Last night I dreamed I was back living in my basement suite at Tim’s old place (I last lived there in 2011), but as is the case in dream versions, the layout was different and it had a hallway where one did not exist before. Apparently we were having water issues. More specifically, something broke or sprung a leak because I was walking through water (rather unperturbed, too. I think I was barefoot and enjoying it in a way).
Rather than have a plumber fixing the issue, we appeared to have an entire crew working on whatever the problem was. One especially cheerful member of the crew stopped to explain to me how the problem was fixed and confirming it was fixed, and they were leaving. Even in the dream, I was curious why the whole place was still flooded. I approached another worker who was moving the fridge (back?) but then it turned out to be a mattress. It may have actually morphed when my sleep-brain decided a mattress suddenly made more sense, somehow.
But the best part was when about half a dozen pigeons flew into the hallway (which was not flooded) and started milling about as pigeons do. This was treated as essentially a normal thing in the dream and I bent down to one pigeon and moved an index finger under its belly, toward its feet, the way you would do to a budgie to get it to hop on your finger. The pigeon hopped onto my finger. I then carried the pigeon around on my finger for most of the rest of the dream.
Then I woke up. It is dry and pigeon-free as I type this, so my dream does not appear to be prophecy–so far.
Here’s my year-end summary of me and social media, by platform:
Mastodon: Pretty much the only one I use right now. I recently saw it described as the platform for nerds, and I think that’s accurate. After some initial interest when Twitter started falling apart under Musk, it seems to have peaked, but it’s still an important, useful and entertaining place. It takes more work and people don’t like that with their social media. I don’t mind, because:
No ads
No algorithm
A ton of third party clients for every platform, including alternate web clients. My current favourite is Phanpy, which is a terrible name, but a very handsome minimalist web client: Home / Phanpy
Facebook: Hot garbage. Also, cold garbage and medium-warm garbage. A hellscape of ads and “Suggested for you” with a few posts from people you’re following dotted in-between. I have no idea why anyone would use Facebook anymore, except for very specific purposes (you’re a member of a group, your family or friends refuse to move to something else because they are terrible people, etc.)
Instagram: The web version is still bare-bones and ugly. It will be this way for as long as it exists. It’s basically Facebook Lite at this point, but with more images and videos. Lots of videos. Do you like videos? Because it has videos. Also, plenty of ads. The ads are also videos. That said, it’s still noticeably better than Facebook, though I rarely visit these days.
Threads: It’s OK. For now, there are no ads, but that will change eventually, and it will join other Meta sites in being an ad-clogged hell. Very bare-bones and minimalist, but not the good kind of minimalist, just ugly and unappealing. If they follow through with federation, it may be possible to follow people and interact through one of the excellent Mastodon clients, so there is that. I check in every month or so, never post.
Bluesky: Their eventual business model (basically premium services over ads) is admirable in a way, but I am skeptical it can work. Also, the fact that it is still invite-only gives me pause. If they still can’t scale up now, after this long, when will they? It feels a bit like a doomed private club. The people there will have a grand time, until it abruptly shutters. I have an account, but have never posted. The web interface is also spartan and unattractive.
There are other social media platforms out there, but I either don’t have accounts or don’t use them in any meaningful way. And then there’s X (formerly Twitter) and all I will say about that is:
I deleted my account.
I give it a few more years of dumpster fire management before it finally shuts down.
I see a faint glimmer that the Twitter name could end up in the hands of someone who might do something good with it. But it is an extremely faint glimmer.
Overall, I get most of what I need from Mastodon, as it best fits what I want, which is not to have my posts showered with likes and adoration, because I seldom post and don’t care for or need the affirmation–while not denying likes and affirmation are still nice! I am interested in the trajectory of Threads as it relatives to the Fediverse. Everything else is pretty much meh to bleah.
We’ll see how things shake out in 2024, which will be all sorts of fun on social media with the U.S. presidential election at the end of the year.
