As mentioned yesterday, I’m going to attempt to finish my novel Road Closed, which sits at around 83,000 words, 20 or so chapters and is an unfinished mess.
Every day I will update what I’ve done, even if it’s nothing. The initial updates will be a bit more than nothing, but mostly about planning and organization, two things I can be very bad at.
It’s going to be fun.
My first task is to choose what tool to write with. As I haven’t written fiction in quite a while, I don’t have a go-to piece of software, but I’ve narrowed it down to a few options:
Obsidian, with one or more novel-writing plugins added. The main appeal here is it’s all local and in plaintext/Markdown, so can be easily moved elsewhere if needed.
NEO. Not to be confused with the character from The Matrix. This is newer software specifically for novel and screenwriters, created and available for free by Hugh Howey, author of Wool. This is also local, though it makes the interesting choice to keep your files in HTML format. Still reasonably portable with an export function built-in. The one downside is it’s partly vibe-coded, though apparently that’s restricted to just the optional Cover Art generation.
I’ve imported the book into NEO and it looks pretty good for an 83,00 word mess! But that’s about all I’ve done so far.
Well, not literally. I’m not sure I would want a living, sentient treadmill.
But due to our patio being unavailable because of ongoing construction on the property, I’ve had my trusty treadmill in the folded-up position, to allow stuff to be stored in the office. And yes, I have a treadmill in the office, it’s right behind me as I type this!
But as of tonight, most of the extra stuff has been moved out and the rest has been shuffled about to make room for the treadmill to assume its normal stance. Since it was last like this 15 (!) months ago, it was a bit dusty. I cleaned it up, then got on and did a nice 16-minute brisk walk. It worked fine. I worked fine. I sweated because the fan I usually have in place is not in place. But overall, it was nice to get back on. It will come in handy on days where one of those pesky atmospheric rivers makes running outside suboptimal.
The treadmill! I did not wear either pair of shoes shown when using it.
The (another) is because I have actually already finished one, The Ferry, which started as a long short story then got turned into a novel one NaNoWriMo1The complete and utter self-destruction of that organization still boggles my mind to this day (2009, I believe). It really needed to a rewrite or two, but I never got around to it and I feel if I’m going to try completing another novel, I should pick one of my many unfinished ones that has more good stuff already in it, thus requiring less good stuff be added.
And that novel is Road Closed, which I’ve talked about here before. A lot.
The unfinished novel is my own, Road Closed (the title will almost certainly be changed to something else, should the novel ever be finished). The prologue outlines the tragic summer and drink-to-forget beginnings of young Christian Warren, setting the stage for the five-year jump ahead as the story begins proper.
But the rest of the book–which is currently sitting at around 70,000+ words, is a bit of a mess. And it’s not the mess where you can just keep writing, then go back and fix the messy bits later. It needs serious surgery. But I kind of want to try, because that prologue still delights me today.
It actually sits at just under 84,000 words, but otherwise the quote is accurate. It needs serious surgery, but so did I this year, and I came through OK, so why can’t my story? A couple of cool scars will look even better on it.
So here’s my commitment in public. I’ll report back, possibly in tears, at some point.
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Even cooler, but sunny and calm.
I talked myself out of doing a short loop at the lake and doing a full loop instead, though still only 5K for the running part.
It was the chilliest run of fall yet, starting at 6°C and rising only one degree by the end. I wore two layers, but swapped out my regular t-shirt for a long-sleeved one. In the end I think I was a bit overdressed–not for the walk to the lake, but for the actual run and then the walk back. Noted for next time. The humidity was high and didn’t budge during the run, which may have also factored in.
Bonus: you don’t have to wait for the water in the fountain to get cold. The fountains are still working.
At the end of the first km, I felt comfy, but my Performance Condition was a mere -1. Also, my pace was 6:05/km. I was running in grandpa mode–and continued to do so for the next two km. Technically it may have been the next three because the watch reported the 4th km as 5:59/km but the post-report rounded it up to 6:00/km. I did some math, which is probably dangerous for me when running, and figured if I put on the gas for the final km, I might manage to still get an overall pace under six minutes–and I did!
I came in at 5:38/km for the last lap, which gave me an overall average of 5:58/km.
I didn’t have any issues at all during the run, so I can’t explain the slow start, other than it was cold and maybe it just took me some time to literally warm up. The run was fine otherwise.
For some reason, nearly every dog owner had their dog (or multiple dogs) off-leash today, which is unusual for Burnaby Lake. Boo to them, I say. The owners, not the dogs, who were relatively well-behaved.
Also, post-run I saw two Douglass squirrels chirping at each, and saw some Steller’s Jays and a nuthatch bouncing about grabbing seed. In all, a good start to the week.
