Run 1,042: Smoky ‘n gagging

Brunette River, pre-run: Morning glow.

Two words you don’t want associated with a run, yet here we are!

I opted to run the river trail today, after missing yesterday due to strata hijinks (and stupidly hot weather) in order to get a run in before it could get too hot (the high today is supposed to be 26C, and I am missing six weeks of acclimating to the temperatures getting warmer).

There was the smell of smoke near the start of the river trail, but I don’t think it was wildfire smoke, as it seemed to diminish as I got farther down the trail.

The run started decently, or so I thought, then about halfway through the first km, I cleared my throat a bit too aggressively, which managed to apparently move phlegm into my gag reflex zone. I coughed violently three times, thought about pausing, but kept on and made a note to not aggressively clear my throat for the remainder of the run. As I neared the 1K mark, I thought to check my current stats and noticed the watch face was showing the time with a green play button superimposed over it. This is not normal. I checked, and it seemed that I had queued up the run, but someone either didn’t start it, or started it and somehow immediately paused it.

What this meant is I’d run a km and the watch hadn’t tracked any of it. I pondered what to do and just started the “official” run there, adding another 2.5 km. The good news is I had no trouble doing 3.5 km, so I’m probably ready to tackle a 5K next, assuming it’s not Africa hot or something.

This is not to say I was fast or that the run was fun (in a bun, or otherwise). I was slow, and my BPM was all the way up to 158 because of the relative heat. But I got through and a slightly stronger breeze actually felt nice.

The river, post-run.

Stats:

Run 1,042
Average pace: 6:20/km
Training status: Overreaching
Location: Brunette River Trail
Start: 10:20 a.m.
Distance: 2.51 km
Time: 15:51
Weather: Mostly sunny
Temp: 20–21°C
Humidity: 52–48%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 158
Weight: 168.8 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,025 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (5/12/17)

Music: Shuffle play

Birding, July 4, 2026: Greedy Grebelings gobbling goodies

Where: Blakeburn Lagoons Park (Port Coquitlam), Blackie Spit (Surrey), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby) 
Weather: Mostly sunny, 17–20°C

In which I wore sunblock and did not get roasted.

Blakeburn Lagoons Park

One of the lagoons, framed by wildflowers.

We returned to Blakeburn to take in the baby Grebes again and this time we arrived in the morning, which was apparently nap time, because all the waterfowl, Mallards, and Grebes alike, were mostly dozing. But after a short time they started stirring and soon enough the Grebelings began chasing a parent, desperate for food. We observed one getting a big ol’ fishy from the parent and watched as it horked it down in about three gulps.

We also saw a heron–but not a green one, just the great blue kind. It flew right past in front of us. I got a blurry action shot.

Elsewhere around the lagoon, we spied a Northern Flicker, a robin hanging out by a sewer grate and lots of pollinators. It was unofficial Pollinator Day.

At the second lagoon, we heard invisible frogs and once more saw a single American Coot, probably the same one we saw last week. It did a weird kind of coot bobbing thing a few times but mostly ate copious amounts of greenery, which at times looked more like something it was throwing up rather than nomming on.

In all, a nice beginning and I think I got better shots of the grebes this time, so woo for that.

Blackie Spit

A boat plies through the narrow band of water off Blackie Spit.

We then spent 10 hours travelling south to Blackie Spit, thanks to Google Maps directing us to busy highway intersections without traffic lights and asking us to then turn left. Once there, we heard but didn’t see (or did we?) Savannah Sparrows, but we did get shots of a House Finch impersonating one. There were also a lot of sand wasps here, furiously digging burrows as they do.

We hoped for a repeat of seeing a California Scrub Jay after a guy on a scooter advised us of some in the area, but alas, we didn’t see any. We saw lots of pollinators again, though.

The tide was extremely low, which in itself made for some interesting scenery shots.

When we left, I marvelled at how my skin had not turned crimson.

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

A goose-rich view of Piper Spit.

We rounded out the day at Piper Spit, where the level of the lake was almost as high as the piles of seeds from all the criminal bird feeders. When not telling girls destined to be sociopaths not to kick at pigeons, we saw pigeons, blackbirds, and a Song Sparrow that kind of looked like it had exploded, but didn’t seem to mind. The ducks were mostly avoiding the pier and hanging out in Eagle Creek.

There were a lot of Canada Geese around and some of the babbies have become sullen teens with mostly adult colours and bad attitudes.

When we left, after silently cursing the people with seed, I was just grateful karma didn’t put us behind a 150-car train before we could head out.

But the weather was nice!

In all, a fine day with maybe a bit too much travelling (but no U-turns), but redeemed by all those grebes.

The Shots

All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto unless otherwise noted.

