Blackcomb is on fire!

P: Greg Norgaard on cbc.ca

I can't see it from where I am in Creekside, but I've seen some pictures of smoke rising from the Crystal area of Blackcomb Mountain.

It started about an hour ago, and now there are four planes flying around it, probably getting pictures and water. There are helis involved as well, but I can't see them from here. I'm making my way closer, we'll see if I can get any reasonable pictures.


Here are some pictures from various places.






P:emeraldhouse on
NSMB

A full story from the Whistler Question newspaper is here.

Haggard

Here I am walking home from a hot shift at work last night. I'm looking pretty beat down, for a couple reasons.

First, it was energy-sappingly hot all day. While it is hot, people in Louisiana and Texas have it worse all the time, so I guess it's not that bad, it's just not what we're used to.

Secondly, I feel a heavy cloud of uncertainty above my head pretty much all the time. I want to be more positive, but it's difficult at the moment. My current job ends in a month, and I have much to sort out between now and then.

Do I stay in Whistler, or move down to Vancouver? No matter where I end up staking my claim, I will have to find another place to live, and another job. Vancouver's housing market is tough, and so is Whistler's. The job market is tough too, in both places.

I like Whistler because my whole life has been here since I graduated in 2004, if you don't count brief hiatuses in Ontario and China. I like Whistler because it's in the mountains, and I like it because as odd as it is, this small resort town/tourist haven is my home.

I don't like the idea of Vancouver because it's new and unfamiliar. I'll have to set up a whole new life, and that idea doesn't appeal to my 28 year-old brain. I don't want to heap lots of change on my head!

So, we'll see how things progress. It will be important for me to remain positive though, and not let my pending decisions cause me stress and worry.

I must remember to be positive and not obsess over it every day, since it's wasted energy. I must be positive!

Look! I smiley emoticon! :)

It's hot here, and everyone's grumpy.

We're in the middle of a heat wave here in Whistler. It's been over 30C for the past week, and will continue to be that hot for the next week. Vancouver has been posting record temperatures, and we're feeling the same system up here in Whistler. You can read about Vancouver breaking records here.

I don't mind the heat so much, as my room is fairly cool and I can always go to the lake and cool off.

What I do mind though, is working the evening shift at a hotel built in the 70s or 80s that was geared towards winter use, so has no pool, no elevators, and NO AIR CONDITIONING!

Everyone's grumpy because of the heat to begin with, and when they show up and realize they've reserved themselves a property with no AC, they get all aggro at whomever they see first, which is me. Time to don my flame-retardant suit and deflect the negativity!

So it's 32C right now, and I'm working the evening shift meaning that I get to break the news to all the guests. Fantastic!

Good news though, there was just cloudburst rainstorm out of nowhere! Now it feels about ten degrees cooler. Phew. We'll see how this evening goes.

The Dentist

I went to the dentist yesterday.

It had been quite awhile. I remember the last time I went I was in early high school. I had an appointment at about 3:30, when I'd be home from a day at SCSS.

I was in time for this appointment, at the offices of Dr. Drake and Dr. Drake, twin dental sadists. I was in for a regular check-up and cleaning I presume.

Mom was at home, and looked at the clock at about six in the evening, and began to worry about where I might be, since I'd been gone a long time. She decided to drive to the dentist's office and see when I left.

When she got there, she found me still in the dentist's chair, with tears streaming down my face as Dr. Drake (who knows which one he was)hacked about in my mouth. It was painful and terrible.

I have avoided the dentist ever since, and have put off going there for too long.

Carmella's friend Tony, who I've met before, is a dentist. When she found out I'd been avoiding dental work for such a long time, Carmella sprung into action. I have dental coverage from work, so it would be a good time to go. Left up to my own devices though, I would find an excuse to not make the appointment, further prolonging my appearance in a dentist's chair. Carmella took it upon herself to make an appointment for me, and got me squeezed in with very little notice by calling Tony's personal phone and getting the job done.

Yesterday we drove down to the city, and I entered my first dentist's office in many many years. I was scared.

Dr. Kwong (I call him Dr Kwong in his office, and Tony in social situations) was really good. There are x ray machines all over the place, and my mouth was radiated twice. Dr. Kwong used these rays, in addition to that little pic and mirror on a stick, to study my teeth and see what was up. I was in for a basic check-up and cleaning.

Turns out I'm still cavity free! Unfortunately, I'm not wisdom-tooth free. I have three of them, two of them major. The Wisdoms are not impacted though, so that's positive. They're also not infected, so that's a bonus. They are present though, and big enough to be squishing and cramping my other teeth. These extra molars have to go.

