There could be some duplicates on this list. I didn’t check first because I also like being lazy.
A small but persistent annoyance in writing on my Mac mini is the way the mouse cursor behaves. Or in this case, misbehaves.
I noticed it when I connected my Logitech Marathon 705 via USB wireless receiver. Mouse movement would seem okay, but on closer inspection there is always some glitches in the form of the cursor jumping ahead or stuttering. I installed the Logitech drivers and found no change.
I then switched to a Logitech M720, which connects via the same receiver. The erratic mouse movement was even worse. I tried using both mice directly on my desktop, no mousepad. No improvement. I tried various things like software updates, restarting in safe mode and so on and again, no change. Jiggly mouse syndrome persisted. I did not want jiggly mice.
Searching for troubleshooting tips largely produced results that were obvious and unhelpful (“check to see if there is gunk in your mouse”) or obscure enough to make me wonder if Macs are just really bad with third party mice.
Since both tested mice are wireless and using the same receiver, I decided to try a different approach. I unplugged the receiver and plugged in my old wired Steelseries Rival 300 mouse. When I used this mouse with Windows, I quite liked it and only replaced it when I went wireless (with the Logitech G700, which I adore, save for somewhat short battery life). After plugging in the Rival 300 I waited a few moments, then moved the mouse. It moved exactly as intended. No jumps, no jiggles, no erratic behavior. It was super slow, as is always the case with the default mouse settings on a Mac (why this is so is a question left for the ages). I bumped up the tracking speed and voila, it is working just fine.
So now I wonder, is it the wireless receiver? Is it a Logitech thing? Would this happen with a Bluetooth mouse? I am okay with using the Rival 300 as a stopgap but given the Mac mini and PC share the same desk, I really prefer wireless for both. I’ll probably try digging out my old Microsoft Bluetooth mouse and see how it fares, as soon as I remember where it is. In the meantime, I accept a tail on a mouse to end the mouse mayhem on my Mac.
Also, to paraphrase Phil Schiller, as others have done a billion times or so already, “It just works, my butt.”
Berries in Burnaby.
Wearing shorts is not exactly unusual in the summer. I’ve been wearing them most days, though recently the weather has taken on a more fall-like aspect, leading me to occasionally wear horrible long pants.
But today the temperature climbed close to 20 degrees and the sun came out, so the shorts went on. It was nice. Being the second to last day of summer, and with rain forecast for tomorrow (update: It is very much raining on the last official day of summer), this is likely the last time I’ll wear shorts for summer 2019 and thus it shall be recorded here.
Summer 2019 was a bit odd. After two consecutive years of the worst forest fires ever, accompanied by weeks of haze hanging over the city due to the ever-present fires (see the yellow-tinged look to every photo I took on Barnston Island for evidence), this year I never even saw the FIRE DANGER signs go up at Burnaby Lake or the Brunette River, the first time this hasn’t happened since I moved to New West in 2011.
One of the reasons we opted for a mid-July vacation instead of late August was to reduce the chance of hitting a fire ban, because camping without campfires is sad and unCanadian. But the fire ban never came.
While we did have some hotter days, they were fewer in number and we never really had a hot stretch where everyone lamented how hot it was and wouldn’t it be nice if it cooled down and rained a little–at which point people would effortlessly switch to griping about the rainy, non-summer-like weather.
Running-wise it was great. I never encountered more than a few sprinkles on my runs and most of the time it was surprisingly comfortable for jogging, with a nice balance between warmth and humidity. I saw very few instances of dry mouth and nearly every time it was humid (sweat city) it was offset by temperatures being lower. And not having to run with fine particulate smoke hanging in the air was nice, too.
And yet I still lament in a small way the lack of a “traditional” summer where it gets hot and sticky (and stinky) and people complain about the heat. Because as horrible as it might be for running, as bad as it may be for the skin, and as terrible it might be with the greater risks to our forests burning, that feels like summer.
With the leaves turning and fall officially started tomorrow, I’m already thinking about winter. The long term forecast seems to be suggesting it will be milder and maybe wetter? I don’t think anyone really knows, given the climate upheaval we are clearly in the middle of. I’m just hoping there’s no snowpocalypse to match 2016-17.
