Personal and Goals – Page 7 – HIKES & HAMSTRINGS

A Little Vertigo Can’t Stop Me!

After the Booty Hunt on June 1st, I decided to go hard core… again… with P90X. It seems like my body is getting tired of it, though, since it decided to revolt! After day 3, I developed a nasty rash on my forearms and torso, followed by a horrible occurrence of positional vertigo that made me crazy dizzy. Okay, so I can’t say for sure that it’s the P90X that caused that, but what I do believe is that my body is unwinding from stress, unbeknownst to me, and manifesting in interesting ways. As everything has gone in the last few months, I was a bit derailed and needed to rest. But this has not stopped me from having a busy first half of the month!

The day the vertigo started, Adriane, Sarah, and Adriane’s friend Jo and I decided we’d hike Prairie Mountain. Yes, I’ve done this several times now, but for an early season after-work hike, it’s always a good one. And what a great group- so many stories being told, and so much laughter! It really did feel like the quickest ascent of Prairie in a long time. I do enjoy hiking on my own, but the time does pass faster when sharing the experience with friends.

Once the hike was done, I rested for a few days on Robbie’s orders. I tried to get lots of sleep and watched a bunch of TV (HIMYM is so good!). By Saturday, I finally decided to call Healthlink and a nurse advised me to see a physician, who diagnosed it as a bit of positional vertigo before sending me for a bunch of lab tests and an EKG. What a fun way to spend the weekend! But following this restful period, I did slowly get better throughout the week. On Wednesday, I walked over to the UofC to see Paul and Rob graduate. Congrats to Paul on his PhD and Rob on his MSc in Community Health Sciences. I still assert that my Certificate in Relational Databases trumps those :).

By Friday, I was stir crazy. I got in my car and decided to drive to Banff. Even though it was rainy, there’s always something new to see, so I stopped by the recently opened Cave and Basin National Historic Site, the birthplace of Canada’s national parks. It’s always fun to learn something new: The first national park in Canada was Banff in 1885. The underground cave contains bubbling thermal waters that smell of hydrogen sulphide gas. Translation: it smelled a lot like rotten eggs. I also learned that there’s a Banff Springs Snail, which is only found in the springs of Sulphur Mountain. A visit to Banff would not be complete without some random perusing of stores. So I did that too. The next day I would finally get to hike again by conquering Ha Ling, but more on that later…

June would not be complete without a few birthday celebrations. It was a fun dinner at The King and I for Samir’s 31st, and a great evening with lots of catching up and laughter for Selina’s 40th. So all in all, despite the vertigo, it’s been a pretty awesome first half of June!

Stats (for Prairie Mountain):

Start time: 5:20 pm
Summit: 6:45 pm
End time: 8:30 pm

Gustav Holst’s “The Planets”

On my list of things to do: Experience a performance by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. A while back, I had bought tickets to see The Lord of The Rings at the CPO, where they would play the entire The Fellowship of the Ring, but all music would be performed live! However, a trip to Ireland derailed that, so I exchanged the tickets for one of my favourite symphonies, Gustav Holst’s “The Planets”.

Last night began with Rainbow Body (Theofandis) and Azul for Amplified Cello and Orchestra (Golijov). The latter was a great piece, especially when there was a dynamic play between Alisa Weilerstein on Cello and the percussionists and hyper-accordion. Definitely the best part of the composition. I need to find this!

Then after intermission, it was “The Planets”, accompanied by NASA images of the planets. I think some of the images were created for effect, but for the most part, the actual NASA images were pretty cool. “The Planets” is a great piece: its haunting and dramatic beginning with Mars, the Bringer of War, to the well-known melody of Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, and the other sections of Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. I love the orchestra! Aside from being a great evening with lovely company :), the night caused me to reflect. I remember analyzing the score for Mars during my grade 13 music class, and I remember playing Jupiter on flute while I played in the senior concert band during high school. It seems like a lifetime ago that I was able to read music and play the flute. Actually, I think it was 13 years ago. My goodness! But it’s never too late to get back into things, and watching the performance of “The Planets” reminds me that I still love music: many genres; the feelings one can experience while listening to it; and how a simple song or piece can bring you right back to another time.

“Roadtrip 2013”, by Mumford and Sons

Every roadtrip begins with a box of timbits :) — Every roadtrip begins with a box of timbits 🙂

Almost 4 years ago, I packed up my Toyota Corolla and drove from Milton to Calgary with my mum and brother. I remember arriving in Calgary after four days thinking, ‘I will never do that drive again.” As amazing as the Canadian landscape is (especially Northern Ontario), it’s a long drive!

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I was having lunch at the hospital with Paul and he says to me, “Want to drive to Ottawa with me and Charlie?” Charlie is his dog. You see, Paul decided to go east to complete a post-doctoral fellowship in Ottawa, which means he and his family were leaving for the next little while. What an exciting opportunity for them!

“Sure! Why not- it’ll be fun :)”

And that was that… ROADTRIP!

Yes, I have had quite a bit of time off lately, but in truth, I knew it would be a fun experience and I was happy to help out. Inevitably, there would be tons of laughter, and it would be great quality time spent. And let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want to be graced with my company for 5 consecutive days? 😉

So at 10:30 am on Saturday, Paul, Charlie and I were off. Of course, no road trip is complete without a Tim’s stop for timbits, and that’s exactly what we did. Then it was time to hit the TransCanada highway, eastbound. Two rules were established at the beginning: 1) silence was okay and didn’t need to be filled with talking at all times, and 2) farting in the car was to be followed immediately by opened windows. This pretty much set the stage for the epic roadtrip of 2013.

