The evidence:
I didn’t even know I had 21 apps on my phone.
Run 948: Addressing my OCD, July Run Edition
I missed my run yesterday due to a doctor appointment, but didn’t want to do a regular run today due to not being able to get out until Africa hot time (the afternoon).
By coincidence, I had never finished another 2.5K run, which would round up my total run distance and take care of that pesky 0.5K dangling off the end of it.
So that’s what I did. It was 27C, by far the warmest run so far this year, and humidity was 49%. The air felt a bit soupy. I sweated copiously. But surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared, partly because the sun was mostly blocked by high cloud for the run, so it wasn’t beating down on me.
I don’t remember seeing any other runners.
I hit the 2.5K mark just past the intersection that splits between the main trail and the Piper Mill Trail (I started near the Jiffy John® by the parking lot), then simply turned around and walked back rather than doing a full loop around the lake. I didn’t really have the time, plus I would be walking during the peak temperature for the day.
All told, not a bad little mini-run. I still plan on doing a regular run tomorrow, in the morning, and it should be a good bit cooler.
Stats:
Run 948
Average pace: 5:43/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 3:08 p.m.
Distance: 2.50 km
Time: 14:19
Weather: Sunny with high cloud
Temp: 27°C
Humidity: 49%
Wind: light
BPM: 151
Weight: 167.6
Total distance to date: 6,570 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (165/364/529)
Music: shuffle mode
Weight loss report, July 2025: Up 1.5 pounds
It’s not as bad as it looks!
If my scale isn’t a total lying liar, I gained 1.5 pounds this month, but also:
- Body fat decreased
- Muscle mass increased
And it only ended up leaving me up 0.8 pounds for the year, an amount small enough that it could be wiped out in one weigh-in.
The key work is: could.
July was a stressful month and I fell back on snacking too often, but I also ran pretty steadily, too, which helped to keep things in balance.
I will keep running in August and try to find other ways to alleviate stress that do not involve shoving food into my mouth. We’ll see how it goes!
Stats:
January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds
Current: 167.6 pounds
Year to date: Up 0.8 pounds
July 1: 166.1 pounds
July 31: 167.6 pounds (up 1.5 pounds)
Body fat:
July 1: 25.6%
July 31: 25.4% (down 0.2%)
Skeletal muscle mass:
July 1: 29.6 kg
July 31: 29.8 kg (up 0.2 kg)
BMI:
July 1: 23.8
July 31: 24.0 (up 0.2)
Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds
One more July flower
Shot today, one of a cluster of wild sundance flowers.
Games of my youth and random thoughts on them
I was born in 1964. This means that when the first video games hit the mainstream, I was already in my teens. I got an Atari 2600 when I was 16 years old. It was still cool and I loved it to bits.
But my time of birth meant that many of the games I played as a kid were of the board/non-electronic variety because video games just weren’t there. Let’s have a look!
Note: I have linked to each game on BoardGameGeek when possible, with a few exceptions.
Lawn Darts. I still don’t know how these things were ever legal. We had a nice grassy boulevard in front of our house, which was the perfect place to throw giant metal darts into plastic hoops. No one ever got hurt, mostly because we were just smart enough to know standing on the receiving end was a very bad idea.
Monopoly. Yeah, it’s not really a great game in the popularized form we played (no movie/TV tie-ins back then, just the capitalist “bankrupt everyone else for fun!”) but sometimes you just want to crush others and accumulate piles of money. I am a product of my culture. We played with a lot of the common house rules–fines and payments going to Free Parking being the most prominent.
Careers. I really don’t remember much about this game, other than each career track had its own internal mini-path inside the main board and one career was Ecology because it was the 70s. I do remember playing it a fair bit. I like that the game box seems to make you choose: Fame? Fortune? Happiness? Be rich or be happy! (Ecology was the “be happy” career.)
The Game of Life. First, this game was absurd. It looked at Monopoly money and then added three zeroes to everything, because more is more. You could go to school or have a career, but not both (?!) You could have kids. Lots of kids. We often had second cars just full of pegs that represented all the kids. Life is not just accumulating vast wealth, but also making babbies like you were a bunny. But the coolest part of the game were the little 3D hills and buildings built into the game board. They didn’t serve anything but an aesthetic role, but I loved them. The spinner was very satisfying to spin, too.