Gallery coming soon™.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American Robin
  • Cedar Waxwing
  • Common Yellowthroat (heard, not seen)
  • House Finch
  • Northern Flicker
  • Red-winged Blackbird
  • Savannah Sparrow (heard)
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee
  • Tree Swallow

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American Coot (probably the same one)
  • Gadwall
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Mallard
  • Pied-billed Grebe
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • Another Glaucous-winged Gull

Raptors:

  • Bald Eagle

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • Other bugs
  • A few dragonflies
  • An errant squirrel
  • Frogs (heard frequently, seen never)

I ripped a CD (in 2026)

It was like I was back in 1999 again.

Why did I rip a CD? How did I do it?

I actually couldn’t remember how to do it in Windows because it had been so long. I’d used iTunes to rip most of my CD collection way back and haven’t had iTunes installed for years (and currently don’t have it installed). The first step was digging out my portable LG DVD drive, since none of my PCs have had DVD drives in them going back well over a decade now. I figured Windows Media Player (née Groove) might still support ripping CDs and it does. The process was relatively straightforward, but I had to direct it to information online to correctly tag the album, artists, and songs.

This CD ripping adventure started when I installed Deezer on my Galaxy S26, which has replaced Apple Music for me (I’ll post later about how de-Appled I am now). I prefer music to be onboard the device locally rather than chew up cell data and rely on sometimes spotty connectivity when out and aboot listening to tunes. It was when I downloaded Tales of Mystery and Imagination by The Alan Parsons Project that I remembered I’d bought the (second) CD remaster some years back and this particular edition had both the original 1987 remaster in which Parsons tweaked with some of the songs and the album fairly liberally, but also included a straight remaster of the 1976 original, altering none of the music and just cleaning up the sound quality.

Because the two versions are quite different, I wanted to go back and listen to the original again to see if I might prefer it. On Deezer this was a simple download. On the PC I use a different music program, not Deezer, so I dug out my Giant Binder of Music, found the relevant CD and let ‘er rip.

I can now listen to the original version of Tales of Mystery and Imagination at home and when on the go and in some ways, it’s better, mainly because all the new guitar bits added in the 1987 remaster feel superfluous, but I have to admit, the restored Orson Welles narration and the organ used to bridge what was once the two sides of the album into a seamless whole, both work really well.

I’m glad to have both readily available now and have even contemplated re-ripping some of my CDs at a higher bitrate now that know how to do it again. But it’s a lot of CDs and my ears are terrible, so it’s probably not worth the effort.

Probably.

Day 42: Six weeks later and I am officially past the full recovery window

So, am I fully recovered? No.

  • I still have visible scars where the two incisions were made
  • I still have visible marks where the chest tube was inserted
  • Both of the above will continue to heal, but there is a chance some of the scarring will be permanent and I will invent bear/shark-wrestling stories to explain them as needed
  • The surgery area still has a bit of numbness and definitely still feels like a place where surgery happened, though it’s in no way painful or anything like that. I think the “full recovery” on this may take further weeks or even a few more months.

But I have recovered enough that I am pretty much back to living what passes for a normal life again, with normal sleep (finally) and all the rest. I will stop the daily entries on my post-surgery experience and only mention it when it seems relevant.

With that said, enjoy one more cat.

Day 41: 33,548 steps (so far)

The bad (but not really that bad) news is I went a bit overboard on the steps today, walking so much before my run that I turned my 5K into a 2.5K (see previous running post for details) after slogging along for 16 minutes. The good news is that despite all the steps, I’m not totally exhausted or anything. During the run it was muggy, and I was slow. At one point I felt a bit of a stitch coming on, but it retreated, and I was fine.

I think I mentioned this before, but as I hit the six-week mark, I’m not feeling in any way restricted in what I can do now, but it does feel like it will be weeks yet or perhaps even months until the surgery carve-out in my chest feels normal(ish) again.

One more day before my daily post-surgery reports turn intermittent!

Here is the Six Million Dollar Man running. Today, six million dollars would buy you a bionic fingernail.

Holy cats, look at the fur. It was the ’70s, baby.

Birding, June 27, 2026: Barns, bees, benches, birds, boats, bogs, bugs, butterflies, and a lobster

Where: DeBoville Slough, Blakeburn Lagoons Park (Port Coquitlam), Alouette River/Trans Canada Trail (Pitt Meadows) 
Weather: Mostly sunny, 17-22°C

Spoiler: I forgot to wear sunscreen. I am the lobster.

DeBoville Slough

The slough as we started out.

We previously visited the slough in extremes of heat and cold, but today it was in the Goldilocks zone of just right, if Goldilocks was into sloughs instead of stealing porridge from bears. By the way, we did not see any bears, but we did see frequent reminders of bears along the trail, one of which Nic shot because he loves poop. Just kidding, there was a butterfly on it. I opted to go meta and took a photo of him taking a photo of the poop (with a butterfly on it).

Nic shoots the poop:

The best part is it doesn’t move.

