Then there are other times we it is good that I am not emotional. But I still need the opportunity to vent. Oh look, a blog!
On Sunday I went for a run in Terwillegar park. It had rained previously so it was muddy. Thankfully I had planned ahead and brought along some plastic shopping bags with me. So I took my shoes off and put them in the bags and drove off in my socks.
Except that I didn’t go directly home. I had to go to Costco for some supplies. So I parked, opened the door, put my shoes outside, slipped my feet in and off I went. Nothing exciting there.
When I was done, I had to reverse the process. I opened the door, sat down and started taking off my shoes. This was when things got interesting…
I was parked next to a red Mustang. It looked fairly old, and was in rough shape. The side had caved in from some accident. I had to open my door enough so that it was touching this car, but I had made sure to do it gently.
And while I was sitting, getting my shoes off, a man from down the parking lot yells at me. “Get your f*%&ing door off my car!” This man was the very picture of trailer park trash. In my non-emotional state I just said “I wasn’t hitting your car, but okay.” I was done with my shoes, I closed the door, and drove off.
It was not worth it to get into an argument with this man.
But ten minutes later I really wanted to point out all his problems. We had both gone our separate ways, nothing would be accomplished, but in my delusion it would have felt good to. I think I get angry when people swear at me.
“Even if I had banged your car no one would have noticed. But I guess it is your baby. So you feel justified in using that kind of language in front of your wife and actual baby.”
Yeah, ten minutes later Erik has all the answers.

I wish I could be more immediate with my emotions
When I am with people, my brain has a tendency to turn off. I don’t overthink what I am doing. It is only when I have had time to reflect on my thoughts do I realize that something may have happened that upset me.
Which made today bad. Something happened yesterday that only after sleeping on it, did I realize the betrayal that had happened. If I had been in the moment, I may have been able to do something about it and talked it out. Instead it simmered all of today. Put me into a bit of depression too.
I don’t like this.
Hopefully sleeping on it tonight will make tomorrow better.
But, if I was a more passionate person, I would get into arguments more.

I have figured out what my sleep problem is.
I have been trying to have a healthier diet. Due to some GI issues, a doctor suggested I have more probiotics. I’ve been doing this by consuming large amounts of yogurt, mostly Greek yogurt. (More protein.) At the same time, I’ve been cutting down on sugar. I started by reducing, a lot, the amount of Coke I drink. I used to drink one or two cans a week. Now I seem to be drinking that amount in a season. Or financial quarter.
To continue on with this, I’ve been reading nutrition labels to get an idea of how much sugar is in things I drink. I usually compare the drinks to a can of Coke which has a lot. And it is depressing how much sugar is in everything. Two mugs of hot chocolate have as much sugar as one can of Coke. So I’ve stopped having an afternoon hot chocolate at work.
I need something to drink that doesn’t have sugar. I don’t like coffee.
Then I hear about Kombucha. Miracle drink all the hippies like. It has probiotics. It doesn’t have sugar. I got a six pack on sale at Costco to try it out. I tried drinking it at dinner instead of something that would have had too much sugar. It doesn’t have the greatest taste, but it isn’t terrible.
And when I had some on Tuesday evening, I had trouble sleeping. The same as on Sunday night, when I also had a Kombucha.
A quick check of the internet. Yup. Kombucha is made from tea and has caffeine.
Did I mention I’m also trying to cut caffeine out of my diet?

The biggest problem I have when I wake up too early is to try and do what my body wants to do.
I can see I have a good hour and a half before I need to actually get up. I am sleepy. I want to sleep. I have no reason not to sleep.
Except I have to work at trying to sleep. And that is tiring. I have to force my brain to concentrate on sleeping. It is not easy to do, because you almost have to do the opposite of concentration. Probably some Zen hippy could describe it better than me. I usually give myself a mental problem to work on that will hopefully distract my thought process; My current favourite is to list the countries of the world, in order, by where they are on the coastline.
In any case, trying to stay in that mode of trying to sleep becomes too much after awhile. It is easier to just wake up and spend some time reading.
This does not solve the fundamental problem that everything wants to go to sleep.

This evening I did my last training run on the Hotel MacDonald staircase before they are destroyed tomorrow to make way for a funicular in seventeen months. 202 wooden steps that I have loved and hated with equal passion. An appropriate blanket of fog descended over them as I pushed my way up, a fitting end for this monument. They were convenient for me to get to, and they were hard to do. And that is the key thing about them that I think the city is missing.
The Edmonton Journal had an article where Councillor Ben Henderson was saying this will be “a win for the city”. And I can see the advantage; to allow people with disabilities to use the river valley. Plus free money from the federal government will help create jobs. But I think they have the wrong attitude.

“All of the entryways from downtown to get into the river valley right now are extremely steep. I have tried, literally, every single one from downtown and they are somewhat scary to get down at the grade that they are at right now.”
– Erin Jackson, Committee Member, Accessibility Advisory Committee.