Chirping squirrel #1Chirping squirrel #2
Stats:
Run 1,082 Average pace: 5:58/km Training status: Maintaining Performance Condition: -1 Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 9:55 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 30:02 Weather: Mostly sunny Temp: 6–7°C Humidity: 88% Wind: low BPM: 147 Weight: 171.4 pounds Total distance to date: 7,210 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (190/387/577)
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby) Weather: Sunny, 11–14°C
A spooky Halloween day of birding! Except it wasn’t spooky, it was sunny and pleasant.
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
Ducks in a pond.
We started at Reifel, where the entrance pond had some Mallards and two small groups of Northern Shovellers doing that weird spiral thing they do, following each other in a tight circle to stir up the muck and enjoy the mucky spoils.
The various ponds were a bounty of colours, ranging from green to very green, brown, kind of yellow and in a few cases, blue! None of the waterfowl seemed to mind, even the very green water.
In the very green water of the London Slough, we noticed a duck with odd black and white colouring. A volunteer suggested it might be a hybrid consisting of part Swedish Blue, a domestic duck, and part Mallard, because Mallards will mate with anything. How it arrived at Reifel is unknown, perhaps a secret portal.
After getting shots of the interloper, we headed up the first trail and a family ahead of us had bird seed, which brought out approximately five million chickadees, plus two Red-breasted Nuthatches. The chickadees were darting past so close we could feel them whipping by. I had met my chickadee quota in the first ten minutes.
In one of the inner ponds, we saw our first Ring-necked Ducks of the season, woo. We still have yet to see any Scaups or Buffleheads, though.
I had a Canada Goose hiss hello at me. I assume they hiss to say hello. It didn’t do anything else. Speaking of geese, we saw flocks of Canada geese flying in formation multiple times–some of them migrating through rather than staying put year-round as most here do. We also saw flocks of Cackling geese and finally, a cacophony of honking informed us that the Snow geese had arrived, landing in their usual spot west of the sanctuary. So many geese, so much pooping potential. We never saw any up close, but that is normal for Reifel.
Along the same Outer Dyke Trail where we saw the Snow geese we also saw a number of herons, both in the marshland and flying overhead. One flew fairly low just over us and let out one of its loud croaks as it passed over. Legit, the only time a bird at Reifel has actually startled me. And especially Nic.
We also saw a solitary Greater Yellowlegs in one of the ponds not far from the viewing platform and lo, it caught a fish! But not just any fish, a stickleback. They are small, but have spiny fins, which make them a bit of a project to consume whole. The Yellowlegs worked on one for a fair bit, but finally got its prickly meal down. This is why I prefer ordering out.
I was a little disappointed with my shots, but I got some good ones here, too.
Tlahutum Regional Park
A serene Coquitlam River.
The community garden did not yield many birds overall, so we made do with a whole lotta crows.
The clear sky yielded some nice scenery shots and we saw a decent variety of birds in the Big Pond™, including a heron doing an excellent statue impression. Also, some kid on a bike with fat wheels rode past us like a million times.
There really wasn’t much else to see here this time, not even a rogue vole. But perhaps next time!
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
Looking east from the pier, with clouds refusing to cross a line.
Yes, people were feeding the birds. The blackbirds were appreciative, as always.
The water level of the lake was up, which meant the landmass was smaller and the shorebirds moved over to the west side of the pier, against the light and farther away, not making for the best shots. Boo.
Instead, we got seagulls grabbing golf balls on the other side, along with a variety of coots pulling up green slimy stuff they love scarfing down, and a lot of Mallards. As previously noted, Mallards will mate with anything, but especially like mating with other Mallards. There were also geese, Wood Ducks and a few others around, but not in great numbers. And still no new migrants here, either.
I wonder if the (reduced) feeding will change their habits over time and ultimately cause many to abandon Piper Spit for other areas of the lake. I guess we’ll see.
In all, the weather was faboo, and I did get a few nice shots, even if my miss (and in many cases, literally a shot with no bird in it) ratio was a lot higher than normal.
The Shots
All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto. Some landscape shots captured with a Samsung Galaxy S26.
Last night at 2 a.m. a lot of clocks turned back one hour, going from Daylight Saving Time back to Standard Time. But here in BC, the outgoing NDP government changed that back in March, stating that as of this November–which begins today–the province would switch to permanent DST, or what we would call simply, Pacific Time.
This gave an eight month heads-up to various applications, hardware, and other devices to adopt the change so there would be no shenanigans come November 1st.
But there are shenanigans.
From my own experience:
My Garmin Forerunner 265 got it right, but still shows the sun rising and setting for Standard Time.
My old Echo Show 5 got it right.
My partner’s identical old Echo 5 rolled back an hour for some reason.
Our microwave and countertop convection oven got it right because they are not connected to the internet, so the lack of change suited them just fine.
Windows 11 happily rolled the time back an hour. I was wondering if Microsoft might have done some update for this, but I guess they have other priorities, like throwing money into the AI furnace.
I haven’t tried either Linux install I have running right now (Mint and CachyOS and yes, I know, I really ought to pick one and stick to it and maybe one day I will. Further posts on this to come).
