The course started on Friday night with Rick handing use a blank that he had already bandsawed out for us. In other courses we would have done the rough work, but this weekend Rick wanted us to focus on the carving inself.

After adding some pencil lines to orient our carving I started working on adding some depth to the feahers.

The class was held in a double wide garage that had be designed for numerous types of artisan work.

After a great weekend he double raven was completed. There are enought elements in it that I should be able to transfer the skills that I learned into any west coast Salish piece that I wish to carve. Now the challenge will be to come up with the ideas!

For the whole carving only two types of knives were used. A pull knife and a bent knife. I was fortunate enough that I took a course earlier in the month where I made both of them.

Owl monkey

Originally uploaded by 5GnCDN

After being silent for a while I’ve decide to return to blogging. I’ve thought about starting up other blogs, under different names, but really that’d be a pain in the butt.

I also thought about what I want to teach my son as he grows up in a digital world, a world where crap happens. This last thought is the one that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about late at night as I rock him back to sleep.

In the whole scheme of things I forgot that sticks, stones, fists and other hard objects can break bones and really hurt you, but words are just that, words.

You have to give them power for them to hurt you.

I gave a lot of words power. That was a mistake on my part, a good lesson to relearn.

So there it is.

Look for more posts in the future.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Well the rumours that you may have heard are true, first I’m getting married and second we bought a house in Powell River. I’ve made a quick video of our little abode. Although we are not moving out to the coast right away. It is the first step.

So I have some time to sit, listen to the waves and write.

There are many things that I really love about being on the coast. One thing that I really enjoy is being able to buy fresh seafood off the dock.

Yesterday throughout town there were home made signs informing us that there was “Fresh Halibut at the Government Dock” We didn’t pass up the opportunity and as you can see what started on the dock end in a delicious halibut dinner .

23 # of Halibut

Price list for whole fish same price whether it was cut up or not

Cutting into fillets

Sanitized packing

We’ll take the carcass for chowder

Great dinner. A little wine wine, Halibut with a side of lemons. Fresh, organic and delicious!

Goats !

Wilcox pass is defiantly a magical hike. First the scenery is incredible secondly the wildlife was amazing.

After leaving Rampart creek we headed to Wilcox creek camp ground. We have been really impressed with the cleanliness and the quality of the campgrounds in the Parks. Each night has cost us just under $15 which has been great!

Pricilla Betsy Aurona was great today. Even after the abuse of going up the hell hill twice. We forgot boots back at the camp site. Thank god it is an amazing road. Nan made a great call to stop in and register for a campsite before hiking because I think that they must be all full tonight. There are almost 50 camp sites at Wilcox it is a little cheek to jowl, but it really doesn’t matter we are really just eating and sleeping here.

The hike to Wilcox pass starts at the entrance to the camp ground so we parked at site 44 and walked back to the start of the hike. There is clean potable water here so I filled my camel bag and Nan filled a Nalgene for herself.

The hike was an amazing 7 hours. It starts through tall spruce trees then after a kilometer and 1/2 the it opens up into alpine tundra with views of the Columbia Ice field. At the top of the pass we were surrounded by alpine meadow in all directions within a bowl ringed by mountains.

The alpine tundra continued up until the Scree of Mount Wilcox. just before the scree we were graced with the presence of 5 mountain goats. Big old dad, two ladies, a juvenile, and one from this year. We were able to walk up within 100 feet of them. We carefully sat on a large bolder, and watched them graze for 20 minutes. It was a pretty magical time.

We decided for a summit attempt after the goats. Up the scree and to the hard rock, a little scrambling. We rested at one of the false summits and decided that it got a little to technical past that point so this would be a far as we would go. We had a great 340 degrees from where we were so another panorama was snapped.

From our resting point we headed down the hill. Scrambled scree down most of it. Nan hates the feeling of slipping (scree can be a little bit like ball bearings). She was a trooper and didn’t complain. in fact I didn’t know that she was petrified of the experience until we were at the bottom. She did great and we both made it done in one piece.

