99to1

Another night ride last night.
While answering my buddy's question about the Brisish sit-com The Office, I took my eyes off the trail.

It was the wrong place to do this.

I went down and my right knee connected with rock. Not usually a good combination. It is probaly the worst accident I've had in years.

(Thankfully the floating bone-chip in my elbow doesn't interfear with sirsasana)

Actually it was not a bad fall, and I'm sure I'll mend up just fine. Typically I do not ride ouside my comfort margin on the trails, and stick to simple trails for night riding.

Well I broke those two very sensible rules last night and am paying the price today. I've got a really good scrape, and some swelling. The scrape is the painful thing right now, as it is yet undressed and it's in contact with my pants. Will drop by the company nurse today to see if I can get it dressed. Did a cold jet of water for five minutes in the shower, to lessen the swelling, and applied Traumeel. I had a bit of a chill in my bones from the ride, and could not bring myself to actually ice the knee.

The weather again was just spectacular. Very clear sky, dry conditions temp around 1 deg C, or about 34 F, very little wind. It is my favorite time of the year.

It is so wonderful to be pedalling through the trails at night. We also did coffee; that's what it's all about.

Lights off, sitting on the forrest floor, part pine/maple with rocky terrain, a fresh cup of latte, in between conversation this lul takes over, and the world stops. The moon was big in the sky just over one of Rougemont's lower peaks (humps), behind a thinly cloud veiled sky.

Just splendid.

Here's a shot from Feb'03 in exactly the same spot.

From the conversation over coffee last night; Giovanni, Drew and I.
Drew: ...anyhow, this guy looks quite unusual (describing a colleague)
Gio: How?
me: gonna be hard to explain...
Drew: the letter b
me: what?
gio: huh?
Drew: the letter b, he looks like the letter b...
me: it's true! A capitol B...
Gio: letter B? like Banana??
me: naw that'd be like an I
all: slight pause to take in the image...and a burst of laughter

Took this photo Tuesday night, with the last bit of battery power. Nothing left to even upload the photo...a few days later, the batteries are recharged and I'm tired of limping around.

Still a fair bit of swelling, and my pants pull tightly over the scar when I bend at the knee.
Stairs are awfull.

Speaking of bikestuff...
I found this photo last week and Loren scanned it for me. It was taken around 1987 on Mt. Royal when it was still legal to ride. It wasn't taken by me and so I don't have a negative for it. Rosalie took it, and I doubt she'd have a neg either. Glen was there as well and I know I have some shots of him as well...someplace.

A few of the details I can see/remember...
-Suntour XC top mount friction (pre-indexed) thumb shifters
-Bell V1-Pro Helmet
-BRC bike (probably post marinoni paint job and thus roller-cam rear break)
-Diacomp brake levers
-Custom drilled brake hanger in the steering stem (thanks Mark)
-Jeans, shirt, no gloves, no proctective glasses

Got a chance to see Christine (aka Shanthi-Pants) this weekend. She's from Ottawa, but is currently living in Toronto. Christine is my first Ashtanga teacher, I met her at a small studio in Toronto a few years back. She was doing the two Ashtanga classes at a place called The Yoga Room.

That little studio was the brainchild of Keri and Brendan. Well ok really just the brainchild of Keri, though Brendan is a supportive husband and played a big part in getting the business up and running. Brendan and Keri are now in British Columbia and no longer in yoga business.

I had bought a pass to Keri's studio, mainly in an effort to help out by populating the new studio...I'd drag along anyone I could to get Keri some exposure in her new business. That's how I met Christine and came to learn about Ashtanga yoga (even though Glen had been trying to get me into it for a while).

Turns out Christine will be moving to Montreal, probably by the end of the summer, if not sooner. She'll be teaching yoga and assisting Cam Thai (sp??) in some respect in his Thai-massage business. Apparently she's already got offers to teach at Darby/Shankar's new shala, and also with Nicole. It'll be great to have her in our fair city, it'll be neat to see how our bi-lingualism changes her over time.

We had a nice breakfast in Old Montreal and I showed her my photos from India. She had some great stories of a friend of hers currently travelling there now, including her recount of her friends yoga enquiry at the doors of AYRI.

Apparently the friend is a little sensitive, perhaps even shy and introverted, and she went to AYRI only to ask questions about practicing there. She has no understanding of Guruji, or the shala, or even of the practice of Ashtanga...

Her story goes a bit like this...
I found the place (ayri) and went in, an old man came out and sat at a desk he smiled at me and asked "where's your money?"
"I want to learn yoga..."
"learn yoga...need money...no money?....bad lady...come back tomorrow"

I think she was pretty freaked out, almost in tears even. Poor girl.

Anyhow it was nice to see Christine and get a sneak-peak at her 2005 calendar, she a photographer and produces a calendar of her black and white photogrgaphy. She mainly uses a Holga camera that exploites most of the typical Holga characteristics...light leaks, cheap plastic lens, square format images due to 120 film. I ordered two of them.

We're going to do some training for internal employees.
We informed the engineering dept we needed a minimum of two days preparation time to deliver a two day course. The course starts tomorrow, the afternoon today is reserved for set up of the classroom. That leaves this morning as our only prep time.

