amazing what is being built high above the earth and it was especially interesting after touring the clean room area where the next 3 actual  modules were being prepped for delivery to the station. I think I’ll be tracking the launch and progress of STS-121 Discovery for sure.

    The KSC was worth the trip and deserves the entire day is you at all interested in the space program and it’s history.

    NASA – Kennedy Space Center – America’s Spaceport

    Where else in the world do history and the future, nature and technology, young and old meet for an unforgettable and inspirational journey through space and time? The Kennedy Space Center has hosted millions of guests from around the world for more than 30 years — telling the story of how the United States built a space program that launched men to the Moon, orbited satellites that have improved our lives, and sent probes into distant space to solve the mysteries of the cosmos.

  • Exploring Florida

    After getting settled at the hotel, I decided to do a little exploring, something other that the typical theme park stuff. I picked up a brochure on Kissimmee that made it seem quite interesting, wrong! It was quite a let down. The couple of attractions I went to were quite disappointing. The “historic train station” turned out to be just a run down old train station with nothing of interest for a visitor. Today, it’s just another Amtrak stop. The Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area sounded better with an “interpretive loop” 8.6 mile driving tour. There were 3-4 spots that looked like this, and the rest was just a road through the low level brush. I saw 3 deer and two different kinds of birds and not much else. The brochure for the self-guiding tour was a simple map with all the hunting and camping regulations. No explanation of the area or why it’s a wildlife management area. It seemed to be more about the hunting. Oh yeah, I did see one other van driving slowly with the side door open. I didn’t get a close look, but I’d bet there was some fire power pointing out that door.