I will make another appointment with Dr. Kwong in the coming weeks to get my three extra teeth separated from my mandible. It'll be pretty intense, but based on my dental experience yesterday, it won't be as bad as the same job performed by one of the Drake team. There will be some anesthetic involved, which will improve the experience.

I'm pretty relieved, now that I've been to the dentist. I was nervous about what he'd find in there, and was happy it was only a few extra teeth, and evidence of a less than stellar flossing career. I was also happy with Dr. Kwong's skill and personality behind the mask.

I have a good dentist now, and while my 100% dental benefits from work are still active, I will make good use of him.

Slaying the Bike Park

Today I killed it in the Bike Park. I got my groove back after being away from my bike and the mountain for two years; I was fast, confident, and fluid. It was awesome.

I've ridden four out of the last six days I think, and I can tell that I'm getting the feeling back. I was shredding the singletrack like never before; I was better then when I was here the last time. I rode the toughest parts of the toughest trails today, and it felt great. I was taking the harder lines, and riding them with confidence and speed. It was fast and fun.

The downside to today's fastness and awesomeness was that my bike got thundered a few times, coming down hard on harsh landings or smashing over rocks and roots. It protested, but came through relatively unscathed.

My rear shock needs a rebuild, and my front hub bearings need replacing, and I need two sets of new brake pads. I think as the season wears on, more and more things will start to need repair, which is unfortunate. Oh well, the wages of riding is repair.

I took my camera up with me, and took some shots. Here they are.



I load my bike onto the lift, and take the next chair up. At the beginning of bike season, the Mountain puts special bike carriers on. You just roll your bike in, and it securely cradles the front and back wheels.



I enjoy the ride up. I'm going up the Garbonzo lift, and you can see Blackcomb's environs in the background.



The lifties take my bike off the rack at the top. I say thank-you every time, because it's quite the job, schlepping bikes all day. The new lifties reply, the veterans don't say anything. But I always thank them.



I love riding by myself, and most of my riding gets done this way. I often stop in the woods and think, look at the scenery, watch other riders, or just enjoy being in the forest. This was one of those times, my second significant pause of the day.



When I looked up, the trees were really tall and straight. The picture doesn't look as good, but it's still sort of neat. If you don't spend time taking it in, you just ride through and by all the trees and forget where you are!

I might go up for an hour after work tomorrow too, we'll see. I'm really enjoying the Bike Park this year.

Carmella and my photoshoot

Here are some pics of Carmella and me. They were taken on April 18th I believe, more than a month before we started officially dating.

We are at our friends Nate and Kim's wedding in Pemberton. They've moved to Squamish since then, so I don't see them as much.

Carmella has been quick to point out she was only holding the pop, and not drinking it. She's not a fan of heavily-sugared foodstuffs.







(Does a beverage count as a foodstuff?)

New Helmet!

I'm excited about my new bike helmet. It arrived from America today. I usually like to buy things locally and support Canadian businesses, but this helmet was a mission to find, since it's a rare colour and not a current model. It turned out to be about half-price as well.

I bought it online. It was the only helmet I wanted to buy. There were cheaper ones, but this is the only one I really liked. So, I bought it. I like it!

I had to get it sent to work, because they wouldn't deliver it to PO boxes. When I picked it up, Dave was there, one of my managers, and couldn't believe I had bought it for myself. He was incredulous when I opened the box and tried it on.

Here it is! It's a 2008 Giro E2, the last year they made it. I had the first edition E2, back in 2000 I believe. It was blue and white. I really liked it, but had to retire it a few years ago.

This helmet continues the white helmet tradition, and I love it. It feels the same as my old one did, and I'm happy I bought it. My old dirt-jumping helmet can now be reserved for friends, or maybe as a pasta strainer. I never really liked it, and felt like I was ten years old. It's only redeeming quality was that it was super cheap.

And yes, I'm having a worry day today. I wish I didn't show my emotions on my face so much. I could take new pictures, but I don't want to put in the required effort.

Click the pics to make them bigger.

Dinghy

A few months ago, I bought a dinghy at Canadian Tire in Squamish. I got it because I've been spending a lot of time at Whistler's various lakes, and having a dinghy would increase the good times.

It got used for the first time last week, on a sunny day at Alta Lake. Carmella had the boat and blew it up with a hand pump before I got there. There were about five of us at the lake. I showed up after everyone else, because I was biking for the first part of the afternoon.

By the time I got there, everyone had used the dinghy either on their own or in pairs. I was happy it was getting used. After about 30 minutes, everyone had someplace to go, but I didn't, so Carmella and I stayed.

