I think I am Geneva’d out. There really isn’t anything else I want to do in this place. It is expensive, so I can’t do much, especially with the Canadian dollar plumpeting in value. (Thanks Harper.)

Well, today it was gorgeous out, so a great time to go do my hike of Mont Sâla. Last time I had a lot of trouble getting the trains correct, so I got up early to make sure I got the ticket and got the train. And I sort of did. I can say I reached the train… as it was pulling away from the station. I touched it, but the doors don’t open when it is moving. By missing a train by only seconds, you really wonder about every choice you made getting to this point. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to get the tickets at the hostel? (Note: you can’t. The Saint Cergue line uses a separate ticketing system.) With better signage I wouldn’t have lost precious seconds going to the wrong platform.

In any case, I was delayed half an hour. But I spent the entire hike wondering if that would cause a problem coming back. The train from La Cure only leaves once an hour. And I did want to be back early so I might go for a walk with my cousin.

Since I’ve done the route before, I didn’t get lost going up to the top. I got the gorgeous views. I ate my lunch, although I didn’t bring enough water. 

The hike down I stressed over. If I could cut off an hour, I could make a train that would get me back by three. Easily enough time to meet my cousin. But after doing too much running, I decided that would be a bad idea. Hiking boots aren’t great for running. And I have to save my strength for Mont Blanc. So I had a pleasant walk down, except I kept getting lost. Twice I had to go across cow fields in order to get back to the correct path. They do signage like the French here. (That isn’t a compliment.)

I’m happy to say, when I got to La Cure, I didn’t accidentally wander into France this time. I came close, and I did wander past the Swiss customs, but that was where the store was where I could buy something to drink. And that Coke was good.

I didn’t see my cousin. I found out later that she was out until much later. So I spent the time afterwards relaxing. Then I went for a walk along the lake. I also did a lot of Facebooking. I’m not proud of that, but I am finally doing cool things that are worthy of posting. And it is MY vacation, so I’m going to do what I want. Besides, there isn’t anything else in Geneva I want to do.

And because I had the remaining half of my pizza as an afternoon snack, dinner consisted of Gelato.

2015-8-25 23:57

Today was a rain day. I had had a thought of doing a hike up a different mountain. I’m glad I didn’t.

Instead I went to CERN. There was a tram route that has its end-of-the-line at it. When I got there, there was a big metal globe towering several stories over the road. It screamed science. I tried to get closer, but it was part of a tourist thing that is closed for several months. I tried to look around for CERN, but I couldn’t find it. And the rain started to pick up. I wandered half a block down before I saw a gate on the other side of the road. There, a security person directed me back to the tram, but on the other side of the road. If you are going to have a big science ball, you need to have better signs to indicate that you should go the other way.

I was expecting it to be the European equivalent to NASA, but it wasn’t nearly as good. In their defense, I didn’t reserve a place on their tour and just showed up. So I only got to go into their exhibit hall, but there were interesting guides there. The exhibits are all dealing with tools for trying to detect things that are very small, so it loses out in a big way to NASA there. It can’t compete with interplanetary spacecraft. 

The guides were good. They did put things into perspective. Physicists usually have a theory as to how things are going to go, but they are disappointed when their theory is shown to be correct. That’s because the interesting things happen when something doesn’t happen as predicted.

They also gave an analogy of what their work is like. If you smash two helicopters together (don’t smash helicopters together) you get broken helicopters. If you smash them together at a higher velocity, you get debris that can help you figure out what the helicopters were made of. But if you smash two helicopters at high energy together, you might get a dinosaur. That’s essentially what they are doing, smashing protons together at high energy in hopes of seeing particles that existed at the dawn of the universe.

There wasn’t much else to do at CERN. So I returned back to the hostel and tried to figure out what to do. With the rain you couldn’t do much outdoor stuff, and that is what I find most interesting. I eventually dug out my rain jacket that was for the UTMB and decided to go out and climb a monument.

Fortunately, I never needed it. When I went out again, the rain was stopping and it never picked up again.

My monument of choice was St. Pierre’s Cathedral. I had missed climbing it when I was last here, and it was time to pop my Geneva cherry. This did, of course, unfortunately necessitate me getting some culture. A cathedral is positively dripping in it. But if you avoid eye contact, you can pay your five Franks and start climbing spiral staircases. There were 179 or 178 steps to the top, depending on which tower you go to. The route splits off on the way up. The south tower was disappointing and contained only what looked like a classroom, with a single privy locked away. The north tower was much better, with open views of all of Geneva. I took a lot of pictures up there. 

In the middle of the tower, they had a scale model of the cathedral, but for some reason they had locked it away and it was inaccessible.