The drive began with much excitement and chatting; Charlie was trying to figure out what was going on, and energy levels were up. By the end of the trip, we were exhausted; Charlie stretched himself lazily over a pillow; and we were all eager to reach Ottawa. Overnight stops along the way included Regina, Dryden, Wawa, North Bay, and then Ottawa, and the journey ended up being about 3630 km.

There were monument stops as well: the largest teepee in Medicine Hat, Husky the Muskie in Kenora, the Terry Fox monument in Thunder Bay, a massive Canadian goose in Wawa, and the Big Nickel in Sudbury. And the trip had no shortage of wildlife- many deer, both alive and dead; moose; a weasel/mink/ferret; and a dead beaver.

I can’t even begin to write down everything, but lots of memories were made. To preserve for posterity, I offer the following list of inside jokes so that Paul and I don’t forget them. If there’s one thing between Paul and I (and Sony, of course), it’s that jokes never ever die.

You have pet? No.(Vietnamese accent)
Kid in background playing World of Warcraft
Driving J*w. You got driving j*wed.
Ratemyselfie.com
Paul attempts to murder me in my sleep
Floating deer head
Mill trolls of Dryden
Rebounding box of wipes: “Get that sh** out of my face!” (Slaps wipes away)
Typical Ron and his suggestion to drive through Winnipeg. Go through Winnipeg, he said. It’ll be faster, he said.
Walking Charlie in the petroleum fields
Free bread at East side Mario’s
Rick awakens. “So I was right?” (about the greenery of Northern Ontario)
Dr. Rick Chinstein
“What are you waiting for?” (from I Know What You Did Last Summer)
Charlie’s Wang Hair
“Why the hell is there a dancing weasel on the highway?”
“The ebb and flow of nutrition: We should wash our water down with a chubby chicken.”
Rick tells Paul bible story. Paul over-interprets – “Joseph got c**k-blocked by God.” Rick is offended.
That girl had crazy makeup. Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she goes to clown college. She could have been so pretty.
Rick continually sings “I Will Wait” by Mumford and Sons. Rick is Mumford. Paul and Charlie are the sons.
Flash headlights to warn car about cops. Car is a cop. Helping fail.
Chuckles Mcgee. Chuckles O’Flannigan. etc…
Totes so cash.

Jokes aside, Paul is a rockstar, and I have no doubt that he will do extremely well out in Ottawa. All the best, my friend. Soak up all the knowledge you can and come back an even stronger researcher. You’ve got this!

Charlie settling in to his new digs in Ottawa. It’s been a long few days!

Kona Jake: A Sweet Ride

The new addition to fulfill my transportation needs

For the longest time I’ve wanted to buy a bike. I’m not sure how long ago I added it to my list of things to do, but it just always fell off the radar. This year, however, through outside motivation (os!) and interesting circumstances, I have been on a mission to find a suitable bike for the 2013 season! I can now cross this item off my list :).

The browsing went on for quite some time. I asked bikers, friends, and staff at The Bike Shop and Bowcycle: “What would be a good bike for commuting to work, but also one on which I could train for a triathlon?” Three different people said that a cyclocross bike was for me. A quick wiki search revealed that cyclocross bikes are designed similar to road bikes but are rigorous and rugged enough for cyclocross races and off-road use. Their popularity have increased over the last few years due to their versatility.

Eventually I decided upon the Kona Jake, which I found at Bowcycle. Big Dave was extremely helpful with providing great information about the bike, its measurements and other important details. Not that I know what the following specs mean, but for my own reference, the bike has:

Umm... what's a drivetrain? — Umm… what’s a drivetrain?

a Kona 7005 aluminum butted frame and a Kona P2 aluminum fork
Tektro Lyra mechanical road disc brakes with 140 mm rotors
Shimano Tiagra 10-speed drivetrain and Tiagra triple chainring crankset
a Kona double-clamp seatpost and WTB Volt Sport saddle

Sounds like a sweet ride to me! I also added some combination flat/clipless pedals just ’cause.

The funny thing is I’ve had the bike for about 3 weeks now and I still have not taken it out for a ride. At the moment, it makes a lovely decorative piece in my condo and continues to have that shiny new look and feel to it. But believe you me, I am looking forward to testing it out once I’m back into the swing of things. Whoohoo! It’s been a while since I’ve biked regularly. As Calgary continues to become a more bike-friendly city, it feels good to jump onto the bandwagon… finally.

Goodbye Dell :(

Today was a big day. Well, not really, but I got rid of two significant pieces of electronics. The first was my Dell Inspiron laptop that died around the same time as my Mac. Now fair enough, I had bought the Dell in August 2006 before starting my Master’s degree at UBC, so it’s been 6.5 years or so. But there’s nostalgia with it: All those late nights coding in R sigh. Alas, it died, and now it’s in laptop heaven (aka, a random area in Staples). The second item was my Canon Rebel. I took my first (and only!) photography class with it, as well as many photos over the years until it died a sudden death when it was drenched by a Hawaiian wave. Sad sad camera. But on a positive note, these things have been taking up unnecessary space in my place for quite some time. I’m all about cleansing unused items… out with the old!