We were blessed again on the hike out by stumbling across a rock ptarmigan and her 3 chicks crossing the path. We walked slowly and were able to get close enough to touch her. We didn’t molest only took a couple of pictures.

Lastly I did decide that I need to have a quick shave so thanks to my little Trangea to heat the water and Pricilla’s mirror I was able to clean off my 3 days of stubble.

All in all it was a great day. Life is good and this time with Nan has been awesome.

First my coffee boiled over and so instead of turning down the stove I turned it off without noticing. Resulting in Awful coffee. It looked good, but I would have rather drank low tide mud flat water.

Second after trying to get everything together Nan asked me to grab her some socks… you wouldn’t think that this would be a difficult task. But after 15 min of searching in our one big duffle bag I gave up. Nan took over and still no socks. After some discussing it was decided that they were in long term storage on top of the van. The bag on top of the van is easy to get at with a ladder, but requires some monkey work without one

Third the drive to the trail head. There is no sign going north so it was very easy to blow by. Well blow is a bit of an exaggeration, I swear that they would not have been able to make the highway any steeper as it flows in Jasper National Park. There was a couple of times that I thought the olde (that’s for Nan) camp mobile (dear god, we really need a name for the Olde Camp Mobile) wasn’t going to make it. The temperature was really hot and the road was unbearably steep. I kept thinking that I would see flames coming out of the side air vents. but faithful she made it. Even though we stopped once to after smelling electrical burning I think it must have been the camper in front of us.

After back tracking 5 miles we found Nigel Creek trail head. The sign southbound was up and clear. It is a small unassuming road in the middle of one of these very steep climbs. We probably would have found it sooner but miscommunication was a hinderance.

The hike The first segment was really short down a gravel road to the bridge which took us across Nigel creek. The roar of the creek (river) kept us company most of the hike.

Most of the hike is through second growth boreal forest. within the first couple of kilometers we stumbled into Camp Parker. The perimeter was marked by little houses cut into the trees. The hiking book alludes to the importance of this camp but doesn’t shed any detail on what it is all about. We were left to speculate it was set up in 1941 (at least that was one of the dates carved into the trees. Had it been an interment camp?

The forest was broken up in regular intervals by ancient rock slides, which have now been heavily covered in Willow bushes. Some of it is was as tall as my head. These slides now create areas in which water flows down a hundred creeks and water courses. With each opening the surrounding mountains teased out visual cortex with incredible vistas.

Nigel pass offers a great view of the Saskatchewan glacier as well as the surrounding mountains. We had originally thought of going further, but because of our late start, and not having a watch, we decide that this was a perfect spot to stop and enjoy.

As these things go the way down took half the time, and with careful foot placing Nan didn’t drencher her feat for a second time, she did on the way up. as water coursed over the tops of both of her boots, during one of the “creek” crossings.

The road home was uneventful, I did back track a bit all the way to Sask’ crossing, for some gas.

We had a delicious dinner of Clam chowder with some left over noodle from last night, and bread.

We had a sponge bath (with most of our clothes on one for modesty and the other because of the mosquitoes. then crashed into the Van (which we have named, finally)

Welcome Pricilla Betsy Aurona

Pricilla: because she can be very high maintenance

Betsy: because although she is high maintenance, when she runs, she pulls like a pack horse

Aurona: the goddess of dawn (new beginnings) thanks mom!

Nan and I decided to take the 1A out of Cochrane on out way to Banff. the first stop was at the McDougall Memorial Church 5 km west of the city limits. I have driven by it hundreds of times, but it is nice to not have the pressures of a place to be. The church itself was built in 1875, but not on it present location. According to the couple in the parking lot it had been move 5 km eastwards. It is in a picturesque setting and can be rented for all occasions.

Stopped for a quick bit in Canmore. Beemers: good coffee, tasty treats. in Canmore we decided to both get a good pair of sun glasses for the long drive ahead. Nan had a great idea that we rent a canoe at lake Minnewanka, so off we headed.

