Douglas Fir Trail

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The Douglas Fir Trail is beautiful in the summer and fall and treacherous in the winter and spring due to huge ice flows that cover the stairs. Dogwood and violets are some of the shady summer wildflowers you’ll see on this trek. It is a birders paradise so bring your binoculars. At dusk in the Fall I saw three Great-horned Owls fly across the path in front of me and then the coyotes started to howl. A wilderness trek in the heart of the city!

~From The Best Walks in Calgary:

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After Nan checked out this trail with her Mom a couple of weeks ago, she suggested that we check it out on Saturday. Saturday was a hot, summer day, perfect weather for a walk in the woods.

We walked to the bike path along the Bow from our house and headed upstream. At the first opportunity we cut across the train tracks from checking out the flora and fauna in the Riparian zone, into the willows and long grass along the slopes of the bow.

The trail should have moved into and through the Eastern most stand of Douglas Fir trees, but for some slumping reasons. We caught up with the trail again about halfway through, where it had been re-routed.

Following it up through the cool shade of the Douglas Firs, the trail breaks open to an incredible view up the Bow river valley.

At this point in the trail we decided that we’d head back. Ignoring the signs this time, we thought that washout… It’s not raining, so we don’t have to worry about any immediate danger. How bad could it be?

The trail was decimated. The rout perilous. 50+ year old trees knocked down, as the soil beneath their roots slumped away, and reformed into clay.

Bridges are twisted and moved in places the trail is completely gone, leaving one only to guess where to go next. I don’t think that it’ll be open for a while. Which is too bad. It was a little piece of the quiet and smells of the mountains, within walking distance of out house.

Solar Blocker 2000 (Thanks Mike)

I have not written a practical blog in a while, but I am pleased, by our new “Solar Blocker 5000 2000″ (the name at this point is under review ) that I thought I would.

In our awesome apartment apartment we have a massive skylight (5′ X 8′). In the winter, spring and fall it is a god send. It most definitely wards off the the Seasonal Affective Disorder in the winter when it is minus 20. in the fall, and spring with the later light we are able to eat and enjoy our kitchen space with out the use of lights. It allows us to be green as possible.

In the Summer however, it turns this little piece of heaven for most of the year, turns our little 2 bedroom into a fiery inferno. Taking matters into my own hands and with some help from, a few eyes, spindles, hooks, wire, string and  a wonder product called Reflectix.

The 7th level of hell has turned into a warm summer afternoon. So I would like to share my conversion with the rest of you.

Determining Square:

Checking one before cutting the rest of the supports:

Using the master to cut mark the rest for cutting:

Marking for the drill hole:

It is hard to drill on a round spindle so a flat side was cut:

A nail was put into all the the holes on one end. Then then other end holes were checked to see if they line up.

Marking where to drill for the eyes:

Drilling the rest of the pilot holes for “Eyes”

Clipping in one side of the support wire:

Making sure the supports are evenly spaced. Layout of supports:

Finished Project:

At this point it is completely retractable, for those rainy days.

Malum aliud generat malum

Well I haven’t blogged in a while, mostly because of time, but also because of my very own Cyber “Stalker”. Since I don’t have a real name for this person he/she will now be called Grimalkin, (look it up) . I have decided that there is nothing that I can do about him/her and I’m not prepared to run and hide so I’ll just keep on with my life.

Grimalkin faded into the background for a while and I thought that he/she may have developed another passion, perhaps looking after many of cats. Then I noticed that I was receiving email newsletters form sites that I had not signed up for. They ranged form Frommers, the travel magazine, to Boston Pride. It was a odd collection.   But once again with an overwhelming homosexual theme.  Once again, is this supposed to enrage me?  Upset me?  Get with the times Grimalkin.  Calling someone gay, or insinuating that they are homosexual is not a put down.  You’ll be calling me “white” next.  Ouch that’d hurt.

I find it surprising that this day and age that you can sign up someone else to website’s email list and that they do not send a conformation email, to see if it was really you. These enewsletters were a little annoying, but really they were like spam so easily ignorable.

So to take it up a notch Gimalkin, has now taken my photo offline and set up an OK Cupid account. Supposedly:

I’m looking for that special man to share my life with. I am an active outdoorsman who loves to camp, hike, fish, and mountain bike so my special man needs to have a love for the outdoors and be able to keep up with me. On another side of me I don’t mind a quiet evening at home with my special someone, be it watching a movie or a quiet dinner or snuggling by the fireplace with a nice glass of wine.”

Looking at the rest of the profile I’m a bit of a catch. To bad that I’m madly in love with my sweetie and that I’m a straight as a lodgepole pine. Good thing that I’m comfortable with who I am. Grimalkin must really have no life. I’m beginning to feel sorry for her/him. Perhaps they need to see someone about their deeply disturbing troubles.

So once again, this is a calling to my cyber-harpy. Quit hiding and show yourself.

To the one that calls her/himself Jennifer

Recently I got a note from an individual who I do not know.  S/he wanted to  be my friend on a social-networking site  like facebook but for teachers called School 2.0.  I had joined months ago and then completely forgot about it until I get a note within my email box that “Jennifer Paulson” wants to be my friend.  I thought I recognised the name as someone that I had marked diploma exams with in Edmonton, so I added her.

I sent her a note that asked how I knew her.  To which she replied, “think hard”.  Well, I thought about it; but, still did not know who s/he was.  I replied to that end.

This is when things got weird.

Her/his reply to that email was: “I think you are an incredible self-serving asshole who goes through life using and abusing people for….what? Self gain? Makes you feel good? Because you can? Reading your so called “blog” made me laugh(at you…certainly not with you) and feel sad at the same time for all the people who are taken in by your crap. You are nothing but a self centered, ego-maniacal piece of shit. Rue the day boy.”

Ok, really.  WTF.  Was that really necessary?  I wrote to back to apologise if I had done him/her any wrong.  By that point s/he had spammed my blog with really hateful and nasty comments (similar to the above).

The way that I look at it is this.  If this person would lower him/herself to the point of slander, as well as be anonymous about it, I am the least of her/his problems.  S/he really needs to get over it (whatever ‘it’ was) and grow the F@#% up.  Really.  Doesn’t s/he have anything better to do?  I find it annoying that I have had to now moderate any comments on my blog .

Dear Jennifer, Instead of being an asshole and acting like someone who is afraid to tell me what is really bugging you, grow up and deal with it.

I am not afraid of your comments, I ‘m just annoyed by them.