We have just now been given the latest release of the software, and access to some special datasets. Apparently it's a very new version with major changes from the version we know.
In fact it is considered an entirely new product.

So by the time I finish placing the data sets and installing the new software, it'll be time to set up the classroom...less then a few hours is what we're left with to prepare...ahhh software development.
Training off the cuff...again.

Well on the 5th my colleague (Gilles) and I spoke with the product manager about the training to be done on the 6th (Tuesday). We said that we did not have enough time to spend with the new version before the course, and asked for it to be rescheduled in a way where we would get 2 days preparation for the 2 day course.

Promising that the software was due that night, or worst case the next morning we would reschdule for Thursday the 9th. We would end up working and doing preparation with the software on the 7th and 8th...and even the 10th as we scheduled non-consecutive days for the training...

Wednesday the 8th, my typical quitting time was 16:00 at the latest (I start by 06:30 am), and by that time the software still had not been released.

Gilles and I finally ended up with our new installations by about 19:30 at night...

No 2 days of prep-time...over 12 hours at work, spent essentially waiting for the software...

We did day one of the training on Thursday, not bad, not good.

I worked a half day Friday to minimize on overtime, and gilles ran into some trouble with the prep work we decided on Friday morning...

Now its Sunday, the 2nd day of training is scheduled for tomorrow. There's probably four hours of work to do for tomorrow's course. I don't want to spent part of my Sunday at work, mainly because its not fair to Loren and I really don't want to travel in the snow (we received aroud 25 cm or 10 inches of snow since Friday).

We're going to wing it again...oh boy

Well Sunday afternoon I ended up at work trying to run some processes on the instructor's workstation. I needed to prepare some output data so we would be at least a little prepared for Monday morning.

The size of the typical input for projects with this software is huge and the processes take some time to run. Makes doing a 2 day course kinda challenging when you don't have enough time to prepare things.

Now it turns out one of the core processes is giving errors.
I'm not happy.

I've got some good output data for the course labs, but now the machine won't run an inportant process.

I hope the s/w engineer has reinstalled new software and that's the reason for the errors...I hate to think that the same version we used last week just stopped running.

One hour and a half left to the start of day 2...

I'll wait to see what Gilles says about his work Friday afternoon, and the current state of affairs. He's usually got good input for how to proceed in a crisis.

Last week was almost down to juice only. I had about five cashew nuts mid-morning.

Today I'm going for all juice, I bought three different types of apple juice, and a nice banana-orange.

Might be kinda tough while doing a training session, being at the front of a class for 8 hours is very demanding. If I can do this today, I should be pretty well locked in to a solid weekly routine.

Oh yeah...next week I'll also drop the morning coffee. I know it a very bad way to start a liquid fast and will pull this final plug next week.

Loren and I watched Being Light, apparently the third in a french trilogy, and a film called Aberdeen.

In Aberdeen we were really looking forward to seeing some beautiful shots of Scotland...like in Breaking the Waves (same director) but it was void of any such visual beauty.

Being light was partly filed in India, it ended up being quite exciting and touching to see the Indian segment. All the driving scenes were quite tame in terms of chaos and horn honking. I'm looking forward to seeing the other two soon.

Neither one of them are worth recomending (unless you really need to see good Indian content).

Is much beter now.
I've got full range and no pain.
Will have to wait for the skin to heal now. We're tentativly planning a Wednesday night ride this week. It'll be the first with snow, we're planning to retire the summer bikes and go fully ridgid.
Will have to find time to swap pedals and tires.

A bowl of Flax multigrain cereal, with vanilla soy milk.
Low fat apple cinamon muffin
(I forgot to clean the muffin tray at home so had to settle for less than spectacular home-made)
Old fashioned apple juice, with pulp
Good cup of coffee

Wonderful break-fast.

She's a masotherapist specializing in myofascial release.
She's also very concerned with structural alignment.

Ever since Raymnd changed to AIS Active Isolated Stretching I've been looking for a deep tissue bodyworker. Chances are good I'll stay with her.

Last weeks visit was more gentle than her typical treatment I think. Well until she started into my calves. I think they will be getting a pummeling today. She mentioned that my short achillies tendon contributes to tension in thoracic spine, and I think she's starting with my calves.

I told her the only other Hilary I know is my god-mother, and that she is a living saint...

Hilary said that there's a chance she's my aunt's evil twin...

Oh yeah another funny thing...
Last week the client who left before me, on his way out, thanked her for the torture...
Not so unusual and kinda cute, but it was the way she responded that made me wonder...

It was ab-so-lute-ly my pleasure

Well 2 days have been and gone.
Overall, not good, not bad.

Actually that's not fair...with less than a couple of hours exposure to the new product Gilles and I did a very good job.
Am now quite excited about developping the new training program to accompany this product.

Now we've got to get ready to demo this to our department division. This time in two hours!

Well at least from the knees down...
Hilary did some very deep work last night, she started by releasing tension in the arches of my flat feet. Then lots of uncomfortable work deep in my calves. She's taking up the work of helping me with my chronically short achillies tendons, and my flat feet.

