View of Brunette River, pre-run: Gray, with a splash of fall colour.
Yet another late start and as I headed outside, it was sprinkling a little, so I went back in, grabbed my Echo hoodie and headed off. Almost immediately the sprinkles stopped and I felt overdressed for the entire time I was out.
Welcome to early fall running.
I opted for the river trail and despite Performance Condition being +2, I still felt kind of slothful-even with a good night’s sleep, too. I was over six minutes for the second and third km, and just barely squeaked in under at 5:59/km for the overall average. I have no idea why it is taking so much more effort to get to a decent pace now. Is it the humidity? Am I now super sensitive to temperature change of any sort? Is my body still clogged full of cookies and slowing me down?
The good news is I experienced no issues, did pick up the pace and had an overall BPM of 147, which is pretty good. The weather meant the trail was nearly empty–I only saw one other runner and a cyclist for the entire time I was out.
Also, I saw at least seven squirrels before and after the run (curiously, none during the run. Maybe the river trail is not their preferred environment). After the run I spied a black squirrel clutching a chestnut in its mouth and being harassed by a crow clearly coveting the prize. The squirrel took advantage of its lower height by hiding under a parked car. The crow moved on. Score one for the squirrel’s winter stash.
The river, post-run. The trail travels (out of view) along the line of bushes on the left.
Stats:
Run 1,071 Average pace: 5:59/km Training status: Maintaining Performance Condition: +2 Location: Brunette River Trail Start: 11:44 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 30:05 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 16°C Humidity: 90–88% Wind: light BPM: 147 Weight: 170.9 pounds Total distance to date: 7,162.5 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (142.5/288.5/431)
Firefox version 157 (Nova) “refreshes” the interface by taking the very, very round corners found in macOS Tahoe and applying them across everything in the browser.
I thought I remembered reading it would come with a control to let you set the roundness of the corners of various elements, because, as mentioned, they are very, very round. But I appear to have misremembered.
There is a way to turn the roundness off, described below. The option may disappear in the future, but it’s there, for now.
Revert Firefox to pre-Nova/157 look
Enter about:config in the address bar and click the button to proceed if you get a warning.
Search for nova.
Click on the option browser.nova.enabled and set it to false.
Restart Firefox (may not be necessary).
Enjoy the pre-157 look.
The full manual control version
This keeps Nova, but lets you set how round various UI elements will be. I found it created some visual weirdness, but that might just be on my system.
Enter about:support in the address bar.
Under Application Basics find Profile Folder and click the Open Folder button.
Create a folder in your profile folder called Chrome.
Create a file in the Chrome folder called userChrome.css.
Add this to the user.css file, save it and restart Firefox:
/* Force square corners on all Firefox UI elements */
{
border-radius: 0px !important;
}
Set the px value to 0 for a fully sharp-edged experience. If you want a little roundness, adjust the value to taste. Somewhere around 4px-6px is close to pre-Nova.
It occurred to me the other day that I hadn’t written anything on this blog that wasn’t a run report or birding-related since September 3 and wondered, why is it? Ennui? Lack of interest? Just plain laziness? Questioning the value of putting my thoughts out onto this weird, hollow shell we call the internet?
I’m still not sure, but one thing also rolled into my mind shortly after: That I survived cancer. A year ago I didn’t even know I had cancer. In fact, it wasn’t until after my surgery in May this year that it was confirmed to be cancer–specifically thymoma (warning: link includes a kind of gross photo of a thymoma), a “less aggressive” form of cancer that forms as a tumor inside the same space where the thymus gland lives.
The surgery successfully removed the entire tumor, with no evidence that it had spread at all, so I am, as of now, cancer-free. But that’s the thing with cancer–once it’s in you, it can come back, unbidden and unwelcome. It’s why I have a follow-up CT scan scheduled for the one year anniversary of the surgery, in May 2027.
I’m not concerned, exactly, though there is that thought that circles in the back of my mind: that it could return. And that would be no fun.
But does it explain the lack of blog posts?
Maybe, maybe not. I think it’s had some effect, because it’s made me pull back and start reexamining a lot of things, and deciding what’s important, what isn’t, and what silly things are still worth doing, even if they’re not capital letter Important. Is blogging one of them?
