June 6, 2011
Finally, CBC Calgary’s OTA (over-the-air) signal has gone digital! For the first time in my life I was able to see the puck during a hockey game. Unfortunately Luongo saw more of the puck than he wanted.
We now have three crystal-clear channels coming in through our rabbit ears. There’s still nothing good on, but at least it’s in HD!
June 25, 2010
I think rather than biking across Canada this year I’m going to bike from Calgary to Kemptville. Judging from last year’s performance (3000 km in the year) I won’t quite make it. Can someone pick me up in North Bay around Christmas time?
Right now I’m in the town of Rugby, North Dakota. It’s nearly halfway through my route, and it also lays claim to being the Center of North America!
May 13, 2010
Look what I missed by coming home sick today! A moose wandering downtown Calgary just blocks from my office!
March 22, 2010
[This is not for my usual family audience! It’s for other cyclists who’ve had the same problem I have, so they can find this solution through a Google search and save themselves some of the money and frustration this has cost me in the past.]
I’ve been using a Cateye Strada cyclocomputer for about three years for my 30km daily year-round commute and love it. I love the buttonless experience (just press the face itself to switch modes) and the toolless installation. I bought an extra harness kit and switch the computer back and forth between my summer and winter bikes.
But the winters in Calgary are harsh, and every winter I’ve had the same problem. A little plastic clip in the harness that snaps the computer into place breaks off from the cold, and without it the computer won’t stay put.
The last two year I’ve forked over the money to buy a new harness kit, but those things cost nearly as much as a whole new computer.
This year I came up with a simple solution right in line with the toolless philosophy: an o-ring.
I realized on closer inspection that the back of the Strada has a hump that slides into the harness. An o-ring (or rubber band) can fit over that protrusion and keep it in its base.
The other end of the o-ring hooks around the headset on my road bike. If I were to do this on my mountain bike I could wrap the o-ring around the handlebar and attach it right back up to the Strada.
I think the end product looks just as good as the original, and it’s sturdier to boot.
March 15, 2010
The pathways are clear of ice, and we had a high of 16 today (19 tomorrow!), so I took my road bike out of hibernation. Wow, what a difference! Compared to my trusty old mountain bike (which I bought as my sole mode of transport when I first moved to Calgary 15 years ago), I felt like I was flying. It’s quieter, smoother, and faster.
March 1, 2010
This news headline caught my eye today:
The funny thing is that without context, you couldn’t tell if the headline is referring to the Canadian healthcare system or the American one, despite the huge divide between the two. I’m sure I’m over-generalizing here, but it seems Canadians covet being able to pay for health services like Americans can (“it’s my health!”), and Americans covet the affordable health coverage Canadians have (à la Sarah Palin).
Maybe we should just swap.
February 26, 2010
… 22 years after the event, but it was still a sweet moment!
This is the real thing. The mother of a co-worker (hey Paul, leave a comment so my family knows I’m not lying!) was on the Olympic board in ’88 and has one of the few remaining torches. They only made 400 or so, and destroyed most of them, but the board members each got one, the Glenbow museum got one, and the IOC head office.
In fact as this one got paraded around our office today, another employee informed us her father was the guy who did the metal work on it!
I offered to buy this torch for $50 as a birthday present for Ben, but the owner didn’t want to part with it. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts. Happy Birthday Ben!
January 23, 2010
This is Vanilla’s favourite spot.
November 11, 2009
Just in time for their Remembrance Day celebrations*, I (virtually) rolled into Thunder Bay last night, 3000 km from January 1st.
(* I can’t tell what Thunder Bay is doing for Remembrance Day. The city web site says nothing about it on their home page, and searching their site only shows that veterans can ride transit for free today and the waste collection schedule has changed.)
October 20, 2009
Taking one of our Singaporean distributors up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola for his first experience with snow.
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