2700km, well that's 90%

So been behind on biking and blogging. Hit 2700km mark tonight, that's 90% of my goal of 3000km for 2013. It will have to do.

Goal for 2014 then is 3200km.  I don't have to start working on that till tomorrow :)

- Peace

Christmas Music 2013

For those who don't know, I started collecting Christmas Music years ago from traditional to punk.  I try to expand the collection a bit every year.

Adding two albums this year:

One of my favourite bands has a new Christmas EP: The Choir - Peace, Love & Light ($5.99 mid page)  The title track embed below.

The Last Bison's rendering of Carol of the Bells & Nick Lowe's Children Go Where I Send Thee from The Paste 2013 Holiday Sampler make it an easy pick, especially since it's free on NoiseTrade.

- Peace

2400km in Edmonton

Hit 2400km mark tonight on Edmonton's High Level Bridge.  Brought a flood of thoughts.  It was in Edmonton that I first started tracking my km per year.  My best Edmonton year (in the 90s) was 2500km, so 2400 km in Nov would have felt great back then.

Now have 7 days to do 190 km to hit the original goal of 2600km by the end of Nov.  As I'v averaged 200km/month for most of the year that will be a stretch.  Need to do just over 27 km a day, for seven days strait.  Right now biking to Heritage and taking the train to work and then biking home makes just over 27km a day.  So it's possible.

If I make 160km this week then I've made up half of the 60km I was behind from Oct.  Also means I've done 430km in Nov and if I do the same in Dec then I'll hit 3000km for 2013.

130 km means I make my goal of doing 400km in Nov, but still need to make up the entire 60 in Dec, that would be tough.

That's what I'm thinking.   Next update at 2500km.

- Peace

2300km done, 35km short of 2400km

The good news is that I hit the 2300km mark on Friday before the big snowstorm.

 The bad news is that the plan had me hitting 2400km tonight, and I'm 35km short of that goal.

 Most of that would be from not riding Monday as it was colder than predicted and I couldn't find the gear to keep me warm in time to ride. 

Heading to Edmonton after work tomorrow, will see how much riding I can get done while visiting family and friends.

 - Peace

2200km: 60km short, 11 days late & 1 broken crank

Hit the 2200km mark on Monday.  For those keeping score, I wanted to hit 2200 before the end of Oct.   Didn't happen.

My shoulder was bothering me after Not Exactly Goat Creek, leaving me 60km short at the end of Oct.

Returned from San Francisco to all out winter conditions here in Calgary.  Commuter bike wasn't winterized yet, did get a few KM with the mountain bike, but it was a slow start to Nov.

Got the bike winterized and started to make good progress, when I wiped out while heading towards FishCreek park.  One good thing about biking in snow is that wipe outs can be gentler than on pavement.  No damage to me, but managed to destroy my left crank.

Walked the bike to Pedal Head, called Kim to pick me up.  Went home to get the mountain bike and headed into work (taking the bike on the train most of the way, was running way too late).  Headed out after work to get the final few km to make 2200km before taking the train home.

Now there are two voices in my head, one says I can still make 2600km by the end of Nov and 3000km by the end of the year.  The other says I could be happy with making 2600km by the end of the year, as that would be 100km over last year.

For the optimistic voice to win, I'll need weather, bike, health and self discipline to stay in alignment.  I'll need to hit 2300km by tomorrow (Friday the 15th)  , 2400 by Wed the 20th, 2500 by Tue the 26th & 2600km on Sat the 30th.

Good news is I'm on track to hit 2300km by tomorrow.  Thanks to PedalHead for getting the bike back to me in <48 hours.  We'll see how long I can keep up this pace.

- Peace

Not Exactly Goat Creek & 2100km

Most years I gather a group of people in June & October to ride Goat Creek Trail. Just after the ride in June the Goat Creek bridge was washed out in the epic floods that hit southern Alberta.

The bridge is still out, so yesterday we rode from Canmore to Banff via the Rundle Riverside trail.  A far tougher trail.  That 8km section took about 2hours to do.  Roots, rocks and mud.

Still a good time was had by all, and we found these cool rocks at the Banff end of the trail.

The 50km ride wasn't quite enough to put me at the 2100km mark, so I got a lift up to Whitman's pass and came back down to the Nordic Center to finish things off.  Hit the 2100km with a beautiful view of Canmore in the early evening.

We then hit the Grizzly Paw for supper.  You've got to try the Elk Burger, that's good eating!

Next Goal is to hit 2200km by Thursday, cause I'm off to San Francisco on Friday.

