Trick or Treat!

I just made it back from a few days of teaching outdoor education at Red Rock in time for our annual trick or treating on Halloween. I still have fond memories of being a kid growing up in Riverside and biking around wearing army fatigues & facepaint in my efforts to collect candy with my buddy Grant. I think one year we actually did a couple rounds in different outfits. I also seem to recall getting Easter eggs at one house...old candy! The other gross-out was getting homemade toffee popcorn or a healthy snack like apples.

Zachary - our sleeping dragon!

My princesses getting candy from Mrs. N. across the street from us!

Another brave visit to a neighbour's house to get some sweets.

My camera lens is a little fogged up for this shot after coming in from the cold.Wendy's annual tradition is to carve pumpkins and she goes full-on with it: here's this year's theme Super Mario! I guess the Wii influence is strong in our house these days.

Musings of a Busy Man

Life whirls on...like tin can being pushed end over end by a gust of wind. Sometimes it all gets to be too much doesn't it? We want the busyness to relinquish its grip on our lives. We feel like we can't keep going, we can't hold on, we need to let go. It is not that we should play or work or spend time doing what we are called to do but sometimes, we simply are doing too much! So how do we find that balance of rest & work & play? How do I find the time to unwind and still spend time with family and still get that pile of work done?

The Sabbath was a day we once set aside. For merchants it seemed a waste to not be open when we could be making more money. The city I live in is rare in its decision to keep the majority of businesses from being open but I'm grateful. The Sabbath is a day created not for God but for us to enjoy. For us to rest, to worship our Creator, to enjoy His Creation. And so we pray & we play on Sundays. It is good.

But we're not so good at that resting part, and quite frankly, it takes a good 24 hours of not doing anything for us to even enjoy it. We often need a holiday after having a holiday just to adapt to it all.

Change is good thing, and if anything, the change from working to not working is a life-giver all on its own. This next week is our fall break in our college year but I'm taking advantage of the "free time" to take my students to camp for my outdoor education class. Okay so I'm still working but in part it will be play and definitely a change from the classroom - so I'm hoping I'll find some rest there. We'll see!

Moonlit Mtn Bike Ride!

Wow! Simply one of the best rides of the year - 15kms of Sandilands bliss! Myself, Pat, Jason & Gord enjoyed an amazingly perfect ride with 10 degree temps and a gorgeous full-moon. The winding singletrack was lit up by helmet mounted lights and handlebar lights but once we got into some clearcut forested areas we turned our lights out and just used the full moon. We all agreed that it was one of the best rides we've had as the Body-Driven Team. I personally had a great ride and led the first half of the ride and managed to keep up with my racing buddies for the latter half. I am so stoked but definitely tired!

Lost Cities

Ten Most Amazing Lost Cities:

I've always wanted to explore Machu Picchu - even it has become a little too trendy. Oddee has a neat article titled "10 Most Amazing Lost Cities." Machu Picchu, which translates to "Old Peak," a pre-Colombian Inca city built almost 600 years ago and abandoned shortly afterwards:

Machu Picchu is probably the most familiar symbol of the Inca Empire. It is often referred to as "The Lost City of the Incas". The site was designated as a World Heritage Site in 1983 when it was described as "an absolute masterpiece of architecture and a unique testimony to the Inca civilization".

So check out the link for some fascinating stories of lost cities!

Scary Mary

Mary Poppins re-imagined as a thriller - tis the season?

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss Album

I'm not going to even bother reviewing this album - it is 5 stars and will sweep up Grammy's this year. Download it from I-Tunes asap and feel free to post your thoughts...I'll maybe review it later but I listened to one sample earlier today and boom I was downloading the whole album. Perfectly matched vocals and yes one of my favorite producers T-Bone Burnett graced the production of this album. Enjoy!

Outdoor Education

One of the courses I get to teach in college is outdoor education and admittedly it is one of my favorites as it allows me and my students to escape outside. We did exactly that this past Friday for an overnight camp out in some potentially cold conditions. Four of my students wanted to try out a survival shelter for night constructed of sticks & a tarp, the rest put up tents, and they all survived the experience. Next week we head off to Red Rock for three days of skills training and some other cool activities are planned including meeting some local trappers.