After that, I randomly wandered Geneva. I watched chess players in the park. I watched the Rhone flow by. I walked the waterfront. Then I had an idea. My sister likes flags, so I wandered off to the United Nations and took a picture of their flags. Unfortunately, they were all wet and there was no wind to cause any flapping. So they will be impossible to identify.

I cheated and took a tram back towards the hostel, stopping off for some pizza at a place my cousin recommended.

Tomorrow I need to get up early and get to Mont Sala.

2015-8-24 23:35

I slept in today, and I’m still taking it easy. The weather here is inclement, so I’m not feeling bad about that. I’m getting better with my jet lag but I’m not going to push it too much.

I met my roommate last night when he wandered in at about one o’clock, declaring himself drunk. I accidentally revealed that I was aware of him when I said “Hello” so he decided to engage me in conversation. I learned a bit about him. Especially where he is from because he turned on all the lights so he could show me where on a map of Europe on a Euro note. (Breton, in case you are wondering.) he doesn’t speak very good English, but I can understand half of what he says, because that half is the F-word. He snored a bit, but not too bad.

This morning I went to a grocery store and got some food for breakfast. Now, I think I will organize myself to go visit the CERN institute. I figure it is the European equivalent of NASA.

2015-8-24 10:39

It’s been a heck-of-a-journey to get here. I should have written this last night, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

I didn’t sleep as much on the plan as I would have liked. I finished seeing “Get Hard” (better than I expected) and saw all of “Home”. After that I tried to sleep a much as you can on an airplane (not much.)

The Geneva airport has a great service: Complimentary transit tickets for all arriving passengers. I knew about this feature, but I had forgotten one critical point; you have to grab the ticket before you leave the departure area. So I had to pay for a train ticket. It wasn’t the money that bothered me so much as the inconvenience. I didn’t have enough CHF coins so I tried to used my Euro coins. The machine didn’t accept that. So I left the line and tried to dig out my CHF notes from my luggage. Then to a new machine because someone just as incompetent as me was now trying to use mine. Line up several times because there are a lot of incompetents at the airport. Press all the buttons and then find out this machine doesn’t accept cash at all. Third time was the charm.

After the train, I walked to my hostel and put my luggage in a locker. (I can only check in after two o’clock.) I changed a bit in the luggage room (don’t judge me!) and then started walking. I got to the lakeside and rested there. Then, since I wasn’t seeing my cousin for another couple of hours I decided to go do some things I missed the last time I was here.

I walked to the old city, got lost a few times (sleep deprivation) before I finally found Maison Tavel. I had read about it in a guidebook three years ago, but wasn’t able to get to it, or find it. It has a lot of artifacts from the history of this city, but I only cared about one: The scale model of Geneva.

I found it on the second floor and it was nice. I took a bunch of pictures, and cursed the people who had put their fat fingerprints all over the glass protecting it. It wasn’t much bigger than a dinner table, but it was nice to see.

It was also all a lie.

On the third floor, there is a staircase to the attic that is very easy to miss. If you go up, you see the real scale model. The first was made in 1815. The big one is from 1850. And it was fantastic! Bigger than my living room. Lot of detail. Showed all the fortifications from long ago, that were never tested. (Good thing because they never actually had a big enough army to defend it.) If you go to Copenhagen, you can see many of their walls and moats around the city still there. In Geneva they have completely obliterated them, filled them in and built more city over them.

How do I know? Because the curators were kind enough to show me their movie about the history of Geneva in English for me. I was running late for meeting my cousin, but it would be rude to leave when they were going to do that. And it was a great film. Chiefly because it was displayed on a topographical screen, so you could see the geography of Geneva as they projected maps on to it.

In case you weren’t aware, I really love maps.

I then rushed off to see my cousin Ida, her husband David, and their two twins born five months ago, Joshua and Aiofe. (Yes, they are only missing a “U” in her name, otherwise they would have all the vowels. “Y” is there in spirit, because it is pronounced “Iffy”.) We went for a pleasant walk through the park systems that is behind all of the World organizations. I was not even aware there was a World Meterological Organization, and we speculated as to what they actually did.

After we parted ways, I went back to the hostel and claimed my room. Roommate is sight unseen. I then had to worry about dinner. I asked the hostel if there was any cheap places they would recommend, and they said there weren’t any. At all. In the entire city. This confirmed what my cousin had said. I ended up wandering to a Kebab place and having something there. Kebabs are similar to Donairs but not as good. I don’t think I will be eating any good food in Geneva, it is far too expensive here.

Then back to the hostel, where I tried to update my blog, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I went to bed.