I think it is, but I’m not as sure as I once was. Many days this past month I had the urge to write something (my approach, discussed before, is: every topic, no matter how trivial or inane, is fair game), but I always held off. Of course, doing this creates a reinforcing habit of not writing. Someone offered the generic “follow your muse”, which is terrible advice because the muse doesn’t exist. It’s another way of saying. “Wait for inspiration,” which is also terrible advice. I mean, it’s good advice if you never want to do anything, because you can always claim, guilt-free, that the muse/inspiration never came to visit.
To do something you need to invest in it, put in the effort. Do the work. I enjoy writing and something happened this month that made me generally not want to. You have to go back to February 2020–over six years ago–to find a time where I posted less than 30 posts per month. Something happened.
Whether it was confronting my own mortality and being left unsure about the future, or something else, it put a stop to everything that wasn’t a semiautomatic thing (like the running posts). This carried over into other areas, too, where I just felt less engaged or plugged in. I became a spectator instead of a participant. And I don’t even use AI!
Anyway, I shall ponder things and see if other posts follow this one, and if so, when.
I am planning on trying Inktober this year, so that would guarantee a post-per-day and might lead to more. We’ll all find out tomorrow!
It looks like progress, but numbers can and do deceive! Let’s take a look.
First, the trends for the month:
First week: Going down, to a low of 170.3 pounds.
Second and third week: Going up, with a sudden 2 pound increase overnight that put me at 173.5 pounds. Yikes!
Fourth week: Going down again, ending just under where I started for the month.
The worst stat is body fat, which, if accurate, is up by 0.5%. It tends to bounce up and down a lot. I also started the month with a larger-than-normal weight gain. I thought, “Getting under 172.1 pounds will be easy!” and for the first week, that seemed to the case. But then stress and a weird sort of ennui I am still figuring out, settled in and I saw comfort, mostly in cookies.
You have probably noticed there are not a lot of diet plans prominently featuring cookies. Unless the plan is to gain a lot of weight, with most of it being fat.
The cookies are gone now. I have yogurt and tofu in the fridge. I will try to work through things mentally, which will also help with things physically. I at least kept up running consistently through the month, even if it didn’t result in any slimming (to be fair, I’d have to run a lot, like, a LOT to overcome a bag of cookies).
Here’s to October being a more slimming experience. I’ll just pretend Halloween candy doesn’t exist.
Stats:
January 1, 2026: 169.4 pounds
Current: 171.9 pounds Year to date: Up 2.5 pounds
September 1: 172.1 pounds September 30: 171.9 pounds (down 0.2 pounds)
Body fat: September 1: 26.2% September 30: 26.7% (up 0.5%)
Skeletal muscle mass: September 1: 30.1 kg September 30: 30.1 kg (unchanged)
BMI: September 1: 24.6 September 30: 24.6 (unchanged)
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: A bit cooler, but still sunny and calm.
Note: I missed Monday’s run due to waiting all day for a delivery that did not show up. Fun!
Today’s run was a bit weird. It is a stat holiday (National Day for Truth and Reconciliation), so I expected the trail to be busier than normal, especially since the weather was also sunny. And it was! But more than I expected. There were a lot of people out, walking, jogging, walking with dogs, jogging with dogs. All the dogs were leashed and well-behaved. The humans were less well-behaved, as I counted four (!) cyclists. Two rode directly past me post-run. The second stopped when I said bikes weren’t allowed on the trail. He said he didn’t know. LIAR. Then, strangely, he rode off. A couple approaching me after seeing this both shook their heads at me. Indeed. The first guy was riding way too fast and never stopped. I hope a coyote bites and punctures both his tires.
As mentioned, conditions were good. It started a tad cool at 13 and only rose to 14 over the run, but it was sunny throughout.
Apart from the crowds, the run went fine. I didn’t really find my mojo until the 4th km and turned in a respectable 5:57/km pace. My BPM was up a bit to 151, reflecting my lack of mojo, perhaps. I didn’t experience any issues, so that was good. In fact, once I picked up the pace, I felt pretty good for the rest and for the 9 km walk back home.
As I approached the end of the river trail, near North Road, a guy with a white beard standing just off the trail motioned to me. I muted my music and went over. Her gestured toward the trees that stood between us and the nearby Brunette River. He told me the woods were haunted and he could hear the voices of women talking. I pointed out a nearby trail that gives access to the river and how it’s not really far from us. He pondered this, speculated there could also be people under the bridge (also nearby) and seemed satisfied. I continued home before he could switch to some other topic.