- Peace

2000km in the Dark

Hit the1999km mark Sunday night on the way home from Thanks Giving Dinner with friends.

Did a 1km loop in the neighbour hood to put me over the 2000km mark.

Had aimed to hit the 2000km mark on the 10th, but life got in the way.

Next goal is to hit the 2100km mark on Saturday when we'll be doing the "Not Exactly Goat Creek" ride between Canmore and Banff.  Let me know if you'd like to come.

- Peace

One Million Views on Flickr

Hit the one million views mark on my flickr account yesterday.  Don't know what it means.

I remember 10cent passing that mark years ago.

D'Arcy Norman hit the 2m mark before giving up flickr, and then coming back.

Don't know what view put me over, but my most viewed picture for the day was Question Mark, racking up 17 views for the day.

So I hit the million views with a big question mark.  That fits :)

- Peace
Dave

Ride for Refuge & 1900km

Rode the Ride for Refuge yesterday as part of Team Converge. Thanks to everyone who sponsored us; we raised $2515 for ACT Alberta.


Rohadi and I signed up for the 50km version of the ride. I would have been happy with any time in the 2:30 - 3:00 hour range.

With a couple of detours (missed a sign, stopped at the 40km to say happy birthday to a friend) the ride was just under 54km and I came in at the 2:31 mark :)

Hit the the 1900km while passing cheering volunteers.

Next goal is to hit 2000km by Oct 10th.

- Peace

1700 & 1800km

The goal was to hit 1700km by the end of last week.  Hit 1700km this Sat on a ride through Fish Creek before heading out to run errands.

Had two flats at 1600km, then there was a cold snap, and well it just didn't flow.  Think I have the flats figured out.  I think there was a defect in the tire as I wasn't getting the pinch flats I had been getting previously.  Yet neither I nor Pedalheads could find the issue.  Still I swaped the tire and it's been 200km without a flat.  Course I'd done 300km without a flat then two in less than 5km.  Hope I have it fixed.

Hit 1800km tonight after work.  That means I've done 400km in Sept.  I just need to keep that pace for Oct, Nov & Dec to hit 3000km for 2013.

Will be in San Francisco for the last week of Oct, so I'll need to do 400km by the 24th.  So that's a bit faster than the pace I've set for Sept.

Next goal is 1900km on Sat during the Ride for Refuge.

- Peace

Ride for Refuge 2013

On Oct 5th I'm riding 50km with team Converge to raise money for ACT Alberta as part of the Ride for Refuge 2013.

 ACT Alberta:

• helps victims with their immigration status
• helps source counselling services
• arranges emergency and long term housing and a variety of other services

My goal is to raise $500, so I'll match the first $250 in sponsorship. So please sponsor me.

 - Peace

1600km check!

Goal at 1500km was to hit 1600km by end of Monday.  Done!

Hit the 1600km mark on my way home after work on Monday night.

Pulled over on Elbow Drive to take this shot of the river. Thought it was better than another random road shot.

Next up 1700km by Sat.

- Peace

Half Way to 3000km

After a great, but hectic weekend in Vancouver, I skipped a week of biking.  That wasn't the plan, but that's what happened.

Got back into things with a half day Tuesday (took the train home), and extra long ride Wed. Night (Thanks Calvin!) and a full ride Thurs.  A full day is just over 34km.

Hit the 1500km biking through Britannia Thursday night on the way home from work.  1500km is the halfway mark for 2013.  Course Mid Sept is not the halfway mark for the 2013 Calendar.

As long as I make the 1800km by the end of Sept I'll be at the rate I need hit 3000km before 2014, and I've done it before, so it's doable.

Next goal is 1600km by Monday.

- Peace

1400km with Kendra

Last weekend I took Sarah out to UBC and hit the 1400km and it felt good.  Last year I hit the 900km mark in Vancouver while taking Sarah out to UBC.

Last year's goal was 2500km so that left me with 1600km to do after Vancouver.  This year's goal is 3000km, so that leaves me with 1600km to do after Vancouver.


Bonus: I got to take my Vancouver 100km mark shot with Kendra.  Just like last year.

- Peace

1300km & Four Flats

Hit the 1200km mark on Friday.  Did 30km on Sunday, biking to & from an Ingress meet up.  Just under 40 km on Monday biking to work, biking for Ingress and home.  So was feeling good about hitting 1300 km on Tuesday.

