Also known as the bell curve run, as I was fast-fast-slow-fast-fast. Imagine an ASCII bell curve here.
First, I wore three layers, as it was only 5C:
A sleeveless t-shirt base layer
A long-sleeved shirt
An Echo hoodie (for those unaware, this is very light, more like a shirt with a hood)
In the end, I think two layers would have sufficed, but I wasn’t exactly cooking, either.
I opted for the river trail instead of the lake for a couple of reasons (it’s lists day!):
Less walking while I get my HRV back up to balanced and also into a more regular run routine (I don’t want to burn myself out doing too much too soon)
The weather forecast changed again, threatening showers earlier, and I have had my fill of rainy runs for a while
The trail was nice ‘n dry, with no other joggers, but several groups of people out walking. One person had a dog off-leash (boo) but the dog seemed old and was extremely chill.
I got off to a good start, maintained for the second km, then slowed a fair bit on the third, before resuming to a strong finish and overall pace of 5:38/km. BPM was a tad higher at 154, probably a combination of effort and the cooler temperature.
Overall, a perfectly cromulent start to the week.
The river, post-run, wearing its late fall look.
Stats:
Run 989 Average pace: 5:38/km Training status: Productive Location: Brunette River Trail Start: 10:48 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 28:23 Weather: Overcast Temp: 5°C Humidity: 82-79% Wind: light BPM: 154 Weight: 166.9 pounds Total distance to date: 6,775 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (35/55/90)
Speaking of snow, while I still generally dislike the accursed white stuff (yes, I hate fun1Fine, when it first starts falling, it’s pretty and all that, but then comes the slipping and sliding and the slush and why is that patch of snow yellow?), this animated GIF always instills a wonderful sense of calm and quiet:
Going forward, I am pondering a few things for December, writing-wise. I kind of want to do a more focused blog, but I’m still unsure if I have enough to focus on to make it worthwhile (and what of the bazillion platforms I would use for it, though I’m leaning toward Pika). I am organizing some of the fiction I’ve posted here previously, making it easier to read and, hopefully, enjoy!
The good news, such as it is, is that my weight didn’t budge from the beginning of the month to the end.
The bad news, of course, is that I was up over 3 pounds the previous month, which means I am still effectively up. I was trending back down for the first half of November, but I sought retreat in the comfort of food (mmm, food) in the second half, as stress took its toll on me, and a kind of ennui crept in. I think I’ve shaken most of it off now, but looking ahead, December is not historically known as a slimming month.
And I really want some shortbread cookies.
Still, despite standing still, some encouraging signs:
Body fat actually declined
BMI (a stat some view as a bit dubious, admittedly) did not change
Muscle mass climbed a tiny bit, which is fine, because I don’t expect it to ever move much, but up is always better than down
For December, I vow to remain donut-free, but my (lofty?) goal of hitting 150 pounds this year is not going to happen unless I spontaneously have liposuction and plenty of it. But if I can at least be down in weight for the year, I will build on that in 2026, The Year That Has To Be Better Than 2025.
Stats:
January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds
Current: 166.2 pounds Year to date: Down 0.6 pounds
November 1: 166.2 pounds November 30: 166.2 pounds (unchanged)
Body fat: November 1: 24.7% November 30: 23.4 (down 1.3%)
Skeletal muscle mass: November 1: 29.6 kg November 30: 29.6 kg (up 0.3 kg)
BMI: November 1: 23.8 November 30: 23.8 (unchanged)
It was a day where it felt colder than the temperature alleged, even without wind. I wore three layers, which turned out to be the smart thing to do.
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
Rusty the pipe, with a moody-looking sky behind.
Reifel’s gates were open, likely due to the very grey skies and cooler temperatures. We were rewarded early with an Anna’s Hummingbird (several, actually, fighting among themselves, as is their way). On the way in, we passed a multitude of ducks, then came across the first very busy feeder, where assorted sparrows, juncos, and others were grabbing seed and spraying it all over. This was the only active feeder that did not have a squirrel either sitting inside it or lusting after its contents from nearby.
We saw multiple squirrels, and these guys are definitely getting quite chonky as winter approaches.
A Golden-crowned Kinglet proved typically elusive, but we ended up getting some decent shots as it hopped madly about above us. Just as elusive, but much more sedate, a rare sighting of an American Bittern on the outer dyke. There was a large group of people gathered, facing toward the marshland. We surmised that they were not shooting a tree as there are no trees in the marshland. What they were shooting was a somewhat shy American Bittern that was standing surprisingly close to the trail. It very slowly moved out and we got some nice shots because, like their relative the Great Blue Heron, they do not exactly speed walk. It was surprisingly oblivious to the large number of people pointing their giant lenses at it. They look lumpy, weird and delightful.