On the AirPods Max, which were released three years ago (2020) and have not been updated in any way since:
Apple also looks to breathe new life into the AirPods Max headphones. The cans don’t sell well enough for the company to invest in entirely new hardware or software features, but Apple is planning a model that trades in the Lightning charger for USB-C and potentially adds new colors.
Mark Gurman
This is a rumour, so we can’t treat it as actually happening, but it sounds plausible, so let’s play through the logic as if this is what will come to be:
AirPods Max released in 2020. Consensus is: great noise-canceling, very good sound, terrible case/charging setup, overpriced.
Apple does nothing with the line for the next three years.
The perception is the headphones do not sell that well.
Apple is going to “breathe new life” into them.
But they don’t sell well enough to make actual improvements, so they’ll only get some different colours (maybe) and a switch to USB-C, which is being mandated by EU law, anyway.
Unless “breathe new life” doesn’t mean “generate new sales” this plan makes no sense. If Apple doesn’t address the shortcomings of the AirPods Max, no one is going to rush out and start buying them again. Yes, you’ll get a tiny sliver of sales for some different colours, but given Apple’s recent history with colour (fear, paranoia) we might not even know the colours have been updated. I think what bugs me is that the world’s richest, fattest company can’t be bothered to properly update some of their products when some, like Sony and countless others, regularly improve and iterate.
But hey, they are the world’s richest company for a reason, and I’m just a schlub on the internet, so don’t mind me!
A rare weekend run! The weather was entirely pleasant at 9C, with high cloud and little wind. I once again talked myself into doing a full loop around the lake, albeit still sticking to 5K runs for a bit longer. I have a strange (?) preference for not backtracking on a run, so if the weather isn’t grossbuckets, it’s what I tend to do.
I started out a bit slow, picked up the pace slightly for the second km, then got a bit of zoom-zoom going for the last three km, finishing the last stretch at a pace of 5:30/km. BPM was fine at 154 (the watch rated conditions as +1). I didn’t experience any complications and feel fine after, so that’s all good.
On the run itself, the amount of other people was not that bad, even with my later start. There were a decent number of others out running, as one might expect, including one who was running on the left side of the trail (bad) and have me little room as we passed. Many dogs were being walked, and this is where I noticed the only real difference vs. my weekday runs–many more dogs were allowed to run off-leash. Note to dog owners: This is bad, and you should feel bad for doing it.
Still, there were no incidents, and the run went well, so my complaints are muted by these things.
View of lake from the south shore, post-run
Stats:
Run 838
Average pace: 5:43/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 12:14 p.m.
Distance: 5:03 km
Time: 28:44
Weather: Mostly cloudy
Temp: 9ºC
Humidity: 82%
Wind: light
BPM: 154
Weight: 170.7
Total distance to date: 6080 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (215/398/613 km)
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Richmond Nature House, Terra Nova (Richmond)
Weather: Partly sunny, 6-8°C
The Outing
We headed out for a rare weekday trip to Reifel and lo, when we got there we didn’t have to check in. Instead, a sign indicated that due to low reservations, anyone could just drive on in, which we did. And it was probably the quietest I’ve ever seen the sanctuary. We were able to go for long stretches without seeing anyone, especially in the first hour or so.
What we did see were chickadees. A billion chickadees. And at least a million towhees, who were being unusually cooperative in having their pictures taken. The avocets were still in the main pond, so they may be settling in for the winter. Sadly, they were on the far side, so good shots were not to be had. Herons were scattered about, but none particularly close and most of them either sleeping or grooming, boo. I mean, good for grooming and staying tidy, boo for not showing off that fantastic “stab you” stare they have.
Noted by their absence again were Canada geese and wood ducks. We did see some geese in a field outside the sanctuary, but the wood ducks were nowhere to be found.
We also saw a bonus pheasant on the way in, which was spiffy, even if we couldn’t really stop to get photos.
