Blair's Blog

Or is that weakly?

Mid-May we decided that it would be a good idea to join an urban walking club and see parts of the city that we weren’t familiar with and get a little bit of fresh air and exercise. Besides moping about the house engaging in the never-ending job search is wearing. A regular Tuesday morning outing sounded pretty enticing.

Brenda went on the first walk two weeks ago without me, as I had a phone interview. It was convenient, starting in Elbow Park not far from our place, and went through familiar areas – Britannia and over to Heritage Park. Turned out to be about 8km (plus another 1.5 to get to the meeting point) and to add insult to (near) injury all of the other participants (who are retired by choice, unlike us…) seem to be able to keep up a furious pace rather effortlessly.

Last week we were both occupied (this time Brenda had an interview) and so we missed the walk along the Bow River and through Prince’s Island. This week, though, we were both available and met up with the group in the Bowness area near the north end of Home Road. From there we did a 8.5 km walk along the escarpment on the east side of the Bow all the way up to Silver Springs. Not the community (well, that too), but the actual springs for which the community was named. I never even knew that the springs existed. It was a pretty fine day – warm with a clear sky and, having been doing a little bit of extra walking (and some stretching) we managed to keep up just fine.

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Yes.  It’s like Zeno’s paradox – the number of plates left to find keeps going down, but the end remains stubbornly remote.  The CNPS game continues at a slower pace than ever before – this year a miserly 35 plates were added to the total.   That’s half of the long term average since starting in 2003. After 13 years the total is now at 900 (previous years are recounted in posts linked by the CNPS tag).  The overall rate has been drastically affected by not just the transit-based commuting, but also the significant reduction in driving generally after moving into the city.  Last but not least, six months of unemployment is really not helping (and it’s not just the CNPS that is really hurting…).The alignment with St Patrick’s day may not be just a coincidence – the lack of progress is like being pinched and it could drive one to drink!

Speaking of St Patrick’s day – there is not much green about today.  We got up to a nice fresh dump of snow – last week I was marveling at the tulips sprouting in the garden and today I shoveled the sidewalk.  Brenda has had the better day – she is off to the west coast today to attend Fibres West with our friend Karie who runs Big Blue Moma, a retailer of amazing jewelry made from glass beads, woven baskets and fabrics – all sourced from Ghana. While Calgary was overcast with cold wind, Brenda and Karie were driving through the spectacular Rockies. Fibres West runs Friday and Saturday in Surrey, BC – if you are in that area be sure to look them up and buy a basket – or two.

Tags: CNPS, Travel

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One of the problems with Christmas is that there are far too many delicious goodies around the house – and this while the days are short and the weather cold. The antidote is, of course, to get out and get moving – something that we are finding a little easier to do now living in Calgary. We can actually walk though really nice parks that are just a few blocks from the house. Or, as we discovered over the holidays, just by stopping and walking while out running errands.

Over the past week, Brenda and I walked up Nose Hill on a bright clear day, took Chloe to the dog park in her new coat and did a long walk through Sandy Beach while the kids were swimming at the local pool.

The plan is definitely to keep up the walking – at least until the Christmas calories are dealt with!

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Christmas day has come and gone; the new year is just around the corner. It seems that this year has just flown by! The week leading up to Christmas Day was full of family activity; we hosted Brenda’s two brothers and their families on the 23rd and had twenty-one cousins, aunts and uncles over for dinner to celebrate Barry’s birthday and it wasn’t even a major milestone (unless you are counting in hexadecimal, then it’s 40). Barry and Breana and their 6 kids headed home on Christmas eve (after an all-cousins laser tag outing), then on Christmas Day we gathered with my side of the family at my Mom and Dad’s on Christmas Day.
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Tags: Christmas Update, Travel

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