CaptainOrange

I've got a photo album up . It's big and getting bigger (I've kept it to 70 pics so far). No dive photos, yet. And, they will probably go in a separate album anyway. Set an alarm for 7am. Woke up at 5 to disable a fan that was causing me to be too cold. Yes I'm aware of how ridiculous that sounds what with the temperatures that most of you are dealing with. But, there was air conditioning involved! Does that make it better? Woke at 6. Too light to sleep. After breakfast, I head upstairs to an orientation session. The first 10 minutes are a sales pitch for a company that flies people around the island at low altitude in an open-air plane. It's prohibitively expensive, so I just tune out. The only thing of consequence I learn is that anything we want to buy at the resort goes on a room tab and all the “tipping” happens at the end of your stay in one envelope for the entire staff except for the boat captains and dive master, who are tipped separately. It keeps us fr...

Police trike in Atlanta airport Staying overnight in the Atlanta airport. I don't dare sleep. Without a partner, I feel too vulnerable. I sit huddled with my camera bag and backpack locked together and clipped to my leg. I have a cup of coffee, pay 6$.95 for wifi access and do some writing and place a Skype call to Wendy. In the morning I through security again around 7am and then feel a bit safer. I manage to doze, though I never really sleep. Brad arrive mid morning. We launch a failed attempt to have our seats put next to one another (after the airline messed them up when changing planes earlier in the week). We will have to sit five rows apart. Not really chatting distance on a plane, but the consolation is I get to eat breakfast with him. I'm hungry after refusing to eat yesterday, save a few wine gums and some coffee. We manage to find a place where the food looks good and the sign promises “healthy food.” There are even a few vegetarian options. It may be the worst...

Yes, I've been excited for the trip day to arrive. That's not to say that I haven't been doing anything. You already know that I've been battling the winter blues, as usual. One of my weapons has been walking to and from work. Recently, on a super cold, but windless day, I spotted this cloud as I arrived home. The sun was sinking and I just had time to grab Anwyn and my camera and get out to Diefenbaker hill for an unobstructed view of Mordor's poisonous fume (perhaps about to swallow the men of the west). I'm happy with the picture, but it would have been magnificent about 10 minutes earlier. I'm definitely keeping my eyes open for another opportunity at this one. I think I was pretty much a basket case at home the whole week before departure. Wendy put up with a lot of missed sleep and a very distracted man. One night I missed about 2 hrs of sleep and had the most irritating dreams about being pushed out on stage to sing without knowing the song or chore...

A little while ago I took some pictures of the frost that forms on the French doors overlooking our back yard (and many sunrises). Shortly after I made this beautiful discovery, it got dramatically warmer and all the frost disappeared. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it's back. It was -31C this morning (-39 with WC). I indulged in an hour of photography. It's funny how you can be so focused on something and miss something even better -- even if you're staring right at it. Yeah, it's true metaphorically as well, but this morning it was quite literal. I got some nice frosty pictures as you can see. It wasn't until I started to pack up my equipment that I noticed an extra sun outside. That gave me pause enough to inspect further. To my surprise, there were two extra suns, as it were. I grabbed my camera, slipped on my sneakers and flew out the door and sprinted half a block down the alley. That was the closest I could find an unobstructed view of this specta...

I have volunteered with  Saskatoon Summer Players since we moved back to Saskatoon, 8 1/2 years ago. Since then, I have done West Side Story, Pirates of Penzance, Kiss Me Kate, Cinderella, and been M.C. for The Broadway Bash on 3 occasions. They should not be confused with Gateway Players (now defunct) with whom I performed in Becket: or the Honour of God, The Mouse Trap, And Then There Were None and a privately produced version of Monkey Business. Last year I decided to try and take more of a leadership role with SSP and I allowed myself to be nominated to the board of directors. I've been acting as Secretary since then. The "on paper" commitment is one meeting per month and a second one in November for the AGM and I keep and distribute the minutes. As happens with me occasionally, things have managed to get out of control. Summer Players has been attempting a restructuring during this last year for a number of reasons that I won't go into. The result is that t...

This is the last of the sprouting posts  up at SaskEcoFamilies. At least, for a while. All of the pictures from this blog series can be found by clicking on the thumbnail below. Or Here , if that seems too hard :) Sprouting Alfalfa, peas & broccoli

I've posted an entry on SaskEcoFamilies about how my little charges are growing up so big and tall. Well... they ARE growing.

A new post up at SaskEcoFamilies. Discussing my grow table and it's potential cost effectiveness .

I'm putting these frost/sunrise images here because I love them, and want to share them, but don't want to do a post just for them. Suck it up. Onward... Our family was involved in a research project over the fall and winter that was looking into what barriers existed with regards to sustainability and general environmentally efficacious behaviour in Saskatoon families. We were prodded by a wonderful university student and subjected to meetings with her and other families that she was interviewing. We were asked to set personal and family goals, given some money and asked to journal the process. All in all, it was a terrific process that we all benefited from. Our part in the project is over, but one of the after effects is that those of us in the project were interested in staying in contact and chose to set up a blog to which everyone could contribute. It is my hope that we will continue to inspire each other and introduce one another to ideas to which we might have ...