But before the snow, there is still some time for more possible wearing of shorts before it gets a little too chilly to be a reasonable thing to do. Checking the 10 day forecast, the best opportunity appears to be…this Tuesday, with a forecast of mostly cloudy and a high of 18. After that we are definitely in more “people will start looking at you funny” territory.
I am writing this birthday post a day late because I got busy/distracted and forgot to do it yesterday, my actual birthday.
I turned 55, which is much better than not turning 55.
I don’t feel much different than I did a year ago. In fact, I’m probably in better shape now.
I got a mini-cake at work. That was nice. Everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to me, which I kind of hated, but I appreciate the sentiment.
I didn’t run after work, telling Jeff “I am invoking birthday privilege.” Despite not running and eating cake, I was actually down a little this morning. And I ran 10K today (see previous post), so I’ve more than made up for being a lazy sod for my birthday.
Other than that, it was a day much like any other. Official birthday dinner is tomorrow and I get to decide where. I have joked about going to Wendy’s for a couple of Baconators, but that would be grossbuckets. No offense to Wendy’s or fans of excessive amounts of bacon.
Here’s hoping I get another 50 or 100 birthdays. As long as I’m relatively nimble both mentally and physically, I say keep ’em coming.
Run 635 Average pace: 5:51/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 11:19 am Distance: 10.02 km Time: 58:36 Weather: Clouds and sun Temp: 15-17ºC Humidity: 75% Wind: light to nil BPM: 158 Weight: 164.8 pounds Total distance to date: 4760 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 2, iPhone 8 Shoes: Saucony Switchback ISO (120 km)
I set out to do an actual 10K run today and I did, yay.
My last 10K was before all the knee business started last spring. I checked and found it happened on February 3, 2018–594 days ago. Yikes.
On the encouraging side, my pace today of 5:51/km–which is almost exactly what I was expecting–is actually six seconds faster than that run 594 days ago. BPM and weight are both lower now, too, so it seems I am heading in the right direction.
This was also the first run after my birthday. I think 55 is still considered early retirement age, so perhaps I should be waving a cane and yelling at clouds, but the run went fairly well instead.
I started on the south side of the lake, just before the 0K marker. I did this because I expected to be slow and wanted to avoid the possibility of having to start a second loop to hit 10K. My devious plan worked. Because I had to run uphill and over a slippery dam and down narrow wooden stairs, I did not come flying out of the gate. In fact, it wasn’t until the third km that I actually came in close to my overall average pace. My best km was the last one at 5:32/km, when I applied a little gas to end on a high note.
I debated on how to dress before the run. The temperature was forecast to be around 17ºC, which was accurate, but there was also a chance of rain. I opted to risk that by sticking to a short-sleeved shirt and was glad I did because a long-sleeved shirt would have been seriously overdressed.
With high humidity but lower temperatures, I didn’t have to worry about dry mouth and though I was sweaty around the forehead, my upper body stayed surprisingly dry. Stamina was not an issue at all–I deliberately avoided pushing at any point, choosing to stick to a comfy pace and as I moved past the 5K mark where I’d usually end a run I was confident I could go the full 10K.
The knees did not hurt exactly, but I could feel them, especially on the back half of the run, but the stiffness was pretty minor. I even did some running on the shorter walk back from the lake.
The sky was cloudy at the start of the run, but the weather improved as I kept going and the sun eventually came out. Although we are still a few days away from the official start of fall, the sun has already lost that “gonna make you sweat like crazy” feel. It felt a bit warm, but that was all. A few more signs of impending fall are also on view–the lily pads are starting a slow retreat that will accelerate over the next month, and some trees are sporting copious numbers of yellow leaves, though The Great Shedding has not yet begun.
Despite being a weekday morning, there were a fair number of people on the trail, though there were no traffic issues, save for one jogger coming toward me on the same side of the trail. I was on the right side (in both senses) and did not alter course. She switched over, but seemed to do so reluctantly. Escalator rules, lady! Also, one big dog off-leash came up to me but fortunately did not impeded my progress. I was too in the zone to even offer a look to the dog’s owner.
Overall, I am very pleased at how the run went and now realize I could have been doing 10Ks earlier. I don’t regret the wait, though, because you have to be physically and mentally ready and the mental part was definitely not there yet. I am tentatively planning another 10K on Sunday, though the forecast is calling for rain and a 10K run in the rain would be poopy. But we’ll see.
