If I have some time to spare, I enjoy going down to Fraser Foreshore Park in Burnaby to have my lunch while watching wildlife and the working river.
Don’t Step in the Poop, Dear, People Want to Look at It
Don’t step in the poop, dear, people want to look at it. 🙂
Overheard today from a parent to a young child during a tracks and scat talk ‘n walk at the Kanaka Creek Stewardship Centre in Maple Ridge, BC.
Super event, great fun and educational to boot.
Folks taking turns observing raccoon tracks
Lovely Kanaka Creek
Scat with bones in it
Claw marks
The lovely stewardship centre
A cool bug
Yumi on the bridge
Moi enjoying the creek and forest
More Canon SX730HS Surgery
From the Don’t Try This at Home files 
.
Performed additional surgery on my Canon SX730HS using my trusty Leatherman.
Yes, you read that right! I dropped the Canon on pavement a week or two ago, smashing the metal lens-cover iris that opens and closes when the camera is cycled on and off. Otherwise the camera functioned fine, so I pulled out as many pieces of the iris as I could.
Over the course of the last week a few more pieces worked their way loose, so out came the Leatherman this morning.
Yeah, I’ve got DSLRs but this is the pocket camera that I have on me nearly all the time.
Paul’s Mish-Mashed Potato Pancakes
Paul’s mish-mashed potato pancakes.
Remember there’s leftover mashed potatoes in the fridge and get a hankering for potato pancakes.
Discover there’s less than half a cup left. Hm. See there’s rice in the rice cooker. Hm. OK, what the heck, about half a cup of potatoes, half a cup of rice, a tablespoon of flour, an egg, salt and pepper, and some sesame seeds. . .
Not bad, not bad at all
Fry Spotted in Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby
I spent a couple of hours after work this afternoon searching for fry in Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby. Success!
I spotted one near the wooden footbridge at the bottom end of the ravine, and half a dozen upstream and downstream of the Meadow Ave. bridge.
Din’t get any clear shots, but judging by the orange tails they were coho.
It’s always so rewarding to spot fry in the spring, for that means that salmon that came back to spawn in this stressed urban creek the previous autumn were successful in starting a new generation. Yay!
Ah, the Computing Life. . . Sigh
As I set up my new (refurbished) Windows 10 computer, I wonder how many hours, days, perhaps even weeks I’ve spent on building computers, installing operating systems, installing software etc. since I got my first computer nearly 30 years ago.
For those who missed the tale, the latest Windows 10 update kept bricking my last computer — the update just couldn’t complete without the result being a completely frozen machine. After three or four attempts cycling through three or four backup C images, I threw in the towel. It appeared that machine had some weird combination of hardware that Windows 10 Update just couldn’t work with. And Windows Update refused to stop trying to update, no matter how many settings I tinkered with.
So I got a refurbished Lenovo through Best Buy for $469 — 12GB of RAM and a 3TB hard drive. I’ve got Office 365 set up and running, ClipMate set up (I put this wonderful utility on every PC I have), and am now installing Adobe Creative Cloud and all of its apps.
It’ll be awhile before I have everything on the machine. It’s going to be a “where is..? oh, yeah, I still need to install it. . .” cycle for the next several days.
Rice Lake Loop in North Vancouver
If we’re on the north shore in Vancouver and have a bit of time, we love the quick and easy Rice Lake loop. It’s a fairly short, flat trail, yet the lake and the towering trees refresh the soul.
This female mallard was almost overly friendly — very conditioned to humans. No handouts from us!
We didn’t see any water life until Yumi spotted this caddisfly larva crawling along the bottom. These creatures are so cool — they build “shells” out of bark, leaf litter, sand, tiny stones, etc.
Merganser
That’s some excavating! Perhaps the work of a Pileated Woodpecker?
Drumming Flicker in Burnaby’s Taylor Park
I came across this Northern Flicker in Taylor Park on my pre-dinner walk late this afternoon. It was drumming on this metal can on a pole. If the guys are making noise, does that mean spring must be around the corner? : -)
Consequences of Car Crash Drag on for Weeks
A fellow ran a stop sign and T-boned our car nearly two weeks ago, and the recovery process is still dragging on. Thankfully it’s “recovery” as in getting life back to normal, not “recovery” as in being injured. I was fine, but our trusty 1998 Subaru Outback ended up being written off by the insurance company.
Dealings with the Insurance Corporation of BC have been great. Staff have been calm, courteous and helpful. While we’re not happy that it was decided to write our vehicle off, we understand there’s not much to be done for a nearly 20-year-old car, no matter how well we’d maintained it over the years. Unfortunately, we’re unlikely to get more than a few thousand dollars for it, but we’ll push for the most. I’m collating maintenance records, and bills of recent purchases of value like snow tires, new battery, etc.
Our insurance for replacement vehicle coverage will run out this week, so we have to get on with getting a new(er) car. ICBC extended the rental coverage by nearly a week because they’ve been inundated and haven’t provided us with a buyout yet.
So we’re shopping for a new vehicle, and while that’s exciting in some ways, it’s also stressful. All sorts of decisions to make like new vs used, cash vs finance vs lease, etc.
We’re pretty much settled on what we want. I want another AWD (all-wheel drive) vehicle. I loved the Subbie’s performance in winter conditions. My wife wants a hybrid, and unfortunately Subaru has none available in Canada.
You put “hybrid” and “AWD” together, and the result is Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, for the most part. There may be a few others that fit those parameters, but they’re too big or even more expensive.
We test drove a 2018 RAV4 Hybrid yesterday, and it seemed huge compared to our old Outback. Mind you a new Outback is also huge compared to the models several generations ago.
We’ve also considered used RAV4s, but it appears you’d save at most three or four thousand dollars if getting a recent “Certified Used” hybrid, so why not go new and get a full warranty, more financing options, etc.
Looking forward to getting this all settled as soon as possible!
Saying goodbye to our faithful companion of nearly 20 years.
Lots of memories associated with this car.
Both of my late parents were still alive when we got it. It transported hutches, dining room tables, coffee tables, armchairs. . .
My wife and I did dozens of trips across western Canada over the years. Many camping and canoeing trips. . . North as far as Kitimat, west to Tofino and Long Beach, east as far as Brandon, south as far as LA and Joshua Tree. . .
Dropped My Near-New Canon SX730HS
I thought I had the strap secure around my wrist, but somehow I dropped my near-new Canon SX730HS camera about 4 feet onto pavement today.
I picked the bits out of the iris at the front of the lens that opens and closes when the camera is powered on or off, and it’s cycling OK.
Found that an old Nikon F2 body cap covers the now non-protected lens nicely in the retracted position. Glad to have found a fix, but. . . Sigh. . .