Went to get the bike out of the shed on Tues morning and the back tire was flat!  Not happy.  Took the car to work.  Came home, had to run some errands, watched Under the Dome...  Didn't get to changing the tire until it was way too dark.  Decided not ride.

This morning got up early to take a longer way to work, should be 26km instead of 17 km.  Got ~750m from home and the back tire blew out.  Most have screwed up the change in the dark.  Ok not too far from home, walked home switched the tire again and headed off to take the normal ride to work.  Got just north of Fish Creek (< 3km) and realized I was ridding on my rim.  No blow out, just a slow leak.  Two flats in one morning!

Called Sarah, as she was at home, and had her pick me up and take me to work.  High Fives for Daughters Who Can Drive!  Came home made sure to switch the tire with plenty of light and not rushing.  Got the tube in, inflated it.  Bounced the tire lightly, and it blew out.  Fourth flat in a day, and I didn't even get the last one on the bike!  Many words were spoken.  Ok mostly one one word repeated.

Checked the tube and this one had blown out right opposite the valve.  Checked the tire, no damage to the tire nothing to cause a blow out.  Wondered if I was over in flatting the tubes.  Checked the tire, was hard to find the print in the pattern of the tire but it was there, 120 PSI.  What?  I'd been doing 100 PSI since I switched back to these tires after the flood. Under inflating tires will give you the same types of flats as I was getting when I thought I had been screwing up the change up.  So I changed the tube again, and pumped it up to 120 PSI.

Went for a 21 km ride as I need 20.6 km to get to the 1300km mark.  And what a difference.  I've been feeling good about rides where I've hit 19 km/h as my average.  Well I averaged 21.9 km/h tonight!  What a blast!

Ok now to see if I can hit 1400km this weekend while in BC.  BTW bounus points if you can figure out why hitting 1400km this weekend is a big deal.

- Peace

Good News, Bad News at 1200km

Good News: hit the 1200 km mark by Fish Creek Friday Evening.

Bad News: I should have it the 1200km mark on Wed while the riding home from work.  On my way to work I stripped my left crank, so there was no ride from work on Wed.  I use a longer than standard crank, so PedalHead had to order a new crank. While enjoying the challenge of single track in Fish Creek, it doesn't rack up the KM like commuting.

Good News: PedalHead got me a new crank in two days. So after the Ride in the Park to hit the 1200km mark, was able to get the commuter from PedalHead and I’m back in business.

- Peace

Photos on Display at the House in Kensington

Three of my photos are on display at the House Coffee Sanctuary in Kensington for the month of Aug.  They are 36" x 24" canvas prints.  So if you were looking for something unique to decorate your place with, this is your chance.

Meredith Lorfing & Jason Ho are also showing pieces.  So stop in, have a coffee and enjoy some local art.

 - Peace

1100km & a Closing Window

Hit 1100km on the way to work this morning. Still haven't hit my groove yet, and need to soon. If I can make 2100km by the end of Sept then I'll have just 300km to do for each of Oct, Nov & Dec for 3000km by years end. That's doable but the window is closing.

 - Peace

My Grand Father 1918 - 2013

One of my earliest memories of my grand father was making paper airplanes with our cousins at his home on the family farm in Nova Scotia. After we'd made planes he explained how air plane wings work to create lift by slowing down the air flow over the wing decreasing air pressure over the wing and thus creating lift from below.   It was heady stuff, I think I was four or five.

My Grand father was a pilot in WWII with the RAF so he knew a thing or two about planes.  He also knew how to tell a story.  We grew up hear about the fun stories from his time in the military.

Like the time he got a group of soldiers off base for the night, by marching them out the front gate announcing to the guard that they were a work detail and flashing a laundry ticket at proof.

Or the time he had delivered a plane to Italy during what would have been harvest time, and there were ripe grapes beside the make shift air field.  So he emptied the ammo compartment for one of his guns and filled it with grapes.  Returning to Egypt with fresh grapes made him quite popular for a couple of weeks.

As we got older the more serious stories were shared, such as the fact that the first two weeks you where on the front, no one wanted to know you.  New pilots only had a 50% chance of surviving the fist two weeks.

My grandfather came to talk to my grade 11 Honours History class on the Battle of El Alamein. He held the students full attention for the entire period. Afterwords a number expressed to me their surprise at how cool my grandfather was.

In the 80s the Nova Scotia Government wanted to find a way to automate blueberry harvesting.  And asked the farmers to try a prototype.  The prototype mimicked the way people rake blueberries lifting forward from the ground.  But the machine couldn't avoid rocks and logs the way people do and would get caught.  So my grand father proposed that they reverse the motion so the it would roll over obstacles.  The engineers told Grampy that it wouldn't work.  So he built his own working prototype to prove that it would.

