1000 Kilometers!

     As most of you know, my goal is to ride  my bike minimum of 1000 km (625 mi) per summer. Today I reached that magic number. In fact, when I got home today it was 1001.97  kms. 

     What am I going to do now? Quit? Never! I will continue riding until the weather shuts me down. I hope to ride at least another 100 km. One year I even made one ride in early December.

     Making my goal this year was a bit of a challenge. We had a lot of cold and wet weather. You always think it will get better so you wait . I got very little distance ridden in April, May, June and July. We had a perfect August so I rode about 500 km . I had a problem with a leg muscle so for a while riding was a challenge.

This old bike has rolled 9000 km (5625 mi)

    So I'll ride until snow, ice and low temperatures stop me. Then I will think about riding next year.

Grammar Police

       I listened to an interview with Steven Pinker the other day. Pinker is a psychologist who specializes in communication. He's written a number of  books on the topic and is known world wide.

       Pinker's latest book deals with effective communication. Guess what? He says throw out the rules. So I assume that means toss the grammar.

      Now a couple of bloggers I follow have from time to time written about good writing and the rules that guide us.

     I started to think about his proposition. As a blogger, I rarely think about the rules. I like to spell things correctly and my friend, the spell check is a great assistant. I like to be able to write something that will make sense to the reader. If it doesn't make sense people will not read me and not follow me. I do go back over what I've written to see if it makes sense. I add more information to give the reader a fuller picture of my topic. But I don't really think of the rules. I don't think about sentence structure. I don't watch my punctuation. I've forgotten what dependent and independent clauses are. I end many sentences with prepositions.

    Now to make an admission. I was a Middle School language arts teacher. I thought grammar was important and spent much time trying to teach it. I taught grammar every year until I retired. It got harder and harder because they stopped teaching it in elementary school. All my colleagues stopped teaching grammar. And now I've forgotten most of what I taught! So Pinker's proposition got me thinking.

    Now I look around at the blogs I follow and enjoy. They get their point across and describe something interesting or present an interesting idea. I follow some awesome photographers. They don't just let their photos do the talking but they add great descriptions and discussions. If I was to consider the writing abilities of different bloggers I would soon quit blogging. The fun part of blogging is to have something to say and be able to pass it on in a meaningful interesting way and have readers respond.

    So do you think the rules should be rigidly applies?

Owl Award

      On a number of past posts I have mentioned the Red Deer River Naturalists. I have belonged to this group for a long time and participated in their activities.I have a link on this blog to their web site.

     This group is dedicated to the study, preservation and enjoyment of natural history. We try to promote the preservation of native habitat so that native plants and animals can survive and thrive. There are only small portions of native habitat left and these patches are fragmented. 

     I have been a member of this group for many years and have been on the board for a long stretch...long enough to be given the Owl Award. The Owl Award is given to some one who has been a long time board member. Needless to say, I was pleased to receive the award this year. For a small group we've accomplished much. We conduct field trips and have regular monthly speakers. These activities are open to the public. We also follow municipal development plans and comment on improvements that can be made. We've also developed educational programs for children.

I never saw a microphone I couldn't like

Something for the top of the book case

    For the presentation I was asked a few questions. They asked me if there was some one in particular who influenced me. Yes, it was my Mom. When I was about 4 my Mom asked me if I wanted to see a pretty bird. She took me down the road 400 m and we crossed the ditch and crawled through the brush. I came face to face with a mallard drake. I've never forgotten that moment.

   I was also asked what I would like to see in the future. I didn't really give them an answer. I would like to see things as they were a 150 years ago before the white man came and destroyed this beautiful area. I would also be minus 75 years old and that would be cool. 

    This award is one that is very meaningful to me.

Anti fanatic

      I haven't posted this week.

      I've been thinking. It hasn't done me much good though.

      I've been thinking about fanatics! I've been puzzling my brain. Fanatics get stuck on certain things and then they are not able to look after day to day things.