Back to the run: I opted for a 5K (instead of another 7.5K) because of the aforementioned mojo deficiency, which means I still have that dangling 0.5 in my total run distance. I’ll live with it for now.
In all, not bad for a midweek effort.
The lake getting all reflective, post-run.
Stats:
Run 1,070 Average pace: 5:57/km Training status: Maintaining Performance Condition: -1 Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 11:17 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 29:55 Weather: Sunny with some scattered clouds Temp: 13–14°C Humidity: 75–70% Wind: light BPM: 151 Weight: 171.9 pounds Total distance to date: 7,157.5 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (137.5/284.5/422)
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Partly clear and pleasantly cool.
Due to waiting for a delivery yesterday (it was a no-show) and the absence of birding today, I opted to do a run! The watch was recommending a run of 54 minutes (!) at a pace of 8.3 km/hour. I pondered this briefly and rejected it, as I always do. But I was feeling a little frisky, so I decided to try for 7.5 km for the first time in…a long time.
And I did it! My pace hovered around the six-minute mark the whole run and while I knew I could probably come in under if I pushed, I made myself not push, but instead maintain that steady pace. The extra distance (adding about 15 minutes to the run) actually felt fine–I did actually increase my pace very slightly, so I was not flagging at all.
The first minute or so my right ankle felt very creaky. I almost thought of pausing the run, but was reasonably confident it would work itself out, which it did.
I did pause the run to swing my belt with the phone in it around, so the phone was in the small of my back instead of out front, as it’s starting to droop and I had a theory it was somehow making my shorts curl up. I know it sounds strange, just trust me on this. I’m also going to be looking into longer shorts as we get deeper into fall. The five inch ones are nice for showing off my sexy legs, but maybe they’re bulking up too much or something, because the bottom edges are constantly starting to curl up. It’s annoying. Anyway, whatever is causing the curl won’t happen if the shorts are longer.
As for the rest of the run, my BPM was a very fine 147 and apart from the ankle, I experienced no issues. I saw one topless runner, though he didn’t start topless (I passed him twice). No armband, though. But about every other runner was wearing one of those lace-up vests, so they are apparently the hot thing in the runner world right now. I feel like a rebel by not wearing one.
In all, it was good to stretch out the distance for the first time in a long time and have it go well. My next run will either be the same or be 2.5K. We’ll see!
View of the lake looking west, post-run.
Stats:
Run 1,069 Average pace: 6:00/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: Unknown Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 12:03 p.m. Distance: 7.51 km Time: 45:05 Weather: Partly sunny Temp: 14–15°C Humidity: 75–67% Wind: light BPM: 147 Weight: 173.4 pounds Total distance to date: 7,152.5 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (132.5/271.5/404)
It was my birthday and what better way to celebrate than going out and getting lightly sun burnt while watching freaky insects and pooping birds?
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
The main pond at Reifel.
We started at Reifel and were immediately rewarded with multiple Anna’s Hummingbirds darting to and fro around the feeders, which were bathed in very nice sunlight. There was also a plethora of shorebirds in the main pond by the entrance.
Also by the entrance, around the warming hut and gift shoo: a whole bunch of spiders. I’ve never seen so many. What do they know that we don’t?
The London Slough, normally ringed by herons, was now full of shorebirds, standing in lines on the logs, mixed in with geese, ducks, and turtles. Why can’t we all just chill out and hang out on logs together like that?
The eastern dyke trail gave us our best shots of chickadees, though we did see them flitting about in other areas. We also caught a roving band of American Bushtits, but alas, I was not able to get any shots good enough to post other than to prove they were there.
And we saw coots. They are back, with their glorious feet and cooty ways.
We saw goose drama, of course, but the Sandhill Cranes were off elsewhere. Making up for their absence was a rare sighting of a Barred Owl, snoozing away in a tree just off of one of the bird blinds. Neat! I’m not sure they still exist, though. Maybe it was a group hallucination.
And the trails have been mostly repaired now, so no more navigating lumpy rocks, it’s also fine gravel or cushiony loam.
Centennial Beach
The goose peninsula.
Whatever was happening at Centennial Beach was not happening this time, so parking was easy. We saw a Northern Shoveller at the pond. Their numbers should start increasing significantly soon.
