A whole bed:
And a single wildflower:
Also, a rose:
Two unofficial signs that summer has ended
- The arrival of the pumpkin spice scourge:
2. The pool at Hume Park with no one in it on a gorgeous, warm summer day, because it’s now closed for the season but hasn’t been drained yet:
Birding, August 30, 2025: Merry Cootmas!
Where: Maplewood Flats (North Vancouver), Blakeburn Lagoons Park (Port Coquitlam), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 21-24°C
Maplewood Flats
It was birding all over the place today. The only thing missing was the birbs. We heard a few and eventually saw a few, but it was mostly waterfowl and the like as songbirds seemed to prefer hiding away on what was a very humid day.
We began at Maplewood Flats and saw and heard a few chickadees, spotted some cormorants offshore, and a few gulls, but a promised sandpiper remained elusive. The scenery is always nice here, though.
Blakeburn Lagoons Park
We went to Blakeburn Lagoons to search for the elusive green heron. It remained elusive. We did see several great blue herons as compensation.
Otherwise, it was ducks and plenty of them, along with a solitary Canada goose, the only one we saw today (I think).
Tlahutum Regional Park
There were ducks in the main pond at Tlahutum and a couple of bald eagles flapping high overhead, but very few other birds were making themselves visible, so we made do with shooting flowers and the many pollinators tending to them.
Piper Spit
The land mass at Piper Spit is not only back, but fairly massive. A few small shorebirds were darting about on it, but most birds preferred the water. In the water, we saw the usual mix of mallards and wood ducks, along with a pair of hooded mergansers, but no geese. And lo, there was the first coot of the season, swimming about by itself and looking glorious and weird. It’s as much a sign of fall coming as the proliferation of pumpkin spice in everything from muffins to school supplies (probably).
Several people were stupidly feeding the birds again. Having recently seen bears up close and personal here, I feel comfortable in calling their actions stupid.
But we also saw a song sparrow. Just one, but it stopped hopping just long enough to let us get some decent shots. A few wood duck males were also back to near-full, resplendent mullets.
In all, a fine day of birding, even with the scarcity of birbs.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
A few shots:
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- Bewick’s wren (heard, not seen)
- Black-capped chickadee
- Purple martin
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee (heard, not seen)
- White-crowned sparrow (heard, not seen)
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- American coot (one!)
- Canada goose
- Common merganser
- Double-crested cormorant
- Great blue heron
- Hooded merganser
- Long-billed dowitcher
- Mallard
- Northern pintail
- Pied-billed grebe
- Western sandpiper
- Wood duck
Common:
- American crow
- Rock pigeon
- Various gulls
Raptors:
- Red-tailed hawk
Non-birds:
- Copious pollinators
- Raccoons (actually after birding, and in my neighbourhood. I think they were having a meeting over lunch)
Run 960: Lovely Labour Day clouds
Today was a good run day.
Normally, I would have been a wee bit concerned about traffic on the trail, given that today is a statutory holiday–Labour Day. But thanks probably largely to cloudy skies, the crowds were smaller than they might have been. One small dog off-leash did smoosh its cold snout into my calf post-run, though.
I opted to go clockwise and got a strong start–and just kept going. The second km dip was small, then I improved each lap after, for an overall pace of 5:42/km, my best in a few weeks, and a BPM of 147, reflecting the more favourable conditions. Even the humidity, which started at an absurdly high 85%, didn’t slow me down, though sweating was constant and ongoing.
The right shin was almost back to normal, and I didn’t experience any other issues.
Overall, a very nice start to the week.
Stats:
Run 960
Average pace: 5:42/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 10:53 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:40
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 19-20°C
Humidity: 85-82%
Wind: light
BPM: 147
Weight: 165.5
Total distance to date: 6,630 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (225/502/727)
Music: Lifes Rich Pageant (R.E.M.)
Weight loss report, August 2025: Down 1.8 pounds
Yes, I was actually kind of good this month, food-wise! I was also very active, running and walking all hither and yon.