Nic inquired and found out that the local Sandhill Cranes are now hanging out with a larger group that have at least temporarily settled into the far end of one of the fields adjacent to the sanctuary. There’s over a dozen total. It will be interesting to see what the local ones will do when (presumably) the others finally decide to take off.
We again so no geese here.
The drama was left to a couple of female wigeons, who make weird “rrr rrr” sounds that sounded like engines revving, quite unlike their usually pleasant pees. They chased each other, making a big ruckus, then both flapped afterwards, each convinced it was the victor, perhaps.
The coots were well-behaved, in comparison.
And we saw a whole gang of Buffleheads, moving in a group and often diving as a group, making shots a matter of timing.
We saw multiple Northern Harriers and I successfully tracked them, but they were far off, the light was so-so and most of my shots were a bit fuzzy and grainy. Fuzzny. Alas.
Still, it was all worth it for the Bittern.
Centennial Beach
Boundary Bay was rather colourless.
It showered a bit on the way to Centennial Beach, but was dry by the time we got there. It remained very cold, however, so we did a more abbreviated tour. We saw a House Finch and a few other sparrows, and shorebirds, but the tide was in, so most waterfowl were father out. We did get some good shots of a typically grump-looking eagle in a tree–and yes, it was actually perched along Raptor Trail.
There was also a bunny, but I was looking in a different direction and missed it before it hopped back into the brush. Oddly, they seem to hang out a lot on the Raptor Trail, which seems sub-optimal for rabbits.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
Blue sky threatened for a few minutes at Burnaby Lake.
Piper Spit had only a handful of people out and no one was feeding anything. The only feeding taking place1technically there was other feeding going on was a seagull picking away at the carcass of an ex-salmon. As Nic says, the skin is the best part.
The Dowitchers were quite close to the pier, which made for some good shots, and there were geese here, occasionally honking, as is their way. The pigeons mostly stayed in one tree, all poofed up from the cold.
The cormorants were back, or still here, hanging out in what now appears to be their usual spot, east of the pier. I wish they would hang out a little closer, but it’s still nice to at least see them.
And here we saw our first scaups of the season. I couldn’t tell if they were lesser or greater, but they didn’t seem gigantic, so I’m calling them lesser for now.
The coots here were also well-behaved.
In all, a fine, if brisk day for birding.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
Gallery soon™.
A robust gray squirrel at Reifel.A rarely-seen American Bittern, also at Reifel.
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Cold, with a touch of mist.
I missed two runs this week:
Monday: No good reason, I just didn’t want to go. Bad.
Wednesday: Waited all day for a delivery that never arrived. Thanks, massive retail conglomerate! The weather was decent, too.
But today the weather was clear, if cool, so I headed out nice ‘n early and did an actual run at the actual lake. I wore two layers and shorts. This proved sufficient for the 6C start, the coldest yet this fall. A lot of the water had mist pooling over it, which was a nice effect.
The first km revealed what a week off, plus a cold start can do–my pace was a slothful 6:01/km. I expected the rest of the run to be similar, but actually found my form fairly quickly, with the last two km coming in under 5:30, bringing my average pace to 5:46/km, pretty much the same as my last run a week ago. My BPM was higher at 153, probably a combination of the colder weather and the time off.
I didn’t experience any issues during the run and even passed another jogger, woo. The trail was mostly dry but there was post-run puddle navigation required around the sports fields. The trail there is legitimately terrible now. I should really write a letter.
There were more people than usual, I’d say, no doubt brought out by the sun, but not enough to become an actual crowd.
And after the run, I had about a dozen people on horseback turn onto the trail ahead of me, which was different. None of the horses pooped, which was nice of them.
In all, a nice return.
Still Creek, post-run. Looking like winter three weeks early.
Bonus shot: Mist before starting out:
Shot from the Avalon parking lot, pre-run.
Stats:
Run 988 Average pace: 5:46/km Training status: Strained Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 9:57 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 29:01 Weather: Sunny Temp: 6-7°C Humidity: 83% Wind: light BPM: 153 Weight: 166.2 pounds Total distance to date: 6,770 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (30/51/81)
Music: The Turn of a Friendly Card, The Alan Parsons Project
I used my iPhone 12, which has developed the interesting habit of sending all phone calls to voicemail and sometimes not even letting me know someone has called. More on this later!
This morning, as I went through my usual routines, it occurred to me that I might be in a funk. It’s funny how these things sneak up on you. It’s like being in a store and realizing they are playing Christmas music, then running, screaming, from the store.
