The Last Ride of Summer

This morning will be the last official ride of the summer. Oh, I know the season doesn’t actually end for another three weeks but for me it’s always been autumn once we hit September. No doubt this goes back to when I was in school and September was the end of summer vacation. Still, the signs are there. The fields are golden now and all too soon summer will be nothing more than a memory.

Autumn was always exciting on the university campus, a time of new beginnings and old friendships. The place was so full of people you could hardly move and yet by January the corridors were empty. Tomorrow I won’t be going back to school; those days are long gone. Instead it’s back to work, trying hard not to resent the fact that my wife is still on vacation.

I managed to end my holiday with a bang--enjoying the International Fireworks Festival held annually at Elliston Park. We have a pretty good view of the events from our front lawn except for the streetlights in the park. On the last night of the festival I went out into the field just south of where we live with a tripod and got some amazing shots. I say amazing because I don’t have one of those big expensive cameras with all the lenses. I just have this tiny little digital that fits in my pocket. Without the light pollution in the park and with the tripod to steady it, the auto function was using a full half second exposure as compared to the .002 seconds it uses for outdoor shots in the daytime. I learned this after the shots were taken by examining the properties file. I just point, click and trust in the technology.

We tried a new restaurant this summer with most pleasing results. Chestermere Landing Steak House has been around for a while but we'd never been there before. Trust me it was well worth the trip (all of 10 Km from our door). The food's great, the view from the patio is awesome and the people are friendly. We will be back!

It's been a great summer and the riding is by no means over. How long I'll be able to wear just bike shorts and a tee shirt--that's another question entirely. Sometimes winter comes early around here and some years we get an Indian summer, a phenomenon by the way that has nothing whatsoever to do with the First Nations. Here's hoping!

Mommy! It's Over...

Another year and another ConVersion has come and gone. We touched base with old friends, nodded in passing to familiar faces and wondered about those who were absent. ConVersion twenty-five is the eleventh con Maureen and I have attended. We started with number fifteen back in 1998, way back when people were just beginning their pointless panic over something being dubbed as Y2K—talk about a wet firecracker.

This year we were back at the Metropolitan Center right in the heart of Calgary's downtown. Oddly enough it felt like we had come home. ConVersion had been here before and it always felt right to me. Perhaps because it’s all con people when we’re here. Not being a hotel we don’t have to share our space with norms, muggles, mundanes or whatever term you prefer for "the others."

Con people are what we are: comfortably different. Now go away, we’re in the middle of a really good book. At any time during the con people could be seen sitting around the lobby reading quietly, some in costume some not. For me it's always been the Dealer's Room where I can see all kinds of neat stuff and pick up some old Astounding or Analog magazines. This year I was able to fill in several gaps in my collection and help my favourite bookseller to keep coming back.

Terry Brooks and Robert Sawyer have both been Guests of Honour before and packed the rooms wherever they went. I managed to get Robert to sign my copy of Rollback, the only novel of his I didn’t already have signed. It’s a great read and I for one would love to trade places with the lead character. Enough said, go buy your own copy.

All in all, a great weekend was had by all and the only note of sadness is the long wait until next October and ConVersion XXVI.

The Folly Of The Rings

Wetlands
Originally uploaded by Unknown species

This is what the land currently being used to construct the eastern portion of Stoney Trail used to look like. Unspoiled and a habitat for all kinds of birds. Not any more. The swamps and sloughs have all been filled in as a new freeway rises out of the dust and clamour.

For once again our city is attempting to build a ring road. Sound familiar? It should—over the years there have been numerous attempts to circumnavigate our fair city. None have been in any way successful. The problem is the developers. As soon as plans are announced, they buy up the land on either side of the proposed route and start building subdivisions. By the time said road is completed, you have traffic lights and another South Deerfoot on your hands.

On the eastern front, you have a freeway that goes from Country Hills Boulevard in the north and then just ends at 17 Ave SE in the south. That’s right, folks! It goes from the middle of nowhere to nowhere. Far from alleviating traffic problems, it will create a whole new set of them. All of the southbound traffic will have to go over to 84 St or somehow make their way back to Deerfoot Trail, doubling or tripling the amount of traffic on 17 Avenue SE.

Ring roads simply do not make sense in Calgary. They never have and never will. The city simply grows too fast. The lag between drawing up the plans for a ring road and actually executing them is too long. By the time it’s finished, your new ring road doesn’t go around anything—it goes right through the middle.

Hardly worth draining the wetlands for now is it?

A Very Long Walk Home

Trail's End
Originally uploaded by Unknown species

This is where I was yesterday when my front tire went flat. Okay, so the tire was eleven years old, had many many miles on it and owed me nothing. I still felt betrayed and I still had a very long walk home.

Once I got back to the town of Chestermere Lake my fortunes changed for I ran into a kind gentleman who threw my bike in the back of his truck and drove me to my door. I have no idea who he was for oddly enough we never introduced ourselves. Whoever he was, he took time out of his day to rescue a total stranger. Thank you sir! You have just earned a heaping helping of good karma.

Needless to say I was off to the bike shop and now have two spanking new tires. With any luck I can enjoy the rest of this biking season without further incident.

Re-cycling

This summer I rediscovered my bicycle and my love of riding. Scenes like this are why. It's eight o'clock on a Monday morning and the rest of the world is still busy commuting as I arrive at the lake, ll Km from where I parked the car. {See map at http://www.maps.worldweb.com/VisitorMap.html?lti=1&lli=240623}

I would like to thank the Municipal District of Rockyview for maintaining the canal pathway and to the Western Irrigation people who built the canal in 1906. A lot has changed in the area since then but as you can see in the photo above, some of the original homesteads are still around.

After going around the south end of the lake I continued my ride down the gravel trail beside the canal. About 7 Km east of the lake the trail ends at a country road where I came across the Clayton Family Farm, homesteaded in 1901 just five years before the canal was built. I wonder how they feel about the ever expanding suburbia lurking just over the horizon. I know I always feel a certain sadness when I have to go back.