Author: dave Page 63 of 75

I just got a note from MediaChannel.org. They’ve posted some of the stories coming from the forums hosted by the Times-Picayune in New Orleans. The newspaper is devoting it’s full resources to covering the effects of the hurricane and many are using the paper’s forums as a way to try to communicate to the outside world.

(Note — This link may not be working anymore. When I tried to go back to it, I couldn’t get through. I suspect that high traffic may be playing havoc with it.)

But the threads are getting scary and they make for chilling reading. I feel so helpless when I read them, thinking about what those people are going through…if you want to help, I suggest you consider donating to the Red Cross, which is now accepting donations on behalf of the American Red Cross.

I’m back in Hamilton, safe and sound. We arrived late Saturday night, after a long, long drive from Wisconsin. Actually, it ended up a little longer than I expected, when I missed the transition from Hwy 2 to 28, so we took the long way across the top of Michigan. But we did make it home without any more problems.

Today, I’ve been glued to the TV, watching the coverage of Hurrican Katrina on CNN. What a show! I tend to be a bit cynical about the way that TV covers these dramatic events, but I’ve got to admit, I’m hooked.

True, the people on air are kind of crazy. They love to stand outside in the driving wind and rain when they should be just watching from inside…but it does make for compelling TV. And it’s pretty much kept me from doing any useful work this morning. I’m just glad I’m far enough away not to be part of a storm like this. Talk about the power of Mother Nature!

Well, here it is, nearly a week since my last post and I’m only now getting around to letting you know how things went at the Henley Regatta.
 
Oh well, I guess that’s what happens when you’re on holiday. I’m here at my cottage in Buena Vista, just outside Regina, Saskatchewan, where I’ve been enjoying a great run of nice weather. While I might start the day thinking of a few things to get around to, I seem to end up just muddling around. Updating my blog has not been on the top of my agenda.
 
But enough excuses. Here’s the update on stuff from Henley.
 
Jaime and her partner, Jess Southall, didn’t qualify their double in the semi’s, but they were still really pleased with their performance.
 
In the singles final, Jaime got fifth place, about eight seconds back of the gold medalist. While she would have loved a medal, she was really pleased with her race and she’s already looking forward to next year. She’s got three years left in her Senior B. category, so she’s in good shape to medal yet.
 
As you know, Kelly didn’t qualify for the singles’ final, which was a major disappointment. But in her doubles race, she and her partner, Laura Ceyrs, had a great run. They finished second in their semi, then had a great race in the final to come home with a bronze medal. Kelly says it was their best race ever and they are both really pleased with their result.
 
Today Jaime arrives here in Regina, ready for a two-week holiday before heading on to Victoria and another year at UVIC. Kelly and Spencer arrive in a week, so we’ll have a lot of fun showing him around Kelly’s home town.
 
That’s it for today. As I mentioned, I’m on holiday mode, so I’m not sure when I’ll have more to add. But in the meantime, feel free to add a comment here. I do check my mail from time to time and I love to get feedback.
 
 

I’ve arrived at Buena Vista, our cottage in Regina. It took a while…about 30 hours of driving, all told. And not without some adventures.

It’s late right now, but since this blog is titled “The Daily Upload” I thought I should make an attempt to start keeping up with my name. Or else change the title to “The Occasional Upload.” (More accurate perhaps, but not as sexy…) Anyway, before I hit the sack, I thought I’d brief you on our trip out here.

We started off with a problem. We were towing a trailer to Regina and we didn’t even get out of the driveway on Thursday night before the trailer lights stopped working! Big problem, given it was dark out, etc. I tried to solve the problem, while Heather went back inside, convinced the trip was cursed and we wouldn’t be going anywhere.

But after a couple of hours, I had figured out what was wrong (although I couldn’t fix it right then) and we decided to head off with just running lights. Not a problem, I figured, since we had hoped to avoid major city traffic along the way. But because we were late leaving, we ended up driving through Chicago at morning rush hour…and then Minneapolis in the afternoon rush hour. Oh well…we made it.