Run 634 Average pace: 5:30/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 12:05 pm Distance: 5.03 km Time: 27:39 Weather: Drizzle, cloudy Temp: 14ºC Humidity: 90% Wind: light to nil BPM: 161 Weight: 165 pounds Total distance to date: 4750 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 2, iPhone 8 Shoes: Saucony Switchback ISO (110 km)
My Saturday run streak has ended at one. I slept in yesterday and ended up not running, so it was another Sunday run today.
The forecast was not promising–rain was expected and not just rain, but thunderstorms. Scary! And while it was a bit drizzly/misty to start, the precipitation stopped early on and it actually brightened up. The sun even poked out a few times post-run. We have officially entered the time of year where predicting the weather becomes tricksy.
After some contemplation, I opted to not go counter-clockwise and experience the freshly resurfaced side trails. I’m not sure why, maybe I thought the Cottonwood trail would be all slick with wet leaves from the earlier showers.
I had no issues during the run and with the temperature hovering around 14-15ºC and little wind, conditions were actually pretty nice. It was quite humid, but the lack of sun and cooler temperatures kept sweating to a minimum, though I would have been fine wearing a regular t-shirt rather than my long-sleeved one. My heart rate was up a little, as befits lake runs, but my average pace was a solid 5:30/km.
One of the things I had thought about before the run was pushing beyond 5K. In the end I didn’t do this for a couple of reasons. Somewhere between the second and third km I heard footsteps behind me. This is pretty rare, so I glanced behind and sure enough, another runner nimbly sped past me. At first I was content to let him go, then I decided to challenge myself and maintain pace with him for as long as I could. This turned out to be not long. I gave up, but consoled myself with the fact that he was probably 30 years younger than me–likely early 20s. Will he still be running when he’s 54? Will he be as fast as me? Perhaps. The extra burst of speed to maintain-ish pace tuckered me out a bit, and then I did a push toward the end to end the run at 5K. I just didn’t feel like going farther.
But then a funny thing happened. I began my walk out of the lake and after a few minutes I started to run. And I did not stop until I reached the dam. So I did a 10K of sort,s just with a few minutes break at the halfway point. Because I wasn’t running for speed or anything, my pace kept dropping from a low of 5:39/km to a high of 6:18. If I average it all out with my actual 5K run, my overall 10K pace would have been around 5:44/km, which is actually pretty decent considering my 5K runs were slower than that at the start of the year.
Next weekend I’ll try a formal 10K and see how it goes. In terms of stamina, I had no issue extending the run and while my knees felt a bit stiff as I kept going, they certainly didn’t present enough of a problem to stop me, though it’s possible they could have slowed me down a tad.
With the forecast gloomy there weren’t that many people on the trail but being Sunday there were still some out and aboot, with a few other joggers, and mostly people walking dogs.
I did end up running on the resurfaced side trails and they are still very nice. The Cottonwood trail was not covered in leaves, as I had feared, though that will change over the next month. I did have to do some puddle-dodging, particularly along the fields where the usual flooding was occurring. As much as I’d like them to resurface the long, tree-root covered Cottonwood trail next, this much shorter section clearly needs it more, as it floods when a kid spills his can of Coke.
An unexpected delight was the work on the Cariboo Dam wrapped up a month early (it was expected to be done by October 15). This means I can now come in through the regular entrance, which is more convenient and I like convenience.
Overall, a good run, especially with the unofficial 10K test. Here’s to going all the way (heh heh) next time.
I watched The Matrix again recently, having not seen it in its entirety since it originally came out in 1999. Some of the effects are a bit dated-looking now, but the bullet time and all that still looks spiffy.
The funniest part was Morpheus explaining that it was around 2199 in the movie, though Neo believes (as others in the matrix do) that it is 1999. You may be puzzled to discover that in 2199 we have touchscreen displays, but they all run on giant CRT monitors.
While I still enjoyed the movie, it almost felt a little too lean, because Neo’s journey from “I am totally not The One” to “I am totally The One and can fly like motherf’n Superman” seems a bit abrupt. Also Trinity falls in love with him for no apparent reason, as per The Oracle’s prophecy.