It was a good day for raptors, too, with a pair of juvenile bald eagles perching high in a tree above us, a Northern harrier sweeping across the shoreline, and a red-tailed hawk perching atop a tree and posing, though perhaps farther away than we would have liked.
Squirrels were copious and rotund.
At one point, Nic slipped when stepping onto one of the slippery wooden viewing platforms. I proved I was not a hardcore photographer by first asking if he was OK, then checking to see if his camera was OK (both were OK).
And after lamenting no Sandhill cranes as we got ready to leave, a pair of Sandhill cranes appeared as if by magic, so we rounded out Reifel with some shots of the pair stalking through the parking lot.
Next up was the Richmond Nature House, where plenty of chickadees, juncos, assorted sparrows and several ambitious squirrels were working away on the feeders. As a bonus, we also saw a downy woodpecker.
We rounded out the day at Terra Nova, where we saw few birds, but got some nice scenery shots of misty mountains, the setting sun and, of course, more planes than you can shake a jet engine at. Well, I did, at least. Nic doesn’t do planes. I compensate by doing all the planes.
Overall, it was a perfectly pleasant outing. There was little wind and it felt relatively mild. A nice way to wrap up birding for 2023 (barring minor excursions here and there).
The Shots
Chickadee on a thorny branch
Juvenile bald eagles
Fox sparrow
American coot, ready for its close-up
Golden-crowned sparrow atop a feeder
Northern harrier on the hunt
Great blue heron flapping across a pond
Female ring-necked duck
Male ring-necked duck
Northern shoveler resting
Spotted towhee on a branch
Spotted towhee with death stare
Dark-eyed junco on a thorny branch
Handsome mallard
Northern pintail stretching
Red-tailed hawk perched atop a tree
Rusty the pipe in late fall colours
Trumpeter swans in the fading light
Mourning dove
Fixed-wing bird flying over the Richmond Nature House
United jet taking off from YVR International
Seaplane against a golden sky
Squirrel engaged in seedy shenanigans
Squirrel chilling in the feeder
Downy woodpecker storing the goods for later
Dark-eyed junco at a bird feeder
Prev
Next
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
American blackbird
American robin (maybe)
Black-capped chickadee
Dark-eyed junco
Downy woodpecker
European starling (sighted, not shot)
Fox sparrow
Golden-crowned sparrow
Northern flicker
Song sparrow
Spotted towhee
White-crowned sparrow
Waterfowl:
American avocet
American coot
American wigeon
Bufflehead duck
Great blue heron
Green-winged teal
Hooded merganser
Long-billed dowitcher
Mallard
Northern pintail
Northern shoveler
Ring-necked duck
Snow goose
Trumpeter swan
Common:
American crow
Seagull
Raptors:
Bald eagle (adult and juvenile)
Northern harrier
Red-tailed hawk
Non-birds:
Black squirrel, gray squirrel and Douglas squirrel
After a two-year break, it’s time to interview myself again, to see what’s new and/or exciting as I and 8 billion others continue to experience life on Planet Earth.
Previous parts in this series can be found at the links below:
At the end of Part 4, posted June 22, 2021, promised future topics included:
Writing
Drawing
Programming
Other stuff that ends with -ing
Vague promises to discuss dating experiences from days of yore
Not mentioned but implied: More exciting foot news
As always, the interview will be conducted by my doppelgänger, who in this particular interview will be known as Ned.
Ned: Hello again.
Me: Hello there.
Ned: What’s new and/or exciting since the last interview, lo those 30 months ago?
Me: Much has changed. Much has not changed. My underwear has changed. I do that every day.
Ned: Let’s dig into some specifics.
Me: About my underwear?
Ned: …no.
Me: All right. I’m feeling cooperative right now, so seize the moment!
Ned: When last we talked, the world was still in the grip of a global pandemic. How are things now, in December 2023?
Me: I had a COVID-19 vaccination less than two weeks ago.
Ned: So the pandemic is still a thing?
Me: Yes and no.