We need those stairs because they are hard. There are certain things that shouldn’t be made easy. The accomplishment comes from adversity. There should not be an escalator to the top of a mountain. And Edmonton is thick with runners who like to push themselves. If you have ever looked at the Glenora staircase, it is usually filled with runners after work. These are my people and we are being marginalized.
Now, all that said, I am being selfish here. I want to keep this staircase because it works for me. I just wish they could have picked a different location, maybe east of the Shaw conference centre. And in seventeen months, there will be a new staircase for me to use, but it probably won’t be as steep as I like. The delay will disrupt my training and I will have to find a different way to do my anaerobic training.
Goodbye Hotel MacDonald Staircase.

I like to think I’m reasonably healthy. This lets me do things that I may take for granted. For example, I can, without doing any planning, go for a 32km run. Which I did today.

We parked in the north part of “George Bush Park” (They don’t specify which president they named the park for.) From there, I ran east while Catalina rode a bicycle. Eventually we got to Terry Hershey Hike and Bike park which gave a ten kilometer path besides a creek. I suppose it is the local equivalent of the Edmonton River valley. Then we turned around and headed back.

Of course I took an opportunity to take a slightly different route on the return which caused us to get somewhat lost. Which wasn’t too bad, because it meant we were near a highway after the sun had set instead of a pitch dark wilderness area.

I kept a good pace, but it did take a bit out of me. So when we got home, I chugged some literally freshly squeezed grapefruit juice. It had come off the tree this morning. I added some grenadine to soften the blow, but I still dumped a large amount of acid into my stomach. I didn’t eat much at dinner.

Thankfully, Catalina has an unheated pool. So I stood in that for ten minutes to calm my muscles. Cold helps sore muscles. 

2016-3-2 21:58

Last year, when I was in Houston, we went on the Level 9 tour at NASA. For $3 more you could get a year long membership. So, since I’m back here, I should make the most out of that and use it before it expires.

They still have the big airplane carrying a shuttle on its back, cluttering up the lawn like some advanced redneck. Only this time, you can actually go in. But it is a classic bait and switch. Only after you go in do you find out that it isn’t a real space shuttle, but an advanced facsimile. The real ones are too radioactive to let people near. It is the real plane, so you can see cool stuff there. They have even left some of the ballast that they needed to help keep the front of the plane heavier for an even flight. That really makes you wonder about overweight baggage fees. (Sorry. Old joke. Couldn’t help myself.)

They had a lot of other cool exhibits. We saw an IMAX movie about “Journey to Space”. They had the actual shuttlecraft Galileo from the original Star Trek. I geeked out a bit with that. They also had some of the original capsules from early missions in beautiful displays. 

There were also a lot of games. In a way it was like the Telus World of Science. Probably with a bigger budget. There was one game where you try to control some blimps to go through a hoop. Unfortunately I think the air conditioning was too strong so the blimps just huddled in a corner, no matter how much engine power you used. Another display let you compare upright and recumbent bicycles. I couldn’t tell the difference, because the bicycles were sized for little kids.

But overall it was very cool. I saw amazing things that are a great part of human history. There was fun stuff to do. The train routing game was a hoot. The hover chair was easy to abuse. I am terrible at landing a space shuttle on a runway. Crew capsules are cramped. And they have an evil gift shop. I don’t want to talk about that last one.

2016-3-2 0:00

I gave up buying candy for Lent, but since I still have such a stash it hasn’t slowed my actual consumption. However, there have been other effects.

I drastically cut down my consumption of pop a year ago. It is probably healthy for me. I have contented myself to just having my daily hot chocolate at work. Then I made the mistake of looking at the nutrition information. If I have two hot chocolates, it is the same as one can of Coke. Actually reading the nutritional information of any product can scare you with the amount of sugar. So, I have found myself stopping having a hot chocolate in the afternoon.

And the weird thing is that I can feel the difference. After lunch I start craving something. I can ignore it, but it is definitely there. So apparently I have a sugar addiction. I don’t feel any healthier from my self-denial. For all I know I’m crankier.

For Friday lunch I usually buy something from the bistro next door, along with a dessert. By dinner, yesterday, I was accused of being wired. So maybe that brownie is affecting me more.

And once again Lent is upon us. As I’ve stated before, I’m not religious, but I like the tradition of self-denial.
As usual, the interesting thing is figuring out what to give up.
About a year ago I drastically dropped the amount of soft drinks I consume. I now only have a Coke when I need a shot of caffeine to stay awake. But that is not a common occurrence, maybe once a month if that. I believe it has helped me be thinner. (I can’t say it has helped me lose weight because that fluctuates too much because of muscle gain/loss.)
I regularly drink a hot chocolate at work, once a day, because it is nice to have something warm to drink, and I don’t like coffee. Then I made the mistake of reading the nutrition info. Like everything else, it has more sugar than I would like.
I’m seeing friends give up sugar, and I’m thinking that might be the way to go. But there are quality-of-life issues. Besides, on some runs I need quick energy. But I think I’ve come up with a good compromise.
For Lent I will give up buying sweet things.
This is far more effective than anything else. I admit I have a problem; I like to buy sweets and candies. Unfortunately, I have no real need to eat them. So my place has been filling up with very good chocolates and candies that have not been getting eaten fast enough. It will be a real accomplishment if I don’t buy any new ones. Maybe I can make some progress on getting rid of the ones I already have.

