hexstatik

pemberton slow food cycle

saturday morning, zamlana, karob, jonnifer and neistal will be heading to birkenhead lake park near pemberton for some camping and the pemberton slow food cycle on Sunday.

the slow food (slow food = !fast food) cycle is a 26km bike ride along the Lillooet River Valley where participants can stop at various farms and rest stops to enjoy some good, wholesome, local food.  i’m probably looking forward to finding some good homemade cheese the most, followed by all the surprises i can’t even imagine. floating around the lake on our inflatable air mattress and roasting some spider dogs on a campfire with some friends while enjoying some cool beverages are definitely going be highlights as well.

the weather outlook for saturday and sunday is HOT! about 30C for both days, so hydration is going to be key, especiallly for us vancouverites - we aren’t used to these sort of conditions. :)

randy pausch, the carnegie mellon university professor who nearly one year ago delivered his ‘last lecture’, died from complications from pancreatic cancer last week.

the youtube video is embedded below, and if you can find the time, i highly recommend listening to it.

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

yesterday morning, shortly after the work day started, a major fire broke out in underground power substation, knocking out power to a large swath of the downtown core. while my office was unaffected, leah was left at home all day without power. poor kid. the original estimate from bc hydro was that power was supposed to be restored by 3pm. unfortunately, when hydro crews were finally able to enter the underground cavern, they discovered the true extent of the damage, meaning the latest estimate is by 11pm tonight if we are lucky. our freezer is going to be completely thawed out, and it looks like another cold shower tomorrow. 

if you tried to reach this website yesterday, you wouldn’t have been able to gain access because the company that hosts this site is located in a building whose backup generator failed. (boo!) anyway, it seems like they have it sorted out now. 

You can get an updated view of the outage here.

after 7 weeks of training at the deep cove rowing club, my corporate rowing team participated in the 11th annual vancouver community corporate rowing challenge at the UBC john lecky boathouse.

after finishing 1st in our first heat, we were ranked 6th overall after the first race, which put us in the worst lane for our next race in the semi finals. in our semi final race, we got off to a good start, but not as clean as the boat next to us in the faster lane 2. in order to win, we would need to work hard and have a clean race. we managed to fight hard and were making a come back, but ran out of room and finished just shy of first. luckily for us, close competition allowed us to clock the 4th fastest time for the semis, and was good enough to make it into the 4 boat final.

again, we ended up in the dreaded lane 1, right next to the team that had just edged out. our start was better this time and we managed to get in front of our competition, who ended up having to make a small course correction. again, we were in a very close race and both teams were rowing as hard as they could. as we got close to the finish, our cox was yelling hard, both teams were digging down to give it one final push, but as i looked over, i could see that we had the edge and were keeping it. we ended up crossing the finish line in 3rd, just barely out of second place.

still, it was a great day of racing, and placing 3rd out of 10 in the ‘defenders’ category was definitely rewarding.

this morning, crystal and i got up early (7:45am) to go the annual vancouver police auction held by able auctions in coquitlam. it’s a two day event, with the first day dedicated to auctioning over 600 bikes, and the second day for everything else.

we arrived before 9:30am with just enough time to register and do a complete once over of the catalogue before the 10am start. the auction room was filling up fast and the action got off to a quick start.

the 2^nd lot was for a huge downhill bike that sold eventually for $1750. i missed the showing of 3^rd lot because i was explaining to the nice people behind me that it was indeed $1750, and not $17.50. i finished in time to turn back around and see the gentleman standing right in front of me win the bidding for the 3^rd lot with a bid $250. as he left, i stepped up into his position and took a look at the 4^th lot of the day.

i was prepared to spend up to $300, and the bike that was lot 4 was a decent looking bike made by brodie, a local company i knew and recognized. bidding started at $200; i raised my paddle. at this point, i’m guessing that the auctioneer didn’t see or hear the ring man call out my bid, because he then proceeded to start dropping the price.

“175, 175, 75, 75, do i hear 175.” he called out at light speed.

no takers.

“150, 150, 150, 50, 50…” he continued. “150 over here!, 175, 175…”

i raised my paddle again, this time making sure to make clear eye contact with my ring man.

“over here, 175. 200, 200, do i hear 200?”

again, no taker at $200.

“sold for 175!”

i had just bought a new bike.

after taxes and a 15% auction fee, the total came up to $211. i paid for my purchase and went to pick it up outside. it had two flat tires and needed some work on the brakes, but nothing that a simple tune up wouldn’t be able to fix.

on our way home, we picked up crystal’s bike and took them both to the bike doctor for a tune up and have mine “ghetto-ized” (lose the quick release skewers in favour of a secure type and buy a new kryptonite lock) and “urban-ized” (adding some fenders, a riser handle bar and a carrier).

can’t wait to pick it up on wednesday. :)