The trouble was, by evening, we needed to find a place to stop. We had planned to drive right through, but the delays and stuff were working against us and we were all bushed. A VW Jetta isn’t very big to start with, and it gets smaller every time you try to stretch out for some sleep!

We had hoped to find a hotel in Bismark, South Dakota, but the state fair (or something) was on, so at midnight we found ourselves with nowhere to stay! So we headed up to Minot, looking for a vacant room along the way…but nothing. The North Dakota state fair was also on this weekend. Not a room to be had anywhere.

So, by this time, I was exhausted and couldn’t keep my eyes open. But Cory was sort of awake (after all, he had just slept for about 20 hours straight) so he took over and we headed north from Minot. Alas, the highway we chose turned out to be under major construction, so at 3 am, Cory found himself creeping along a chunk of sand, with no lane markers, in a fog that cut visibility to about 20 feet or so! Quite a ride.

But Cory, to his credit, stayed with it and eventually the road improved and the fog lifted. So after crossing the border back into Canada at Portal, we crawled into Estevan at 4 am, got a hotel room and crashed. We finally arrived in Regina this afternoon about 3 pm, tired, but glad to have had a decent sleep.

Tonight, we arrived out here at the cottage, where I’ve finally figured out how to get an Internet connection, so I can check my mail and post this note.

No more pictures, unfortunately. I was going to snap some in the car on our trip, but my camera got buried in the trunk and I never did get it out…so you’ll just have to take my word for things.

That’s it from the Traynor cottage for today. Stay tuned and the big adventure continues!

I’ll be off-line for a few days soon. I’m heading back out to Saskatchewan with Heather and Cory.

Unfortunately, that means that I’ll be missing the Henley Regatta this year. It runs from August 2-8 in St. Catherines. Both Jaime and Kelly are entered in the singles and doubles competition and I’m really looking forward to their races. They’ll be staying here for a while longer. Jaime follows us to Saskatchewan on Aug 9 and Kelly is coming with her boyfriend on Aug 16. So we’ll still have a bit of time together before Jaime heads back to Victoria for another year at University.

But while I won’t be able to watch the races live, I will be able to follow the event pretty closely. The Henley Regatta has a website, and they plan to post the results pretty quick each day. Therre’s a link for Results and Photo Archives where I think they’ll be posting the finals. So we should be able to find out what happens as the day goes along. As long as I can get my Internet access working at the cottage, we should be able to keep an eye on things from Buena Vista.

We leave here on Thursday and we’re planning to drive straight through to Regina. We should be there in about 24 hours, assuming we don’t run into any problems. We’re heading through Detroit and Chicago, then up to Winnipeg and on to Regina. If I get a chance, I’ll try to post a few pictures from along the way…sort of a blogosphere record of our trip.

Talk to you in a few days.

Just a quick post after the Ontario Championships regatta. Kelly and Jaime had another good weekend, and they are both feeling pretty positive heading into the Henley Regatta in 10 days.

Kelly won the gold medal in the Under 19 Women’s Single, with a very convincing win today. This followed on a third-place showing with her partner, Laura Ceyrs, in the Under 19 Double on Saturday. Following their win last week in St. Catherines, they were a bit frustrated. But this weekend’s results just make them that much more determined to finish well at Henley.

Jaime chalked up her second silver medal in as many weekends, finishing just out of first place in her Under 23 Womens’ Single. She lost to the same woman that beat her last weekend. But once again, Jaime finished ahead of Caitlin Pauls, who Jaime also was ahead of last weekend, proving that last weekend was no fluke. Jaime also finished fourth in the Under 23 Women’s Double with her partner Jess Southall. They looked good the whole race, but they’re on the young side of the age bracket, and the maturity of their competition showed as the race moved into the later stages. They’re also looking forward to Henley.

I’ve got some pictures from the weekend, and I’ll put up some links when I get them.

More later…

You do back up don’t you? You know you should…but perhaps you’ve been avoiding it, thinking about it, but haven’t done it. We’re all guilty.

