Nearly Bedtime

So here're the blurry handlebars out on the open, car shy road on my birthday morning ride. I headed out to Elbow Falls again last Saturday, desperate to get another 100+km under the belt early in the winter season (may not be a big deal for riders in Sheffield to be out in February, but it certainly is in these bloody big mountains). I was very eager to avoid the blizzards of the week before and alas, the weather remained fine and I was an hour swifter than the previous week (or I like to think that turning 32 just made me faster!!!!!). Maybe it was also something to do with the fact that I actually took more food than just a Cliff Bar and gel this week too for the 4+hr stint (a jersey pocket stuffed to the brim with peanut butter and jam sarnies and fig newtons! - damn things froze up a bit though and made for crunchy chewing).
Yum Yum

The most bizarre twists and turns are taking place at work, but I just can't be arsed to drone on about them at 9.30pm on a Thursday - I've just staggered off an hour and a half on the wind trainer and need sleep - so maybe next time I'll begin with the strange tales from Foothills Academy.....

Brina's supply teaching at Morley still, and things are good there (as good as a class full of crazy reservation kids can be anyway). All else remains very much one course to be perpetually mundane - although my spirits are lifting with the sunrises creeping into the drive to work now; it makes you feel almost human again when you can actually see a bit of light in the sky and when temps aren't Brass Monkey freezing.

The weekend involves many chores, but I'm afraid that's all I can muster at this witching hour. A smoothie and bed await (not at the same time).

Dreaming of all things carbon,

Nighty Night,

S&S.

Ostrich Williams

Hi All,
So here's to a blog sans negative nonsense like last week's pitiful number. In true Williams style I vow to bury my head in the sand; a la ostrich, and hope that all the difficult stuff in life just disappears when I pop back up again (this method of living has gotten me through to almost 32 years of age - so why change the habit of a lifetime?). It's not quite that easy as I am having to enroll in some course (which, if you recall, I cursed adamantly was not an option last week) to maintain my teachability status (don't want to lose the holidays and the cash) - although as of yet there is no confirmation that the courses I'm looking at will be finished in time - so my professional employment really does hang in the balance (time to get my head back into the sand).

Anyhow, here's a piccie of Mrs. W. musing over the view when we had a bonny hike up Elbow Falls Rd at the weekend. Rather nice of somebody to think of putting a bench there for us to take lunch on. We got out into the hills on a lovely day - the temps were above zero, the sky was that wonderful Alberta blue and it was a spot on way to relax and realise things aren't so bad! It was nice to get out into the sun too!
I'd ridden out to the same area on Saturday (excited that biking outdoors is more of an option) but got caught in a ridiculous blizzard on the way home. The forecast had been for snow on the day I rode out, but heading into the hills there was no sign at all (the bad weather sneaked up behind me from the East). Brina had asked if I would need to be picked up if it started to snow, to which my cocky response was something along the lines of; "you wont be able to come rescue me if the weather goes tits up in the TransRockies will you!?! so no". That'll teach me - in the head on blizzard and 70kph+ winds I endured for the last 2 and a half hours of the 5 and a half hour ride, I was desperately hoping the misses would be coming to save me - alas not - a good character building ride that's for sure!As for the snowboarding/ski-ing front, resorts remain the only option. Discussing the avi conditions with Mr.Weible over a pint in the week we reached the conclusion of "what's the point? There's always next year" - after two more people died this weekend, one was a chick ski-ing near Boom Lake where Brina and I x-country skied into last year, and which is a truly amazing place, but it'll still be there next year when hopefully the snow pack will be somewhat more stable. The big problem is that every slide tends to bring the entire winter snow pack with it - right down to the rocks - so each avi is at least over a metre deep (plenty of natural slides in K country this weekend, so you don't even need some dickhead snowboarder to trigger them!). Maybe things will consolidate and stabilise as Spring arrives - but highly unlikely.

Just a note - remember to take your phallic boomerang banana storage guard with you on any hike - it's a must, and a fine comedy talking point (bye, bye to banged up banana's in the backpack - genius... another Dragon's Den production).

May all of your thoughts be ignoring the bad crap that's going on,

Keeping it bright and Cheery,

It could be worse after all,

S&S.

Grind....

Everything seems to be grinding to a halt at present. I'm finding it a struggle to get my sorry backside off the couch in the evenings (for anything other than the windtrainer - although I'm taking it a little easier on that this week too after a rather intense none stop 6 week training block since the New Year). The lethargy has even encroached into my idle internet searching time - hence the lack of blog posts since 6th Feb (seems to be an emerging trend for 2008 - Williams the slack bastard - in the doom and gloom energyless state that I am at present, the end of the blog may be nigh. We'll see).