2015-8-24 10:32

Now I am waiting for my flight to Geneva.

Before I left Edmonton, I had a chance to completely disrupt my flights. My friend, Malcolm, is also going to Europe today, an hour earlier than me. He is going through Toronto. This is why we carpooled together. However his flight was delayed and he ended up with a departure time the same as me.

But my flight was overbooked. So they were asking for people to transfer to the Toronto flight. This would cause a delay of an hour, but bring a number of benefits. Money and food mostly. Since I have a three hour layover in Montréal, that seemed like a good deal. However, they didn’t like the timing so I had to stay with my original flight.

Which worked out because I had an exit row seat. I had initially been upset with my seat because it was an aisle and I prefer window. I think this worked out.

I saw the movie “Tomorrowland”. I liked it and am surprised it didn’t do better. Brad Bird is a good director and he does a fine job showing characters having hope and optimism in the face of people who are scared and pessimistic. I should see Iron Giant again. There were a lot of similarities.

I don’t know if I will see any movies on my next leg. I should sleep and get on the European time zone.

2015-8-22 19:52

My “vacation” is starting. I’m now at the airport waiting to board. First to Montreal and then to Geneva.

I think I’m already on the European time zone. I was up until 2am packing. The big reason for that was that I could not find my camera battery charger. And let’s be honest, I will be taking a lot of pictures. It wouldn’t be a vacation without them.

I never did find it. It wasn’t where it was supposed to be, and I’m glad I noticed it was missing. I eventually went to sleep with the hope that I would figure it out with a brain rested. Which is why at 4am I got back up to go looking again. Didn’t help.

What eventually got me to sleep was the realization that I could go to BestBuy on the way to the airport. This would, of course, require me inconveniencing my friends who were going to get me to the airport…

So I’m leaving for Europe soon.
Ergo, I need to have European money. I went to the bank and found they didn’t have Euros or CHF available. The teller suggested I go to a currency exchange place; the rates are better there. Sounds like a good plan.
I drive out of my way to Southgate Mall. I go to the exchange place. There is a bit of a wait, and then a large group of people get in line behind me. I generally don’t like crowds when I’m about to be carrying a lot of money, but such is life. When I attempt to make my purchase, I put in my debit card, and am told “Card use limited. Refer to branch.”
What the hey?
I leave, forsaking my place in line, to phone the bank. They claim it should work. They make sure my limits are raised in any case, and suggest that maybe the machine wasn’t working.
I go back, wait in line again, and get the same error. This time there is no one in line behind me, and I have the bank on the phone while I am doing the same thing. They even try using my credit card as a debit card, but the currency exchange doesn’t accept credit cards. (Reasonable.)
The entire period, I am next to the kiddie ride machines, so the loud noises are stressing me out and I am in the middle of an anxiety attack. To my credit, I never raised my voice, but I was not happy. Still, I was Canadian and frequently apologized to the person at the bank.
So, wasting all that time, and I don’t have my money. The bank has one job, give me back my money when I want it, and they can’t do that.

Clouds are a fairly common occurrence. They are big and it is hard to judge their distance. But I have to wonder how far away some of them actually are. Or even how big they are.
You can’t really get a real-time view from space of a cloud, but would I be surprised at how far they are. Or would they be close. If I look south, am I seeing clouds that are hovering over Leduc? Or are they just over the Whitemud?
There is nothing to reference them by eyesight. (Same reason the moon looks smaller when it isn’t near the horizon.)
What I need to do is go into a tower on a cloudy day and look at the shadows of clouds on the ground.

It was probably not the brightest idea to go for a 19km run at 9:45 in the evening. (Bring a headlamp.) Certainly not on a work-night. But it was glorious. The temperature was so nice and it felt refreshing.
It is also a lot easier to convince yourself to go if you lie about the distance. I lied to myself and said it would only be a ten kilometre run. That gets you out the door. Because the first ten minutes suck for everyone, just getting going is the biggest accomplishment.
I will say this. Millcreek Ravine is spooky when it is completely dark. Even on the upper trails.

