Fear of Flying

Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss -- Douglas Adams

Smile

Ok with the risk of confirming my total geek-hood hopefully while maintaining my Goddess status... I have to admit it....


Peddlefeet makes me giggle, makes me laugh. When he flip-flops his toes while frantically flapping his wings to stay up even though you can clearly tell that the fight with gravity is only temporary at a stalemate and that all the physics (Peddlefeet_weight in relation to wingspan) are against him BUT he defiantly stands up to physics and buzzes like a manical mosquito around you ...
I mean, this is a pleasure I have to share with my friends, don't I?

Easter Weekend II

Some more pix from the weekend... firstly the lake and beach at Harrison Hot Springs, right outside the hotel.


On Sunday we visited the Othello tunnels in Hope, designed by engineer Andrew McCulloch. Along the hiking path through the tunnels are signs that give some of the history. Amazing to think that the builders used little ladders to climb down into the gorge, place the dynamite, set it off, and scramble back up as fast as they could to be out of the way of the explosion.

Easter Weekend

Harrison Hot Springs Resort - 3 outdoor pools and 2 indoor, all fed from the nearby hot springs. Sitting in the warm pool with steam rising up from the surface, surrounded by trees with Xmas lights in the evening made me forget the ice-cold rain pelting down on my head. Even a rainy run from one pool to the next in bathing suit isn't bad when the next pool is 98F and it makes your feet tingle and sting with lovely warmth.

Visit to Hell's Gate tramway and gorge. 125 feet of water through a narrow gorge moves at an impressive speed. The salmon gorge bypass was completed in 1943 - while Europe was in the middle of WWII... makes you wonder how remote it must have seemed to Canadians. In the winter of 1944 people in Amsterdam were cutting down trees along the canals and chopping up furniture to burn for heat - it was a very cold winter. They were eating tulip bulbs as there was no food left. However, in rural areas such as the one my Dad's family comes from, food and heat were not as scarce. I wonder... I wonder if a state of war becomes normalcy. Whether even then, people were saying "things are not that bad". We are a very adaptable species.


This (building in picture on the right) is the hot spring, the source of all good things. The water from the spring is 145F and has a not so faint sulphur smell. It is pumped to the resort and cooled to the desired temperature.


And of course, the annual Easter Monday lunch and Egg Hunt...

Queen Elizabeth Park and Bloedel Conservatory on Saturday.



Baseball game on Sunday - parent's cheering and shouting conflicting strategic advice :-)



There's a little black spot on the sun today
It's the same old thing as yesterday
There's a black hat caught in a high tree top
There's a flag-pole rag and the wind won't stop
-- Police, King of Pain

Sights for Sore Eyes

Baseball practice yesterday. Random Designs in a meaningful universe.

I walk past these designs as I make my way from the parking garage to the road to the office. The sun shines softly through the branches

Kub Kar Races

On Saturday my son participated in the Kub Kar Races.

Little hopeful faces staring at the finish line.

Two prize categories: fastest car and best design.

He got into the top 12! The top 6 got a trophy, but he was still very proud.

Now we need to think about the car for next year. So I wonder - what makes a car win, what is the winning element? Of course, gravity and friction are the two ingredients... The cars have to be made from the "Kub Kar Kit" and are to be no more than 142 grams (this is weighed by a very sensitive scale prior to the race). We lubed the wheels with WD40 (Ted told us that graphite is better). What would make a winning car? Placement of the weight? Maximizing the weight? Any ideas?

His car third from the left.