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!