Well, maybe not quite like that.
I’m no funkologist and my self-diagnosis could be off, but I think it’s a combo of factors:
Stress from various sources has been accruing.
My diet (re: snacking) has deteriorated as I seek comfort in delicious calories.
The urge to pursue creative stuff (drawing, writing–such as on this blog) has waned in favour of more passive pursuits–not exactly doomscrolling, but maybe things adjacent to that.
I have missed a few runs due to circumstances, but yesterday I just did not go. This is probably the biggest warning sign. Running is a very Zen pursuit for me, so deliberately avoiding it is a good signal that something is amiss1Not counting not wanting to run in torrential rain, which has happened a few times lately.
I don’t think I can pin the start on any one thing, but perhaps a tipping point may have been when I chatted with the cardiothoracic surgeon and got confirmation that surgery is in my future, barring some imminent breakthrough in medical technology. I think it has rattled me, because it’s made me start going through various “What if?” scenarios where the harmless little blob to be removed may be less than harmless. Or more broadly, it’s possibly set off subconscious thoughts about mortality in general. I’m not sure. The brain is a strange place.
But being aware is the start of making changes for the better, so here I am writing, even if it’s just to acknowledge the thing, hopefully with more helpful changes to come. And I promise not to buy Pop-Tarts, even if they are on sale.
I was in the area of Lafarge Lake on Saturday and despite the weather being rather soggy, took the time to stroll the 1.2 km path around the lake. I saw a surprising number of waterfowl, including:
American Coots
Buffleheads (a pair of males)
Canada Geese
Hooded Mergansers
Mallards
If the weather had been better and I’d had my camera, I could have gotten some decent shots. As it was, I took some scenery pics. Here’s one I converted to black and white to be all artsy.
Having a gander outside before the run, I could see it looked like that kind of steady drizzly rain that doesn’t seem like much, but actually gets you very wet. I chose to wear a long-sleeved shirt, my running jacket (the snug one designed more for warmth than to keep me dry), plus for the first time this year, I donned my sleek ‘n sexy running pants.
This combo seemed to work reasonably well. My phone stayed dry in the pants pocket and the jacket absorbed enough of the rain that I was relatively dry underneath. I didn’t wear my actual running rain jacket because it’s kind of big, the hood flops around and it doesn’t really keep me any drier. The pants seemed like a good call for this run, too.
As for the run, yes, it was wet. I had many puddles to navigate. I saw a couple of mad people walking dogs and no one else on the river trail. I felt I would be slower and was, coming in at 5:45/km. It’s fine. My BPM was 147, which is good. The watch weirded out again with the walk before the run, claiming an average BPM of 67, which is literally impossible. I checked my heart rate right after this and it was 105, which is exactly where it would be on the walk. This is the second time it’s gone bonkers during a walk, but it’s behaved on all runs so far, at least.
And the new band is on, so I didn’t have to test how well the gorilla-taped band would hold up in wet conditions. The new band is yellow and snazzy:
Having missed yet another Wednesday run, I am hoping to hit all three next week and hopefully at least some of them will be dry. It could happen!
The river post-run: It stopped raining shortly after I took this photo.
Stats:
Run 987 Average pace: 5:45/km Training status: Maintaining Location: Brunette River Trail Start: 12:53 p.m. Distance: 5.02 km Time: 28:54 Weather: Steady light rain, heavy drizzle Temp: 8°C Humidity: 88% Wind: light BPM: 147 Weight: 166.7 pounds Total distance to date: 6,765 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (25/38/63)
I’ve seen references to sleep tracking via smartwatches being about 80% accurate, best at sleep start/stop times and kind of sketchy on the rest. This is sometimes presented in the context of, “Would you trust a heart rate monitor that was only 80% accurate?” The answer, sensibly, is no.
And so it is with my Garmin Forerunner 255. When I bought it two years ago, it replaced a Series 5 Apple Watch on my wrist. I lost a lot of smartwatch functionality–I can now see messages, but can’t reply on watch. Nearly all of my iPhone’s ecosystem is cut off from it. It mainly tracks steps, heart rate and my workouts–mostly runs.
I accepted the trade-offs and don’t miss the things it doesn’t do. For running, I prefer it over the Apple Watch, because the screen isn’t touch and it operates just as well in the rain as it does when it’s sunny. The interface is controlled by buttons, which can be easily pressed when wearing gloves. It’s functional and works.
Because the battery life is so good (I charge it when I jump in the shower–this is all it needs to stay topped up), I use it for sleep tracking.
