Centre Plein Air Bec Scie

After Christmas, Michele, Helene and I drove to Chicoutimi to do some cross country skiing.  Helene found a place near la Baie called Centre Plein Air Bec Scie.  On the first day, Dec.28th, the three of us did the 12.5 km trail.  On the next day, while Helene was meeting with the ski school at Mont Eduard where she will be teaching Alpine skiing this winter, Michele and I returned to Bec Scie to do the 20 km trail.  The conditions were excellent.  To see more photos of the ski trails at Centre Plein Air Bec Scie click on the Picasa link for "Winter 2010-2011"Picasa album for winter 2010-2011

Christmas Greetings from Brossard

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Jerome Experiments with Dry Ice

Katherine received a sample of appaetizers to taste test and the packages arrived packed in a styrofoam container filled with dry ice.  Jerome experimented with the dry ice.

Year End Update

Another year coming to a pleasantly quiet end.  Katherine has completed her academic requirementys for her Bachelor degree in Dietetics.  Helene is home for the holidfays from Chicoutimi, and Jerome is working at SAIL during his school holidays. Michele is now officially on holidays until Jan.7th.  The MPFSL project in Wales is on hold for a few months.  So, will take this opportunity to look for a transatlantic crewing position on a sail boat.  In the meantime, have been enjoying the ski trails at St Bruno again altough I haven't yet taken advantage of my new seven day pass having only used it so far on weekdays.  After several years of a moratorium, I made Christmas fruit cakes again in Decmeber for distribution to friends and family.  It was fun to do that again and the results look positive.  My Mom came to visit last weekend enroute to Florida.  Unfortunately, complications with her cataract surgery delayed her departure beyond the mandatory date for winter tires...so, I wasn't able to drive her down to Florida this year, but I should be able to drive down to pick her up again in April.   Will be joining a family gathering at David + Sylvie's place outside Ottawa on Christma Day, and then we'll (except Jerome who'll be working every day) head up to Chicoutimi with Helene to do some skiing for  few days.

First Snow Fall of the season

On Monday, Dec.06, the meteorlogiosts forecasted 4cm of snow...by early Tuesday morning, 16 cm had fallen and continued to fall most of the day for a total accumulation of 32cm.  While most of Mopntreal is complaining about traffic jams and poor snow clearing efforts, Michele and I will head off gleefully to Mont St Bruno to initiate our cross-country ski passes on the first day the park is open for the season.

1000km accumulated on bike

As of Oct.23rd, my odometer had registered 1000km for the season.

Bag Count up to 29

Raked 19 bags of pine needles and maple leaves on Oct.26th bringing the season's accumulated count to 29 bags to date. The maple tree on our front yard has spent all it leaves, but as the video shows, leaves migrate, and the front yard raking won't be over for a while yet.

Autumn Bag Count Begins: Count = 2

OK, so it's not exactly Fall yet, but some of the perennials are showing signs of giving up. So, I'm getting ahead start and clipped the Day Lilies down in the driveway flowerbeds. That, along with a small amount of weeds plucked from between the flag stones along the side path, yielded two bags full. And so the Autumn bag count begins for 2010.

Family Doctor

Every day of the last week of August, when I was at the clinic with Jerome for the change of his dressing, I stopped into the office of the lady who's responsible for the making the schedule of the new doctor. I wanted to know when the schedule would be ready...she said Spetember 1st (that's not a Monday which is the day on which she had previously said she made her schedules). So each day I poked my head in her office, to get her to confirm "Mercredi prochain?"..."Oui", she'd reply. So, early Wednesday morning, Michele and I showed up at her office and managed to get an appointment for the entie family. Yeah!! Jerome and I will be up first on September 14th.

Family Doctor 2nd Update

Michele called the clinic again today and was told the schedule has not yet been made for the new doctor at the clinic and suggests we try again in September. Aye yi yi!

Family Doctor Update

So, Michele called on Friday to find out if the schedule had been done so that we would know whether to show up at the clinic on Monday (yesterday) to schedule an appointment with the new doctor. Once again, the schedule had not yet been done and they still won't create a waiting list of those waiting for a chance to be assigned a family doctor. How hard can it be to make a schedule? So, another week passes without success.

Family Doctor

Michele and I arose at 05:30 yesterday in order to be near the front of the line at the clinic. When we arrived at the clinic at 06:30, there were already about 40 people waiting ahead of us. The clinic opened at 08:00 and, as it turned out, almost everyone was waiting for blood tests. So, Michele and I were near the front of the line for the inscriptions with the new doctor...turns out that although yesterday was supposed to be the day for inscribing new patients, the available appointment schedule had not yet been set up. Such bureaucratic inefficiency is typical within our medical civil service. We were told to come back next Monday by which time they "hoped" to have the schedule ready. Recently, the Quebec government announced their intention to pay with public funds for in vitro fertilization. We can't afford to boost our population of doctors, but we can afford this. The clinics are now in panic mode because they cannot keep up with the "in vitro" demand and the OBGN's are warning that there definitely won't be enough of them to meet the anticipated wave of pregnancies nine months from now ad infinitum. It has been speculated that this recent decison by the government is nothing more than a shallow attempt to gain more of the women's votes. Just another example of Quebec tax dollars going to good use.

