Crisp and even

Winter! First we had some precipitation pass through BC, and then an arctic air mass set up shop over the province - as a result everything turned white. Fitted around the storm, we made a trip to Vancouver with a bonus stop on Coquihalla Summit for the first (real) ski of the season. The conditions could be described as "intermittently loud", but in between the concrete-hard crust there were some brief moments of better-than-survival-skiing.

Lina chose slow-shoes for the journey, and added to our collection of "tummy with mountains" photos.

The gang

Now we're back in Vernon and things are all white. It's also a bit chilly (like -10 at night)... which means my pump track is the driest it's been in ages, though a little slippery.

Recreation

Like any good 1960's North American house, ours came equipped with a "Recreation Room". I like the way that sounds. However, the faux-wood paneling and once-shag carpet were not what they had once been and so the finale (for now) of our home improvement was to do something about it.

The theme was decided by using up paint we already had and doing everything else as cheaply as possible. Using office carpet tiles meant I could lay it myself, and it should cope with the boisterous activities this room is likely to have to deal with. All that remained was for me to make a little wheely-base for the slightly weary ping-pong table that's been in Alan's yard for a while and the recreation could begin.

As it was. Sadly the incredible carpet had reached the end of it life (some years ago)

As it is now. Surplus office carpet tiles, surplus paint from the living room, and a surplus ping-pong table from Alan's house.

The new home of part of Lina's trophy collection

Seasons

My new blogging schedule seems to be monthly. The problem with that is that my memory-span is about four days - and scheduled to get dramatically worse with the lack of sleep and abundance of things to do associated with the arrival of our first offspring in January. Given that one of the reasons I started writing this blog in the first place was to remember what I had done, I seem to be spiraling into a world of memoryless drifting though the infinite void. You know, that sounds quite nice when I put it that way.

However, let's not give up on me just yet. I have some thing s to say about the changing of fall to winter.

To me, the first sign of the end of summer here in Tropical Vernon was the last night of the Starlight Drive-In. That's right, the famed Enderby time-vortex has paused movie-going in the 1950's and we went there for the last show of the season. It would seem appropriate to have watched something with Grace Kelly in it, but they were showing  Straight Outta Compton, which has a notable lack of 1950's heroines. Still, it was a movie, and we drove-in and watched it. Good times.

Then it was Lina's birthday. We've been exploring pregnancy-friendly activities (for obvious reasons) and decided on an out-of-season visit to Banff for the weekend could be fun. Banff fits conveniently with my "Sphere of Vernon" theory, whereby anything worth leaving Vernon for is approximately 4.5 hours journey away. Except Revelstoke. Our visit to Banff was great fun, dodging tourists, doing some scenic hikes, and happening across a night of music from artists and bands who had been studying at the Banff Center who put on a show.

Then there was a trip to Tofino and Ahousat. The primary objective was the 2015 SUP Surf Champs, which Lina was competing in in the "Mother and Child" category. Just kidding. We were mostly there to watch and enjoy the sunshine (a bit of a surprise there), but I did get out for a few nice rides. Phase two of our trip was to head out to visit friends at this house on a very tiny island. Here are some pictures of what we got upto:

...and then there was the Not-Mud Ride. We had an annual tradition of The Mud Ride, but this year things got complicated with the hosting arrangements. So, we took on the hosting of a surrogate - the Not-Mud Ride. There was actually some mud, so that's confusing.

I enforced a strict regimen of bike riding, which was largely successful, despite mechanicals conspiring against us on Day 1 and time conspiring against us on Day 2. Still, we covered most of my favorite trails in Kal Park in two rides. The hot-tub also conspired against us and my efforts to find and fix its leak resulted in the discovery that there is more than one leak, and I can't find where at least one of them is. So, there was no hot-tub. I did receive vigorous encouragement to do something about that, so I will try.

It was great to gather everyone together, so great that I didn't take any pictures when everyone was together. I also failed to make the advertised pump-track challenge actually happen, so there's room for improvement there. Maybe we'll have to try Not-Mud Riding again next year.

Round 'em up, head 'em out

No explanation necessary - right? This is also the last evidence of out excellent (and tired) orange carpet.. stay tuned for thrilling basement renovation news.

Mmmmm... frozen pumptrack.

BREAKING NEWS: Brad took a photo with is phone that has almost everyone who rode bikes in it. Thank you Brad!