Well you can’t rent canoes on the lake anymore, but you can rent 16′ tin boats for a modest fee of $40/hour. We bit the bullet and took one out for a spin. It was a little under powered, having only 8 HP, but it did the trick of showing us a view of the Lake Minnewanka area that we had not see before. Except for the few sheep traveled along the waters edge to the dam, the area was pretty devoid of moving life. We killed the motor half way across the lake and enjoyed the relative calm while we ate lunch. the point at which we stopped was a particular sweet spot for echos. We zipped across the lake to watch a chipmunk play at the waters edge. And sailed back to the dock right at the hour mark.

We weren’t done with the area yet, we decide to go for a quick hike. Enter sheep from Stage left. A herd of Mountain sheep decided that they need something more in their diet, they took their turns scrubbing the top and sides of a cast iron rusty cook stove with their tongues. I can only imagine that they are missing iron in their diets. We headed up the trail to find a small bridge crossing a ravine. Here another herd of Sheep had crossed the river across the bridge and while leaving a very small couple of month old calf on one side. As the patriarch bleated the baby bleated back. On able to find it way on the near vertical cliff it doubled back slipped a little and then beyond imagination headed down the steep wall into the water and up the near vertical other side. Pretty incredible.

On our return trip we encountered many more mini herds, also more people wanting to get as close as possible to get that “perfect” picture. A friendly little chipmunk came out to check out Nan. It even jumped up the where her hand was to see if there were any yummy hand outs. None for the little guy but we did stop and get an ice cream before heading to Lake Louise.

We stopped briefly at Lake Louise to grab a few provisions as well as some ice for the cooler. The drive north of Lake Louise is pretty spectacular with vast mountain vistas, and peaking glaciers. At one point after a series of long hills we stopped for a photo op. The van was smoking a bit. Even though I realized that it was burning some oil from a constant slow leak, that was supposed to be fixed before heading off, it was still worrisome.

We finally pulled into Rampart creek campground. What a great place Nan picked out. I must have been a little tired. We decided that the first campsite was not as good as the one right beside it. While Nan jumped out to get the envelope to put our money in. I carefully backed the van into a tree. Thankfully it wasn’t very hard. The tree bent, the bikes which are on the back of the van seemed relatively unhurt (thank god). Parked in the new spot. Got out and stretched.

I knew that I would sleep well that night.

1. Pulled the 1700 motor and replaced the main seal

2. Replaced the cap wires and all plugs

3. While we were at it replaced the clutch

4. Pulled out the Bin 4 gas heater and got it running on the bench

5. Replaced all the brakes and the front Callipers

6. Shined the hub caps

7. Reinstalled all the pieces including the motor

8. Fixed the linkage from the gas pedal to the engine

9. Reinstalled the bin4 heater

Once everything was back in Nan and I decided to take a test drive to Kananaskis. It was beautiful out and we thought that it would be nice to camp out for the night. I decided to stop and check to make sure everything was ok at the pull out just east of highway 40 on highway 1.

Unfortunately the engine could not be restarted after the pit stop. Although I didn’t know it until I had it towed back to the school (thank god for AMA) the right Solex carburettor was flooding right side of motor. Also this trip accentuated a knock in the engine to a really bad knock in front right piston.

After some discussion with the guys in the shop I decided that I needed a new engine.  So I inserted:

11. A rebuilt 1800 motor

12. A new right Solex Carburettor

13. New starter motor brushes

14. New voltage regulator

Test drive 2: Nan and I decided that it would be nice to head out right after work and go to Bragg creek or the mountains. In we jumped, had a great drive to Bragg Creek, and grab some dinner stuff from the little grocery. After great dinner in the Bragg Creek provincial park with almost nobody around, we head back for home. As I hit the city limits, I found the brakes to be a little soft. Not enough to panic, but enough to think “What now”. Once I got home, I did a visual check and found that the front right calliper was leaking, not wanting to fool around, I took it to the professionals the next day. They told me that all the brakes had been installed correctly, but the calliper was defective, and I should take it back to where I had it done.

Back to the school, thankfully the part was bought from NAPA so it was not a problem to have replaced. Two more days the van waited at the school, for the part and to be replaced.