There was a good article about surprisingly sexist origins of everyday things on Cracked. The point that drew my interest was about wristwatches. #4.
To summarize, wristwatches were initially thought of as “girly” because they were like bracelets. Men would instead use a manly pocket watch. Then “The Great War” came along, and wristwatches found their niche. Pocket watches were too cumbersome in that environment, and a hands-free device was much more useful.
Now I feel justified in my love of my wristwatch. If you know me, you know I will get uncomfortable if I am separated from it for too long. Everyone else around me keeps saying they use their cellphone to tell the time. That is just an update of the pocket watch, except without the convenience of a chain to keep it on your person. Although I will admit they are referred to as an electronic leash, so I may be a bit weak on that point in my argument. Mind you, I think a lot of people with cracked screens would prefer if their cell phone had been on a chain.
Now I just have to convince people that I am preparing for a land invasion of France and I will reclaim what I laughably refer to as my “coolness”.

I was listening to the news yesterday and they were talking about the earthquake that happened in Fox Creek. They had mentioned that it was felt as far away as St. Albert.
My first thought was that that was silly. I work in St. Albert, and I didn’t feel a thing. Then it dawned on me that I had.
On Tuesday it sounded like the building cracked. It felt like a big gust of wind had suddenly hit the building. But if you looked outside, none of the trees were swaying in the breeze. I forgot about it soon after. Until I put two and two together with the news report.
This was my second earthquake that I was aware of.
My first was in the Dominican Republic several years ago. Back then I thought it was a gust of wind as well.
I have apparently been in another earthquake but not been aware of it. This was in Los Angeles. I didn’t feel anything, but my friend immediately left the building. She was an expert at dealing with them I guess.

I saw the Magna Carta yesterday.
The Durham Cathedral copy is making a tour of Canada, so I took the opportunity to see an important historical artifact and the foundation of the modern legal system.
The Federal Building near the legislature has been under construction/renovations for several years. And this was my first time even going to the area for probably five years. I must say it looks very nice. The living wall is a nice touch to have during the winter months.
Since I was on time, but we were waiting for people who weren’t, we checked out the 4D interactive movie about the history of Alberta. It was fairly well done with nice special effects. I got snowed on at one point. And it has the closest we are going to get to holograms with modern technology.
Anyway, the exhibit on the Magna Carta was good. I found the best part was just listening to the curator talk about the document and answer questions. The actual document isn’t that spectacular until you know the facts. It is in abbreviated Latin, so it wasn’t very approachable for the common man. The curator also had speculations about Scribe “Bob” who is the speculated pseudonym of the scribe who wrote out this draft. “Bob” started out with big writing, but two thirds of the way through, realized he was running out of space. He started crunching in the words tightly and made them smaller. (Sounded like a high school student.) You can’t move on to another sheet of paper or write on the back.
The accompanying document, “The Charter of the Forest” actual sounds more important. The Magna Carta is for the nobility. The Charter of the Forest is for the common people and starts to give them human rights.
I would recommend going.

So I did it again. I signed up for the Sinister 7 as soon as it was open.
I had said I wanted to get out of doing ultra marathons. This is going against that. But I still want to do the Mont-Blanc ultra again, and to do that I need to qualify again. And to do that, I need to run ultra marathons. It is a vicious cycle.
It also helps that I have forgotten all the pain and suffering of the last few.
At least I have the Blackfoot Ultra in May to help ramp me up for this.

On the drive to work today I was listening to the radio. They were trying to get people to define art.
For the record, I am not an arty person.
I was thinking of what would be a nice definition for art that would be good for everyone. Then I realized I shouldn’t.
I should only come up with a definition for myself. Firstly, because I don’t feel a pressing need to share this information. But truly because I am the only one that needs to know it.
I am mentally unfit for art. I am not a real artist. I won’t be one. Ever. My opinion should not be forced on others, but I should not have their definition forced on me.
And what scares me is the knowledge that I will not change in this respect. I am not going to change personality and be someone open to art like that. I am who I am, for the rest of my life. Whether I like it or not. I have to acknowledge that I won’t magically become someone else.

For the record thought, my definition would probably be something along the lines of “What I like to look at or experience.” Arty people seem to want to “start a conversation”.

After all the headaches of travel, I need to look back through the haze and pain and remember the last few days in Costa Rica.

The second last night was actually the last night for a number of friends. So we had some special celebrations. Due to situations beyond my control, I was part of an auction whereby I had to do a sexy dance for the winner. That had actually been negotiated down from what the organizer wanted to auction me off for. In any case, I had one woman who really wanted me to dance for her and bid very high. That’s a good feeling. Sure, I may be treated like a piece of meat, but it’s nice to be a wanted piece of meat.

I did my dance, for her, but she wanted everyone to see it, so there was a crowd of people. Apparently I am good at dancing. In the middle, one of the girls shoved me out and took over the dancing. After awhile she was corrected and I got to continue. The crowd loved me.

Then, something touching happened. Because I had been interrupted, and because I had been so helpful to everyone for the entire week, a bunch of the girls were going to do a dance for me. That meant a lot to me. I crave being appreciated. And I hate asking for anything. So it was really nice that my friends, totally unasked for, would do something like that for me.