Ned: Explain.
Me: No, in the sense that life has pretty much reverted to pre-pandemic behavior/reality for most people. Masks are optional, everything is open, and so on. Yes, in the sense that COVID-19 is still around, mutating merrily away, but it’s no longer clogging up hospitals with patients due to vaccines and everyone otherwise catching it at some point. Long COVID is a concern. I’m also unsure if I should capitalize covid or not. Anyway, it’s more a background thing now, unless you’re squashed into a bus with 500 other people, then some guy without a mask next to you starts coughing into your shoulder, and you start thinking about how it would be nice to have a giant hamster ball you could just roll around in public with instead.
Ned: Sounds kind of terrible. I mean, the hamster ball part sounds neat, the rest sounds terrible.
Me: It’s not that bad. I’m sure in a hundred years we’ll all look back and laugh at this pandemic thing, as heads in jars.
Ned: Like on Futurama?
Me: Yes.
Ned: OK, what other big things have changed that you want to talk about?
Me: Define big.
Ned: Pressing global issues and concerns.
Me: Doom.
Ned: How so?
Me: The rise of authoritarianism, the invasion of Ukraine, the invasion of Gaza, probably some other invasions I’m forgetting. The climate is also still getting worse. We are doomed, slightly doomed, or maybe not doomed, depending on what reports you read or which people you talk to. There is generally a fair amount of doom, though.
Ned: How do you cope with all the doom?
Me: I stopped checking the news.
Ned: Really?
Me: Totes for real. Anything truly big still gets to me, so I’m not living in a complete news-free bubble. But it’s nice to not actively and voluntarily read about doom all the time. It makes it easier to relax when I’m having a bubble bath.
Ned: You have bubble baths?
Me: Of course! They are awesome. I do some of my best thinking when immersed in bubbles. I am a fan of Dr. Teal’s bubble bath, specifically elderberry and citrus, both of which smell great. This is not a paid promotion. But it could be. Call me, Dr. Teal, I’ll be your marketing shill!
Ned: So you avoid the news now. What else?
Me: What else do I avoid?
Ned: Sure, let’s go with that.
Me: Social media, by accident. You see, I would always post photos to Instagram and then check it and Facebook when I was tucked into bed every night. Then I thought the blue light from my iPad might be keeping me awake, so I started reading with my non-blue light Kobo ereader instead. My sleeping improved. And then I never found another regular time to check social media, so I just kind of stopped. It’s been nice. Not as nice as a bubble bath, but nice.
Ned: So you are one of ten people on the planet who does not do social media?
Me: No. I still check in every few months. And I am on Mastodon, but the experience there is very different, because there are no ads or algorithm. If I want to see nothing but photos of cats, I can get that on Mastodon. On Facebook, I get an avalanche of ads, a billion “Suggested For You” recommendations that grow increasingly bizarre and questionable as I keep scrolling, then, a lone post from someone I actually know before the avalanche starts again. As an experience, it is gross and awful.
Ned: Have you tried other social media besides Mastodon?
Me: I have peeked in at Bluesky and Threads. I have no idea if Blueksy will amount to anything. They tried making the word “skeet” a thing, which is cringe times five hundred billion. Threads is owned by Meta, so it will eventually be ruined by ads and garbage, just like their other platforms. I deleted my Twitter account, though I rarely used it.
Ned: Oh right, Twitter.
Me: More doom. In one year, it has been transformed into flaming wreckage full of Nazis, conspiracy theorists and racists. Kind of impressive, in a way. Yet it shambles on, because the doom is powerful. But enough about doom. I’m trying to end the year on a positive note and you, sir, are not helping.
Ned: Right, sorry! Moving on, let’s talk about your feet.
Me: I have feet, two of them.
Ned: Last time, you were having problems with your feet.
Me: I am happy to report my feet have been problem-free since then.
Ned: That’s great.
Me: Yes. I have happy feet now. But don’t ask about my knees.