Finally Friday I got her home, and Nan and I drove out to Cochrane for a great night of movies at one of Nan’s friends. We got all the way out and back with out a hitch, so with only a few minor things to do, the van will be ready for our great summer trip.

The first one is Stumble upon it is one of the most addictive add-ons to Fire Fox that I have found. It is better than channel surfing because it allows you to save and book mark these awesome pages as you come across them. When you first sign up you get to chose a few areas of interest. It takes you to sites that other people have favourite within those interests. You can change them at any time and add new ones as you see fit.

Through sites that I have stumbled upon I have learned the anatomy of a Black hole all the way to how to put flash memory into Any Ipod (Which will be great when the hard drive in my Ipod finally kicks it in) plus lots of awesome website design ideas…

On the flip side of the coin I have found a site that really disturbed me not for the content but for what it purports to do. Spam some one (no link given because it is evil). This is a spamming site where all you have to do is put in someone’s email address and it will farm out that address to “spackers” and “botnets”. You even get to choose why you are spamming them. The list is extensive and the more popular the larger the font. “Arrogant Fat B&tch” looks like the number one reason, with “Incompetent” and “loser” coming in a distant second and third.

There are many things that I have come across on the net. Some of them absolutely awful, so awful that they actively disturb long after looking at them. The awful usually are things that have happened in the past. I don’t know why this site has bugged me as mush as it does perhaps it is because it allows in the active participation of creating a major annoyances.

If you feel that you need to spam someone why don’t you face them and tell them why they are a jerk, instead of being a yellow bellied, chicken livered, buttwipe and hiding behind anonymous spammer.

Well Nan and I have thought a lot about our summer plans. The latest and greatest plan is a 6,555 km Road trip from Calgary to Calgary. This may sound crazy but we’ll travel: via Saskatoon, across Edmonton, left to Prince Rupert, swim to the Queen Charlotte Islands (Gwaii Haanas National Park), jump on the Ferry to Port Hardy, Trundle Down the Island to Tofino, across to Bamfield, Nip to Vancouver, then up to Powell River, for some much needed rest.

At which point I’ll head to Vancouver to hike with the Guys.

Back on the road heading inland to Kelowna, hop skip and a jump to Crowsnest pass, and sliding into Calgary just in time to work at the end of August…

According to Google Maps we should be able to make it in 4 days 11 hours. Hmmm… We’re going to take at least 40. We hope to travel no more than 250 km per day stopping in every armpit and gopher museum along the way.

Now if only I could get our VW on the road….

Our plan on Google

First patch of blue will get us moving again.

Distance on Google Maps

We also had the treat in watching the beautiful Rufus humming bird, feed. I have always thought that Humming birds are one of the most extraordinary birds. There is something magical in their ability move at lighting speeds only to hover in an instant. The Rufous hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus), summers in Powell River and migrates to Mexico each winter.

Throughout the day you might only see one or two at the feeder, but as the snow came in and things cooled off. There were at least 14 as see in this picture.

After Christmas Nan and I bought a 1973 VW van (also called a Kombi, or VW type 2).

I had been eyeing it for about 2 weeks sitting on a side street in Parkhill, when finally I drove Nan by it. I knew that I would be able to shake my impulse after Nan viewed the old, rusty, camper.

What I did know was that she has always wanted a VW van. We took it for a test-drive. The motor sounded good. A little under powered, but hey VW’s are not known for their spryness. During a second test drive Ben (the seller) took us to Precision 1 Auto where they specialize in fixing Vdubes and gave us the low down on what he had done to the van. The interior is in great shape and the canvas on the pop-top is without holes. There is some body rust, but with a lot of love, we’ll be able make her pretty and functional.

Ben, had had the van for 4 years, and was looking a spending more time fixing his other two VW vans, which is the reason why he was selling it. He was asking $3,000.00 after a little bargaining we got him down to $2,500.00 and he threw in his 2 repair manuals. After the trip to the mechanic and the repair manuals I don’t know if he was giving us a heads up or not.

Happy little campers Nan and I drove off with our “new” orange camper van.