Once more, we heard yellowthroats, but never got any photos. They are as elusive as the Sasquatch, albeit a lot noisier. In general, birds were a bit tricky to shoot due to distance or foliage, but sometimes they’d sit out nicely on the topmost branch of a tree or something.

Cedar Waxwings were in relative abundance, looking snazzy and elegant as always. We watched one snatching a spider atop a tree.

Waterfowl were either tucked away among lily pads or absent, but we did spy a few Mallards and Wood Ducks.

And when there were no birds, the scenery was always gorgeous.

Blakeburn Lagoons Park

Lagoon view, with housing in the distance.

Second spoiler: We did not see any Green Herons. Or any other herons, actually.

But we were treated to two different families of Pied-billed Grebes, the babbies looking weird and adorable with their striking stripe-covered heads. One in particular was almost constantly glued to the parent, begging to be fed. Eventually the parent swam off and returned with a fish that wasn’t so much transferred to the baby Grebe as it was snatched so quickly the best camera EVAR would have been challenged to capture the moment. The baby immediately started begging for more.

The other Pied-billed Grebe family was tightly clustered, as were five photographers shooting them with their mega-lenses. This is how we knew something might be up–always look for The Gathering of Mega-Lenses. One of the parents dove and came up with a rather large fish that could not be swallowed up by any of the babies, so it just sort of passed it around for nibbling. At one point it dropped the fish, but after a few attempts, managed a recovery, to the delight of the insatiable babbies.

We also saw a fair number of dragonflies here and most surprisingly, in one of the lagoons, swimming near a Mallard–a lone coot! Have they returned early? Did they never really go away but just cleverly hid? Is this a rogue coot who never left? I guess we’ll know if we start seeing others. I normally haven’t observed them returning until August.

Alouette River/Trans Canada Trail

A farm along the Alouette River.

The birds were leanest along the Alouette River, but we did watch an Osprey flying down the river, looking down for yummies, and got to see horses, rustic boats and plenty of pleasant scenery. We also saw a Cybertruck, as if to remind us the world can also be cruel. This was offset by a White-crowned Sparrow singing on a post.

In all, a pleasant and step-rich day of birding, marred only by me being silly and forgetting the sunblock. I VOW TO NEVER FORGET SUNBLOCK AGAIN.

The Shots

All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto unless otherwise noted.

Gallery coming soon™.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American Robin
  • Barn swallow (possibly)
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Black-headed Grosbeak
  • Cedar Waxwing
  • Cliff Swallow (maybe)
  • Common Yellowthroat (heard, not seen)
  • Northern Flicker
  • Purple Finch
  • Red-winged Blackbird
  • Savannah Sparrow (heard)
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee
  • Swainson’s Thrush (heard, according to Merlin)
  • White-crowned Sparrow
  • Willow Flycatcher

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American Coot (!)
  • Double-crested Cormorant
  • Gadwall
  • Mallard
  • Pied-billed Grebe
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • A Glaucous-winged Gull

Raptors:

  • Bald Eagle
  • Osprey

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • Copious dragonflies
  • Frogs (heard frequently, seen never)

Run 1,041: New shoes and overachieving (whoops)

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Calm and surprisingly muggy.

How did I overachieve by only running 2.5 km, especially when my recommended workout from Garmin was a 27-minute run?

Because I had a doctor appointment at 9 a.m., walked home from that (3 km), then walked to the lake (4 km) and did a bunch of walking around between these two things, meaning by the time I started the run I had already covered something like 10 km on foot. I was tired before I started, I just didn’t know it.

I found out soon enough, though, because when the Performance blurb popped up on the watch just before the 1K mark, it reported a yucky -2. When I hit 1K, my pace was a slogtastic 6:24/km. By the second km it fell further to 6:31/km (!), and I decided this was not going to be my first post-surgery 5K run.

Adding to the above, it was warmer and quite muggy, which undoubtedly further slowed me.

Despite all this, I didn’t actually feel horrible or anything and the shoes did not cause any issues and remained tied throughout, woo.

I am wondering if I got the wrong size, though. Depending on the shoe, I can wear a size 8.5–9, which translates to a Euro 41–42. These shoes are 42s, and on the walk out from the lake I felt gravel hitting the backs of my legs several times. At one point I stopped and turned around, looking for an animal scampering off or maybe a crow, because crows can be jerks. But there was nothing and no one around, so it must have been the shoes kicking up the gravel (possible, since I was probably dragging my feet a bit). When I checked at home there were a few very minor tiny bits of gravel in the shoes, which means the fit of the shoe may not be as snug as desired. I’m still pondering taking them back and trying a size 41 if MEC has them, or just getting something else if not.

I also put in the Saucony insoles, but it seems they work better in the actual Saucony shoes (though they fit almost perfectly in the Scarpas), so I’ll switch back to the orthotics.

