Up a Rope

Re-roping this deck umbrella turned into a bit of a mental and physical tug-of-war. As a matter of fact, this is the third time the rope has frayed and snapped. The last occurrence was at the tail end of last summer and we just stopped using it altogether instead of fixing it, opting to use its smaller and much older predecessor, a table mounted model (seen folded up resting on a chair in the photo).

But this warm May spurred me on to fix the off-set big brother umbrella this year. It provides so much more shade, and it's more adjustable too. But I'm still not sure it was worth the 4 hours of frustration it bestowed upon me yesterday. This was even after I looked it up on Youtube to try to save myself from throwing the whole assembly off the deck. Because of course this particular model isn't featured on Youtube; probably because no one's re-strung one as they are so so difficult to figure out.

And yesterday the damn thing just seemed to have to have the last word. I'll blame it on the late afternoon sun beating down on my un-sunscreened neck, but I forgot the very last step before testing it by trying to crank it up; I neglected to knot the rope under the umbrella mechanism. I pulled the rope right back through into the spool, thus taking me right back to where I'd started 4 long hours ago. At that point I was ready to throw something, so instead I packed up the tools and went for a nice, cool evening walk with Tannah.

I finished the job in about half an hour this evening after dinner. Perhaps I should have had Shauna film me doing it so I'll remember when the rope snaps at the end of this season.

Tannah seems to be thinking, "Why did this take you
two days to fix? What's the big deal?"

"The Whip" Car Show

It's been an annual event for a few years now to hold a custom car\ custom motorcycle show at the The Whip restaurant on E. 6th Avenue in Vancouver. I try to stop by when I can (translation: when I remember). This year I happened across an ad for it in the Georgia Straight, so again it was rather by fluke that I didn't miss it entirely. It's always has great cars (with a few great motorcycles thrown in) and great music. This year it was "The Modelos".

I'm pretty sure the car on the right (a '49 Ford, I think) won. I was already half a block away when the winner was announced. Strangely enough, I thought I'd already photographed this car in the West End a few years ago (turns out it was in 2009), but it wasn't the same car. Wasn't even a Ford; although close enough, it was a Mercury ('49 or '50).

These two '32 Hi-boys were only 2 digits apart in their Collector plates.

GTO genealogy was well represented spanning a couple of generations.

A COE truck makes a pretty rare street rod. Hopefully this is a trend.

Three guesses to come up with the tell-tale sign that this event was held in
East Van (and the first two guesses don't count) :-)

In the custom Volkswagen world this would be known as a Rat Rod. I suppose
the terminology probably applies to hot rods too, probably even originated there.

A couple of '53 Chevys were displayed (see below as well).

Again, a bit of Rat Rod theme...or maybe just a really low paint budget.

And finally, for the "money is no object" crowd, a '63-67 era Corvette.

This year there were more custom bicycles entered than custom motorcycles,
although according to the ad it does say "bikes". As there was one Harley
on display I'm just guessing that "bikes" comprises a broader scope than mere
pedal power. Maybe this'll provide me enough incentive to finish my '48 
CCM for next year's show.

Spring Goslings

We took Tannah to the east side of Burnaby Lake this morning for a walk. But before we'd even parked the car we came across the biggest crowd of goslings the I've ever seen in one place. I couldn't even count them all because of course they were a constantly moving mass of down feathers.

Ducks in a tree; I don't recall ever having seen this before.

Donny and the Jets

We'll start with the good news; I've been freed from the grasp of NHL Playoff Hockey. Due to family ties to Winnipeg I've been cheering on the Jets in their recent Play-off run this year. But alas, no more. The White Noise has now been officially silenced until next season.

But it was an epic ride while it lasted, wasn't it? Even Don Cherry, I'll even say especially Don Cherry, picked Winnipeg to go all the way this year. In almost every shot of him nattily decked out in various suit jackets du jour on Coach's Corner was a Jets ball cap prominently placed in the bottom left corner of the TV camera frame.

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of Don's jacket today as I really couldn't bear to tune in until midway through the
second period (it was only tied 1-1 at that point).

Until next year...

Vancouver to Earl's Cove

This May long weekend I decided to organize a day ride up the Sunshine Coast. I invited Chris and David, and Chris invited his work colleague Cameron. Jeff couldn't make it as he'd made previous plans. Maybe next time.

Here's us at the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal.

This group shows only the bikes parked at the rear of the ferry. There were
about 17 more in the front portion.

Here's another time capsule bike of the same era as mine; about a 1988
Suzuki GSXR750.

Lunch at the Back Nine Bistro in Madeira Park, just south of Earl's Cove.

A great day topped off by a trip to Persephone Brewing in
Gibson's Landing. 

Chris has a map book that rates BC highways on rideability
on motorcycles. IIRC, this rates #23. At least for the portion
north of Sechelt.

Kelowna Cycling Trail near YLW

It's quite ridiculous how time gets away. It's been 2-1/2 weeks since my Kelowna trip, "before the flood", to almost quote Atwood. Upon my return I had planned to blog about the new bicycling trail being prepared at the north end of Kelowna, but unfortunately exhaustion finally caught up with me (just a bit too busy these last 4 months) and I spent almost 3 whole days sleeping (my first sick day I was asleep for 20 hours!).

And then of course the NHL playoffs started to get interesting; "Go Jets Go!!"

The subject trail is reportedly going to trace the path of the former railway tracks between Kelowna and Vernon. Jeff and I have cycled parts of the Kettle Valley trail system three times in recent years, but last year we did the Galloping Goose trail instead because it seemed that the rest of the province was going up in smoke. Not to detract at all from the Goose, of course. That's a great trail!

But I'm actively searching for more reasonably close bicycle trails that are new to me, and I happened to notice a couple of years ago that railway tracks were being removed at the crossing to Kelowna airport. I've been following the (slow) progress since. That brings me to my recent work trip. My subject warehouse was only a 5 minute cab ride away from the airport; as such, no need for a rental car. Upon finishing my assignment I decided to walk a bit farther north to see if I could find the new trail. Thanks to WiFi on my smart phone, I did indeed find it. And I half considered walking it until I saw the 'no trespassing' sign. Instead I max'ed out my Point and Shoot zoom to be able to detect some sort of machinery wwwaaayyy down the gravel trail. At that point I backtracked and phoned a cab to return to YLW.

The railway corridor just south of YLW.

It was so hot that afternoon that the heat distorted my zoomed photo. I can't
even tell what kind of machinery blocks my path.

This may not be exactly where the trail
starts, but this is at least where it passes
under the highway.

There was an impressively large snow pack, to be sure in the adjacent mountains as the plane approached Kelowna.

The Kelowna snow pack in late April.

Wine country wakes up from its hibernation.

This was the view from the plane's approach back in March.

Vancouver Marathon 2018

Friends of ours from our running group entered the Vancouver Marathon this year so we went downtown to cheer them on at the finish line. It was already a bit too warm in my opinion for such duration running as this, but just to make it a bit challenging (heh, heh, as if 42.2 km isn't challenging enough!), the last 2 km of the course is a slight uphill grade.

Chris approaching the finish line.

Jenn approaching the finish line.

Jogging 42.2 km seems to me a hefty price to pay in order to get free
wedding catering at the finish line. But good on them for the best-dressed
marathoners in the event! (BTW, I used this same shot as my first Instagram photo)

I must say, they look pretty chipper for just having completed a 4-1/2 to 5 hour
running event.

I'm feeling guilty now for not having signed up yet for the upcoming Scotia Bank Half Marathon.