Our first drive we found that the heater didn’t work, not much of a surprise, being air cooled Vdubes are not know for their tropical heat production. This lack of heat was acutely felt as we drove home with shelves from IKEA. It was–30 out, and we hit rush hour. Nan kept the window scraped with a credit card as I navigated 45 minutes to Nan’s through traffic. It was a friggin’ –100 within the cab. Needless to say we were happy to finally get to the heat of home.

With our first few trips being successful it is time to take it to get checked out for safety

Next Blog Brakes and Front end.

Well is it official I can get rid of my $100.00 Blaze (bright orange jacket) and strap on the noise makers, because lawmaker aims to allow the blind to hunt .   According to Reuters, blind individual can use a laser sights so that their “seeing” companion can see where they are pointing their rifle. The proponent of the new law, Texas State Representative Edmund Kuempel, says that “This opens up the fun of hunting to additional people, and I think that’s great”

I am a strong supporter of hunting. I think that certainly in Alberta where most of the natural predators of big game have been killed or driven off, or where deer are more suited to the monoculture of cultivated land so their populations explode, hunting prevents disease and is a good population control. However there has to be a limit of who is physically able to hunt and who isn’t. I look like a creamsicle when I hunt for a reason, now not only will I be wearing Blaze, I will also have to toot a whistle and shake some bells as I stalk my prey…

Ok two blogs in the same day… Another software goodie. According to Macupdate: “DoubleTake is for Mac users who like compact cameras, but sometimes wish they could magically pull out a wide angle lens of their pocket, or plug in a sensor with a few extra megapixels for that large print.” This is another program that is easy to use and it is shareware that can be used for 30 days before deactivation.

Every once and a while I get on a kick to download more Mac OSX software. In this latest round I downloaded a really cool digital photo editing program called LightZone (the demo can be found here). By using the free verision I was able to play and retouch a number of my pitures to create some pretty cool images. Although I have just scratch the surface of this product I think that it is more user friendly than Photoshop and I am certainley happy with the small bit of editing that I have done.

To find a very nice note in my box. I had carpooled in with a fellow teacher and usually as we walk by her class she stops while I continue on to mine. Tuesday was a little different we continued our conversation past her room all the way to mine. At this point I was getting a little suspicious. I opened my class to find that absolutely every thing had been carefully wrapped in Christmas paper. not only was my white board papered but everything that I had left on my desk, staplers, the hole punch, marking, my binders, computer, key board, mouse, calendar, clock, textbooks, doors….

I could see why I had been followed to my class. someone had to witness my reaction. I laughed and smiled that the joke. It is nice to know that people will take that much time to punk you. I must be loved! Over the next couple days, I had found out that at least 5 teachers, all three of my classes, and another class had all come to help.  Thanks all for really making my week!

I promised all of my students and those that had been involved, that I would only unwrap what I need (like my projector, and my telephone)…. I must say that I now have the most festive room in the school.

The thing is
to love life
to love it even when you have no
stomach for it, when everything that you’ve held
dear crumbles like burnt paper in your hands
and your throat is filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you so heavily
it is like heat, tropical, moist
thickening the air so it’s heavy like water
more fit for gills than lungs.
When grief weights you like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief.
How long can a body withstand this, you think,
and yet you hold life like a face between your palms,
a plain face, with no charming smile
or twinkle in her eye,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.

Ellen Bass

My Aunt sent this poem to me just a little while ago. I have meant to share it at some point, today feels like a good day to do so.

So when the preverbal shit hits the fan, remember that it will all come out in the wash.

I have always had a fascination with porcupines. I don’t know why. This one I just want to hug.

Wasps on the other hand are the flip side of a porcupine. True they have sharp bits, but they work tirelessly to build a home that will only by destroyed by the ravages of winter.

Psychologists just help release the mental dams that are created during life’s events and start mental flush. I am still amazed at what the human brain can do to itself. Some of it in self preservation; what I don’t know can’t kill me although really I know. And sometimes as with a sudden unexpected lost or trauma it seems to be like a computer that keeps running through the same steps to get somewhere, but like a computer it freezes up and needs a serious reboot. Over the last few years I have created many self preservation blocks within my noggin and although I do believe I could eventually release them all, I think that going to the shrink will some how speed up the process. It is like having to heads look at the same problem undoubtedly they will come to a solution faster than one alone.