And about thirty seconds in, I was shoved out so that the girls could dance for each other.

That put me into a funk for the rest of night. I still stayed up until the sun rose. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my friends before they left. It was also a clearer night, so I went out onto the beach to look at the stars. It wasn’t dark enough because the clubs near the beach kept their lights on. So although I didn’t see the Milky Way, I saw lots of stars. This was close to the equator, so I was hoping to see new constellations. The North Star would only be ten degrees above the horizon, so that was new. Howeve, the bright star I saw that I hoped might be Alpha Centauri, was actually a conjunction of Mars, Jupiter and Venus.

On the actual final day, I rested a lot. I made a token effort to get out into town to see what it had to offer. Tourist trap.

I then hung out with some friends. I noticed that the sun was about to set and proposed going to the beach to watch it. They agreed, and we wandered off there. It was beautiful. And I lucked out; I got the settings on my camera correct and we got glorious photos. One of the girls even did an impromptu photo shoot.

It was only after it was dark and I had returned to the hotel that I noticed my sunglasses were missing. I had lost my good pair earlier in the week, and this was my only backup pair. They would be somewhere on the beach, that was completely dark. I grabbed a flashlight, and gave it a shot. Then a miracle happened. I walked out, straight to the shoreline, and directly into the path of my sunglasses. A miracle! Just one more and I’m up for sainthood.

In the evening, we had a subdued party. A lot of people were gone and we were tired. There were fresh strawberries and blackberries that some friends had gotten from when they toured a volcano. I enjoyed talking with my friends, and getting to know acquaintances better.

And then I was appreciated. A friend decided to reward me for all the help I had been during the week, and to compensate me for the ruined dance from yesterday. For a brief moment I was treated like a king. And it meant a lot to me because it was unasked for and freely given. A wonderful endnote to a week. I went to bed after because there was no way the evening could get any better.

I had a lovely day in Houston, spending it with my friend. I got to the airport in plenty of time, and then everything went south.

I boarded the plane at around three. Takeoff would be at 3:40 for an early arrival of 6:55. But we waited at the gate for quite some time. They amused us by doing the safety demo and handing out the customs cards. Then we were told there was a problem with the lavatory, so we would be down to only two for this flight. Fine, I probably won’t need to go. Then they announced that the wall by the lavatory looked weak. They eventually determined it wasn’t structural, so it wouldn’t be hazardous to fly. Unfortunately, there was some worries about the weather in Edmonton, and they would need to take on more fuel in case we were diverted to a different airport.

These delays wouldn’t have been so bad, but I didn’t have a lot to entertain myself. I had run out of movies on my iPad, and was trying to use the United Personal Device Entertainment system. But the network kept going out, so I was only able to watch a minute of movie at a time.

With that, we were able to leave the airport and head to the runway. Ha ha, no. We did do that, then we stopped and turned back. The flap around the lavatory was not correct, so it would need to be repaired. Or we would need to get a new plane. Back to the terminal.

After awhile they decided to let us off the plane to stretch our legs. That wasn’t a good sign. Stay in the area because they want to be able to board us quickly. I got off and went to relieve myself, then I started to plug in devices; I had used a lot of phone power waiting. Then, five minutes later, they asked us to come back, where we seemed to needlessly wait in line. Eventually we got back on.

With the plane repaired, we just needed to wait for a new cabin crew. I guess the previous ones had been on duty for too long. They came on, and preparation started. A bit later, there was another apology and one of the stewardesses announced that she was illegal. I assume she didn’t speak French and therefore couldn’t steward to Canada. She exited the plane. I have no idea if they got a replacement or are we flying with below the standard number of stewards. They showed us the safety demo again.

The plane finally took off at 8:18.

I am looking forward to what problems they have had with my luggage.

2015-10-26 23:19

This is not the post I wanted to write. I wanted to summarize my last few days in a tropical paradise. Of the hopes and dreams I’ve had that have been raised and then dashed, only to arise more powerful than you could imagine. Instead events are happening now that I feel I should document while they are fresh in my emotional core.

My flight home from Costa Rica was going to be long wi tight connections. I knew this, but the website thought I could make it, so I accepted its judgement. I am lucky that hurricane Patricia is hitting Mexico and not Costa Rica, but Houston is having its own inclement weather, which shouldn’t be a big problem because I’m not staying there. (That’s foreshadowing to those taking notes.)

Well, my flight left Costa Rica late, probably because the plane I would travel in had trouble leaving Houston. It was only half an hour, and I asked the ticket agent about it, but she pointed out I had an hour in between flights which should be enough time.

The flight was fine, but problems happened when we landed. Apparently some other plane was bogarting out gate, so we waited on the tarmac for longer than I was comfortable with. Eventually we went to another gate, E16. That’s not too bad; my connection is leaving from E24. Probably close by to each other. Even though my flight had been boarding for fifteen minutes before I even got off my plane, I should be able to make it, although my checked luggage probably wouldn’t.

I though Oklahoma City was a bad airport, but Houston has gone above and beyond to claim that title. Really, Oklahoma fell into the title, and didn’t put in any real effort. Houston wanted it more.