So, a mixed bag, but better than expected, because I would not have been surprised if every clock, digital or otherwise, had rolled back an hour, thinking nothing had changed.
EDIT, the next day: This is why gauging weight loss on a month per month basis can be tricky. If October had been just one day longer, I would have only been up 0.3 pounds for the month (a rounding error) because I dropped 1.2 pounds overnight (not a rounding error). The overall trend for the year is still minimal weight loss/gain.
It’s not as bad as it looks!
Body fat is down, muscle mass is up, and BMI is only up marginally.
Still, I did go up and I did not eat nearly as well as I should have this past month. It’s been hard, really. I know I can do it, but food is one of the few go-to comforts I have. If only I had an insatiable appetite for celery sticks or something.
But as always, I strive to do better.
Stats:
January 1, 2026: 169.4 pounds
Current: 172.6 pounds Year to date: Up 3.2 pounds
October 1: 171.1 pounds October 31: 172.6 pounds (up 1.5 pounds)
Body fat: October 1: 26.1% October 31: 25.8% (down 0.3%)
Skeletal muscle mass: October 1: 30.0 kg October 31: 30.2 kg (up 0.2 kg)
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Blue sky to start, gray sky to end.
Conditions today were a bit warmer and less humid than Wednesday. The net effect was not much difference–the real change was post-run when it started to shower and got a bit chilly. The run started out sunny and got increasingly cloudy, but remained nice ‘n dry.
I started out at the dam today, in order to reduce the overall length of the walk back home. The only downside: fewer photos of Still Creek after the run. Worth the trade.
Starting out, I felt a bit sluggish but my pace was actually 5:51/km, and my performance condition was +4, both pretty good! However, I still dipped to 5:58/km for the second lap. Undeterred, but with a pleading bladder, I hit the 2K mark then diverted to the closed-for-the-season Nature House and its washrooms, because the Jiffy John® by my usual starting spot was being serviced. I stopped long enough to hydrate (a drink from the fountain) and, uh, dehydrate (by using the loo). This allowed my heart rate to drop to 116 or so, which somehow allowed me to get a pace of 5:39/km for lap 3. Yowza,
I finished with 5:46/5:44 for the 4th and 5th lap, and an overall pace of 5:48/km, with a BPM of 148. This is my best pace, post-surgery, so yay for that.
October is also the first month where my average pace dropped below 6:00 minutes, to 5:54.
My left knee felt a little hinky for a few minutes, like everything wasn’t quite locked in, but it sorted itself out. I’ll probably have the knee looked at eventually. The knee did not slow me down, obviously, and near the 4K mark I spotted a runner ahead of me. For a few moments I couldn’t tell if they were approaching or moving away, then they started getting closer–but it was because I was catching up, ho ho! I wondered if I might eventually pass then before finishing the run and very nearly did–but the guy stopped his run and started walking back toward me just moments before I would have passed. He looked like he was about 40 years younger. We gave each other a little jogger’s nod as we passed, me running and him walking.
The trail was relatively quiet, otherwise.
And it was a nice way to end the week.
Looking up the trail near the dam, pre-run.
Stats:
Run 1,081 Average pace: 5:48/km Training status: Maintaining Performance Condition: +4 Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 11:17 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 29:09 Weather: Cloudy, some sun Temp: 9–11°C Humidity: 79–72% Wind: low BPM: 148 Weight: 172.5 pounds Total distance to date: 7,205 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (185/374/559)
I opted for a short loop at the lake today, figuring I’d start the week (I missed Monday’s run due to flu-like side effects from my vaccinations the day before) with less walking.
I ended coming in slightly faster than Friday’s run, with a slightly higher BPM of 149 (but only peaking at 153) and didn’t experience any issues.
Unlike Friday’s run, there were few others on the trail and most of the people I saw were fellow joggers. It was my first single digit temperature run of the fall, peaking at a mere 8°C. I still almost felt overdressed in two (light) layers because it was extremely humid. But generally,conditions were fine. It didn’t feel cold at all, really, likely because there was no breeze.
I had to dodge a few puddles because of earlier showers, but it remained cloudy only for the run. It showered a bit on the walk home, but by the time I entered the complex the sun was poking out. Typical mid-fall weather changing its mind every few minutes.
The river seemed unusually busy and while it’s unrelated to the run, I couldn’t help notice the Mallards, Hooded Mergansers, Great Blue Herons and some very old salmon all swimming or stalking about.
In all, a decent midweek effort.
Brunette River, post-run.
Stats:
Run 1,080 Average pace: 5:53/km Training status: Maintaining Performance Condition: 0 Location: Burnaby Lake (CW, short loop) Start: 10:38 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 29:36 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 7–8°C Humidity: 94–90% Wind: low BPM: 149 Weight: 171.5 pounds Total distance to date: 7,200 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (180/361/541)