The tide was in, so we did not see much in the way of shorebirds, apart from some distant Killdeer and the like. If you count Canada Geese as shorebirds, then we saw plenty, as they were colonizing a peninsula not far off the shore.
The highlight, strange as it sounds, was an insect, specifically a praying mantis, which I’ve never seen in person before. It started by Nic nearly stepping on it, as it plopped right down on the trail, seemingly oblivious to us. At first I thought it was a walking stick, but no, it was a praying mantis in all its freaky glory.
It was very graceless, appearing to have trouble both flying and walking. The flying was a series of short belly hops, the walking was like, “These legs are not made for this.” Kind of strange. We took many photos, then left it to hopefully find some way off the trail.
Tlahutum Regional Park
A different view of the Coquitlam River.
We ended at Tlahutum, but birds were hard to come by, for some reason. We did see a few sparrows, but most seemed tucked away somewhere. We spotted a Turkey Vulture flying overhead, but it was very high up. And there was a crow that was molting so conspicuously around its head that it looked a bit like a vulture.
This is also where I’m pretty sure I got sunburned. There is essentially no shaded places at Tlahutum.
In all, a fine birthday outing, with some rare sightings, returned migrants and terrifying goose drama.
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.
Anna's Hummingbird pausing at a feeder.
Red-winged Blackbird nomming.
Glamour shot of a female Mallard.
Snoozy Mallard.
Male Mallard enjoying a snack? Making a fashion statement?
When the birds move out, the squirrels move in.
A Barred Owl snoozing slightly tucked out of view (we kept our distance).
Black-capped Chickadee clinging tenaciously to a tree trunk.
Black-capped Chickadee perched on the edge of a feeder.
A trio of Long-billed Dowitchers in the main pond at Reifel.
A pair of Great Yellowlegs sunning in the London Slough.
Greater Yellowlegs getting ready to dunk.
Our first American Coot sighting at Reifel. The Coot Empire returns.
Cranes through the haze, south of Reifel.
A Northern Flicker on an empty bird box.
A spider walking down its tightrope.
A praying mantis.
Praying mantis in portrait mode.
"Let us prey. I mean pray. Yes, pray. Heh heh."
Goose Peninsula. Also known as Terror Town.
A Northern Shoveller at Centennial Beach.
An immature Cedar Waxwing, looking more stripey than the adults.
Coquitlam River, set against a clear late summer sky.
White-crowned Sparrow in the community garden.
A grasshopper with a steampunk vibe.
But is it art? A black and white image of a Great Blue Heron standing vigil.
Kitsch owl at the community garden.
Another kitsch owl at the community garden. I post=processed the heck out of this shot.
A wasp checking out some late summer flowers.
I rotated this shot of a wasp 90 degrees so it faces head-on instead of to the right. Tilt your head to experience the original.
American Crow doing some serious molting.
Molting crow also blinking and looking like a molting zombie crow.
The first run of fall was stinky. I don’t mean performance-wise, because even though I felt lethargic starting out, I finished with a respectable pace of 5:57/km and an excellent BPM of 143. No, it’s because the air had a distinct smell of smoke from…somewhere. Combine that with the usual equally distinct sewer odour near the start of the river trail and it was an olfactory assault right from the start.
I’m not sure if this affected my performance (the weather app on my phone said conditions for running were “fair” and air quality was listed in yellow as “moderate”) but it certainly didn’t help, nor did it give me exciting mutant abilities, either.
I wore my Echo hoodie for the run, mostly in case of showers, but apart from a few random drops, it did not rain. It stayed cloudy and 14°C through the run, though, which was quite pleasant.
I did not encounter many people and the run was pretty uneventful. I picked up the pace in the last few km and this pushed me under the six-minute mark, so yay for finding a little energy.
Anyway, not bad for a midweek effort.
Post-run: The forest primeval.
Stats:
Run 1,068 Average pace: 5:57/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: Unknown Location: Brunette River Trail Start: 11:11 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 29:57 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 14°C Humidity: 88–85% Wind: light BPM: 143 Weight: 172.1 pounds Total distance to date: 7,145 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (125/261/386)
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: A fine last day of summer for 2026.
My watch warned me I might feel more tired and irritable today and it was right on both counts!