It accomplished this by treating connections as a chance to immigrate. So, we are shuffled away from the plane I want to board and go for a lovely hike to go through immigration. After they determine that I am fit to be in this country, I get to get confused as to whether or not to look for my checked luggage. Eventually finding out I shouldn’t, I proceed to go through security again to get into the exact same terminal.

I didn’t make it in time. My airplane had taken off ten minutes before I even got to the gate. Ticket agents were long gone. Fortunately there is a United customer service desk across the hall. And they joyfully close it right in front of me. I need to go to the one that is across the entire terminal.

By the way, I haven’t eaten since breakfast this morning.

There are no flights today that I can make or fit in. And because it was a weather delay, no compensation or a hotel. Fortunately I have a friend here. A friend who wasn’t answering texts. Eventually I find she was taking a nap, so I have a place to stay. And I took a later flight so I can spend time with her tomorrow.  

2015-10-25 21:03

It was easier to update my journal in Europe. Every day was different. Here the days blend together. And I am not getting enough sleep so it is hard to justify writing on a tablet at 3am when the bed is right there.

I’ve had a few anxiety attacks; usually the alone in a crowd feeling. Everyone around me is in conversation and I don’t feel I can join in anyone. A friend has told me about a good anti-anxiety drug I should try. The pharmacy around here apparently trusts people and doesn’t require a prescription. Probably not smart. In the interim I’ve been experimenting with alcohol and trying to find a happy medium. I think I’m getting it. (Hint: 4 vodka orange juices and a shot of tequila in a 20 minute period is possibly too much, but it did shut my brain down in the manner I needed.)

On the fun side, I went swimming two days ago. I put on sunscreen before I went out, although I could have done a better job on my back. Then I let some friends know I was going out, and I went across the street to the beach. It is a surfing beach so the waves are fairly big. There was a sign warning of riptides, so I wasn’t too brave. I played amoung waves and was always able to touch the bottom. It felt like I was being pushed towards shore more than anything else, so I was safe. I played out there for an hour before coming back in.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of the drama going on in my absence. In the morning, another person had gone swimming and had an incident with an undertow. (He is fine now, just a bit shaken up) so when the organizer heard I was gone, and had been awhile she got into a panic and sent people out to find me. I never saw them, but they saw me. But I kept being told to see her when I got back. Apparently the whole resort knew I was swimming.

And I got a light sunburn. Over all the places where I put sunscreen too. The waves are rough. 

Yesterday we went on an aerial tram tour. A short drive to a nature preserve and then we go on a tram that took us up a mountain into the foliage, then back down. Then there was a short nature walk where they showed us some of the bounty of Costa Rica.

My take away from it was that Costa Rica is one big nature preserve. Everything here seems to be to support Eco-tourism. There is no hunting, and vast areas are off limits. They do good work here, but the tour wasn’t really worth it. It was interesting, but not exciting. I just absorbed information, and didn’t interact much. I did hold a millipede though. 

Or is it the third. Hard to tell. I got my final luggage, so it helped me relax.

Yesterday was slow because I was exhausted. The resort here is small, but I know everybody who is here. We’ve taken it over. The beach is across the street, but it looks ominously threatening with the big waves and threat of riptide. I went at about 1:30 in the morning with a friend to look at it. She lost her (non smart) phone in the waves where it quickly disappeared. It may look nicer in the sun. 

I did a lot of drinking yesterday, but it wasn’t great. Too much responsibility needed to drink water to stay hydrated. After awhile you get sick of water, but you need to keep drinking it so that you don’t feel sick the next day. Drinking may be more trouble than it’s worth.

Tonight I have volunteered to be part of a stage show. I wonder if I will be able to eat dinner, or will I be too busy getting ready. 

2015-10-18 13:40

Th flight from Oklahoma took a long time to get going. They boarded us and then had us wait for an hour. Then finally they started loading the luggage on board. I even got to  watch my bags be put in the cargo hold. A half hour later and we finally got to take off. I was actually starting to worry that I might miss my flight. But I had an hour for my layover where I could buy a small wrap as a dinner.

I didn’t get to see Catalina, but we did FaceTime for awhile. Then I got onto my final leg.

Costa Rica does not go on Daylight Saving Time. So despite being in a different time zone, it is the same as Edmonton. Because of the change though, my flight here was longer than I expected. But I have arrived, gotten through customs and I’m on the way to the hotel right now.

However, it did not go perfectly.

When I packed, I had one checked bag, and two carry-on. One of the carry-on was just an excuse to take more stuff. I didn’t need it for anything while flying. I had put all the toiletries in it, instead of the checked because I was going to definitely have it when I arrived.

But it was heavy, so when someone in Edmonton offered to let me have it be checked, I took it. It seemed like a good deal, and it would be less hassle. I was so quick on the acceptance, I forgot to put a name and address tag on it, but when I asked about it in Oklahoma they assured me it wouldn’t be necessary because my name was already on the tag. And I did get to watch both bags being put on board.

Now if a bag was going to go missing, which one do you think it will be?

United says that it rarely happens that luggage goes missing permanently. It was last seen in Houston and I should have it before dinner. Let’s hope. This is the company known for breaking guitars.