As I type this, I still need to make a trip to the store and have 29,724 steps. I did not intend this today! After the store, I will take it easy for the rest of the day.

On the plus side, I did three runs this week, so I’m back on track.

Piper Spit, post-run: Mostly duckless.

Stats:

Run 1,041
Average pace: 6:26/km
Training status: Overreaching
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 1:28 p.m.
Distance: 2.52 km
Time: 16:11
Weather: Partly cloudy
Temp: 19–20°C
Humidity: 69–66%
Wind: light
BPM: 150
Weight: 169.0 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,022.5 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (2.5/10.5/13.0)

Music: Tales of Mystery and Imagination, The Alan Parsons Project

On the 40th day, the flood ended. Actually, I got new shoes.

What the title says. I got new Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 trail runners. They are size 42, which would normally be Bigfoot++ sized, but Scarpa is a European company and they sensibly use European measurements. It’s equivalent to a size 9 here, and the shoes seem to be about that, maybe just a tiny bit bigger. They look nice, have oodles of good reviews and seem to hit all my requirements, so we’ll see how they feel.

This has nothing to do with my surgery, which is a good thing. Surgery did not really cross my mind today except when I briefly talked about it with a neighbour.

Here’s a stock photo of the shoes:

Billy Joel, 1993: What did he know?

In the opening track “No Man’s Land” on Billy Joel’s last album, River of Dreams, is the line:

I’ve seen the children with their boredom and their vacant stares 

This immediately brought to mind people staring at their smartphones and scrolling endlessly through social media (which admittedly is a problem not just affecting The Youths, but everyone). The thing is, the album and song came out in 1993, which is 33 years ago as I write this.

1993 effectively predates the internet (as the public knows it) and predates social media and smart device addiction by decades.

Which makes me wonder, what did Joel know back then? Or was 1993 a lot worse than I remember?

1993, per Wikipedia.

On the 39th day I had a bath

This is not to imply that I do not normally bathe, or that I’m one of those people who believe you only need to wash your armpits and groin and the rest of your body can just naturally accumulate…stuff. It just means that I was told after surgery to avoid taking a bath for a while, since it could cause problems with the sutures/incisions due to all the soaking in water and such.

But as the title says, it’s been 39 days now, and it was time after a run and walk around the lake today to have a bath. It felt very nice to just sit back and soak for some time in the tub (full of bubbles because I am pushing the idea that bubble baths are great, because they are, in fact, great). I look forward to more of these simple pleasures in life.

Here is a cat having a bath, of sorts.

Run 1,040: Patriotic recovery run

View from Cariboo Dam: Partly sunny with a decent breeze blowing.

It’s Canada Day and you know what that means! That’s right, people go out on the trails and wave tiny Canadian flags.

Well, maybe not the flags, but there were more than the usual number of people out for a Wednesday morning, but the weather was pleasant and the people were, too, so it was all good.

I changed my mind for my second post-surgery run and rather than re-run the same route as Monday, I opted to go clockwise and to not do a short loop. Instead, I ran the 2.5 km, then kept walking and did the full loop around the lake, in part because I wanted to see how the lake and trail looked after more than a month’s absence, but also because I wanted to take pretty photos of Still Cree. And it was very pretty today.

As for the run, I improved, going from an average pace of 6:18 to 6:11/km. Not bad. I was actually slower to start today, likely because it was warmer, but didn’t drop off dramatically as I had two days ago. My BPM was up to 147 and my max (recommended) heart rate also increased. Somewhat surprisingly, the run was rated Productive by my watch, perhaps because it looks so good in comparison to a month of not running.

The run went fine–I was creaky again to start, with the right shin taking a minute or to settle in, but no issues after that. I felt like I could have kept going, but my OCD needed another 2.5K so I could get back to a nice even-numbered total distance. The forecast called for mostly cloudy but after last Saturday’s Great Burning, I slapped on the sunblock and hey, it was indeed partly sunny for the run and when the sun was out, it definitely felt like it was in a burning mood.

Overall, a good follow-up. I look forward to getting run times under the six-minute mark again soon™.

Still Creek, less still and today, full of geese just…waiting.

Stats:

Run 1,040
Average pace: 6:11/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 11:40 a.m.
Distance: 2.5 km
Time: 15:30
Weather: Partly cloudy
Temp: 18-19°C
Humidity: 63-58%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 147
Weight: 168.5 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,020 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (290/521/811)

Music: Shuffle play

What makes Day 38 special?

Nothing!

I now wear the surgery like an old coat, familiar and a bit lumpy. I don’t think about it much, though occasionally I get a reminder, like a sudden twinge in one of the incision areas–the VCI1Video Camera Incision is still sensitive if I poke it. This is a good reason to not poke it.

But generally, things are just things.

No cat, it’s late and I sleep.