Another part in my growing and getting well is surrounding myself with extremely high caliber people. People that are non judgmental and that have seen enough of the world and have experienced enough to be able to help me on my journey. I can’t thank my friends enough for helping me work my way through a very dark time in my life. I’m finally at a t point where I am not desperately trying to search for a sense of who I am. I’ve started a nebulous of foundation on which to build my next great empire.

One of the best things that has happened to my psyche is that I no longer feel so desperately alone, for a while there it was awful. The loneliness was the hardest thing that I have had to work through. Sure there are lonely days and sometimes I feel a lone. I don’t feel so utterly lost. I have an inkling of where the path is and I know that it will only get clearer.

1) Guilt
2) Sadness
3) Anger

Guilt because I left the relationship. I know that I have done all that I can do, but I imagine that it is akin to the guilt that someone has surviving and accident when others didn’t.

Sadness is obvious.

Anger because this is not “supposed” to be where I am at 33. Where is my white picket fence, my 2 kids, SUV and a dog? Not that I want a white picket fence, but I did imagine that my life would be a little different.

I hope sooner than later I will get to to a point where those three are the background waves, instead of storm that is lashing at my soul.

Being fairly mechanical I thought that it would be no problem to change the front knobby tire to a nice new slick tire. I first started with the removal of the knobby, which was extremely tight. In the process of fighting to get the rubber off I pinched the tube and putting two little holes in it. I fought the rest of the rubber off and slipped the new slick over the rim. I had a couple of what I thought where really cool patches. Self adhesive and everything… Unfortunately I didn’t realize they were temporary. They were only “enough to get you home patches”. I finished getting the tire on. Filled it up and was excited to bike to my uncle’s the next day.

Great ride there, 22 degrees with no wind either there or back. Half way back my patch gave out. So on the side of the Old Banff Coach Road in the wild rose bushes raking my ankles I patched the tube for the second time. 15 min later back on the road. Deciding that the patches that I bought had a limit use, I bought some good patches to fix the tube and a couple of extra tubes. At that point I found that all Presta valves are not the same in fact it seems like most bike shops and even MEC didn’t realize that Presta valves come in different lengths.

When I bought my bike the dealers at Bow Cycle forgot to mention that I needed extra long valves for the Kona Jake. So after buying 3 tubes at 2 different locations I finally made my way back to Bow Cycle where they apologized for the lack of information and gave me a deal on new tubes. They also showed my a couple of tricks on how to replace the tube and fill it correctly. I was thankful for their advice and decided that come Hell or High Water I would bike into work today.

Well the gods must have hear me and the morning ride was through big drops of freezing cold rain, tomorrow’s supposed to snow. It wasn’t so much of a problem except when I had to stop for red lights my glasses fogged up. My bike and I arrived safe and in one piece a little damp (to say the least) in a short 25 minutes. I’m kind of looking forward to the damp ride home. My bike is great and it makes riding something that I want to do.

Plus I think that I’ll have to ride all year to recoup the cost of the bike in the gas saving. Day one of the bike ride went well hopefully going home will be just as good.

Well I have survived. Not that I thought that I wouldn’t, but the first day of class is always tough, whether you are the student or the teacher.

It is hard to believe that I will have to learn 116 students names in the next couple of weeks. 37, 38 in each of the grade 12 Biology’s and 41 in grade 11 Physic’s. The hardest part of the first days is knowing that I only have 34 desks, so in each and every class students will have to sit at the lab benches in the back. Not the best option, but you do what you have to.

We have just been informed that we’ll only have 5.5 janitorial staff to clean and look at a building with 2,200 students and a 3 acre footprint. This year will be interesting. Hopefully it won’t be like the Chinese curse “may your life be long and interesting”…

First day went without a hitch and I’m happy that the day is over. A celebratory beer must be waiting in the fridge for me at home.

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