It’s time for me to report on what happened at the Sinister 7 last week.
It started out well. It was a nice and cool start, but we knew that wouldn’t last. The organizers had said it was the driest conditions they had ever had, so that was promising. I tried to go at my regular pace for running instead of my oh-god-i’m-going-to-be-out-here-all-day pace that I seem to use for ultra marathons. It didn’t seem to affect my time on the first leg though. The violin players were a nice touch.
The second leg was special for me, because my sister was running it as well. And she actually did run it. Usually the first four kilometres are a steady hike up a mountain that I tend to walk. She ran it. I did finally catch up with her at the part where it was steeply downhill. (After the second hill/wall.) I had been feeling good that I finally passed someone on that part until I saw it was family. I am not that good on the downhill parts and I’m always being passed by everyone. I really need to get better at that.
I consider the third leg the hardest. Mostly because you are climbing up a mountain in the hottest part of the day. It definitely delivered that promise. (Except when it didn’t.) After finally cresting the mountain, it was downhill. And the dry conditions had made it good terrain for running down; there were no deep ruts where water had carved channels ideal for twisting her ankle. Unfortunately two things prevented this enjoyments.
The first was that a runner had collapsed. He had run out of water and hadn’t gotten more at the aid station that he had passed fifteen minutes before. He was rather delirious, and the rules state you can’t abandon a runner in distress. Someone else had gone back to the station to get help, and there was a large group around him before I decided that there was nothing more I could add. That delayed me ten to fifteen minutes.
The second issue was that the thunder I had been hearing while climbing had decided to follow through with the inevitable rain. It wasn’t bad to start with, and the water was quickly absorbed into the parched earth. Then it got worse and worse. The heavens opened up and there was hail. I put on my mandatory-equipment jacket and continued on, but now I was running through deep water.
I did enjoy seeing the people who had obviously not brought their mandatory-equipment and were continuing to run in barely anything. I’m a little upset that they weren’t pulled for breaking the rules.
The rain continued and made the going tough.
On the fourth leg, I had been hoping to make up time. But that rain had changed the entire nature of the race. There was mud everywhere. The uphills seemed to completely drain me; I used to be good at hills so that was distressing. The dirt road I had been hoping to use to make up time was not helping. I couldn’t run on it. My shoes were getting heavier and heavier as all the mud clung to it.
By the time I got to the end of that leg, I could see the writing on the wall. I had used half the time of the race to travel half the distance. Normally that doesn’t sound too bad, but I was not going to be faster on the second half. There was no way I could finish in time. Not with the mud slowing me down. I could probably make the cutoff for the next leg, but I wouldn’t make the one after that. I would only be punishing myself, and more importantly, my family that had come to support me. I would be forcing them to stay up in the middle of the night on what, by now, was essentially a fool’s errand.
I dropped out.
My family was very happy to hear that. As soon as I hinted that I was thinking about it, my mother was packing everything away. My sister was declaring that I no longer need to get her birthday or Christmas presents. Say what you want about ultra marathons, but they are just as hard on the support crew.
Since the race, I’ve looked at the times. I was about forty-five minutes behind the last place finisher. So I believe I made the correct call.
The current theory as to why hills were suddenly hard is that the heat on the third leg had sapped all my energy away. Sounds plausible. But I have Mont Blanc coming up, and that will have even more uphills to contend with. I’ve talked to my personal trainer and she has given me a plan for hill training that will hopefully improve things. But I only have a month before I leave for that.

I have an America friend visiting for two weeks, so I decided to take her out to Jasper today. Well, technically yesterday, but I’m sure you know what I mean.

It was the first time in a decade that, when traveling west, I did not turn to go north to Grande Cache. I had forgotten how pretty this area is. I should avoid the Death Race more often. I made a policy of stopping for any reason. So any beautiful view was examined with a camera. When we passed Talbot lake, I forced us out and we went wading. Cold water, but I’ve been needing to ice my ankle, so it is all good.

When we got to Jasper Park Lodge, our room wasn’t ready, so we went and hiked Malign Canyon. That was a gorgeous walk. It was also interesting how the temperature changes depending on your proximity to the water. It was supposedly a high of +34 today, but when you are close to the water it feels very cool. We even did some soaking of our feet in the cold water. Beats trying to find ice to apply to your ankle.

We started at fifth bridge, hiked very slowly up to first bridge, the took the higher route back. After a stopoff at the car for more water and soaking we hiked down to sixth bridge and back. Then more soaking of feet. By the time we got back to the hotel it was eight in the evening. It had been suggested by a friend to order room service, but we both agreed that the prices were astronomical, and the room isn’t THAT great.

We drove into town and had a great dinner at Ded Dog Diner. The big game burger was delicious, but that might have been the hike talking.

We then wandered around town. It was midnight before we got back to the hotel. But on the drive back, we stopped off at a bridge to look at the moon. There was no man made light around, but we could still see each other fairly well.

Now we should go to sleep. We have glaciers to see tomorrow.