My driver tells me that it only rains at night here. So far his story checks out. But my first thought was, “I wonder what an ultra marathon is like here.” But that way lies madness.

In Canada, we have deer crossings. Here they appear to have iguana crossings.

2015-10-17 2:10

I don’t really see a good reason to be here, yet here we are.

They put a mechanic on the plane, but they hinted we should go get someing to eat. I had a burrito. I could have spent $65 to get an entire Brisket to go. Which sounds ominous and I wonder who buys that when they are boarding a plane?

It sounds like they are getting us a new plane.

I’m pretty sure I will make my connection, but I won’t get to see Catalina. Well, maybe I will. We’re not that far from Houston. 

2015-10-16 14:06

I’m flying to Houston now. From there I will continue on to San Jose, Costa Rica. This is my annual Caribbean vacation where I will spend a week in a tropical place, hanging out with friends. I have a seven hour layover in Houston, but that’s okay because icanspend time with Catalina. 

For the past while, I have not had a lot of free time. First there was the trip to the Alps, followed shortly by Catalina visiting for nearly three weeks. The next weekend was Thanksgiving, which was somewhat relaxing because I spent it with my family in Priddis. But it also meant that I was unable to get ready for this trip.

Long story short: I was up until 1:00 in the morning getting ready for this trip. And I got up at 5:30 to get to my flight. Let’s be honest, I didn’t sleep very well. I think at one point I got up to try repacking something. It’s a little hazy now.

I’m also finding issues already with my preparation. I put some movies and TV shows on my iPad to watch on the flight, but I didn’t think I would need them, because United has a good inflight entertainment system where you can watch their movies on an iPad. Let me amend that though. Had. They HAD an inflight entertainment system. It appears to not be working.

I finished my first movie on my iPad, “Riddick”, which was pretty good. It was a lot more similar to his first movie and got him away from the events of the second movie fairly quickly. If you liked “Pitch Dark”, I would recommend this.

Then I went to watch some of the TV shows I had. Unfortunately, I didn’t test them beforehand, and they are all corrupt. I will not be watching them. So I only have one movie left for this entire trip.

And now the pilot has just announced a problem with the generators on board. We’re diverting to Oklahoma City. Further updates as they warrant. 

2015-10-16 12:45

Hopefully. I’m praying the title of this entry won’t doom me to ill luck.

At 4:15 a plane arrive to take us to Houston. We were supposed to board at 4:45. It hasn’t quite worked out. The computer crashed and they didn’t want to make new boarding passes. And this is a smaller plane. So we’re supposed to act like adults and just try and find the closest seat to our original. I’m just happy to be on board. I probably would have been fine with being in the luggage compartment. Just get on the plane and go. We are only on it for an hour.

The Will Rogers Oklahoma Airport is not a good place. There are overhead speakers blaring about lost items at security. Or just telling us not to be stupid. Whenever they are blaring, it is impossible to hear the announcement from our gate person with actual relevant information.

I’m tired. Possibly cranky. I may not see Catalina for very long, if at all. But hopefully I will make my flight to Costa Rica now. I have four hours to make it.

I wonder if I could have driven from Oklahoma to Houston in the time I had?

2015-10-16 17:15

I did a lot of hiking this weekend.
Yesterday, I drove out with Catalina to the River’s Edge ultra. I had a friend running it so I wanted to go out and cheer him on. And it was a new ultra so it would be nice to see. I would have liked to run it, but a test run last week left my quads unhappy with me, so I figured I wasn’t ready for an 80km run yet.
When we got there, it was raining. The drive had had pleasant weather, but that didn’t last. Fortunately, the rain didn’t either. After twenty minutes it was over, and I got to see my friend come in at the end of one of his leg’s.
After he went off, we took a pair of walks in the area. It was quite beautiful. Unfortunately, I think I have damaged my iPhone camera, so the pictures I took all have a streak across them.
Today, we drove out to Elk Island to see some bison. This is a prelude to eventually eating part of one. We saw some wood buffalo on the highway before we arrived at the park.
We asked the information guy for some suggestions on what to do there. Usually Bison Loop Road is a good place to sight them. And we were looking for a two hour hike and he gave a suggestion of the Shirley Lake trail.
The Bison Loop road didn’t provide a good sighting, so we continued on the Shirley Lake Trail. That trail looked a little long at 12.5km. So we decided to start with the Simmons trail, which was a subset of the larger trail and only 5km long. We could then decide to extend it if we felt like it.
At about 3pm we started. Unfortunately, I didn’t look at the map closely enough, and we started on the Shirley Lake trail by mistake. Part of the problem was that the park assumes everyone will go a certain way on the trails, and so if you go in the wrong direction, the signs are all behind you. This will be important later.
We only realized we were on the wrong trail after half an hour, when we met some people going the other direction. They also mentioned that there were a lot of bison 12km ahead, on the Tawayik Lake trail. Because Shirley Lake trail and Tawayik overlap, except that one is 16.5km.
So, with that in mind, after an hour, we turned to continue on Tawayik instead of staying with Shirley Lake. We wanted to see bison! And after several hours of hiking, we encountered them. When the trail went between Tawayik Lake and Little Tawayik Lake, the forest changed to plains, and there was a herd of about 50 bison laying about on the trail, acting like they owned the place.
We took pictures and avoided them, although the alpha was a ways from them and seemed a bit upset at our presence. We didn’t have a problem though, and we parted amicably by going off what might laughably be called “the trail” and circling around the herd.
However, we never really found the trail again. It wasn’t clearly marked, and it assumed we were going in the other direction. So the trail we eventually found had actually been made by bison with no sense of a goal, so it ended abruptly. With no easy way to find the trail, we headed back to the lake and stayed close to it and headed in the general direction of the end.
Thankfully it wasn’t wet, but there was grass that was higher than us. It was a slog at times, and annoying with the knowledge that the real trail was probably close by, but we had no way to find it without going dangerously cross-country, and the map was not helpful. At least the iPhone map gave us a direction to head.
We did get back to the parking lot at around 7:30, when the sun was already setting behind the trees. There was a very nice path going into the trees too, clear as day. I wish we had known what we were going to do at the start and headed in that direction to begin with.
On the drive home I noticed that the moon was in the half phase. Which struck me as odd, since it was full last night. Oh yeah! The eclipse.
There was a large group of people on Bison Loop Road. We joined them and took some pictures. But it was cold, we were hungry, and it was late. We drove home, keeping the moon in sight as much as possible, until it was completely gone, replaced by its blood version.