However, I’ve bought an external harddrive and I’ve been pretty good about back up all my stuff diligently. I’ve even backed up Heather’s stuff fairly often. But alas, I didn’t back up Kelly’s hard drive…nor did she. And a couple of weeks ago, it died. Completely. Very sad, as you might expect.

If you’re having trouble getting around to doing a back-up, or if you’re still depending on things like CD’s, tape drives or diskettes, consider switching to a hard disk. It makes all kinds of sense.

And while you’re at it, consider what John Cleese has to say about the issue. He’s the star of a hilarious new video about the perils of not backing up your stuff.

Thanks to GlennLog for pointing me to the Cleese video.

The full moon is bright tonight. Outside, the air is that perfect temperature (about 20 C) that makes walking at night so comfortable. It’s just cool enough that it’s refreshing, but still warm enough that there’s no urge to add more clothes. Indeed, the kids two doors up seem to have shed their clothes entirely! I guess they’re taking this full moon thing pretty seriously.

At any rate, I’m aware of just how nice an evening it is because I just got back from our regular walk (that’s me and all these dogs I’m taking care of.) I’ve got two of my own and I’ve been looking after my brother’s Golden Retriever for the last three weeks.

Taking care of three big dogs in the city is a challenge, especially here in Hamilton. This summer, the city has decided that the thing to do is to give out tickets to people if they let their dog off its leash. So they’ve been out in force in their white vans, driving around in the parks handing out tickets. That’s right…they drive those vans right through the parks! Talk about ironic. They’re so worked up about my dogs possibly leaving behind some personal calling cards that these guys have to whip around in their vans to prevent it.

It wouldn’t be so frustrating if there were any off-leash areas close by. But Hamilton doesn’t seem to like that idea. All the parks and trails are off-limits for dogs. The only off-leash areas are in Ancaster, Dundas and Burlington. Oh, and one way on the outskirts of Hamilton, on the way to Lake Erie, for crying out loud.

But enough of my troubles. Because I’m worried about bothering anyone else with my dogs, I tend to walk them early in the morning and late at night. Not only is it pretty deserted around here, but the weather is a lot more bearable as well. Tonight was a beautiful night, and the light of the moon made it really easy to track down those doggie deposits for my plastic baggies. Oh, the things we do for our animals!

But now to the point of my post (as if I have one!) I noticed the full moon on my walk and it got me to wondering about all the stuff you hear about people going nuts on the full moon and the emergency wards filling up, etc. So when I got back, I spent some time searching around for some interesting articles. My title refers, of course, to Lycanthropy, which, in folklore, according to Wikipedia, is:

…the ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into a wolf. The term comes from ancient Greek lykanthropos (λυκάνθροπος): lykos (“wolf”) + anthropos (“man”).

I didn’t run into any werewolves, but there were some pretty strange people hanging out over at the park. They scattered when I showed up with three big dogs, though.

But what about those urban myths about hospital emergency wards being so full and wierd stuff on full moon evenings?

It appears that science may have debunked that myth as well. According to a study called “The full moon and admission to emergency rooms” reported in the Indian Journal of Medical Sciences:

…the number of trauma patients was not increased during the full moon days against other days of lunar month. Statistical analyses of data didn’t exhibit a positive relation between full moon days and increasing of trauma patient admission to ERs. An association between assault and attempted suicide was not observed around the full moon days either.

Darn! There goes that theory!

And here’s another story about some studies that debunk the idea that people party heartier, kill each other and suffer more dog bites when the moon is full.

Oh well. I’m not even sure that tonight is a full moon. According to a complicated formula used to decide when the full moon happens, the moon is supposed to be full on July 21. Which is now. But I don’t know whether it’s supposed to be right now, or tomorrow (or rather today, but this evening…if you see what I mean.) I’m starting to get a bit silly here, aren’t I? It doesn’t really matter. The moon is as big as an elephant’s eye…that’s about all I know.

That wraps up my science lesson for tonight. I’m going to go sit out on the back deck and listen to the music wafting over from the neighbours’ place. Whether it’s because of the full moon or not, they seem to have a great party going. I’m too old to join in, but I can still enjoy the ambience. And I’ll keep a close watch out for werewolves.