Today I ran the furthest I have in over a year. Due to injuries that keep happening, I haven’t had a distance that is comparable to a marathon in quite some time. While it has been nice to do short runs that don’t ruin an entire weekend, there is something missing in my life. But today I had had enough. My broken toe is better and the Running Room group was doing 29km.
It was also beautiful weather. We finally had some blue sky. Towards the middle part, after climbing enough hills, I was given great views of the surrounding mountains. With all the rain here, I hadn’t seem them in so long I forgot this place even had them.
I also saw a fairly impressive car crash. It happened right in front of me. Hard enough that a minivan got shoved sideways through a stop sign and into the bushes. I’m really going to double-down on my theory that the people here can’t drive. There was no blood and no need for medical evacuation, but those vehicles are not going anywhere soon.
And I got to end the morning by hitting a croissant place and grabbing a bunch for an after-run snack.

Today was the day that Catalina was supposed to arrive back in Vancouver.
Unfortunately, life happened. Her job needed her to stay in Houston for a bit longer.
I have known of this development for about a week now. Initially I was upset, but that passed. Actually, I think what irritated me the most is that a plan was made and agreed upon, and then it wasn’t. That might be my autistic tendencies rearing their ugly head. I was not excited about Catalina coming, so I had no emotional skin in the game.
And for the record, that is not as horrible as it sounds. I do not get excited about anything. I look forward to things and anticipate their arrival, but excitement is not an emotion that I am familiar with.
After the initial upset-ness had passed, I’ve just been trying to be supportive of her. It’s not her fault and it would do no one any good to make things harder for her.

I enjoy looking at maps. Especially topography. There is a warm spot in my heart for waterways. When I generate artificial maps I usually try and guess where canals would be best placed. Meandering rivers also intrigue me.
I grew up in Winnipeg where there is a distinct lack of terrain variation. What it does have is the pedigree of being a young land. Thousands of years ago, Manitoba, and really most of the Canadian prairies were covered by Lake Agassiz. So every waterway was formed after the lake drained away about ten thousand years ago. Rivers at this stage of their life are meandering as they are still trying to find their way. Eventually their twists and turns become so great that they make shortcuts for themselves and the remains form oxbow lakes.
I’ve always wanted to see if I could do that myself. Would it be possible to find an exaggerated meander and dig into it and create an artificial shortcut. Wouldn’t it be cool to dig a channel right here:

The river would rush through it and expand it quickly and soon enough the river would use that new course and an oxbow river would form.
I would have effectively stolen a river.
That’s how super villains like Leonardo da Vinci and Machiavelli roll.
I suppose you could “pretend” it was for the greater good; with a more efficient channel, the river would flow faster and start cutting a deeper valley, making the area less prone to flooding. Winnipeg does have a bit of a problem with that.
Of course, in my imagination, I keep in the realm of the possible and I think of doing that with little streams.
Today, I was looking over maps (I find it relaxing. Don’t judge me!) I happened to find someone who has done exactly that!

This person has stolen a river! There are clear channels that have been artificially created, forming oxbow lakes from where the river previously went.
Sir, you have my respect!

I should cover my trip to Houston in more detail.
It was great to see Catalina again, except we were both too tired to really take advantage of each other. She had just come back from Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and was behind in sleep. I had stayed up far too late and gotten up too early for my flight to be effective. We actually napped our first afternoon together. Her mother had also surprised me with a huge lunch, so there was some digestion happening.
The weather was fairly nice for the first part of the week, and I was able to use the pool a bit. It was quite a bit more pleasant than around Christmas. That early part was generally low-key and I did a lot of relaxing.
The latter part of the week was wild parties with friends. We stayed at a hotel and attended grand galas with great conversation. It was nice to see the old friends from all over the world. There was free alcohol that I felt no need to drink.
Unfortunately the weather turned so the pool party was cancelled. It moved indoors, but barbecue hamburgers aren’t as nice in a hotel hallway. (In their defence, it was a BIG hallway.)
My flight home was fairly straightforward. Except my luggage didn’t make it. This is something that has happened numerous times and while I am not happy about it, I understand it and it doesn’t make me angry. What does make me angry is that with all of the technology that the airline has, they don’t bother to let me know. Instead I have to wait at a luggage carousel until I get suspicious and check with baggage services. The airline has my phone number. There are many ways they could have let me know that I was able to just leave the airport and go home to bed.
The reason I don’t usually get angry is that every time the missing suitcase has arrived the next day. This time included.