Ned: What about your knees?
Me: I think there’s a strong chance I was awful in a past life, and I am now being punished in this life via my knees.
Ned: Sounds bad. Yet intriguing!
Me: It could also be a hereditary thing. My dad had famously bad knees. Well, not that famously.
Ned: What happened to your knees?
Me: Once I quit my job in IT–
Ned: You quit your job?
Me: Yes. Ask me again later, I may elaborate. Or not. But after I quit my job, I had time to resume a regular running schedule, and eventually was back to doing 10K runs at Burnaby Lake. It felt good to be on the trail again, touching trees and such. I never actually touch trees while running, though. That’s probably dangerous.
Ned: Go on.
Me: In the spring of this year, I noticed my knees staring to get stiff after runs. It got worse. It then got a little worse again. I was concerned my knees would explode or something. I took pictures (of my knees). I went to my doctor. He identified a Baker’s cyst™ behind my right knee.
Ned: That sounds gross.
Me: It is, kind of. Basically, your knee cap has a bunch of fluid under it, to keep it lubricated and allow it to shift around without horrible things happening to it. With my right knee, that fluid was instead pooling up behind my right knee. Sort of a squishy bulgy thing.
Ned: Yuck. Did they amputate?
Me: This isn’t the 14th century, you know.
Ned: I know. I just wanted to say that. So what happened?
Me: I went to a physiotherapist, and he poked and prodded my knees and legs. By the way, when a physiotherapist says they’re going to do apply pressure to a part of your body in a way that “won’t feel great” believe them. Eventually, my doctor and physio guy cleared me to resume running. My knees are mostly better now, but I’m still mainly doing 5K runs, building back to 10K eventually. It’s meant I have run less in terms of distance, but have still managed to run regularly for most of the year. The whole thing lasted longer than the foot thing, but was less painful.
Ned: So you are now fit as the proverbial fiddle?
Me: Well, my weight keeps going up, despite efforts to lose it.
Ned: Have you been on an all-donut diet?
Me: No. But now I kind of wished I had been, because the results may not have been that different, and I’d have had a bunch of yummy donuts in the meantime.
Ned: Any new plans for fighting the fat?
Me: Less snacking. Vaguely hoping for a miracle. Things like that.
Ned: Excellent. Now, let’s talk about that job you quit!
Me: My last day was August 27, 2021, about a week before the school would have re-opened to in-person classes. I was vaccinated, but the idea of going back, and of enduring that commute, was not something that made my socks roll up and down with excitement.
Ned: Did you quit because of the pandemic?
Me: I’d say it accelerated the process. I had reached a point where the work was immensely unrewarding, even boring. I did not want to keep doing it. And the manager of my particular section of IT assured me that there was nothing else for me there, just working on the service desk, doing the same monotonous stuff with no foreseeable hope for promotion or a new role or anything.
Ned: That sounds less than ideal.
Me: Indeed. But it brought clarity to my position and made it easy to leave. Then I left!
Ned: And then what?
Me: I started learning how to program, so I could make my own games. I figured if it didn’t work out, I could just dig ditches or something until my body was reduced to a broken heap.
Ned: Fun! How is the programming going?
Me: Math is hard. I started working with the game engine Unity, then the executives there decided to enact a bunch of idiotic policies and destroy all trust with their users, so I switched to Godot, which is free and open source. I am making progress. It has been an interesting experience. It’s better than having a Baker’s cyst.
Ned: When is your first game due out?
Me: Next year. And by next year, I don’t mean in 19 days, when it will technically be 2024. But some time in 2024. I am keeping the details mostly mum for now.
Ned: That’s quite a change from working at a service desk.
Me: Yeah. I’ve gone from soul-crushing work to brain-crushing. But it’s by choice, plus I get to make my own hours and the commute can’t be beat.
Ned: Let’s talk about stuff you avoided talking about last time.
Me: I hear my kettle boiling.
Ned: You big fat liar.