I may have sweated off some weight due to the humidity, too. In any event, I am down 1.8 pounds for the month, and the same amount for the year, too, which looks worse that way, but I’m down, so it’s a win as per me.
Onward from here!
Stats:
January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds
Current: 165.0 pounds
Year to date: Down 1.8 pounds
August 1: 166.8 pounds
August 31: 165.0 pounds (down 1.8 pounds)
Body fat:
August 1: 25.1%
August 31: 24.8% (down 0.3%)
Skeletal muscle mass:
August 1: 29.7 kg
August 31: 29.5 kg (down 0.2 kg)
BMI:
August 1: 23.9
August 31: 23.6 (down 0.3)
Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds
Mass extinction from mass carbon delightfully (?) described in one sentence
Or what happens when you get more carbon into the atmosphere than the Earth can handle, as outlined in this Guardian article, in which it describes periods of volcano activity so intense they wipe out most life on the planet and turned it into a noxious, lifeless hell for pretty much everything. Fun stuff!
I like the following quote. Lips = Large Igneous Provinces, which is a cute, understated way of describing periods of extreme volcanic activity that move massive amounts of lava below and then onto the Earth’s surface:
Lips are the Earth’s way of rudely reminding us that our thin rocky surface, and the gossamer glaze of green goo that coats it, sits atop a roiling, utterly indifferent planetary drama.
Anyway, just something different from the stories about Trump’s health (tip to readers in the future: It ain’t lookin’ good!)
Run 959: Running Interruptus
I started the day by oversleeping a little–not much, really. But the rest of my usual morning routine seemed to play in slow motion, so by the time I headed out for my run, I was two hours behind where I’d normally be. It was still morning, but getting late–and hot.
Well, not so much hot as muggy. Or rather, both. Huggy.
On paper conditions look similar to Wednesday–temperature a degree or two higher, humidity about the same. But it felt a lot muggier and the air quality was clearly (!) worse today, with visible haze.
Additionally, my Baker’s cyst® behind my right knee had made its presence known again after my last run, so I was a bit concerned how this run would play out, even under ideal weather conditions..
It turned out…okay! The right shin was mostly fine and the knee didn’t seem to be an issue. Pot-run, it felt a little creaky to start but by the time I got home, it again felt okay. I am tentatively not worried.
But I was very thirsty.
One benefit of starting the run around 11 a.m. is the Cottonwood Trail was mostly in shade. And that was the one and only benefit.
The run was unusual in one other way: interruptions. The first was by choice: I stopped at the fountain by the Nature House to have a drink, then used the loo for good measure. This gave me Bonus Rest #1.
Bonus Rest #2 came shortly into the fifth km when I paused the run to take a phone call. This took a few minutes and again gave me a small chance to rest.
I don’t think either break really made much difference to my pace, but you can see the little blips in my BPM, and overall BPM was a pretty low 147. My pace was a bit slower at 5:55/km, but this was mostly due to a stellar finish of 5:34/km, because the first two km were actually over six minutes each. Yikes.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to running in, like, normal weather again. Soon. Maybe.
Stats:
Run 959
Average pace: 5:55/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 11:02 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:43
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 23-24°C
Humidity: 75-71%
Wind: light
BPM: 147
Weight: 164.4
Total distance to date: 6,625 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (220/489/709)
Music: Pop Stuff (playlist)
Four years ago, I left tech support. Now people just ask ChatGPT how to turn it off and back on.
You can read my full write-up about leaving the Langara College IT Department at this link, my thoughts have not changed in the year since I posted this: Three years ago I left behind the life of telling people to turn it off, then turn it back on
Today, the college is among many post-secondary schools being hit by declining enrolment, particularly from international students. Budget cuts and layoffs are happening and as you might imagine, it’s not great for morale.
I’m more glad now than ever that I left it all behind. I wish everyone there that I know and like the best, though!
I leave you with this photo of a snazzy new label maker we got shortly before I left.