A week ago, on Wednesday, I went for a run in Vibram FiveFingers. I’ve done it before without too much trouble. This time I may have done a small sprint during it, but nothing major. At the end, my left heel hurt a bit. I figured it would go away after awhile.
It didn’t.
Over the next few days, the pain continued. By Monday it was getting worse, with my friendly proactive bodyguard insisting I see a doctor. I did that today.
Her diagnosis was that I hadn’t broken a bone. (Yay!) More likely I had inflammation of the fat pad surrounding my calcaneus bone . (Boo!) Which only means I am off running for a couple of weeks. Ice and anti-inflammatories should hopefully help.
Hopefully I can use this extra time to be productive. No promises. I’ve already over scheduled myself this weekend to volunteer at an ultra.

During the last provincial election for Alberta, the Conservatives got in by playing on fear. Fear of the Wildrose. And let’s be honest, the Wildrose were scary. They had run a terrible campaign where their fringe elements were practically celebrating as an example of how open they were to new ideas.
This time, the NDP have surged ahead in the polls. Now the Conservatives are playing the fear card again. But I (hoping) don’t think it will work.
The fear last time was for everyday people being ruled by crazy nuts. The fear this time is more from corporations that their cozy relationship with the government will be gone.
Corporations don’t get as many votes as citizens.

I just saw Avengers: Age of Ultron. It felt like a clear shot across the bow of DC.
The last few times I’ve seen a DC movie, civilian casualties seem to be expected and ignored. In this movie the heroes were heroes; they spent valuable moments trying to save people. Sacrificing themselves to take out the big bad and lots of innocents wasn’t thought of as an option.
It was, of course, a Joss Whedon film, so someone had to die. They set it up well with one guy even talking about retiring soon. I thought he was marked for death, except that I also knew the actor was contractually required to be in several more films.
And it was a very good sequel. Many things, more than I expected, from the first film were brought back. It was a progression without repeating itself unnecessarily. Many sequels try and do the exact same thing as the first movie; this complemented the first movie and added to it.

In science fiction stories (especially space ones), there is often reference to “The Ancients”. Some former alien species that was way more advanced than current civilizations. They have left interesting artifacts around for people to find and cause plot to happen. It is a common trope.
It gives us a sense of peace that there was something before us, more powerful. I suppose these could be considered god figures.
But let’s look at reality. There are no ancient artifacts out there; at least not visibly in our solar system. What if we are the Ancients? We are the species that first gained sentience in the universe and all others that come after us will see us through the lens of myth and legend.
It puts a lot of pressure on us to clean up our act. The cosmic equivalent of our baby pictures could be happening now.

My internet is out. I woke on Monday and none of my computers would connect. I tried some standard troubleshooting to no avail. So I would wait until after work to really tackle it. When I called Shaw though, it looked like nothing was going to magically get fixed.
This is a bad week for this to happen. Work is fairly demanding right now with our initial release. And Shaw can’t come in the evenings. I’m gone this weekend to visit my family for Easter. The earliest I can get connected again will be next week. (Unless replacing the modem does it, which I will attempt tomorrow.)
The weirdest part is how on-edge this is making me feel. I feel as if part of me is missing. Is this phantom limb-loss? I can’t just decide to relax and browse the internet. Best I can do is look at things I’ve already downloaded. Basically, I feel disconnected from reality.
If it wasn’t for my phone having a connection, I would be totally lost.

Eating has become weird for me lately.
For most of my life I have not paid much attention to my dining habits. In the last few years though my age has caught up with me and I needed to start. I can’t trust long distance running to burn off all my calories anymore.
As previously mentioned, I’m seeing a nutritionist who has promised I don’t have to bonk on an ultra. That is actually the worst part of an ultra. You can have the strength and mental fortitude to go on, but completely run out of energy.
The first session could be summarized with “eat more protein”. Actually looking through my notes from my first naturopath from last year, she said the same thing. But there are only so many lifestyle changes you can make at one time.
The second session was more useful. We went over what I should be eating in a typical day. She sounded like my dentist; she didn’t want me drinking orange juice in the morning. (Not going to happen.) Now I need to be eating more balanced meals more often. So less, porridge in the morning, and put some olive oil on it. Greek yogurt for snacks.
My lunch has changed for the first time in 20 years. Previously: one sandwich, two apples, three cookies. Currently: one sandwich, one apple, one cookie. I had to negotiate hard to keep the one cookie.
The end result is that I am now tired and hungry all the time. This does not seem to be good. The more I stick to her exact plan, the hungrier I am throughout the day.
On Thursday, it came to a head. I was hungry all day, no matter how many snacks I had. In the end, I went to McDonald’s for dinner, and had two quarter-pounders and a large fries. My headache was gone within the hour. The next day, there was a lot of pizza for lunch. So I fell off the wagon hard. When I went for my run on Saturday, my stomach got upset with me at 34km and I had to walk a long time. Maybe that is because I was now dealing with hills while still trying to run fast? Or maybe it was the peanut-butter Lärabars I was using to maintain energy? I’m starting to worry I’m not able to eat peanut-butter anymore. (Too much during a previous run has now made me sick of it forever?)
I’m going to continue experimenting with her initial plan. I actually saw her briefly on Thursday so she is now aware of the issue. I think the important part is to have a bigger breakfast such that it takes me longer to digest it.