After spending most of the morning being irritated, I finally headed to the lake to do a run, intending on a more mild effort to start the week. It turns out I didn’t even need to plan for this, it just happened, because I was very low energy. I picked up the pace to break the six-minute mark in the final km, but overall felt decidedly meh. I didn’t experience any other issues, though.
The weather was fine, though my later start meant it was a few degrees warmer, which may have had a bit of a drag effect on my pace, too.
Also, this is kind of weird: Both today and Friday’s runs (in two different locations) began at the same time, 11:36 a.m. I’m not sure it means anything, other than I should get out earlier.
During the run I saw a fair number of other joggers, including a topless one at the start (no armband, though), and none I recognized. I also saw two snakes, one during the run and one after:
Just chilling on the trail with no legs.
But the highlight, so to speak, was: I finally saw a coyote (they have had signs up all summer warning about increased coyote activity but I had yet to see one). And I actually walked right past it, close enough to reach out and pet it, without even noticing it. As I passed, I caught movement in the corner of my eye and there it was in the grass, intent on…something. It looked up at me for a moment, then went back to whatever it was doing. As you can see in this not-great photo, it had a handsome gray coat of fur:
Coyote in the grass, sailor take warning! No, wait, that’s not how it goes.
In all, for the final day of summer and my first post-birthday run, it was fine. Perhaps I’ll have more pep on Wednesday.
View from the bridge on Deer Lake Brook, post-run.
Stats:
Run 1,067 Average pace: 6:05/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: -2 Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 11:36 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 30:34 Weather: Sunny Temp: 18–19°C Humidity: 69–64% Wind: light BPM: 149 Weight: 172.9 pounds Total distance to date: 7,140 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (120/257/377)
View of Brunette River, pre-run: Another cloudless late summer day.
I headed out later than planned, never stretched beforehand, and got into the middle of a bit of drama between two people I was not actually involved in before I could even head out, so today’s run was a bit off-kilter. I chose to do the river trail in the name of expediency and adopted a more casual pace.
In the end, I kind of wished I’d pushed a little more at the start, because I could have come in under the six-minute mark, instead of ending with 6:02/km. This is still fine, of course, and despite being warmer and less humid, my BPM was a nice low 145 overall.
The run was otherwise unremarkable and the (still slightly) stiff left knee did not factor in. I passed another runner I sometimes see on the river trail who always has this big, cheerful smile when he passes, as if jogging is the happiest thing in the world. It unnerves me as much as it delights me. I do not smile like that. Ever.
In all, a decent end to the week.
The river, post-run, from a slightly different angle, thanks to the low water letting me move in farther.
Stats:
Run 1,066 Average pace: 6:02/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: +1 Location: Brunette River Trail Start: 11:36 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 30:18 Weather: Sunny Temp: 20–21°C Humidity: 57% Wind: light BPM: 145 Weight: 171.6 pounds Total distance to date: 7,135 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (115/244/359)
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Nothing but blue sky.
The weather turned out to be a bit warmer than expected, with a projected high of 24°C, so I was lucky to get out early. It was 17 at the start of the run and ticked up to 18, so a bit warmer than Monday, with humidity roughly the same.
The sun is now lower in the morning, so I am seeing a lot more of the dappled sun thing when going under the tree canopy–gotta watch for those tricky exposed tree roots in the shade, though there’s only a few right now. But it only takes one, as I found out back in 2016.
The shaded areas felt pleasantly cool and in this last week of summer, the sunny stretches did not feel too warm–and it was quite sunny, blue sky stretching to the horizon.
I went clockwise and got off to a slow start, partly thanks to some people crowding the trail near the start, but also because I just didn’t move that fast. The opening pace of 6:13/km pretty much doomed me to an overall pace over the six-minute mark (and it was at 6:05/km), but it’s fine. I felt good and didn’t really push, though my pace did improve as I progressed, and the final lap dipped under six minutes, to 5:58/km.
In all, a cromulent midweek effort.
Also: The stiff left knee is mostly better now and as before, did not present any issue on the run.
A few ripples from the geese in Still Creek, post-run.
Stats:
Run 1,065 Average pace: 6:05/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: +2 Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 9:58 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 30:40 Weather: Sunny Temp: 17–18°C Humidity: 75–66% Wind: light BPM: 150 Weight: 172.0 pounds Total distance to date: 7,130 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (110/240/350)