Run 958: Bear signs, but no sign of bears
I contemplated various scenarios today, all of which involved avoiding bears. In the end, I decided to just stick to a regular counter-clockwise run around the lake, as a 5K run in this direction affords better lines-of-sight for bear sightings. I also paused my music when running through sections that were twistier, to better listen for a large shambling creature, be it a black bear, Bigfoot or just some really big hairy man.
The real danger turned out to be the humidity. It was a bit warmer at 22C, and the lake always feels more humid than the river trail, so I sweated like it was my life’s purpose. The combo of temperature and humidity also brought my pace way down to 5:54/km. OTOH, my BPM was only 148, because that’s the best I could muster in the conditions.
As for my body, the right shin continues to improve and provided nothing else falls apart, bursts or explodes, I may begin thinking about ramping back up to a 10K run again.
But we’ll see.
For now, I’ll just keep my eye open for bears, hope nothing breaks, and wait for the cooler temperatures of the fall to arrive.
Stats:
Run 958
Average pace: 5:54/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 10:18 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:41
Weather: Sun with high cloud
Temp: 22°C
Humidity: 76-73%
Wind: light to nil
BPM: 148
Weight: 164.8
Total distance to date: 6,620 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (215/476/691)
Music: Pop Stuff (playlist)
A different view of the Brunette River, August 26, 2025
It’s my favourite river because it’s the closest.
Also, it looks pretty nice on warm, sunny days like today.
80s nostalgia gone horribly wrong
404 Media has a piece on AI slop videos that are all over Instagram and TikTok that not only evoke nostalgia for the 1980s, which has been a thing for a while, but goes further, with generated characters with feathered hair creepily inviting you to come back to 1985 and join them.
Tip: You can’t actually do that. You are stuck with 2025.
I especially like this paragraph from author Matthew Gault:
These videos are awful AI-generated slop, yes, but it’s more than that. Reactionary nostalgia, a desire to return to a fake past or a time when you were young and things were better, is part of why the world is so fucked right now. It is, literally, the basis of MAGA. Worse, these videos about the “past” tell us a lot about our present and future: one where AI encourages our worst impulses and allows users to escape from reality into a slopified world that narrowly targets whatever reality we’d like to burrow into without dealing with the problems of the present.
It’s like the Matrix, except stupid, horrible and about as cool as roadkill.
Full article here, which is horrifying, but also something worth knowing about, even if you (wisely) avoid both of the platforms that have popularized the videos (Note: you will need a free account to view, 404 Media explains why here): 80s Nostalgia AI Slop Is Boomerfying the Masses for a Past That Never Existed
Run 957: Beating the heat and bears
Not literally beating bears, of course.
I had a few goals today:
- Avoid bears
- Beat the heat
I achieved both of these things by:
- Running on the river trail instead of at the lake
- Starting my run just before 9 a.m., almost two hours earlier than on Friday
Now, I have seen a bear on the river trail, but the trail is wide and open, with excellent sight lines, all of which is the opposite of the loop around the lake, so if you see a bear, it will likely be way up ahead and not when you suddenly confront it coming around a tight, narrow corner. As it turned out, I saw no bears, only one dog (on leash, yay) and a few cyclists, so it was pretty quiet overall.
It was 21C, which is pretty warm for 9 a.m. but not bad overall. Humidity was a sticky 78% and didn’t drop much, so sweating was copious and constant.
That said, the right shin, still a bit tender, is definitely starting to feel better, so I believe it’s officially on the mend. Because I always find a way to complicate things, last night I managed to pull at least one ab muscle, so I got to run with a mild ache on my right side. I don’t think it had much effect, other than just annoying me.
The switch to the river trail seemed to give me a little more pep, as I came in with a fairly zippy pace of 5:39/km, my first under 5:40 in a good while. Something that helped: Most of the trail was in the shade, with only one small section getting direct sunlight. Nice.
In all, a fine start to the week.
Stats:
Run 957
Average pace: 5:39/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Brunette River Trail
Start: 8:57 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:29
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 21°C
Humidity: 78-76%
Wind: light
BPM: 151
Weight: 165.7
Total distance to date: 6,615 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (210/463/673)
Music: Pop Stuff (playlist)