My Grampy: RAF fighter pilot, farmer, inventor, story teller, father & Grand Father.

See you on the other side Grampy.

- Peace

Dear Mr. Watterson, trailer for the Calvin & Hobbes Documentary/Fan Letter.

Dear Mr. Watterson, while labelled a documentary, this is clearly the fan letter that Calvin and Hobbes deserves.

Out Nov 15, so I'm adding it to my Christmas list now.

 via Paste.

- Peace

1000 km on Elbow Drive

The good news is I hit 1000km on the way home from work last night.  The bad news is I'm still not in a rhythm of biking most days.  Flat tires, floods, life, tons of excuses...

- Peace

Man of Steel, TShirt, Key Chain Anyone?

The first trailer for Man of Steel, left me feeling cold. After all Smallville covered the Clark finding himself ground quite well.

The trailer focusing on Zod makes me think there's hope. They'll need to have one mean Lex Luthor to follow Zod.

I do wonder about the fact that the media is picking up on the Super Man as Jesus imagery. If the media is picking up on it then it might be heavy handed. (they totally missed the religious imagery in Warm Bodies) Though I like the Superman as Moses take.

I have some Superman gear to give away. One XL & One L t-shirt (though I'd describe them as L & M) and one S key chain. To enter share the link to this post on FB, Twitter or G+ and leave a comment here. Let me know your preference for a prize.  Also be from Calgary, cause I'm not paying to ship them. I'll pick the winner Friday Night.

- Peace

New Camera for Father's Day

Shoots video and stills and comes with an RC Helicopter attached.  I've had to use the ladder to retrieve it twice :)  These flights are a bit more controlled.


Father's Day Gift from Dave King on Vimeo.

800km, Goat Creek & 900km

Hit the 800km on May 27th, just didn't get to blogging it.

Rode Goat Creek with a group of friends yesterday. Didn't notice the water smudge on the group shot till it was too late.

While on the last leg of the Goat Creek ride I hit the 900km mark while riding with David M.

So that's the bike news.  Really need to get into a groove so I'm hitting the km marks on a more regular basis.  Have 2100km still to ride this year.

- Peace

700km Sort Of...

For got to take the 700km shot this morning, didn't remember till the 707 mark.  That seems fitting as I'm getting back into the routine of ridding.  After hitting the 600km mark at the end of March, April just didn't happen, and neither did the first half of May.  Many reasons, a new job, way too much snow in April, a broken seat post, blah, blah, blah.  Need to get back to riding.

- Peace

My New Most Viewed Photo on Flickr

Thanks to my 2009 pic Under Goat Creek appearing on Tumbler blogs like Silent City; Under Goat Creek is my new Most Viewed Photo on flickr with 7,931 views.  6000 of those have been this week. 

For years my most viewed photo has been Ice Cube.  It has just over 7300 views, mostly from Google Image Search.  It's also had a longer run dating back to 2006.

Both shots were taken with Olympus Stylus point & shoots.

- Peace

600 KM on Time

Hit the 600km before the end of March, that kept me on schedule.  Late on blogging it though :)

Goal is to hit the 1000km mark by the end of April.  That takes me from the 200km/month pace to a 400km/month pace.  Doable if I start biking to work this week, though the bike is in the shop so we'll see.

- Peace

Spruce Meadows at 500km

Did a bit of riding on 22x yesterday and hit the 500km mark for 2013 while going past Spruce Meadows.  As this is the first 100km mark for Spring it was nice to get some colour in the shot.  The 2013 100km at a time set has been very monochrome up to now.

Goal is to be at 600km by the end of the month.  Glad to see that there should be good weather this week.

- Peace

400km - 2 days late

Hit the 400km mark while riding through Fish Creek park this afternoon.

The plan called for me to be at 400km by the end of Feb. At 300km I said "100km in six days shouldn't be too bad." Around the 306km mark I wiped out on a sheet of ice and my knee took the brunt of the fall.  Took a few days to recover.

196 km should be doable in 28 days I have left in March.  I'm not counting the 31st as we're doing the Easter Sunrise Hike up Nose Hill, and I won't be up for riding after that.

- Peace

Game Night at Nathalie's

Game Night from Nathalie Babineau-Griffiths on Vimeo.  Nathalie did a time lapse, I was sitting near the camera. We played Dominion, Munchkin and more Dominion.