When I squat now, like utkatasan, my knees actually move forward a ways before my heels lift off the floor. Also rear end drops much closer towards floor.

Her technique is on one level quite simple, she want's to know when her manipulation is about a 4 on 10 in terms of discomfort. Then she hangs out there at that point until tissue releases and my perception of discomfort drops, and then increases the depth of her manipulation and repeats a few times.

She also did some skin rolling down the outside of thighs, this stuff is really not pleasant at all. Feels like skin is about to tear. Actually on the underside it is sort of is. It's tearing away from the fascia and other tissue that its become sort of fixed to.

She says she wanst to achieve a cat-skin like result where you can easilly grab/pinch a layer of skin and it can effortlessly (and painlessly) lifts from the underlying tissue.

meow--ouch

Well it's way too elaborate to recount via the story with the chronology and all the details...

I had a drink with George Bush, actually we got kinda drunk.
At a certain point I remember thinking clearly to myself I am in a truly odd situation, this will be really interesting.
Then a wild and crazy elaborite dreamscape ensues, as mentioned way too complex for words...

And then this out-of-place character catches my attention walks up to me and passes me a small card, I read it and hear his voice say exactly the same words on the card, more or less as I read them...
"This will be really interesing..."

It was as if his only role in the dream was to heighten my awareness, to get me to pay attention to some very important things about to happen. Because he was gone as those words were left ringing in my ears.

And then it got very strange...

One of the strangest things about the dream is that it was like a story with events that seems to speed up towards the end... with all the events reaching a resolution just as my alarm rang

So...its 04:15, I'm wide awake looking at my darkend ceiling, listening to my cellphone alarm ringing...completly stunned by not only the timely resolution of the kooky elaborate dream...I'm also doubley [sp??] stunned by the absolute and total crystal-clear recollection I have of all the events of the dream...I'm almost in shock

It's a sign, I'm sure...but I'm not sure of what...

A sign to get up and practice?
Or to stay in bed and sleep?
If I went back to sleep, I could get more of that spectacular dreaming activity....hmmmm

Then I'm struck by the quote from the Zen article I sent to Glen yesterday...

Do you want to lead a comfortable life? Or a meaningful one?

Promptly got up and went to the mat...sun sals and first 2 standing postures.

It's been a long time

Work is over for a while...
A couple of little projects keep Gilles and I busy right up until the end. And now a few days off to spend with Loren and family, am looking forward to it very much. Dons 24th, Pops the 25th, Hannah and Colin the 26th and inlaws after that...hope I get a chance to unwind somewhere along the way.

I've decided to bring the camera to Pop's. The idea is to do an individual photo of each person there. It'll give me some time to be alone with them all, and hopefully offer an opportunity for us to reflect on all the years we spent there with Nan and Pop and a way to remember Nan.

Loren is at Ferns I'll be calling her shortly to come home. We're going to have a fire, finish our wrapping and enjoy a home-made eggnogg.

A few last minute things to get tomorrow...should be all done by mid-day.

And soon enough 2005 will be upon us. I plan to make daily asana a much bigger part of my life (it's been quite abscent) as I miss it very much. I hope Loren's schedule will permit us to have at least one mid-week practice time together. Oh yeah!! gotta call her...and get our holidays under way!!

Is now over...
Loren and I have had a really nice time with friends and family. Don's place Friday night was fun. It's the only time that those of us left on my fathers side of the family get to gether. Donald is my father's brother's son. It means a lot to him that we make it to his place during the holiday and keep on, with what he probably sees, as his only tradition. He's now off to see his mother and his aunt in Florida for a few days.

Dinner at Pop's was also quite wonderful. It was our first time there as a family since Nan passed away. Uncle Mike from Toronto was missing, as well as Virginio. So it was pretty much the usual gang.

On a selfish note, it would have been nice if Mike and Nino had been there for the picture taking (ok it would have been nice just to have them there). If I get around to doing something special with the photos, I'm sure their absence will be obvious.

I did feel like a photographer again. It's been a long time that I hadn't used the Rolleiflex. Using a medium format camera is a blast, this one, an sl66, has this grand honkin ker-klunk when the shutter is released. It's a rewarding sound made even more exciting when used with a flash (I rented a powerpack for the Metz).

We'll see if I didn't make any obvious goofs with my exposure or composition or anything else...I might have to set up a temporary darkroom to make enlargments if I like the results. Then I'll really feel like a photographer again. Once the films are processed I'll also see if I can get my hands on a 120 film scanner to digitize the photos and perhaps post them here.

Now...we have to see about going to North Bay. Loren's parents are a bit overwhelmed with holiday goings-on and aren't sure if they can handle more visitors just yet. I like visiting them, but it is a long drive (which I do not like) so we'll see how it goes. Might just end up with some time to sit and chill right here at home. I would welcome the prospect.

Then all we'd have to do is figure out what we'll be doing for the new-year. I'd like Loren and me to just sit with a fire and maybe a glass of bubbly...just the two of us.

We'll see...