Ours Is Not To Reason Why...

In the wake of the Boston bombings and the arrest in Canada of two individuals suspected of plotting to blow up a Via Rail trail (really?  a Via Rail train??), Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was musing about the reasons for these attacks and alleged conspiracies.

In his haste to denigrate anything remotely thoughtful, Stephen Harper commented that now was not the time to "commit sociology".

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/String+terror+incidents+reason+commit+sociology/8294646/story.html

Well of course not.  Why ever would ordinary folk want to know the reasons why for anything?  Consider the causes of global warming, the root causes of violence and poverty, why stuff works, why the earth goes around the sun....  What business would we have for wondering about the underlying causes of things like these?  You tell 'em Mr Harper.  Quit wondering about the reasons for anything.  Knowledge just gets in the way of our ability to accept whatever we're told to believe.

Coasting in Oregon

Probably the quintessential view down the Oregon coast.  We spent a week or so wandering through some of western Washington state and along the coast as far south as Newport.  Reasonable weather and miles of beach to ride our bikes on.  We did find the area somewhat more busy that we remembered it.  Possibly school break time down there could have been the reason.  Our route back home through the Columbia River Gorge enjoyed some almost-summer weather.

The Wire - An Alternative to Broadcast TV

As usual, there's not much to watch on regular TV....as they say: same old, same old.

On the recommendation of our son, who is probably more attuned to such things, I bought the whole 5 seasons of The Wire, an HBO video series based in Baltimore, Maryland.

The core of the program is probably the drug trade, but includes the city police department, the longshoremen on the docks, the education system, politicians and the print media.  In short, it's a series about a broken city with broken systems that should be making life better for it's citizens, but is failing miserably.  It's a realistic commentary on the state of this city....perhaps many American cities.

I have to say that this is probably the best thing I've seen.  Ever, and I was a big "West Wing" fan....

If you have sensitive ears, you will have problems with the language and the casual violence, but the show is real and examines real issues.  I've embedded some of the greatest quotes from the series just to give you a taste of what's in store.  And no, it's NOT a documentary....

Watch it.  You won't be disappointed.

Skiing in the Backcountry

After finally escaping my foot bandages, it's been off into the backcountry for some skiing.  The past week or so has involved several days of uphill and downhill in some pretty decent snow.

Stu and I spent 2 days up at the ski cabin and put in a few good lines down through the trees into some nice snowy bowls.  We did dig one snow pit and discovered a weak layer, so we weren't all that surprised when Stu cut one line across the top of a slope that caused a fracture and a slide of snow right to the bottom of the hill.

A few days ago, a friend from Calgary arrived to learn something about Kootenay skiing, so we headed up the the ski cabin again.  For at least part of the time, there was light snow, so by the end of 3 days, the upper layers were sliding all over the place.  Because of this, our ski lines were pretty conservative and in the trees.  It was interesting to watch slopes sliding on the track back out as the skidoo passed.  Probably explains why the avalanche hazard was raised to high....

Down at valley bottom, snow is slowly disappearing, but at 2000 m it's still deep and fluffy.  I'm a bit conflicted, wanting spring and warmer, sunnier weather, but still enjoying the turns on the slopes.  Maybe after a couple days of rest I'll try out some XC skiing this weekend.

Above the Clouds

 A pretty clear example of the benefits of skiing in the sub-alpine in this part of the country.  What you see is the fog and cloud layer that has hovered over the Kootenay Lake valley for weeks.  A few of us were at the ski club's cabin at 2000 m for 2 days and this is the view we had for at least one of those days...before the real clouds and snow moved in.  The snow was in pretty good condition so we had a few nice runs and got our exercise climbing back out of the valleys that we had skied into.

Back in the Saddle Again

 Maybe it's been the winter blahs, maybe it's been being busy...who knows, but I've been neglecting my blog of late.  A brief update:


After 7 weeks post-surgery, I decided I'd had enough.  I cut off the bandages and dressings and pulled out the long suture that was used to close the incision, about 3 inches long.  

I gave the foot another week to heal up and then I went skiing.  This photo was taken from the ski club's cabin at 2000 m looking out toward the Bugaboos across Kootenay and Duncan Lake.  Typical of this time of year, at elevation you're above the clouds and fog with great views in all directions.

One highlight was towards the end of the first day.  As we climbed up along a long ridge, we stepped out on the ridge crest and saw the setting sun's colors painted all over the peaks across the Lake to our east.  It was fantastic, but even better was to come.  As we climbed higher, the setting sun to the west colored the few clouds and the ski brilliant oranges and reds and mauves (I think that was the color - I'm not so good with things like that...).  It was really quite stunning.  Sadly, the camera's batteries had died in the cold and I'm not convinced that my little camera would have done the view any kind of justice.

It was a nice 2 days out skiing, although I was totally bagged after day 1 and could barely eat my supper.  I felt better the day after.

Since then, I've been out a couple of times, including one the other day when I and another fellow climbed for 2.5 hours and had a 2000 ft vertical ski down through the trees in knee-deep powder.  I was pretty bagged after that too.  Must have been the deep snow....

I've spent quite a few hours building and configuring a new computer.  My old one was about 9 years old which in human terms must be about 95.  It was getting pretty slow and clogged up.  So a new Gigabyte MoBo, a 3.4 GHz i7 processor, 16 Gb RAM, a SSD and a 1Tb drive later....and I'm back up to near light speed.  Should do me for another decade.

Anyhow, it's time for a couple of days with the twins, then back for some skiing and the continuing task of migrating everything from my old machine over to the new technology.

Never a dull moment.

Day 15 of My Second Imprisonment

 I'm now just over 2 weeks into my second bit of post-surgical rehab.  Having been through the process once before, it was somewhat easier this time.  At least I knew what to expect and I had the "surgically altered" sneaker ready for hobbling around.  The crutches were abandoned after a couple of days and I was soon able to wear the old sneaker and move around more freely.  I even walked about 2 km on a nearby trail through the woods.  It was slow going, but nice, and since there was no snow, I only had to be careful that I didn't land on the injured foot the wrong way.  I can drive again.  Catherine's automatic is obviously easiest, but I can manage the truck as long as I'm careful how I push on the clutch.

Otherwise, I've had one day helping babysit the twins and it was only slightly more tiring than it usually is.  I spend my days working in the shop and reading by the fire.  We just got a thin layer of snow overnight and that may make getting around outside a wee bit more hazardous, but it should be manageable.  

Right now I'm planning on bandage removal in 5 weeks and then I can get into the ski season.  In the meantime, I have skis to wax, a number of woodworking projects and lots of books to read.  I'm trying not to spend any extra time on Facebook.....