In order to alleviate such syndrome of down in the dumps, a long cross country ski was in order on Sunday (wasn't keen for a 3 hour sit on the wind trainer). Having loaded the car up, got myself kitted up, I hopped into the beloved Focus, and ....... nothing! Battery dead as an Iraqi Dictator (and now it was time to re-think the day and get on the windtrainer for 3 hours). Clearly the pic suggests a touch of frustration - but that was overwhelmed moreso when I decided to hike down to Canadian Tire to buy a battery - twas a mere minus 9, so no big deal. Alas, I hadn't considered that a car battery may weigh a little more than a pack of four AAAs - and hiking home with that thing was not a joy. Even the frickin' car is getting in on the 'down in the dumps' act. For you Brits about sniggering with mirth preparing to hurl a tirade of abuse my way for using the term 'frickin'', well I just thought that 'fucking' was a tad harsh on the poor old car - and also my Nana might be reading this... On which note, Nana is having a torrid time health wise and so a stint home to Blighty at Spring Break to see her is going to be the order of the day! Furthermore, to add to the woes (although none quite as pressing as Nana's health) it looks rather unlikely that Alberta Ed will be certifying me for next year - yawn, yawn, yawn... I'd harped on about this last year and thought I'd gotten around it - but they only gave me a temporary fix, and now expect me to sit a load more courses (27 credits!!!!) at Uni to be fully fledged to teach here! Well, there's no fucking chance! (apologies Nana, but Alberta Ed does deserve both barrels of my abuse). School have been great so far and keen to keep me - but things are coming to a head there too and I'll probably be flippin' burgers in September!

Brina's dayhome still seems to be taking shape and should be up and running soon (she's having a test run tomorrow as she has to look after the neighbour's two kids - one of whom has never been left alone by Mum before.. sounds like a day filled with "wwaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" to me. I've had a professional development day at school today (no kids - just developing us as educators in group sessions - yeah right!) that's if you call professional; filling in my training log planner that was discretely tucked inside my P.D. folder (inside which was double tucked a Harrods lingerie catalogue - you've gotta love BlackAdder).

It's family day on Monday ("bank holiday" for Brits, just "holiday" for the rest of the world), so Brina and I are off to those big pointy chunks of rock covered snow out west that I've been missing for the past couple of weekends (another contributor to the solemnity no doubt).

I hope that you are all manically cheery and full of piss and vinegar, and I promise to be somewhat upbeat and excitable next time (by when I may have ticked over to a melancholic 32 years old!!! bugger!)

Just off to find the Prosac,

Love to you all,

S&S.

Let me send you to sleep

Hi all,

clearly nothing too exciting has occurred in the void that was last week as I would have eagerly posted it on the blog earlier than Wednesday evening. The Cochrane routine continues; rely on Kicking Horse's finest coffee beans to get motivated for a day with whining teenagers, come home, eat, ride the bike, fall off the bike into a coma for eight hours - repeat Monday through Friday...

The razzamatazz of the Superbowl did grab my attention somewhat this Sunday however. I've really bought into the fanfare that America sticks to its rather over the top sporting events, but even this was a bit too much for me. Despite thoroughly enjoying the game aspects of the Superbowl, the four hours of hype leading up to it were a bit too much to take and I couldn't stomach the "half time show" - When Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers come waltzing onto the pitch flailing their guitars and beards in the middle of a sporting fixture, you know that things are getting a bit out of hand (imagine the abuse you'd get for doing that in the middle of the FA Cup! - not that I'm championing hooligans!).

I've had the delightful task of teaching sex ed to grade 8 kids at school this week. An hour of giggling about willies and boobies is rather draining - and the whole fanny thing here means "bum" which still catches me off guard! I had to reluctantly get involved with the kids "special" questions that they had asked of a sex ed councilor who came in last week, but who left me to pick up the pieces of her special questions - so today was spent trying to address queries such as; "can you get full body condoms? can you get pregnant from a golden shower? (crying out loud these kids are grade 8!) is there really a bone in your todger?" etc... Not one of my more comfortable lessons that's for sure! One student confused abstinence with aboriginal and went on a whole tirade about how being aboriginal is so important until you're married!

Brina's been out at Morley teaching again and I'm expecting her to come home in headress and mocassins by the end of the week (said the spokepeson for First Nation relations).

Jeez, I've got nothing else to drone on about so shall leave you with the nonesensical brevity that is this post.

I'll have something good to harp on about next week (I'm sure!). Obviously I've not piccies of the week (pretty certain that you don't really give a toss what the new couch looks like - I've got nothing else...) So here's a little ditty from Vail high street - me and the chicks....

Desperately hoping to redeem myself next week,

In the meantime avoid all talk fo fallopian tubes with 14 year olds...

S&S.