Soaring to new heights

I really can't think of a new or original comment regarding the heat. It's all been said already.

Yesterday it was announced that the daytime temperture was the highest ever recorded in Vancouver, officially 33.8 degrees Celcius. I thought they meant for this date, but no. It was the highest daytime temperature ever recorded in Vancouver. The previous record was 33.3 back in 1960.

At the very least I thought it was worthy of a photo of the thermometer on our West facing deck. This reading of 36 degrees C was taken at about 5:30 p.m.

And inside the house was no better. I offer this photo for the metrically challenged among us that cannot comfortably relate to Celcius. My wife and I use both Imperial and Metric interchangeably. It's the closest I'll probably get to being bi-lingual. Roughly translated, 92 degrees F compares to about 33 degrees C.

So...36 C outside versus 33 C inside. Or, said another way, jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

We're incredibly appreciative of having a basement in our house. That's the only place we can get a decent night's sleep lately. There is currently no thermometer downstairs but I'm going to get one today to check out how many degrees cooler it really is.

Burnaby Lake bicycle overpass

I thought I'd post a short series of construction photos of the new bicycle/ pedestrian overpass at the Sperling/ Burnaby Lake Skytrain station. I've been monitoring its progress for many months.

One Monday morning I noticed that all the pre-fabricated sections had been delivered over the weekend. They had been placed close to the yellow upturned tripods at either side of the roadway.


A few weeks later on a Friday afternoon I read traffic notices posted on Lougheed Highway that said the intersection of Sperling Avenue at Winston Street would be closed for a few days to permit installation of the span.

Sure enough, on Monday morning the first piece had been raised into place.

A couple of days later the second piece was added.

It took about a week in total for the three sections to be hoisted in place and fastened together. The overpass is done now and it officially opened on June 27, 2009. I've since ridden across it and it's a vast safety improvement over having to cross a busy road and railway tracks.

False Creek

A couple of evenings ago we were sitting around after dinner pondering our options of nearby places to explore in our city. It was a warm summer evening: too good to pass up. Besides, Shelby needed a walk.

I was thinking that we'd already explored all the "cool" neighbourhoods like Main Street, Commercial Drive, Coal Harbour, West 4th, West Broadway, Granville Island, the North shore of False Creek...

Then Shauna suggested the area around Science World. Off we went.

When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to find that the promenade along the South shore of False Creek had re-opened. It's right in front of the new Olympic Village (the buildings are not completely finished yet).

It's a fantastic bit of landscaping, I have to say. It reminds me a lot of Coal Harbour but there are many new and innovative benches and seating arrangements, not to mention a really cool pedestrian foot bridge.

Shooting hoops

I think our nephew, Caleb has found a new distraction; basketball. He watched 2 teams of players for quite a few minutes. He was transfixed. I had time to shoot about a dozen photos before he snapped out of it and ran back to the swings.

The Cypress look-out

Last night we drove up the switch backs to the Cypress look-out to show our guests the "Top of the World" view of Vancouver. The photo is a bit blurry because I forgot my tripod.

Ride to Conquer Cancer June 20 & 21

For some reason I haven’t been able to find the time yet to write about my Ride to Conquer Cancer experience. It’s tough to catch up with life when you’re gone for a whole weekend.

The event was all they said it would be: inspirational, challenging, motivational, humbling, exhilarating…

Right from the drive to Guildford Mall at 5:30 a.m. straight through to the bus ride home from Seattle on Sunday evening it was an amazing experience, so much so that I’ve already signed up for 2010.

I purposely didn’t ride the following week to give my body a rest, but even so, the day I rode the 17 km home from the office I still felt it in my backside. The only thing I would change for next year is to increase the amount of saddle time before the trip. My legs were up to the task but I hadn’t built up the endurance to be able to sit on that saddle for 7 hours a day.

The trip began with a Tour de France moment (for me anyway) at the base of the first steep hill before 72nd Avenue in Surrey when the whole pack I was riding with all geared down at once. The mechanical whirring of a hundred or so derailleurs snapping to larger sprockets simultaneously, combined with the chill and silence of an early morning really set the stage for the day.

The whole section through Surrey and White Rock was exhilarating, I suppose partly because I grew up in White Rock and the route we rode was very familiar, just like old times. We passed one block away from where my Aunt Sandy had lived when I was a kid (Green Timbers neighbourhood). We rode up the King George Highway hill just South of 64th Avenue. And of course, we rode down the other side, which was the fun part.

I must say, however, that I learned something about packing a bike while speeding down that long sweeping hill on the South side of the ridge. Repeat after me: must maintain symmetry. Must maintain symmetry (of panniers, that is).

My speedometer wasn’t working at the time. Turns out I nudged the sensor on the front fork while removing the bike from the car rack. I don’t know exactly how fast I was descending that hill (probably close to 60 km/h) when I felt a very slight wobble in my bike.

What came next was what I think is probably the driving force behind “extreme” sports. You know, it’s that feeling at the pit of your stomach that something has gone wrong and its eventual outcome will be dictated by the actions you perform in the next three 100ths of a second. I think it’s generally known as fear.

I gently squeezed both brake levers to scrub off some speed and managed to regain stability. I had only taken one pannier with me in order to stow rain gear, so the balance of my bike was off. In the end there was really no reason to panic, but I’m grateful for my decades of two-wheeled experience (both bicycling and motorcycling) that gave me the sub-conscious reflexes to avert disaster.