When the girls were quite young, though not so young that they don't still remember, I told them that my big plan was to break the human record for longevity. I thought I should give a progress report... I've got ways to go yet. If I'm even to break the Canadian record, I've got a good 70 billion km to go. Marry Poppins said, "Well begun is half done." I guess I'll have to settle for the imortal words of the late, great, Karen Carpenter... "We've only just begun..."
Quester's Voyage -- Anwyn D
Those of you who followed my Honduras travels last March will know why it is that you can't see the little quester's mouth in the above photo. Poor guy. I hope he remembers to take his gravol next time :(
Thanks to all of my well wishers today (both human and automated). I am indeed having a happy birthday. You may be surprised to discover that I wish to share some photos with you today.
As they were leaving for school today, the girls alerted me to the great moon that was making trouble just across the street. I captured some photo evidence of her carousing in case I wish to press charges.
Quick Start to the Day
A little later, I found the sun being well behaved. I thought I should take pictures for contrast.
My Day is On Track -- Ouch!
Crop Science
Innovation Place
Once the 'golden hour' had expired, I had a brief chat with James and Matt. Matt was pretty sure I'd like this YouTube video. He was right. If you haven't seen any of the Epic Rap Battles, you should at least see...
After that little bit of enlightenment, I made my way home to roast some coffee and play with my photos.
Mug Shot -- 2 for 1
Here are the rest of the photos. FYI, 13 of the 19 photos in the Picasa gallery were taken with a new-to-me Pentax M 28mm f2.8 lens (circa '77-'82) courtesy a looonng-term loan from Brad Stover. The remainder were with my slightly newer Pentax 50-135mm f2.8 (c. 2008)
Anwyn and I are back from getting this year's Christmas tree. It was hard to find the time to travel 2 hrs to St. Brieux and then back, given how trying the last month has been, but I'm glad I did. The Road about 2/3 of our trip was on a pretty good one lane highway. The remainder was a hodgepodge of gravel of varying widths. With the recent snow and ice, some of those parts were treacherous (icy, bumpy, narrow). The Rescue On one of the gravel bits, at a 'T' intersection, we found a pickup truck who missed the 'T' all the way off the road in the ditch at about a 30 degree inclination. I can't believe I neglected to take a picture. The occupant was fine and I was going to take him to a nearby farm and see if we could get some help. We decided to first try the tiny ratchet straps that he had in his glove box. Miraculously, they survived just long enough to drag him up and out of the ditch. One of them snapped just as he got back onto the road. Wildlife - Down...
Caves Were Promised! stovetop espresso (of course) brad brought the tiny camping espresso maker that we gave him more than 20 years ago. We have used it on various hikes including in Italy. Now, in Greece :) Attempted Breakfast We tried and failed to get breakfast in Stoupa. There was only one place open (VERY local) and there was only toast on offer. Could also have been a language barrier? We got coffee and set off on an exploratory hike at the beach. Shoreside cave we spent a bunch of time carefully climbing our way out through razor sharp rock formations to the entrance of a cave. It is too cold to swim in at this time of year (without wetsuits) so we had to settle for a few photos from the outside . I amused myself by utterly exhausting my arms and shredding my hands while carefully climbing the rock formations. Another Cave? After searching for over an hour, through even more dangerous rock than this morning, and based only on a single google maps post, we managed to find a beaut...
Wendy had a conference in Calgary in early March and, as is my wont, I tagged along for a mini vacation. I took the opportunity to catch up with Dave ahead of Quest New Year. He toured me around some of his favourite trees. Dave loves trees, so that doesn't narrow it down much, but in this case it meant Douglas Fir. They were majestic in a very classical sense. Broad, straight, and tall. Calgary has number of them along the banks of the winding Bow River. We talked about trees a lot during the visit, and at one point he told me of a tree that he had seen, where the North Saskatchewan River exits the Rock Mountains, known as The Whirlpool Point Pine. This tree is thought to be one of the oldest trees in Canada. The actual age is not known with precision (the reasons are various and I'll avoid trying to sound like an authority), but 2000 years is a modest estimate. Dave dropped a pin on my map and told me, if I had a chance, to go walk around. He let me know that the locaiton ...
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