Wales

More photos available at http://picasaweb.google.com/dcrowe2/Wales#

On May 16th, I flew to Cardiff via Amsterdam to discuss a business plan for a possible laytime service company. On that particular day, the airports at both Cardiff and Amsterdam were closed due to volcanic ash drifting from Iceland. So,the plane was redirected to Frankfurty where KLM organized a bus to drive us to Amsterdam. By the time we got there, Cardiff had reopened, and I was able to catch the final flight to Cardiff within 30 minutes of the bus' arrival. Michele arrived on the 20th at which point we rented a car and headed off to Pembrokeshire for 4 days of hiking along the coastal trails near St Davids. After dropping the car back in Cardiff, we took the train north to Bangor where we caught the bus to Llanberis and then another bus to the Pen-Y-Gwyrd Hotel in Snowdonia within hiking distance of the summit at Snowdon, the UL's highest peak. There we enjoyed another 3 days of hiking in the craggy sheep filled hills. Weather was great and unusually warm and dry. Returned home on May 29th without incident and now busy with imposing some sense of unnatural domesticated control over the garden which has a propensity to go wild when not closely attended.

Busted

On Monday, Apr.26, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather before our trip to Wales to repair the lawn and to plant a couple of decorative pots. So, I made a mix of peat moss, black soil and grass seed and spread it over the damaged areas of the lawn, and purchased a new hisbiscus bush and a laurel tree. There were weather wanings of snow for the next day, but I thought, "how bad can it be?"...the weather was hitting the high teens for several days now, and if it snowed, it wouldn't be a lot, right? I woke up on Tuesday morning, and, indeed, it was snowing, and it kept snowing (non-stop) the entire day. I dragged the hibiscus pot into the garage, but the laurel was immovable (save for digging it up again which I really didn't want to do)...so, I went out a few times to brush off the accumulating snow under which the delicate branches were drooping. On Wednesday, temperatures rose again to 19C...Tuesday's weather was a pure fluke, and I got caught trying to dodge nature's whims too early. Live and learn.

First lawn mowing of the year

Rose at 04:00 in order to drive Helene to Longueuil where she would meet her lift to Quebec city at 05:30. Today, I mowed the lawn for the first time this year. There are a few spots that need to be augmented with seed and soil. Went cycling with Michele in the afternoon. Bought a travel guide for Wales at Indigo, hiking boots (with Jerome's employee discount) at Sail, Michele bought a skirt at Winners and groceries for supper.

Picking up Mom in Florida

Returned from Tortola around 19:00 March 31st, and the the next morning, I commenced the 25 hour drive to Florida. Stayed with Heimo and Hedy again which may well have been the last visit they have in King of Prussia before moving to Boston where Hedy will start her new job in a few weeks. Made it to Jacksonville the 2nd night and then Jensen Beach the following afternoon. Went to the the 3 hour Easter vigil at my Mom's church. Helene and I were both away from home this Easter. She as in Chicoutimi. I saw the last scheduled launch of the Shuttle Discovery at 06:21 about 90 minutes prior to departing Jensen Beach. It looked like a fast moving planet in th darl early morning sky. Returned to Ottawa in two days stopping enroute to say a quick hello to David and sylvie and to Kathy and Marie.

Tortola

After many years of dreaming about it, Michele and I along with David and Sylvie enrolled in a sailing course in Tortola, British Virgin Islands and were certified for USS Basic Keel Boat, USS Basic Cruising, and USS Bareboat Cruising. The course was offered by Offshore Sailing and consisted of 2 days of sailing aboard a 26' Colgate punctuated each day with academic sessions. Then we moved onto a 43.4' Beneteau for 5 days of day sailing amongst the islands. The weather conditions were perfect (as usual for the area) and we had a great time learning the basic art of sailing under the tuteledge of Daniel Duggan-Jones (ex South Africa). Michele and I stayed another 3 days at the Long Bay Beach Resort where we snorkeled and limed. See more photos on the Picasa site (Tortola 2010)

Spring Crocus

The crocus and snow bells are blooming nicely in the back garden as is the geranium in the solarium. Another record breaking day for weather as the temperature reached 13.8 degrees (beating the previous record of 13.6). Cycled 41km today...a bit of last minute shopping in preparation for our trip tomorrow and then to Chambly and back.

Path to Chambly Open

Yesterday was my last day (again) at Fednav. Today, the bike path is now nagigable all the way to Chambly. One more day of cycling before our trip to Tortola. Weather yesterday and today hit 13 degrees C which beats the 1990 record highs of 12.8 degrees on the 16th and 12 degrees on 17th.

Scotch Pine Needles

The mild end to winter this year means an early start in the garden. There are still patches of snow on the front and back lawns, but yesterday, March 13th, after raking the exposed parts of the lawn, I still managed to collect 4 big bags of scotch pine needles. This year the city plows really messed up the side lawn when pushing the snow away from Muariac bus stop. Michele called city hall to complain and they said that it was not the city per se, but the contractors hired by the city who are responsible. The lady at city hall took our address and said that we would be placed on a long list of lawn repairs to be accomplished but warned that we should not expect to see anyone until June! After raking, I went along my usual bike path to see how much closer I could get to Chambly. Each day, the snow recedes a little more, but as of March 13th, the path is still covered in snow. Managed to go along one section where the path is reduced to a single very narrow lane. Expect that next week, the path will be fully open. Upon my return, I weighed in at 200 lbs, that's exactly 22 lbs lighter than I was a year ago and 16 lbs lighter than I was 3 months ago. Good evidence that exercise helps enormously.