Me: I’m not that fat. Fine, ask away.
Ned: Writing?
Me: Yes.
Ned: You are writing?
Me: Yes.
Ned: What are you writing?
Me: Mostly blog posts about whatever pops into my head. I also started a Substack newsletter which features some writing. Newsletters are hard. I did five issues, with the time between issues growing more…expansive.
Ned: Is the newsletter dead and buried now?
Me: Nothing is ever dead and buried on the internet. That’s what makes it great. And terrible. But for my newsletter, I decided to reboot it and start again in 2024.
Ned: 2024 seems like it will be a busy year.
Me: You know it, baby. Maybe all this work will help me shed some flab. *sobs*
Ned: I have complete confidence in you, unless you are secretly hiding cookies.
Me: No cookies, except for the internet kind.
Ned: Anything else, writing-wise?
Me: I’ve started noodling around again on my novel, The Mean Mind.
Ned: Aren’t you just the ambitious little go-getter!
Me: With so many plates in the air, I’m bound to, uh…hmm. I think I lost the analogy there. But yeah, I’ll be working on that, too, plus comics and things. And the game. And vacuuming.
Ned: Excellent. I look forward to hearing about the success of your many projects in Part 6!
Me: Whoa, let’s not get crazy here.
Ned: Sorry. A final writing thought to share?
Me: Just this random piece of trivia: I once wrote and submitted a teleplay for Star Trek: Voyager, called “Worlds Apart.” It was decent. And rejected.
Ned: Moving on, you refused to talk about dating last time. Let’s hear you dish now.
Me: Kettle boiling.
Ned: …
Me: Someone is at the door. With my boiling kettle.
Ned: …
Me: What? What is there to say? I’ll give you a very short summary, and you’ll have to try again in Part 6. Or Part 60.
Ned: Fair enough.
Me: I lost about 40 pounds in 2008. I was feeling spunky after this, and started dating again. I had many experiences, that ranged from, “What was I thinking?” to “What was he thinking?” to “This guy seems to want to end the date suspiciously close to the start of tonight’s episode of Survivor.” (It was 2008, people still watched regular TV.) You’ll have to wait, possibly forever, to hear more than that.
Ned: Aw. Just a little more?
Me: If I wrote a book about my dating experiences, I would call it Fruits and Nuts.
Ned: Any other personal, embarrassing experiences you’d like to share?
Me: No.
Ned: Not even one?
Me: Let me think. No. Also: No.
Ned: No?
Me: Correct.
Ned: Until next time, do you have any inspiring words to pass on to anyone reading this?
Me: Yes, actually.
Ned: !
Me: At the last scrum on the last day I was actually working in my previous job as a drifting, directionless slob at an IT service desk (my last two weeks were on vacation, which is a nice way to quit a job), I was handed the proverbial mic. After nearly nine years of being there, I offered my soon-to-be ex co-workers this: Do what makes you happy. Unless it’s being a serial killer. Don’t do that.
Ned: Great advice! See you in a couple of weeks.
Me: What? That’s not in the contract!
Ned: Haha, I’m kidding. Maybe in 2024, the year you do everything.
Me: Maybe.
Stay tuned for Part 6 of this apparently endless interview, coming in 2024. Or some other year. Probably not, like, 2397 or something, though.
This is another test post written in iA Writer (which just had a big, though non-publishing on other platforms, update), and then magically sent to my WordPress blog, where you are reading it right now, if this worked.
Also, here is a photo of some freaky, somewhat face-shaped fungus at Burnaby Lake:
Fake edit: Publishing from iA Writer is clunky and requires clean-up after. iA Writer’s documentation on this is incomplete. I won’t be doing it again, but without experiments, how would we ever blow things up learn?
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run. 10 days till winter!
I was not sure if I would run today, then I did!
I was not sure if I would do a regular run at the lake (rather than just a short loop), then I did!
I was not sure if I would have an incident with my shorts early on, then I did!