I have just arrived home from Houston.
The biggest reason I go is to see my friends. Friends make a vacation so much better. So even though the weather was not as summery as I was hoping, I had a good time. I’m operating on surprisingly little sleep, but with the time change it isn’t as noticeable. I should crash into bed soon.
The flight back wasn’t that good. Even though I spent more money on the ticket, such that Air Canada said I could pick my seat, I was never given that opportunity. In fact, I think I had the worst seat on the plane. It did not help that I was seated next to a gorilla. He had a huge upper body that meant he spilled over into my seat, and he was strong enough that he could push me aside easily. I’m probably going to be feeling pain tomorrow from sitting awkwardly.
But I also chalk it up to the fact that I am tired and probably cranky.

Today the group got together and we took a boat trip. The weather is still cold (for Houston) but their were periods of sun. it was an enclosed boat, so it wasn’t too bad. It left the port, and then went out into the ocean for a while, before it turned right around and went back inland.

This area of town is around an inlet called “Clear Lake”. It is not a lake and it is not clear. But the boat went tooling around it for awhile and practically went back to our hotel. We had a very nice lunch too. I probably ate too much, but I tend to go overboard (no pun intended) when there isn’t a limit to how much food you can eat.

But I enjoy hanging out with friends and catching up. That was the best part. And it is warm compared to Edmonton.

Tonight I will be partying until late. I cannot guarantee I will actually sleep tonight. But that is a problem for Sunday me.

2015-3-7 18:55

It was awesome.

It was a great tour. You pay more but you get to see things most people don’t.

It started off at the Neutral Boyancy Center. There you see actual astronauts practicing with a full-scale mockup of the ISS underwater. It’s hard to see much of anything because it is underwater, but they provided lots of video cameras so you could see what was going on. Biggest pool I’ve ever seen.

After that we went to lunch at an actual NASA cafeteria. We got a meal ticket so I could eat as much as I wanted. No astronaut food, but a lot of options. There was also the internal NASA gift shop where you could get the stuff only the employees can get. Which really isn’t that different, but it is cheaper and no tax. I got a mug. A Brazilian girl was squealing a lot over all the options. She was a big Chris Hadfield fan. Go Canada.

From there we went to mission control. We could see them operating the ISS and seeing views from the station. Then we saw the old Apollo mission control, which is treated like a museum. At that point an actual mission control person came and answered questions. Very informative. NASA did have a reaction to Leonard Nimoy’s death. I’ll need to check the videos they posted.

Then off to the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. There they had copies of everything on the ISS and then some. You turn a corner and suddenly you bump into the nose of a space shuttle. There was a Canadarm over there. (They all call it the Canadarm. Not jus the arm.) Then there was the experimental stuff that they might use on Mars. 

Finally, they had the Oh-Wow moment when they take you into the Saturn V building. You go in and you are staring at the thrusters that got us to the moon. Even lying on their side, they are bigger than a house. I never realized just how huge they were.

That was the entire day. Because they filled it so much, we get to go back tomorrow complimentary. So we are going to go back and see the exhibits the mere mortals get to see.

2015-3-5 20:15

I really only had four hours of sleep last night. I pretended to sleep on the plane, but I have doubts as to whether that actually happened.

I had booked my flight with Air Canada. Unfortunately, they deked out. I was actually booked with United. I generally don’t like United; they break guitars. A couple were playing with fate as they had two guitars taped together with them. I hope they survived.

My first day in Houston went well. My friend picked my up at the airport. She had a plan to go to the zoo, but she changed her mind when we got there. It was beautiful weather, so she thought a walk outside would be better than seeing “incarcerated animals”. She was right. There was a lovely park system. Edmonton has a nice park system, but it is all natural. This was a… civilized(?) park. There was interesting art sculptures. A lovely Japanese garden with carps and turtles. Numerous fountains. My friend is also a good photographer, so I finally have pictures with me in them. I only wish I didn’t look so tired.

The weather should turn into Edmonton comparable temperatures by tomorrow.