Just look at it:
Trouble. I remember the TV commercial jingle to this day, cursed thing (“If you’ve got trouble, wait, don’t run/This kind of trouble is lots of fun”). The game was simple, but again, that “Pop-o-Matic” die roller (which meant you could never lose the die) was extremely satisfying. The game itself was fine.
Clue. A classic. One of the first puzzle games for me. I was drawn in by the miniature murder weapons and ornately laid-out rooms on the board, but loved solving the mystery.
Risk. A friend was really into this. I was never any good at it. I guess I’m not a warmonger. Or maybe I’m just bad at strategy. Whatever the reason, most games saw me adopt a defensive posture, then get squeezed and crushed early enough that I spent most of the game reading comic books. (This is the only game on the list I didn’t actually own.)
Tank Battle. I enjoyed this, not just because it came with neat little plastic models of tanks (when a tank was taken out, we would carefully disassemble it to show its defeat), but yeah, I’m a visual person, so it counted for a lot.
Mastermind. Another game of deduction. The presentation was simple, but effective. This was probably one of the first games where I wished there was an electronic version so I could play when a friend wasn’t around (they did, in fact, make electronic versions, but I never got them).
Mouse Trap. If there was ever a board game made for me, it was Mouse Trap. An entire board of Rube Goldberesque contraptions you put together over the course of the game, then set in motion at the end? Yes, yes and yes! The only problem was losing or breaking a piece. We did not have 3D printers back then to replace the boot if it went missing, alas. Apparently, a revamped version of the game swapped out the bathtub for a toilet, which is kind of weird.
Ants in the Pants. Not a board game. You flipped plastic ants into a pair of plastic pants (with suspenders for added difficulty) and the first to flip all ants in won. Simple, mindless, frenetic. A nice palette cleanser to all the brainier stuff.
Ker Plunk. Put a bunch of plastic sticks through holes midway through a chamber, cover with marbles, then remove the sticks without sending the marbles down to the bottom. Sort of a Jenga variant, but more kid-flavoured. The best part may have been that the player with the fewest marbles at the end wins. Now there’s a life lesson.
Down the Drain (WothPoint link). Weirdly, the version I played is not on BoardGameGeeks. Basically, you had a green plastic tube shaped like a drainpipe, with a grate on top. You dropped a bunch of fake coins in and used little toy fishing rods to try to fish the coins out (the coins and rod had magnets). Whoever got the most money won. I mean, not much. This was no Game of Life. A test of hand-eye coordination that would serve as warm-up for future video games, or maybe lawn darts. I did find an image! And the drain was actually yellow, proving memory is a LIE.
Gnip Gnop. It’s Ping-Pong spelled backwards! And it’s more fun to say. You used paddles to flip ping pong balls through circular cutouts in a plastic barrier. You won by losing all your balls. Another important life lesson. Like Ants in the Pants, this was a great game to play if you were hopped up on sugary soda and just wanted to spazz out.
Yahtzee. Not a board game. Shaking six dice in the cup was great for driving people crazy. I liked the Triple Yahtzee variant, because it was fancier and allowed a tiny bit of strategy. My uncle, who worked at a print shop, would print off scoresheets for us, so we didn’t have to buy extras when we ran out.
Boggle. The weirdest thing about Boggle is I still have it, sitting in its original box on a shelf in the bedroom. Flip the hourglass (how quaint) and write down all the words. Simple, but for a guy who would eventually pursue a BA in English, irresistible.
There are more games, but they are currently on the periphery of my memory. I’ll update this post when they inevitably come back to me.
Further updates:
Scrabble. How could I forget Scrabble? A timeless game that made me think, learn new words, learn that a bunch of words were not really words and when you won, it made you feel smart! And maybe a little lucky, too.
My favourite song from every R.E.M. album
Not the best song, because this is art, baby.
In chronological order:
- Murmur: This one is tricky, because a lot of songs here are equally good, there are no obvious standouts for me, but I’m going with “Catapult” because it showcases each band member as it bounces along energetically. But really, half a dozen other songs could go here, too.