Specifically, as I started my clockwise run around the lake, I had my phone in my SPI-Belt™ per usual, with it slung around in the small of my back, out of the way. Except something wasn’t sitting right and as I headed down the Avalon Trail, my shorts also began heading down, pulled by the weight of the phone. I had to pause my run to address these suddenly droopy drawers. I managed to get everything sorted, then continued on.
I don’t often describe runs as delightful, but it was delightful to not be jogging in the rain. This no doubt had a positive effect on my pace, something my Forerunner picked on, because at the first km, it rated the performance conditions as +4, the highest I think I’ve ever seen them.
I continued on, rejecting a short loop and going the whole distance. For a change, everything just seemed to hum along nicely. Even my left hip seemed content to stay quiet. By the end, I had finished with a BPM of 151 (nice) and an average pace of 5:38/km (!), something I would not have predicted going in. The best part is, I never felt I was pushing hard for this, it just happened organically.
So mark this as a nice late fall run.
(It felt cold on the walk back, though. I think maybe the wind was picking up a little by that point. It was nice to get home with heat and warmth and stuff.)
The lake was very calm
Stats:
Run 837
Average pace: 5:38/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 10:52 a.m.
Distance: 5:03 km
Time: 28:21
Weather: Low cloud
Temp: 6ºC
Humidity: 79%
Wind: light
BPM: 151
Weight: 170.2
Total distance to date: 6075 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (210/385/595 km)
I took the camera out for about an hour this afternoon to shoot birds and birbs at Sapperton Landing. There was low, misty cloud hanging over everything, so the light was very bad. But at least it didn’t rain.
I’ll post a small gallery soon™1Seriously, I promise! but here are a few shots in the meantime.
A gadwall getting flappyCommon goldeneye being weird, gull is unimpressedFraser River, with low cloud obscuring points beyond
I think my brain is temporarily broken. I’m in one of those weird phases where the more I try to think of something to blog about, the less I can think of anything to write.
I want to be more positive, and that narrows down possible topics because, let’s face it, complaining about stuff is easy and fun. Fun for a time, at least.
Instead, I’ll just post this haiku about not being able to write anything.
A haiku to an absence of words
I sit down to write
My brain shuts off at the thought
Words huddle inside
I did not do my usual Friday run because I wanted to run some errands and given the weather forecast, it made more sense to do them on Friday when it was sunny, rather than Saturday when it was forecast to be cold and rainy and horrible.
Today it is Saturday and as I headed out for a rare weekend run, it was drizzling. By the time I got to the river trail, the drizzle had turned to rain. As I started to run, it turned to Heavy Rain™. There was a pause about midway through where it eased yup that lasted about 30 seconds or so, as if the storm was catching its breath. Then it resumed pouring down.
So I got quite wet. And at 3C, it was not exactly balmy, either. My pace was a bit slower, mostly due to a slowdown in the second km, but was otherwise fine. My BPM of 154 was appropriate for the conditions and unlike Wednesday’s run, there were no heart rate shenanigans with the Garmin Forerunner.
I didn’t experience any notable issues during the run, other than mild regret for not having gone out on Friday. I kept the hood up again for the first half or so, then pulled it down, because it wasn’t doing much, anyway. I honed my dodging skills as the run progressed and puddles formed and expanded before my eyes.
Other people running, a mix between people wearing shorts vs. tights/running pants. I wore my running pants and do not regret the decision.
Overall, one of those “glad it’s over” runs. Monday looks to be cloudy and much milder, so yay for that.
Outflow pond, post-run, with bonus train. An accurate reflection of conditions.
Run 836
Average pace: 5:51/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Brunette River Trail
Start: 9:45 a.m.
Distance: 5:03 km
Time: 29:24
Weather: Rain
Temp: 3ºC
Humidity: 84-86%
Wind: moderate, with gusts
BPM: 154
Weight: 170.4
Total distance to date: 6070 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (205/372/578 km)