Houston seems to be a victim of urban sprawl. The place is very spread out, and traffic does not move at an appreciable clip. So we need to get up at a reasonable hour tomorrow so that we can get to NASA which is 47 miles away. I think I have been successful in convincing he to eat at Denny’s for breakfast. But I also want to try an IHOP.

She is of Chinese background, so my souvenir gift of maple syrup was interesting. She never has pancakes, so she was trying it on ribs (good) and vegetables (better without).

2015-3-4 21:02

I’m at the airport about to go to Houston. I’m looking forward to this. Especially since I’m going on the Level 9 tour at NASA. That should be awesome. I’ll also be hanging out with friends and catching up. 

The weather isn’t going to be good. It looks like Edmonton will be about the same temperature. But I am not really there for the outdoors. If you are with friends, you can have a good time anywhere. 

On Tuesday I went to see a sports nutritionist. I had previously seen a naturopath who helped me eat better. This time it was to help me be a better runner. I’m unsure how I felt about this visit.
When I made the appointment, they said they would send me forms for me to fill out. After waiting weeks with nothing, the day before the appointment I asked about them. They were sent and I found out that they included food diaries; I was supposed to be keeping track of what I ate over an entire week. Well, that wasn’t going to happen on one day’s notice. I did my best, but it wasn’t a true representation of my dining habits.
When I saw the naturopath a year ago, I was immediately given feedback of what changes I should do. This sports nutritionist was somewhat more evasive. She did go over my forms and determined that I needed to eat more protein. That’s about it. The rest was general education I could probably have gotten from a website. I got the feeling the entire meeting was an advertisement for a rather expensive “Sport Performance Coaching”. The promises that I would not bonk during an ultra is very intriguing though.
We did discuss sleep habits, and strategies for sleeping better. Of course that meant I had a terrible night’s sleep that night. Don’t overthink your sleep.

In other news I have been informed that I won the lottery and can go do the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc. (Patent pending.) This leaves me with a difficult decision. I don’t really want to go due to time and money restrictions. But it is a uncommon opportunity. And an excuse to go to Europe. I’m still going to try and get the registration moved to next year. There are other places I would like to go this year. In March I’ll be in Houston. Then in fall I’ll be in Costa Rica. And I have friends who have invited me to visit them in San Francisco. So many interesting places to go.
Technically, I was supposed to make my decision by Tuesday. However, I think I got an extension, because an email from the organization gave a date in February for the deadline. I think this is because I was asking about getting my acceptance transferred to next year (denied.) Then on Tuesday I got the news that my father was in the hospital and there was no way I was going to make a long term plan. And my cousin in Geneva is expecting twins so I would not be able to stay cheaply with her.
I shall decide officially on Thursday.

For the past while, my family in Calgary has been sick. Both my sister and father were feeling under the weather with a flu. My mother was fine, but getting burnt out taking care of everyone. My sister got better, but my father would be feeling good one day and bad the next.
Yesterday took him to a doctor. That doctor sent him to emergency.
After a cat-scan and other tests, they determined he had an exploding gallbladder. He stayed overnight in the hospital while they figured out when they could do surgery.
Apparently that happened today. Very quickly. As near as I can tell, there was very little warning. My mother only got back to the hospital after the operation, which took ten minutes. Modern medicine is very good. I’m sure in the past it would have been a major event. Now I suspect they may not even cut the skin.
In any case things are going well. He is in pain, and we have to watch for infection, but I think the worst is over. Hopefully he will be back home before the weekend.

I have been going to River Valley Health and ploughing a lot of money into being a better person. Mostly this has been working on running related issues (therapeutic massage, physical assessment, chiropractor), but I am getting some life coaching as well. It has been helpful, with a friend commenting that I am less Eeyore-like. (Besides the fact that that is my favourite Pooh character.)
I used some new advice when I went out to an event at a bar yesterday. It was one of the best times I’ve had in a place where I was surrounded by alcohol and people I didn’t know. The advice could mostly be summed up as “be in the moment”. I have a tendency to zone out at bars and start thinking about things in the future or regrets of the past. This time, whenever it happened, I would go do something. Which ended up mostly being talk to someone, either someone I did know or someone I didn’t.
The unfortunate side-effect of this is that, as an introvert, I was mentally exhausted by the end of the night. I may have started to zone out again. I certainly couldn’t have gone to the after party.

Pursuant to my last entry, I inhaled a book today (“Cinder” by Marissa Meyer). From start to finish I think it was five hours to read, with only a break to eat breakfast at around one o’clock. Now that I have more data, I think I can amend my earlier hypothesis.
There is a general class of book that is easy to read, but also does not have huge amounts of depth. They can cross all genres, but you know what they are. If you say it out loud, it is “Young Adult.” Do young adults not have the emotional capacity for books with depth? More likely, high school English has burned all love for literature out of them.
Cinder was good. The big reveal I figured out by page 44, but the characters continued to be entertaining. It made itself clear that it was a retelling of Cinderella. I would not be averse to reading any of the sequels.
But, as previously pointed out, there wasn’t a lot of depth. So I should go cleanse my palate with some Terry Pratchett. “Long Mars” here I come.