      My blog sometimes interferes with my daily obligations. Blogging has made me into a bit of a fanatic. I've got certain things to do on the blog and I work hard to get enough time to do all the blog activities. I like to read posts, make comments, read comments on my blog, look for other good blogs and post . All this takes quite a bit of my time.

      On the other hand, I have some anti fanatic behavior which helps to balance things out. I don't watch TV. I watch less than ten minutes of TV in a whole year! Some people are TV fanatics. That's OK with me. However, sometimes watching TV gets in the way of our daily responsibilities. 

    I'm an anti fanatic when it comes to sports. I don't watch sports, follow sports or talk sports with the guys. It's okay with me for people to be sports fans. It's an activity that pays benefit in many ways. We need sports. I have followed sports in the past when I had time.

    So I pick and choose the things I like and enjoy them to the fullest. I think most people are that way.

    Do you balance your life? Are you a fan of some things? Are you an anti fanatic of some things?

Trifanatic

       There, I coined a new word!

       Most readers know that I am a fanatic about ice skating. Many of my posts are on skating. Most readers know that I am a fanatic about cycling. I cycle a minimum of 1000 km (625 miles) a summer.

     One other thing I'm a fanatic about is bird watching. I don't get nearly enough time as I would like to watch birds. 

     Sunday I was to meet a group and spend a couple of hours bird watching. I managed to mangle the time and location so as a result I did not meet up with the group. However, that was not a problem. I spent time on my own. So there I was with binoculars and camera looking for birds.

     Sunday here was very windy. Birds stay close to cover when it's windy. As a result I saw only two birds... a couple of female common mergansers. I didn't even see a crow and we are in the middle of crow migration. They will probably leave this area in about ten days.

     However, all was not lost. Fall colors were in abundance. So I got some photos to show a great area for birding.

    The Red Deer River Naturalists have just finished a birding guide for Central  Alberta called Central Alberta Birding Trails. We hope to set up a website so that people can download the map we produced.

Usually you find many species and numbers of birds on this section of river

The fine trail I had to follow

The other side of the river always looks more inviting

Young poplar 

A clump of trees at the edge of the parking lot

Escarpment view

A Colorful Day

    Fall colors are well under way here. We had too severe frosts last week. I know that frost doesn't cause  fall colors but just maybe hurries it along.

   This week was one of those weeks where everything bursts into color. Today is very windy so I went out to get some fall colors before many of the leaves are blown away.

   Many of our native trees have dropped their leaves. Nursery trees are later and tend to hang onto their leaves longer. 

  There was an extra special on batteries today so I walked over to the mall . I decided to take the camera and catch some fall colors. My trip took longer than the usual 40 minutes , but I made it home in time for lunch.

Crab apple

Chokecherry

A birch contrasted to green around it

A mixture

Crab apple

A different kind of yellow

Native poplars

Skating Season is Upon Us

        As some long time followers know I skate all winter. I have also posted on skating about 15 times. So I have probably said all there is to say about skating without repeating myself.

Trusty equipment

       In my town we have senior skating on Tues. and Fri from the first Tues in Sept to the last Tues in April. This year we skated until mid may. So seniors have many opportunities to skate.

     Skating ability varies widely but everybody has great fun. We get good exercise and socialize with some great people. My skating has even improved a bit over the years. I've come to know some great people in skating. 

     This year I'm more satisfied with my skating than last year. A few problems gradually crept up on me for the last few years. For some reason a major muscle on my right leg weakened and another muscle tried to compensate for the weak muscle. It resulted in some scary weakness in the right leg. It got so bad this spring that I went to physio therapy. They explained what had happened and worked with me and gave me stretches and exercises to do. When they say 12 reps three times a day , they mean it. I didn't get up to that amount and got discouraged because little improvement occurred. I finally had to say to myself, "Look, this is going to take effort." I put in the effort and have improved greatly. Everything in my daily life improved. My cycling has improved. I was almost ready to quit cycling. I'm close to where I was a few years ago.I hadn't noticed that there was a problem until it was almost too late. 
   
    There's only one thing wrong with skating! We should have many more skaters.