- Reckoning: “(Don’t go Back To) Rockville”. As the kids would say, I love the jaunty, country-ish vibe. Mike Mills wrote the song and in concert he would often sing lead on it, though Michael Stipe does a fine job here.
- Fables of the Reconstruction: “Maps and Legends” because it captures the southern gothic/swamp rock thing so well. There’s a density to the production here that really clicks for me.
- Lifes Rich Pageant: I declare a tie between two songs: The beautiful and haunting “Cuyahoga” and “Fall on Me” which features a great vocal bridge by Mike Mills and I also like the way Stipe casually drops in “Don’t” at the start of every other chorus, entirely changing the meaning of the song, such as it is.
- Document: It would be easy to just pick “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” and that’s what I’m doing. R.E.M. was prone to more whimsy and absurdity in their early days, and this may be the best example of it.
- Green: Did the band pick the best song of the album as the lead-off single? Maybe, because I’m also picking “Orange Crush.” The harmonies are great, Buck’s guitar is cutting and the chorus is actually wordless.
- Out of Time: “Losing My Religion” is a great song and could easily be my pick, but I really like the drama of “Texarkana“, as well as Mike Mill’s lead vocals. I’ve heard the original version Stipe gave up on. It’s kind of funny that Mills kept the title, but never mentions it in the actual song.
- Automatic For the People: “Find the River.” Simple and beautiful. But a lot of other songs could slot in here, as well.
- Monster: “Crush with Eyeliner“, because of the weird, playful lyrics, and the sawing, reverb-laden guitar of Peter Buck.
- New Adventures in Hi-Fi: “Electrolite“, which is a fitting coda to both the album and Bill Berry’s time with the band. The piano works really well here.
- Up: The obvious pick might be “Daysleeper”, which sounds like classic R.E.M. but I’m partial to “Hope“, which has a somewhat techno sound with Stipe’s weird body horror lyrics layered over top.
- Reveal: Unlike Up, I am going with the classic R.E.M. sound of “Imitation of Life.” The video is great, too.
- Around the Sun: None. Just kidding! I like “Aftermath” but feel like the tempo is a little off, so I’ll go with the lead-off single “Leaving New York“, which features mad overdubbed vocals but works well, possibly because of them.
- Accelerate: “Man-Sized Wreath.” I have listened to this song a billion million times (usually while jogging). It’s short, it rocks and features Michael Stipe shouting “Wow!”
- Collapse Into Now: “It Happened Today” which changes from lyrics to wordless vocals for the last few minutes. Bonus Eddie Vedder humming.
Run 947: The coyote and the crow
With my legs mostly recovered, but the sun back and temperature higher, I went into today’s run with somewhat modest expectations.
In the end, it was fine. The temperature/humidity meant it tended a bit toward the DMS1Dry Mouth Syndrome side, but it wasn’t too bad. I started out a bit slow, but still under the six-minute mark, then began improving over the course of the run, finishing with a pace of 5:49/km, nine seconds better than Friday. BPM was up to 151, but that’s expected given the extra heat and exertion.
I didn’t experience any issues.
Also, there were no smokers or off-leash dogs today, hooray.
Shortly after I finished my run, a guy walking toward me advised of a coyote sitting around the corner. Said corner was probably about 20-30m ahead. I took the corner wide, which was convenient, because I planned on checking out the fountain at the playground and sure enough, a golden brown coyote was chilling out by the side of the trail, just looking around and taking it easy. At some point, it seemed to notice a crow on the field and got up, making a stealthy beeline toward it. You may be thinking, “Wouldn’t the crow just fly away when it got closer?” And yes, this is exactly what happened. Perhaps this is why the world is not overrun with coyotes.
I did go over to a woman walking a bite-sized dog that there was a coyote nearby (I lost track of it after the crow flew off). We discussed a recent grizzly attack (not here) and other animal-related terrors, then she thanked me and I walked home without incident.
In all, a fine start to the week, running-wise.