I am not really sure what to expect from the just-announced fourth Matrix movie, starring Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne-Moss, especially since the latter’s character died in the third one. But I’m expecting the CRTs to at least be updated to flat panels.
Here’s my middling warm take on the Apple keynote today, in handy list form:
Kind of boring overall, which makes the “By innovation only” tagline look even more silly.
Train at sunset, near Government Street, Burnaby. (Technically I’m cheating, this photo was taken on September 6th.)
Run 633 Average pace: 5:27/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CW then CCW) Start: 2:56 pm Distance: 5.03 km Time: 27:28 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 21ºC Humidity: 63% Wind: light BPM: 154 Weight: 164 pounds Total distance to date: 4745 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 2, iPhone 8 Shoes: Saucony Switchback ISO (100 km)
Today I was not feeling great–headache, queasy stomach and let’s just say me, the bathroom and the number 2 got to know each other really well. But it was a run day and I didn’t want to skip a run, so I perhaps foolishly headed out.
At first I planned to do a river run, but after walking to the far end of the river trail I had yet another strong urge to go to the bathroom, so I headed to the Jiffy John™ at the lake and after that, I figured I may as well run there, too.
In order to be as efficient as possible, I opted to run clockwise for 2.5 km, then turn around and run counter-clockwise back. I’ve done this a few times in the past, but this may have been the first time I specifically chose to do it.
Conditions were decent. It was cloudy and showers overnight meant it was quite humid. The air actually smelled earthy at times, which was not entirely unpleasant. I didn’t have to dodge any puddles, luckily, though slugs, beetles and one rather plump garter snake were out on the trail. In fact, I probably saw more slugs than people, a consequence (or perk) of running on a weekday.
I felt like I had a good start (pace turned out to be 5:13/km) and never had any problems at all, finishing with a zippy 5:27/km, my best pace for the lake this year, though it feels mildly like cheating because of looping back on the same part of the trail.
Overall, then, and especially considering how it might have gone given the way I felt today, this was a very good run. On to Thursday and the river and (checks forecast) and what is currently showing as a 100% chance of rain. Yikes.
Run 632 Average pace: 5:37/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 10:52 am Distance: 5.02 km Time: 28:13 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 18ºC Humidity: 73% Wind: light BPM: 161 Weight: 162.5 pounds Total distance to date: 4740 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 2, iPhone 8 Shoes: Saucony Switchback ISO (95 km)
Today’s run was done as if in reverse. I started out actually behind the average pace of 5:37/km, coming in at 5:39/km, and ended well below with the fifth km being 5:26/km–faster than my average on Thursday. Weirder still, I didn’t particularly notice any of this, I just felt good throughout.
But being slower on the first km is also interesting because I did run the side trails, now with the closed signs removed and the protective boards on the foot bridges removed. You’d think I’d glide along the super-smooth, root-free section of trail, but apparently I was so dazzled by the resurfacing that I slowed down to admire it.
Starting from the third km, I continued to pick up the pace, with the clouds shielding me from the sun, the temperature much lower than last weekend’s lake run, but humidity quite a bit higher–enough to ward off dry mouth, but not so much that I sweated like all get-out. Conditions were decent, in other words.
This is also the first time in awhile that I planned on a Saturday run and then actually ran on Saturday, so hooray for me!
The shirtless men thing was a bit odd. I had finished the run and was walking out from the lake when one of those tall, impossibly lean runners went past me, his shirt tucked into his shorts, the better to showcase the fact that his body had no fat at all on it. A short time later a similarly lean guy sans shirt passed. This summer I have not seen many guys without shirts (alas), so seeing two in a row was rather unusual. And they kept coming, sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs or threes. Not all were topless, but many were. I figured they were part of some group, but I none were wearing anything to identify the group. I call them The Mostly Shirtless Runners Club.
I ran a lot on the way out, but not as much as I could have because I also had to go potty and as I’ve established before, running and having to use the washroom is not a good combo.
Overall, this was a good run, with no issues of note to report. I was 10 seconds off the river run’s pace on Thursday, but nine seconds better than the last lake run, which feels about right. I may try for a 10K when I’m next running at Burnaby Lake, or at least try running more than 5K. We’ll see!