The Long Road

** Updated March 29 ** Well looks like we didn’t do so well. In BC power consumption dropped 1.1% on Saturday. That it dropped at all is a positive, however last year the number was 2%, so this seems like a step backward. Hopefully increased awareness of the issues improved…

City Lights from Space

Hey folks. Tonight you have an opportunity to participate in a symbolic move. Earth Hour is tonight between 8:30 and 9:30 pm local time. To participate all you need to do is switch off all your lights! Doesn’t sound too tough eh? This idea started a few years back in Australia, went global last year and tonight, hopefully, will happen on an even more “viral” scale.

There is actually a cool plug in for blogs that will “shut down” your blog for the hour, instead displaying a splash screen showing that you are participating. Unfortunately Blogsome does not let users install third party plugins at will, so you won’t see it happen on this site. If you have a (non-blogsome) wordpress site though and want to install this super cool item, click here.

If you’d like more info on this, go to the Earth Hour site here.

Remember… 8:30 to 9:30 pm… turn ‘em off!

… comes from one of my favs. Vancouver’s Matthew Good with Black Helicopter.

I love the line “Hey Sammy, ain’t you heard? Only killers call killing progress.” Enjoy.

We spent some of the last days of spring break in Whistler of all places. Several things came together to make it happen.

First, while we were enjoying wonderful snow at Revy we kept hearing reports of the epic snow that was coming down on Whister/Blackcomb. Hmmmm.

Second, snow, but not epic snow was in the forecast for Revy and Golden. Hmmmm.

Third, while we were enjoying ourselves at Revy we got a text from Kath who was in Whistler at the time, raving about the snow and suggesting we might like to come down and get a piece of it for ourselves. Hmmmm.

Fourth, when we got back to Kamloops we checked into the forecast for ourselves, saw that MORE epic snowfall was expected on Whistler later in the week. Hmmmmm.

Fifth, we checked out the last minute deals on Whistler’s website and found, wonder of wonders, that there were some “suite-ass” deals to be had. It’s a cool system where you are told a bit about the hotel and room, but not which it is. Hmmmmmm.

Sixth, we looked at each other, smiled and said “Let’s just do it!”. We booked. It turned out that we got a $370 room for 130 bucks a night, right in the village, literally 2 minutes walk from the gondolas!

Friday morning we awoke to 20 cm fresh pow. Kath joined us at Blackcomb where it continued to come down at a feverish rate all day, the effect of which was that the powder never, ever ran out! Unreal. Simply unreal.

Mich ripping up the bowl!

Saturday was a whole different kind of awesome day. More great snow fell overnight. Jeremy and Kath both joined us for First Tracks at Whistler, which includes a breakfast (and “fast” is the word here) at the top and access to the runs before all the rest of the chumps down below are allowed on the lifts. Nice. Jeremy took us all over, showing us great terrain that included some of his secret stashes. The alpine was open for the first time in days and we certainly got all kinds of first, fresh tracks that morning! And it was bluebird to boot!

Probably the only downside was that after skiing in the interior for so long, it was rather tough to come to terms with the rat race that is Whister Blackcomb. Though in the end, it was worth it to see what the fuss is all about, get amazing turns in, a good deal and spend time with good friends. Thanks Kath for getting us down there. Thanks Jeremy for being an awesome tour guide. And thanks to Ullr for the great snow all week for us in the backcountry , at Revy and Whistler, but not when we had to drive!

Life is good.

That’s a question I’m sure we are all asking. Anyway, props go out to Dean for sending this my way.

We are a couple of days into SB now. I think we’ve started it all off well with our first backcountry ski trip of the year. Wow, not sure how that happened, but indeed it took until halfway through March to get us into the backcountry. Oh well, it was worth the wait as we had an awesome day at Needle that was filled with some beautiful, fluffy fresh powder.

We’re thinking that some more turns are in our immediate future as we are likely to head east to Revy and Kicking Horse in the next few days. Snow is in the forecast!

In the meantime, we’ve had a few beer suggestions from that post a few days ago. Keep ‘em coming!