Stats:
Run 947
Average pace: 5:49/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 9:39 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:16
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 19-20°C
Humidity: 63-60%
Wind: light
BPM: 151
Weight: 167.6
Total distance to date: 6,567.5 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (162.5/353.5/516)
Music: Out of the Blue, ELO
Birding July 26, 2025: Everywhere you go, it’s gonna be goose
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Boundary Bay Dyke Trail (Delta), Blackie Spit, Crescent Beach (Surrey)
Weather: Sunny, 20°C
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
The day took a weird turn, camera-wise, as I managed to change the exposure on-the-fly without realizing it until I was looking at the photos later. Whoops. The change was subtle enough that I didn’t pick it up in the EVF. I’ve set it back and think I know how I did it, so hopefully this won’t happen again without me doing it on purpose.
But it was also a day when I shot a lifer–a Peregrine falcon!
Reifel started with a paucity of birds in the entrance pond, but there were signs of others we haven’t seen much, like chickadees. Sort of pond-adjacent was an abundance of barn swallows grooming in nearby trees, including what appeared to be a bunch of juveniles. Cute! The geese were everywhere, but didn’t seem overly interested in trying to eff each other (or anyone else up). Summer doldrums, maybe. We were reacquainted with C21, a goose that has a rather clunky-looking neck collar. No sign of C19 or C20, though. We also saw a towhee wearing a wire. We’re being tracked, the birds are being tracked, everyone is being tracked.
There were a few shorebirds in one of the west dyke ponds, but again very far away, boo. The blind that faces one of the ponds had a special “treat”, though–a growing wasp nest on the inside of one of the wooden flaps, which was left in the open position (for obvious reasons). The honeycomb had probably a few dozen pockets in it, with wasps canoodling around it, probably adding more using their secret wasp techniques. We took our photos and scrammed.
And upon seeing a raptor flying way up overhead, I took a bunch of shots that were mostly mediocre, but were good enough to identify the bird as a Peregrine falcon–a lifer! It seemed to just be passing by.
I experimented more with shooting scenery (and some bugs) using manual focus, which may have had repercussions revealed later (which I will also reveal later).
Boundary Bay Dyke Trail
For Boundary Bay, we started near the golf course (there’s always a golf course) and went to the little pump house near 80th Street, probably a few km or so. The trail was very dry and bright. There were basically no birds, except an errant robin and a bald eagle sitting atop a telephone pole. The eagle was “panting” but when Nic crossed to the other side of the trail, it immediately stopped and looked precisely in our direction. And kept looking. We got some very nice shots, then scrammed (at a leisurely pace. An eagle would probably not be able to carry us off. Probably).
The main highlight here were planes, if you’re into planes, the scenery, and bugs, specifically grasshoppers of various colours, and butterflies.
We decided to round out the day with a risky trip to Blackie Spit.
Blackie Spit/Crescent Beach
This is risky only in the sense that a sunny Saturday afternoon is likely to find the parking lot full. And it was. But we went to the second, smaller parking lot further in, the one with the curiously square roundabout (a squareabout?) and lo, there was a single spot! We parked a short distance from a Cybertruck, which seemed to have parked in a handicapped spot without apparent reason[Cybertruck joke here].
The tide was way out and Blackie Spit itself is now restricted to a single straight trail that doesn’t really get close to the water, so it’s a bit of a bust now. The scenery is still nice.
We ventured onto the other trails, saw more shorebirds (still kind of far away), but again, not too many birds venturing out into the mid-afternoon sun, apart from some song sparrows, a crow and a seagull that Nic and I both managed to capture pooping in mid-flight. You take the wins where you can.
And that was the day! The weather was perfectly cromulent, the lack of birds not surprising, and the rare gems all the more precious because as birding goes, we are also in the summer doldrums.
Soon, though, there will be coots.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- American goldfinch
- American robin
- Anna’s hummingbird
- Barn swallow
- Black-capped chickadee
- Brown-headed cowbird
- European starling\House finch
- House sparrow
- Red-winged blackbird
- Rufous hummingbird
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee
- White-crowned sparrow
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
American coot(not yet!)- Belted kingfisher
- Canada goose
- Great blue heron
- Greater yellowlegs
- Hooded merganser
- Mallard
- Sandhill crane
- Wood duck
Common:
- American crow
- Rock pigeon
- A few gulls
Raptors:
- Bald eagle
- Northern harrier (most likely)
- Peregrine falcon
Non-birds:
- A black squirrel
- Bugs and insects:
- Dragonflies
- Hover flies
- Honey bees
- Bumblebees
- Killer bees (wasps)
- And more
Run 946: What a difference very sore legs makes
On Wednesday evening, a water pipe burst on the ground floor of one of the other buildings in our complex. I helped man one of the shop vacs to suck up the water in the hallway, bending and stooping for around an hour or so. The next day my legs were very sore.