My relationship with books has been evolving.
I can be a voracious reader. If I get really into a book, I can inhale it within a day. The problem with that is the content doesn’t stick in my head and within a season I’ve forgotten the entire plot.
For several years I haven’t been reading books as much. I’ve taken the easy way out and been reading serialized graphic novels (comic books) for quick entertainment and plot. Although I don’t tend to look at the pictures as much, which is odd considering that is the main point.
With my library card I’ve been starting to read more. I used to buy every book I read, now I am not supporting hardworking authors anymore. I wandered into a bookstore today and looked around. I even gave myself permission to buy a book, but I couldn’t do it. The only books I could think of getting were ones that I realized I didn’t need to own; I would only read them once. So why don’t I borrow from the library?
I found it interesting how I treated the last two books I read.
The first was A Song for Arbonne which required me to renew it from the library before I could finish it all. The second was Masks by E. C. Blake which I finished in a weekend. By those statistics, you could surmise that I enjoyed Masks more. No.
Masks at one point felt like work to finish. It was easy reading, but that’s because it didn’t have any depths. I also didn’t like the main character who was an idiot most of the time. There were no real surprises anywhere. The only reason I kept reading was that I could maintain a good velocity. I do not know if I want to read the sequels for the closure.
A Song for Arbonne was much more nuanced. It would have greatly helped if a character list had been provided so I could better keep track of the political intrigues. The writing wasn’t easy to read; it didn’t flow. But Mr. Kay was a good enough story teller that I felt it was worth it to keep going. The story had a good ending and I felt complete when it was finished.
The best books I’ve read are easy reads with good storytelling. Or so I thought. Maybe the cheap calories of easy reading prevent me from having the good nutrition of a better story?

A new year, so I should start it off with a blog post. Although saying that makes this feel like the equivalent of a family christmas letter; give an update as to how things are going for the past year. I should also look up last year’s entry for comparison purposes.
Hmmm. I talk about blogging and running and my past self being an idiot. I think most of my previous posts could be put in one of those categories. I clearly need to diversify my interests. Although, this post seems to be covering those topics as well. Just to make sure I get the hat-trick, let’s talk about running.
About two weeks ago I went to a trampoline party. Lots of fun, I would recommend it to a friend. Or would I… Everyone who attended got injured. That doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement.
I got back pain the next day, but I didn’t let it stop me from doing anything. Which, of course, aggravated it. On Monday evening I went to a doctor who said I had pulled some back muscles. So, nothing permanent, but I need to take Ibuprofen and not do any running for awhile. And no heavy lifting.
I had intended to do the Obese Donkey run this Saturday. A pleasant 50km run. I have to drop that plan. So instead I will volunteer for it so I can get some volunteer hours that let me do the Blackfoot ultra in May. I’m a little disappointed because I need to get back to running longer distances. I’ve been in rest/recovery mode for too long.
The “no heavy lifting” was also a concern. You see, on Monday a water main break happened at my place of employment. Fortunately we had a place we were planning on moving to in the near future. It wasn’t ready yet, but this seemed to be a sign to get out of there. So Tuesday was spent moving. Because it seemed awfully convenient to be told no heavy lifting, I made sure to get a prescription. Let’s face it, I wouldn’t have believed me.
I don’t know if I should have been dancing as much as I did yesterday evening. It probably wasn’t healthy for my back.

Yesterday I ran a D&D game. It went surprisingly well.
I had planned to start this adventure two weeks ago, but other things (house-sized mimics) kept the players from reaching this point in time. But I still didn’t feel prepared enough. And, due to holidays, the game was moved up a day. So I really didn’t feel prepared. I was scrambling the night before to plot things out.
And yet, it went great. I think it has been the best one I’ve run this campaign. (Although my players may disagree.) In fact, we played longer than planned just so we could hit the climactic scene. But the real treat was that we found out a lot about a player’s character’s history. Enough that that character is probably going to be retired to spend time with the family he didn’t know he had. (Not a problem for the player since he was running two characters.)
There are some things I think I could have done better. I could have plotted out the combat strategy of the big bad better. At the very least, I should take a close look at the abilities and have an idea as to the average damage and effects.
Hopefully, by writing them down here, I will remember these pointers in the future.