…yesterday we set a new record low in Kamloops of -11.4 degrees. Yeesh. And this while we are on the leading edge of “Spring” Break. Ha, at least it warmed up a bit overnight. Looks like those of you who decided to travel to places like Mexico over spring break were crazy like foxes!

I can’t think of the last time I bought a beer produced by a major label. In fact, it’s possible that I never will again. I think it’s pretty funny that in my younger years me and my friends routinely reached for Bud, or Kokanee, or MGD, or one of those stupid Ice Beers that I don’t think they even make anymore. Now by no means do I feel I’m a beer expert, but I know what I like and why, and yes, I feel my palate is enlightened. Not that I drink light beer. Sorry, that was a bad pun. Anyway, these days Mich and I stock the fridge with mostly micro brews, often the local swill. Of course we have our favorites, the current being Granville Island Brewery’s Lions Winter Ale. In fact I just picked up the last three boxes of it that we’ll see until next winter as it’s seasonal. It’s a wonderful little brew, dark and rich with this awesome vanilla finish that has earned it the moniker of “Pudding Beer” in our household. We will miss it when it’s gone for the year, but though sad, its passing means we are on the cusp of enjoying other tasty suds including a nice array of wheat beers and fruit wheat beers. Though before the snow is completely gone, I do have one bottle of Young’s Luxury Double Chocolate Stout waiting patiently for us!

Anyway, the point? I guess it’s that there are too many awesome beers out there for us to ever pour the “beer” from major producers - you know the ones: Labatt, Molson, Anheiser-Bucsh etc. I find them worthless. And I know there are those of you out there who have Coors Light in your fridge. And I have heard you say things about the Silver Bullet like, “Hey, it really tastes good”. Except, actually, no it doesn’t. Bite your tongue. Go ahead. You might as well as you haven’t been using it to taste anything anyways. Folks, that kinda stuff really isn’t beer. I don’t really know what it is! Go out to the import section at the liquor store and pick yourself up some Belgian stuff brewed up for you by Trappist Monks like a Chimay. Mmmmm. Thanks to Blake D. for introducing it to us. The only reason I don’t quaff more of that stuff is that it has to travel a long way to get to me. So I focus on the local brew(s).

So off you go - find yourself a nice beer that is NEW to you - there is so much great stuff out there! Now crack it open, pour it into a glass and enjoy it while your watch this:

And if you are still reading, perhaps take this opportunity to suggest a great brew to us in the comments! What’s your favorite?

Today after work I rushed up to TRU for a lecture by prof Dr. Bruce Baugh. Tod joined me as we investigated and philosophized about:

What is a piece of rock music? Is it the written composition (the score)?
Is it a performance? Or is it a recording?

And let’s just say that it’s been a long time since I’ve been to school (ironically). It was cool to be a student again, if only for an hour. The lecture was quite interesting, sprinkled with multimedia (mostly pictures and a few sound clips).

In the end, and I guess I should have known this, we didn’t really get anywhere, simply talking in circles. I disagreed with a lot of what was proposed, but it was kinda fun! And it was just really cool to sit in a room with music lovers throwing around ideas about music! Both prof and students were passionate and knowledgeable about music and music history. We never really figured out the answers we sought. But hey, it’s philosophy right? As if we actually expected answers!

Afterward, Tod and I went for a coffee to hang with the kids too. OK, we maybe we didn’t hang with them, but we were beside them.

Went up to Sun Peaks today as they got a bunch of snow yesterday and overnight. We weren’t disappointed. Mich and I and Tod and Catherine enjoyed light, fluffy pow, sun, no lines and great turns. Tons o’ fun. Highly recommended for a Sunday afternoon in March.

Wow, welcome to March! Haven’t posted anything in over a week. I hate citing “being busy” as the reason, but I suppose I will. Bev and Gerry have been visiting and really, it’s much better hanging with my in-laws than writing on the blog so… We’ve also been away for part of that time with them and Vanessa and Mark up at Sun Peaks. Again, much more to do during those times than blog. And seeing as I forgot the camera, no pics from that trip are going to be posted. Anyway, visit our friend Doug’s blog here to see that a week between posts isn’t all that much! Actually, I think Doug posts so infrequently that he doesn’t even date them. Ha. He’s got some good YouTube up right now though!