Two days later, they are still sore, but I was able to do my stretching exercises this morning without issue, since the sore muscles aren’t the exact same ones I use when running.
My walk to the lake took about a minute longer than usual, due to the legs being ever-so-stiff. For the run, conditions were very nice–cloudy and 16C. But my pace for the first two km was a pokey 6:08/km due to the soreness. By the third km my legs finally started to limber up and I came under six minutes thereafter, with an overall pace of 5:58/km. I consider this pretty good, given how my legs felt.
The conditions and my pace both lead to a lower overall heart rate of 146. Despite the stiffness, the slower pace for the first couple of km actually felt kind of comfy.
I experienced no other issues, other than rampant dogs off-leash. I guess it’s Rules-free Friday or something. There were also three people fishing behind temporary fencing clearly meant to keep people away from Still Creek, and as a bonus, they were smoking. Next time I may just push them in, or sic the geese on them.
Overall, not a bad way to end the week, given the circumstances.
Stats:
Run 946
Average pace: 5:58/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 10:02 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 30:00
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 16°C
Humidity: 83%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 146
Weight: 168.1
Total distance to date: 6,562.5 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (157.5/340.5/498)
Music: Long Distance Voyager, The Moody Blues
Run 945: A bit humid, a little cheaty
I got out almost an hour later this morning when my plan was to get out an hour earlier. Oops.
As such, it was a bit warmer and you might be wondering why I mention the humidity, because it was actually less humid than Monday’s run and the reason is by heading out later I was starting to hit that heat/humidity combo that acts like an energy vampire.
As a result, my pace was a somewhat pokey 6:03/km, though I found enough reserves to post 5:52/km for the final lap. BPM was down a bit due to the slog-like nature, as well.
As for the cheaty bit: At the halfway point, I stopped to drink at the fountain by the Nature House, then immediately had to use the loo. This ended up having no discernable effect on my overall pace.
I also saw three topless joggers. One of the perks of running in the summer.
Other than the heat/humidity, no real issues to report and long stretches of the run were pretty quiet, with very few people out under the sun.
Overall, not a bad effort, but I really will try to get out earlier on Friday, I swear!
Stats:
Run 945
Average pace: 6:03/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 10:53 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 30:27
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 22-23°C
Humidity: 66-64%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 152
Weight: 168.0
Total distance to date: 6,557.5 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (152.5/327.5/480)
Music: Beauty and the Beat, The Go-Go's
I haven’t posted much lately, here’s some flowers
I’ll post more soon™ but here are a bunch of flowers shot after today’s run.
Run 944: Bunnies, not bears
I toyed with the idea of doing a 7.5K run today, but after holding back a bit for the 2nd and 3rd km, decided it would be better to do that later in the week and with an earlier, start, so I picked up the pace and finished with a pace of 5:51/km.
Conditions were similar to Friday in terms of temperature and humidity, but the sun was blazing and it’s weird how much harder it makes running. Shade is nice.
Unlike Friday, there were no bear warnings, but I did see a cite little brown bunny. I’m always surprised when I see them, because in my mind when you see one bunny, there’s like a hundred others you don’t see–yet I rarely see them at the lake. There were also two off-leash dogs, which is dangerous for the dog and the dog owner when there are bears in the area. I wish more dog owners were responsible, but what can youse do?
Overall, a good start to the week.
Stats:
Run 944
Average pace: 5:51/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 9:55 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:26
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 20-21°C
Humidity: 69-66%
Wind: light
BPM: 154
Weight: 168.0
Total distance to date: 6,552.5 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (147.5/314.5/462)
Music: Beauty and the Beat, The Go-Go's