When it was time to go, we had to decide how to get home. Carmella's house was on the other side of the lake from where we were, so we decided to sail there! We had to fit ourselves and all the afternoon's detritus into the boat, and were able to do it. We then piloted our garbage scow across the lake. The wind was with us, so we just floated.

Here are some pictures of the dinghy expedition, plying the waters of Whistler's most popular lake.



We get the boat loaded up.



There's no room for my bike helmet in the boat, so I opted to wear it. I had locked my bike up on shore for later retrieval.



Carmella eyes the shore, looking for an appropriate docking spot. We reached land at a private beach, for use by a condo development only. We used it anyway, and dumped our garbage in their garbage shed. Then it was a short walk back to Carmella's house.

Good times with the dinghy! Carmella is making sure it sees further use this weekend, as she's in the Okanagan where there's a river that sees a lot of dinghy traffic.

Running Club

At the race on Saturday, Carmella and I got to talking to a few people who were involved in a weekly running group here in town. These people invited us to come out every Tuesday for training and good social times. Once a month there is a hash run, and that hash run was last night.

A hash run is a Choose Your Own Adventure run. Before the event, the organizer will go into the woods, and create markings on the trail with cooking flour. These markings will sometimes lead you in the correct path, but more often than not, they will lead you the wrong way.

There are different markings that mean different things. A circle made out of flour means you must choose a direction at an intersection. A "T" symbol means you've gone the wrong way, while an arrow generally means you're going the correct way. Small dollups of flour along the trail are there to tell you to keep going.

The object of a hash run is to find your way to the finish. It's a great way to involve many different levels of runners, since everyone can take their own route. The fast runners will generally find out where not to go first, so the slower runners don't have to make the same mistakes. Everyone gets spread out around the course, choosing their own routes.

Carmella expressed interest in attending this hash run, and I was interested as well, so we showed up at the outdoor store along with about twenty-five other runners, put $5 into a tin, and signed a waiver. Then we were off!

The run leader had spent four hours setting up the course, and there were many different routes through the Lost Lake trail system. Right at the beginning of the run, we had to ford a swift and somewhat deep creek! Everyone linked hands so we wouldn't be swept away. Then it was into the woods to start the adventure, where the goal was to find a unique symbol made out of the flour...a big BN, which would stand for Beer Near!

Carmella and I made some bold choices, and ended up leading the pack on the correct path, and we were ahead of everyone by about twenty minutes. We were in the lead, and the organizers thought they better get to the finish quickly because we were dominting the hash run so much. But then, we made a few wrong turns and were back in the thick of the action.

We ran around for about an hour, hearing voices in the woods calling "On on!" which is hash run speak for "Go this way!" Everyone helps eachother find the correct route. It was like a maze in the woods; we chose routes, found dead ends, met other runners, doubled back, and met more runners. After that hour, we stopped hearing voices, and felt alone in the woods. Just when my moral was dipping, we saw the BN written in flour, and we knew that the beer was near, signalling an end to the adventure.

Just around the corner we found the other hashers lounging on the grass, and we finished strong. The organizers had a beer for everyone, and the post run chatter was good. There were some fast runners who finished after us, so we liked that we were right in the pack.

After the impromptu beer garden, we were all invited to a local pub where all the hashers could partake in free food and more beverages. Not everyone came, but there were probably just under twenty of us there. We arrived to a number of tables reserved for us, and as soon as we sat down, food and drinks began to appear before us. It was a really interesting and fun dynamic, having all the runners sitting around the pub in our running gear.

It was an excellent evening...first we completed the run successfully, then had good social times with friendly runners. Carmella won a draw prize too, which was a pair of techy socks. She had to answer a skill-testing running question before she could claim them though, so she reminded Munny (the organizer) that she was a beginner and needed an appropriate question. Turns out she had to know what the race was called that happened on Saturday. Since she was there to cheer me on (avec sign), she knew the answer was Comfortably Numb, and was able to claim the socks.

Our plan is to attend the weekly training sessions, and the monthly hash runs. I want to make this Tuesday night running a priority, since I haven't been part of a running community since 2001 at UVic. There are all different levels of runners there, and most everyone is friendly. There isn't any attitude in the group, and people are there to get fit, to get faster, or just have fun. It's quite a good atmosphere. There are more women than men in the group.

So, all in all a great evening of running and socializing. I'm excited for the training sessions too, as it will be a great way to keep my training going, be challenged, and meet more people. Carmella is planning to come regularly, so that's excellent.