A little Catch Up

So it has been a while since my last entry, and not too terribly much has happened. Just the usual work/eat/sleep/ride where required other than June 17th, which was the 1st of two "Car Free Days" on Commercial Drive.

On the 17th I went down after work, intending to volunteer my services if needed for the "East Van Chopper Fest" section of the event. I didn't sign up for a spot because, well, I forgot to do it sooner. But they had all the bodies neede to finish off the day, so I just wandered around to see what was there. There were lots of booths/tables etc. of various groups. I was a little hungry, but buying $5.00 smokie hotdogs and $3.00 bottles of water/juice is against my principles. Those prices were unconcionable. After about 30 45 mins I was back where I started, and met Bec. She had just arrived, so we wandered around together for a while, participated in some of the activities, and had coffee. We saw a lot of people we knew, chatted with them, just the usual socialising stuff.

I saw a really cool plush penguin in a toy store (but the store closed 15 mins before I noticed it). It was a crested penguin, but without looking at the tag I would not be able to say if it were a specific one or just a generic one. Since most of the crested penguins have yellow crest feathers and this one's crest was orange, and the "face" was black not white, it most resembled a Maccaroni Penguin (eventhough the crest's position was a little off). This was an exciting developement, actually, and besides providing inspiration via Bec for something else (it's a secret for now), it stuck in my mind as something to purchase on the 24th (eventhough I could come back sooner). Anyhoo, I took a few pictures of the Chopper Fest area, and later in the week put them on Picasa. I also put some other old pictures up.

Saturday the 23rd the weather was not too bad, considering the forcast and what it was like on my ride in to work, so I sent out an e-mail to see if anyone was available to go for a ride. Robert was, so we met down at The Gazebo, hung around for a bit, then we went off to the north and rode down by the harbour and eastward, under the 2nd Narrows bridge along the trail behind capitol hill. At Fell & Hastings we parted, he went back to town, and I went south along Kensington to SkyTrain and then the 321 home.

Sunday was really wierd. The weather was just spitting a bit on the ride in (although at first it was rainy before I started out and partway into the ride. Just enough to make it really grimy whenI had to change a tube, thanks to the usual shard of glass about the size of a piece of pencil lead tip). But about an hour after arriving, it started pissing out. Rain; no rain; clouds; wind; more rain; sun; clouds; rain; clouds; sun; rain....on and on changing frequently. I thought for sure my trip to purchase the penguin would be a soggy one. But then around noon it cleared up enough that it looked like the rest of the day would be sunny. When my shift ended, I began to clean the grime off my chain. It took a while. So just as I was finishing, it began to rain agan. Hard. I went back inside contemplating just going home, got on my rain gear, and waited for a bit. The clouds were moving north, so I waited some more, and there was a clear area to the south. All in all, abouth 30 mins after it began pouring, it was clear again. So I decided to go penguin hunting after all. Arriving at the store, it wasn't there in the window loike it had been last week, and the clerks didn't seem to know what I was talking about when I decribed it, in great detail. Then one of the clerks asked if I was sure it was their store, and not another one. Ooops! There was another store 1 block up. I went up the drive and found the right store. It didn't make much difference. No penguin on display, no penguin inside with the other plush toys, but I knew it was the right place because there was a tiny plastic penguin in the window as I had remembered (I have its twin already), and there was a clued-out clerk who didn't even know they had had a plush penguin (nor that there actually was a plastic penguin in the window). She didn't know when they might be ordering more plush animals..... not a star employee in my opinion. I'll have to find out when someone with a brain is on shift to make sure I get my Eudyptid (Crested Penguins are Spheniscus Eudyptes _____ ). Then when I was about to leave, Jeff Lost called, so I went and met him, we had coffee, but there wasn't time to go for a ride as David wanted me to join him and Tim for their usual Sunday at the Greek restaurant.

So I took the bus home (funnily enough, I met another of my local co-cyclists who happened to be in town, also waiting for the bus. He was already at the stop. We were chatting while waiting, and I told him I was heading back to go for my birthday dinner, so he said that if the bus only had 1 spot available, as his present to me, he would let me have it. 5 mins later, that is what happened). David came and got me and we went to Langley, ate and home again much later.