I got an email this morning asking me to check in for my flight. Internet wasn’t great, but I was able to get in. Oddly, there was no seat assigned for the Geneva-Montreal leg. And the flight was delayed by fifteen minutes. When the Alpybus got me to the airport they said they would assign me a seat at the gate. I think the delay had something to do with them being unable to organize the seats.

I said goodbye to my friend, who will now wander the mean streets of Geneva; I gave here the best advice I could and it sounds like she will be go to the U.N. first.

I got through the Duty Free without issue. Oddly, I did not pick up anything. With the Canadian dollar so low, I didn’t really want to get any alcohol that I probably will never drink. I know, that is out of character for me. 

At the gate they took my boarding pass and said they will assign me a seat when they can. I made the request for a window seat, but I would be happy with just being on the plane. I waited quite awhile, napping a bit. I’m more tired than I realized. Eventually I heard my name and I got my seat.

Business Class!

So this is how the other half lives. I do not have a window seat; when you are living in the lap of luxury that no longer seems important. They have already handed me an orange juice while the lower classes board. They tried to pawn some sparkling wine off on me, but I knew better.

And they’ve handed me a lunch menu. We haven’t even taken off?!

Appetizer: Balik salmon and lemon dill shrimp with fennel salad, zucchini, apricot chutney and caper apple. (I don’t care if I’m allergic to shrimp, it is going down.)

Salad: Mixed greens with carrot julienne and tomato served with balsamic vinagrette. 

Main Course: I have a selection of four to choose from

Chimichurri lamb chops accompanied by Rosemary jus, mashed potatoes and vegetable peperonata.

Chicken breast presented with morel sauce, rösti potstoes and mixed vegetables.

Salmon fillet offered with chive sauce, wild rice and a vegetable medley.

Orecchiette pasta served with light lemon sauce, Ed pepper and leek julienne.

I’m going to have the lamb. If “Airplane!” Has taught me anything, you don’t have the fish.

Selection of cheese: Tilsiter, Taleggio and Reblochon served with crackers

Choice of Desserts: Swiss chocolate, macadamia nut and vanilla ice cream with chocolate garnish.

Fresh seasonal fruit.

I must say, this is very nice.

I’m now going to listen to the preflight announcement, put on the swanky, noise canceling headphones, Take my boots off, lift my feet up so it will feel like I’m on a couch, and then watch a movie.

Living th dream!

2015-9-8 12:35

We went from the hotel to the hostel this morning. After we had checked in, and got our pass for all the cable cars, we did a short hike to the Cascade du Dard. It was only half an hour, and then we stayed in the cafe there and had a pleasant lunch. The weather was beautiful today, so it was a great time to just chill in France.

We then took the bus back into Chamonix and then went up the Télécabine de Planpraz. That took us up a good height, but I had been there before and it was nothing new. Then we went up the next cable car from there, the Téléphérique du Brévent (2525m) and there the view was amazing. We had gone to the top of the mountain and were seeing the other side. A spectacular wilderness and you could see so far away. This was better than all of the views for hiking the TMB. Which was somewhat depressing. Especially since we could see good chunks of the TMB from this new vantage point. Some clearer than when we were on them. Stupid bad weather.

We then went down and crossed town to go back to the Téléphérique de l’Aiguille du Midi (3842m). We had been there before we went on the TMB, but it had been at closing and we had missed going into the glass booth that hung over the edge. I had thought there would be better uses of our time than to repeat a cable car, but this was worth It. For one, the sky was much clearer and we could see things we hadn’t before; the peak of Mont Blanc was clear and seemed very close, despite being 1000 meters above us. The glass booth was okay, but it did let us get up even higher for the views.

My only regret is that we didn’t go to La Flégère today. It would have been nice to see the scene of my defeat. But, for some reason, it was closed today.

