A Hollow Ring...

So?

Didja watch it?

You know, the Lance love-in?

Considering my affinity for cycling, I had to watch at least part of it. I made it through the first hour and a bit. Up to the point they started interrupting every 5 minutes for 3 minute chunks of commercials.

Here's a thought; maybe ol' Lance just chose the wrong profession. He should have been an actor. Apparently he's been acting for about the last 20 years.

To frame it in somewhat show-biz nomenclature, I'd say his career arc thus far has been roughly as follows: Breaking Away (an 1980s cycling movie) to Breaking Bad (current TV series) to Breaking Wind (this evening).

I dunno. I just can't help but think this whole public apology shtick is being done to satisfy ulterior motives. But I guess Lance said it himself. He doesn't know if anyone will believe what he says at this point. I tend to agree. He's denied allegations so vehemently for so long, I don't really how he could expect anything else.

Anyway, I just had to vent a bit. I feel pretty stupid right now for having given him the benefit of the doubt some time ago. Mainly because, as it turns out, in circles that were "in-the-know", there really wasn't much doubt to be had.

'Nuff said I think. Even (or especially) in this turn of the tide LA is getting too much press. We're running the risk of guiding him into the limelight again.

Sam the Eagle

We challenged ourselves this foggy New Year's day to investigate a new walking trail with Tannah. We'd been to False Creek's Olympic Village already (yesterday), and we've frequented Fraser River Park (a.k.a. Angus Park) the last 2 or 3 years. Stanley Park would have been crazy-busy with the Polar Bear Swim gawkers.

Then I remembered the north shore of the Fraser River along Marine Drive; the stretch approximately between Elliott and Kerr Streets. There's a new riverside trail along that whole stretch of river. Tannah loved it. Lots of birds rusting in the shrubbery.

I brought along my dSLR to get some practice and was richly rewarded in the end. I started off shooting some pigeons on a piling, but the flock exploded from their roost upon the silent swoop-in of a bald eagle. Those things can really clear out a room (or piling, in this case). Since its perch was close it was in easy range of my amateur-grade telephoto lens. I took about a dozen shots before I realized I wasn't using the camera's exposure meter properly. I really am rusty with that camera. After correcting my mistake I got the best shots I've ever taken of an eagle. They really are majestic creatures.

These are the calibre of photos I was after a number of years ago when we visited Brackendale in early January. I'd seen an article in the in-flight magazine on our way home from a Winnipeg Christmas. However I hadn't factored in the fact that we'd be viewing the eagles from across the river. One really does need a cannon-sized (pun intended) lens to do such a photo shoot justice. Fortunately yesterday this eagle was only a stone's throw away next to the pedestrian pier.

Pre-New-Year's Day Eve (a.k.a. Dec. 30th)

Is it bad luck or bad karma (or even bad feng shui) to post last year's photos on the first day of a new year? Well, here's throwing caution to the wind. I had intended to post these pics last night but I got side-tracked watching a Youtubed Wallace and Gromit in "A Matter of Loaf and Death".

We took Tannah to False Creek Olympic Village on December 30th. As we left home the prospects for sunny breaks were favourable, but as we parked the car the sun found a horizontal trajectory between two cloud banks, providing perfect natural light to supplement the alternating white and black bands that mostly obscured the North shore mountains. It really is all about the light.

Tannah got a new red sweater this Christmas season. This afternoon presented the perfect backdrop for some west coast winter poses, one solo and one with Shauna.