 - Peace

300km in Millrise

Got a cold in early Feb that just hung around for weeks.  Nothing too bad, but enough to keep me off the bike.  Got out today and thanks to the bonus km I did in Jan hit the 300km for the year.  The plan calls for being at 400km by the end of Feb.  100km in six days shouldn't be too bad.

- Peace

Venice Top 4 Shots + 1

We had four nights in Venice. I took 2978 shots, published 110 of them to flickr.  Of those 10 made it to my Most Interesting of 2012 set.  Here are the top 4 shots and 1 that I loved that flickr didn't.

	Side Canal An iconic Venetian moment caught as we passed this side canal on a water bus.  Even caught a bit of Venetian litter in the lower left corner. I'm guessing it's the strong lines that drew people into this picture.
	Glass Fire The island of Murano is famous for it's glass-work.  This is a peice of public art on the island that I shot with my Lensbaby. I think the Lensbaby blur suggests the movement of fire. Lucked out with the clouds making such a great background.
	Reflecting Canal Did as late night walk about to see what I could find.  This is my top night shot.  I think it looks very industrial, so I'm a bit surprised that this did as well as it did.
	Smoking in the Shadow I have mixed feelings about this, cause I'm not trying to make smoking look cool.  We were stuck by how much smoking there is in Europe and so I wanted to reflect that reality.
	Flowing Just happened to come across a fashion shoot on the island of Burano.  I loved how the wind caught her dress.  Was surprised that this didn't get more attention.  One of the other shots from the shoot did make the Most Interesting of 2012 set. The people running the shoot didn't chase us tourist photographers off, and were very friendly to us.  It made my day.

I took over 11,000 photos in Europe last summer. I am currently publishing photos from our time in Rome. You can see my most interesting shots from London and Paris.

Little Red Wagon

Little Red Wagon is story of how Zach Bonner became an advocate for homeless children before he was twelve. As a movie it's very "After School Special". However the subplot of a family that goes from middle class to homeless is real enough to be a good introduction to the issues of homelessness for children. The message that we can do something to help is also worth repeating. If your looking to engage a group of kids with the issues of homelessness then Little Red Wagon would be a good start.

- Peace

200km in Fog at UBC.

Went to Vancouver to help Sarah move. Took the bike along, and hit the 200km mark while on UBC campus.  Twas a bit foggy.

So that takes care of the 200km goal for Jan.  Will aim to get some bonus KMs in before the end of the month.

- Peace

My First Intersting Shots of 2013

Got a couple of shots of one of the neighbourhood Jackrabbits. Kim loves them so I knew she'd be happy to see them. Folks on flickr also liked them so they are the first two shots in my Most Interesting of 2013 set.

Feels a bit strange as I'm still posting shots from 2012 and my Most Interesting of 2012 set is still growing.

I have maintained Most Interesting sets since I started on flickr in 2005.

- Peace

First 100km done and a plan for the First 1000km

We've had quite the mild start to 2013, so it made it easy to get out and ride. Went out in today's snow storm cause I wanted to hit the first 100km mark on the 10th day of the year. Just not the same if it goes to 11.

Figure I can do 200km in Jan,Feb & March then 400km in April. That will put me at the 1000km mark about when I hit the 100km mark last year :) I'm hoping to maintain a base line of fitness built up from last year. I've learned that if I ride hard for 8 months and take 4 off then I'm right back where I started. So winter riding it is :)

- Peace

I have a Rebel Mouse, not sure what to do with it.

Rebel Mouse is a social aggregator, it pull all my streams (flickr, blog, twitter, facebook) into one page. It looks really cool.

 I wish my FaceBook profile looked that good. FaceBook has access to the same info so really it should be able to to the same thing, but that's another rant.

So what do I do with Rebel Mouse now that I have it?  Does it replace my about.me page? I love to read my twitter/facebook/rss streams in this format, but that doesn't seem to be something they're doing.

Rebel Mouse really cool, just not sure why I'd go there after setting up my page.
 
- Peace

2500 down 3000 to go

Thanks to Clement and Nathan for coming out and joining me on the last ride of 2012. I hit the 2500km mark for 2012, and that was the goal. Glad I didn't have to do 60km on the last day, like 2011. Only had to do 55km. Didn't get out on the the 30th cause I was in pain from doing the 40+km on the 29th after a week off. Still felt good on the 31st and the 55km was fine. For 2013 I'm aiming for 3000km. Working back to where I can do > 4000km a year. - Peace