I also managed to escape with JP & Pat for a mtn bike run Sunday from the Sandilands ranger station, red trail, suicide trail and back - I'm guessing we put on about 14kms but my odometer & speedometer stopped working again. Weather is looking good this week and so I'm hoping for more riding but I'm also not wanting to get too busy after last week's insanity.

Night Riders

Pat & I escaped Wednesday night for a short but intense night ride on the Sandilands race track - the conditions were crisp & cool, trail was actually quite puddly from the rains we've had this week but all in all pretty sweet. Climbing worked fairly well for me even in the dark - thanks to a helmet 10W LED light and and a nice 20W Halogen on the handlebars. About 9kms so definitely not a long ride but there is merit to going for a short one every now and then.

Bats and other freaky animals

This past Sunday, the usher at our church greeted us with gesture to look at a bat that was clinging to the brick wall of our entrance. My girls were obviously enthralled and by the time the morning service was done, the bat ended up in a nearby tree for further inspection. Bats are one of those creatures that just are mysterious eh? I once caught one in a net at Red Rock down by the beach - it was perched upside down beneath the eaves of my lifeguarding beach house. They aren't the prettiest animal out there when you see them in daylight. In fact, they look pretty menacing up close - which why I suppose the comic hero Batman is the Dark Knight!

The Sucker-Footed Bat - you'd think it'd be unique enough with the radar headgear - but no this little guy was created with suction cups!!!

So to make an interesting random musing yet more unique, I came across the following freaky animal pictures on another site and I figured why not post some of them here and tie them to wikipedia for further inspection? This blog has been a bit stale as of late, so maybe this will give some inspiration to any other writers or readers that lurk in this part of the world wide web!

The Axolotl - strangely happy & friendly looking with just a touch of creepyness?

The Aye Aye - personally I think just some rat that had a really rough night!

Don't you just wanna give this thing (Star-Nosed Mole) a big smooch - NOT!

The Saki Monkey so should have been in the Planet of the Apes Movie.

The Blob Fish - quite possibly the ugliest living thing ever! Remember the cartoon Ziggy? Well it kind of looks like a Ziggy left out in the sun too long...!

The appropriately named Yeti Crab - yep it's a furry crab - who wouldn't wanna cuddle with that bad boy!

The Tarsier - gotta love those alien-like eyes!

Another October Ride

I love fall-riding, the cool crisp air, the crunch of leaves beneath the spinning rubber tread, the smell of decaying vegetation is strangely enticing. I ride faster in the autumn, perhaps more in shape or the simple fact I can actually see my way through the forest more effectively. Eventually the frost will begin to set and the ground will have even more traction resulting in yet more speed.
So I escaped a second time this past week with my good friend Doug from college days. He did well in keeping up and we had a great day for a spin to Suicide Hill and back. It was good to catch up & reminisce about college days. Chalk up another 11kms and another great October ride!

Blog Lull

Hmm...it seems I haven't posted in awhile. I'm just not in a blogworthy place right now - too much busyness and no time for reflection or even posting recent photos of the family or outdoors photography. I hope to get back into it in a bit. I'm looking forward to my trip to Atlanta in November and some of my outdoor education outings in the next three weeks. Much to do though and a pile of marking this weekend. We met up with my sister Angela & my niece Ariana at the airport yesterday - good to see them even if it was just brief. She's out for my cousin Patricia's wedding next week - it will be a bit of a whirlwind for her though. Our family is doing well, Zachary continues to grow, Chelsea is loving kindergarten and excitedly exclaims the names of her new friends she makes weekly, and Aimee is enjoying preschool as well. We had a brief escape from it all with a trip to Fargo last weekend and now apparently it is Thanksgiving weekend. It seems a blur but we are surviving.

Another Spin in the Sandilands

Amazing weather & riding conditions - gotta love it! Did the halfway starting point on the Beaver dam/Suicide trail and went in both directions - rode with Paul R. and managed to entertain down one of the steep runs on Suicide Hill - veered off the trail into the bush & took a tumble. 11 or so kms but my odometer wasn't started initially - great ride though!