Two nights ago, it gushed about how great my sleep was and gave me a score of 83/100 (Good). Last night it did the opposite, giving me a score of 60/100, which is only 1% above “Poor”. It said stress was high, I was restless and awake a lot. I just generally had a lousy sleep.
Except when I woke this morning, I didn’t feel I’d had a lousy sleep. I felt good. I felt rested.
Was my watch lying to me or was I lying to myself? Maybe both my watch and my body/mind were engaged in some fibbing? I have no way to know for sure, short of taking a scientifically sound sleep test.
But it did remind me of times past when the sleep stats didn’t match my perceived experience and that 80% estimate of accuracy. Smart devices can be helpful, but they can misdirect to where they cause stress that would not otherwise exist. I’m more mindful of that now than I was two years ago when I got the watch, so “bad” sleep nights that don’t feel bad to me don’t get me down, they just make me go, “Hmm.” And most of the time the watch’s report matches my experience, so I don’t think much about it at all.
Ironically, part of the reasoning for the low sleep score was the watch’s claim of yesterday being stressful. In the morning, the band snapped in two and I couldn’t find anywhere local that sells replacement bands. I ended up grudgingly ordering a knock-off band from Amazon, then used a bunch of gorilla tape to put the original band back together (for now). So if there was stress yesterday, it was the watch that caused it. 😛
My awesome watchband repair job.
Bottom line: Don’t let a smart device dictate your mood or life. Think of them as what they are–imperfect advisors.
I’ve been using LanguageTool to check my spelling (and to a lesser degree, grammar) here on my blog and it’s been fine, other than being kind of obsessed with commas. I recently came across Harper, which is an entirely offline, private grammar checker and started trying it out today.
My impressions so far:
No obsession with commas
It seems a tad more basic, but covers the essentials
UI is functional, but could be a little nicer
It really is fast
No AI!
It is distributed by Automattic, so if you have issues with the creator of WordPress, you may want to stay clear
I’m going to stick with it for a while, but if this sounds interesting to you, it’s available as an extension for Firefox and other browsers. Learn more about it here.
Yesterday I had an appointment at VGH1Vancouver General Hospital with a cardiothoracic surgeon, a title I did not know existed until the appointment was made by my family doctor.
We have to go back slightly over one year (and in reality, even further back than that to some unknown time) to trace up to yesterday’s visit to the above-mentioned surgeon.
In December 2024 I experienced what seemed like a prostate infection and was treated as such. For a time, the antibiotics worked, then they very much stopped working. I had blood work done and was re-diagnosed as having a bladder infection and took more antibiotics.
In January, the antibiotics stopped working again. I ended up at the ER of Burnaby Hospital early in the morning, in a state of mild delirium brought on by fever. This time the big guns came out…more blood work, of course, but also a CT scan.
The infection had spread to my kidneys, which required antibiotics delivered by IV (which lasted for 11 days), and the good news there is that the treatment ended my infection story for 2024/2025–unless something happens in the next month.
But the CT scan also revealed something unexpected–a small mass near the top of my chest, just over 2cm in diameter. My family doctor did not think it was serious, so ordered an MRI on a low priority basis. It took 10 months to happen, as noted here.
Ironically, the MRI was inconclusive.
But that catches us up to yesterday, in which the surgeon told me:
More blood work will be done, to detect for markers that would indicate if the mass is cancerous. The surgeon doesn’t think so, but wants to be sure.
I will get another CT scan, at VGH or possibly UBC, due to the MRI being inconclusive.
Another test will be done at a cancer clinic that may take a while before it gets scheduled. He used words I’d never heard before, I may go back to ask for more details on this.
Surgery! The S word!
He explained a couple of things regarding the surgery:
Cancer is not malignant or benign, but exists on a spectrum. He thinks the lump I have falls on the benign side, but could still cause issues.
Asking nicely will not make it leave (OK, he didn’t say this, but I was thinking it)
He described the old-style surgery: cutting open the sternum (breastbone) and yoinking it out. While cutting open the sternum is not dangerous, it does make for a more complicated procedure and recovery.
He then described the new-style surgery:
Going in through the side–no bone-sawing needed!
Surgery time: 2-3 hours
Recovery in hospital: Typically a few days
Recovery at home after: About two weeks
After recovery, all regular activities can be resumed
I am not keen on getting surgery–it will be a first for me–but if it’s gotta be done, it’s gotta be done. For now I await the sheet for the next round of blood work.
Between getting blood taken and various IVs, I have probably been stabbed at least 8-10 times this year, with more to come. I would not have predicted this a year ago, and if I had such powers of prediction, I would have picked winning lottery numbers instead.
Here’s to 2026 being The Year In Which My Health Is Very Boring And Normal.