We just had a nice meal back at the hostel of tomato salad and salmon lasagna. This hostel seems to have only four people staying here. One woman was still here from before we had left; she still remembered me as I have a reputation now for eating a lot of salad.

Tomorrow I get up early and catch the bus back to Geneva and my flight home. This has been a good vacation. It could have been better, but I have enjoyed it.

2015-9-7 20:56

Of course the weather would be beautiful today. We were even in the perfect place to go up to the Fenêtre d’Arpette. However, I would like to quote the guidebook:

Many people consider the traverse of the Fenêtre d’Arpette to be the highlight of the Tour of Mont Blanc. Some await this stage with eager anticipation, while others view it with trepediation, but everyone agrees that it is one of the hike’s most unforgettable moments. The long climb up the rugged and barren Val d’Arpette to the narrow notch of the Fenêtre d’Arpette, a sabre cut in the high rock ridge, leads to an even more spectacular descent overlooking the magnificent Glacier de Trient.

That all sounds well and good, but the facts are that we would start at 1627m and climb to 2665m, before descending to 1280m. My energy has been drained by all the bad weather. That does not sound doable.

The mountain has failed to keep its promise. I tolerate horrible climbs in return for beautiful views. When three of the four days do not provide the scenery, there is a failure in the social contract.

So, we had a half hour hike back to Champex and then we bussed and trained to Chamonix. Some of the views from the train were equivalent to Tour scenery. We got an adequate hotel for a reasonable price. And having a relaxing day made me realize how tired I have become. Stress and cold do not help my energy level. Being able to sit and listen to a lederhosen band without worry is probably what I needed.

2015-9-6 17:50

It started so beautifully. We awoke in Courmayeur in a nice hotel. It was sunny out, and we only had a short hike today, just over one mountain. We had even found a bus that would take us to Arnuva (1769m) to start the hike.

Well, it may have been nice in Italy, but it wasn’t in Switzerland. And that bad weather was pouring over the Grand Col Ferret. As soon as we were out of the bus, the wind was strong and it was cold. The bus ride had not been good for my friend, so we had to wait awhile for her to recover. Then it was slow going up. It took us an hour to get up to Refuge Elena (2062m). There we stopped for some lunch, and we got back into the game.

It took us anothe hour and a bit to climb all the way to the top of Grand Col Ferret (2537m) and the wind was howling the entire way. It was snowing too. We were in the clouds so there was no view to enjoy. We got there around three, which means we spent a total of 24 hours in Italy.

Going down it was wet and miserable. We warmed up in La Peule (2071m) where they were attempting to have a fire going in the refuge. Then we continued down, past Ferret and into La Fouly (1593m). We were just in time at a quarter to seven to catch the last bus that would take us to Champex.

This is where things went worse. Last night, I had looked for a place to stay. The website for planning hiking Mont Blanc listed only one place with space in Champex, so I had paid a deposit to guarantee we had a place to sleep for tonight. That was Relais d’Arpette. I later discovered that there were other places with room, but by then I had already paid.

Unfortunately it was not actually in Champex. The bus took us to the edge of town, and in French told us which way to walk. There wasn’t anything there. We were cold, tired and hungry. I phoned the place and discovered it was a half hour hike. We were not happy.

Fortunately they sent a car to pick us up. But this place seems to be catering to people hiking, and is on the trail to the hardest hike of the whole trail.

We are tired of hiking. The weather has been lousy. All the effort would be okay if we got some good scenery out of it, but that has only happened on one day. This is no longer worth it. We are going to travel back to Chamonix and get a hotel there so we can have some nice memories of this place.

2015-9-5 21:40

Yurts are cold. This is true. However, it was a very comfortable night. They gave us a lot of duvets and blankets. It was nice being in stuff so soft. But my head was cold, so I should have worn a toque while sleeping.

When we got up, we had breakfast. Today was beautiful. Finally. There were a few clouds, but overall we could finally see the views we had been working so hard to earn. We left late, and then climbed up even higher. Once we got over the pass, it was a long downhill to Les Ville des Glaciers. That took about three hours. A half hour later we got to Les Mottets. The place was packed already, but I went in and cancelled my reservation. It was too early to stop on such a nice day.

Then up, up, up for the Col de Seigne. It took about two hours of solid climbing to get there, but we were able to cross the border into Italy. It became a special challenge to keep going because there was a tour group of 15 people right behind us. You don’t want to let that pass you or you’ll never get ahead of them.

The views down into Italy were great, and it was all downhill. We even got a car ride from some nice people for the last half kilometer.

We learned that Italy is in the middle of a dumb experiment. They are stopping all bus service in Courmayeur and surrounding villages for September until December. As part of our plan to do this hike involves skipping boring parts and using the bus, this is suddenly becoming expensive. Even our taxi driver acknowledge it was dumb, even if it is helping him earn even more money.

We didn’t even try to go to a hostel. We’ve been burned too much on that. So instead we went to a hotel. It was somewhat hard to find as we were using a local to phone for us, and one of the first that had vacancy was charging €1,100 a night. Which is a little steep. But we have a nice one now with a raging river just outside.

2015-9-4 23:42