Opening Whistler 07-08

Published on December 11, 2007 in Snow and Travel by taro. Closed

Well, it’s almost three weeks since our Thanksgiving early season snowboard trip to Whistler so I guess i’ll start writing some stuff.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Started with a mad dash to get home from work, grab a bite to eat, jump in shower, grab gear, and drive with my mom to the airport. We’re on the earlier flight out, so don’t have luxury of taking as much time. Traffic is light and I arrive with plenty of time. The much warned about crowds at the airport were non-existant. The rest of the crew soon shows up and we are processed with utmost efficiency by the Chinese Air Canada agent. No idle chit chat, but damn she gets the job done fast and right!

We’ve got time to kill so we browse the usual newstands. I pick up a normal auto magazine, none of the import ones caught my eye this time, and Dave of course bought a gun magazine. Sorry, no Soldier of Fortune. And I grab a bottled water. How much for a pack of double A batteries? I still think the ban on liquids carried through security is a conspiracy with the concession vendors. We cruise over to the Duty Frees in search of a Tiki for Derek. After he finds one he’s happy with, we head to our gate. 

 Plane is being loaded, there’s a good number of people in the holding area. The same agent who processed our check in is now here and takes charge of the gate, and take charge she does. She announces the seats for boarding and she makes sure its done right. Your seat number not called yet? you aren’t going in, dufus! We don’t mind waiting. Better to cruise out here in the spacious lounge than stand in the narrow aisles waiting for the people up front to get out of the way. 

We’re on the plane soon enough and seated. The seats aren’t luxury by any stretch, but at least I can’t feel the metal bars under my arse. Check out the movies. Ugh, they’re quite weak. Just as well, will attempt to sleep. Departure is uneventful. Beverage service starts. Damn, only Molson Canadian? Still good stuff, but was hoping for other selections too. Hitting some bumps, but got my beer, and food is coming soon. Dave raves about the beef, so we go for the beef instead of the lasgna selection. Smells pretty good. Beef stew with mash potatoes, steamed veggies, salad, dinner roll and guava cake. It is all actually quite good. I have to admit that this is probably one of the best airplane meals I’ve had. The salad greens were fresh and a nice assortment, not dessicated cut up squares of iceberg. Roll soft, the stew quite tasty, the carrots and string beans accompanying were not overcooked mush. And the guava cake was yummy.

The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. Managed to get some fitful sleep, but the seats were super uncomfortable for sleeping. I swear I was waking up every half hour shifting positions in a vain attempt at some comfort, but I must have dozed off some because the flight went by pretty fast. Being the early redeye flight, it was sometime after 0500 Vancouver time as we started our approach.

Soggy Socks

Published on December 10, 2007 in bike by risu. Closed

Marathon escorts.jpgThe weather looked pretty nice when I rolled out of my driveway at 03:00.  Coming over the Like Like, the weather was still good.  I had high hopes for the first dry marathon in years, but as soon as I hit Manoa, the freeway turned wet, and I knew it was not to be.  Continue reading ‘Soggy Socks’

Once a Year

Published on December 9, 2007 in Uncategorized by taro. Closed

Geezus, I can’t beleive I woke up this early. Not even to try get first tracks snowboarding do I wake up this early. May grumble about doing the wheelchair marathon escort, but I have to admit its pretty cool. The weather this time around is very doubtful. We just got through a bout of heavy rains, but yesterday (a scant three hours ago) was blue skies here. Throughout the night has been sporatic showers and in fact a squal just came through. Forecast calls for similar during event. We’ll see if it turns into the sloshy shoefest of how many years back. I couldn’t find my Rattail rear fender to put on, so it looks like that’ll offset Dave’s fender and it will rain.

SeaLaunch

Published on December 7, 2007 in Culture by derek. Closed

sealaunchSeaLaunch Odyssey was at Pier 10, Honolulu Harbour on Monday. It had been on station to launch the Thuraya-3 Satellite, but they experienced weather issues that forced them to scrub the launch. Thuraya-3 will extend Thuraya coverage into Asia beyond “the sandbox”.

img_3955.jpg

Odyssey is the launch platform for the SeaLaunch system. It was built upon a very large oil drilling platform, and then supersized. Driving past on nimitz there is no way you could miss this, its HUGE. They were just in for a day to get fuel, and were gone by the end of the day.

 

 

blast shield

 

SeaLaunch has had a difficult year. In January, they had a serious malfunction of the launch vehicle, resulting in the complete destruction of the blast shield. It was replaced in Hong Kong, and this launch would have been the first since the accident.

Marathon men

Published on December 6, 2007 in bike by risu. Closed

This is the first December in a long time that I will not be in Japan, so Mitch volunteered me for the Honolulu Marathon wheelchair division bike escort.  What has it been – three years?  I have to change the tires on the Bridgestone MB-1 and put  the light brackets and computer on tonight at McBike, but other than that, I’m good to go.  The pre-event meeting was this past Monday.  Same as usual.  Root will be in this time too (hopefully), but Ckucke and Chris will be out.

Oh, yeah – I have to remember to put on my front fender – maybe that’ll keep it from raining on Sunday!

Cranky

Published on December 6, 2007 in car and Review by risu. Closed

A month later, the new Sears/Enersys Diehard Platinum battery in the FJ80 is still cranking like it wants the starter to spin the crankshaft out the front of the engine.  I swear the the starter has never turned that fast ever!  Looks like this one is a winner.  I’ll post an update in a year unless it goes bad earlier and I get all pissed off and rant about it…

Original post here

Unaware

Published on December 6, 2007 in rant by risu. Closed

On Monday, I was driving up Punchbowl passing Queen’s, and there were these four people standing below the ER where the parking ramp goes underground.  Big dude, big lady, big daughter, and little grandchild in a stroller.  All four of them were smoking (the two adults and the one underaged teen were actively smoking – the baby was passively smoking).  They really just don’t see it.

 “Ho - what wen’ happen to auntie fo’ da’ ambulance go come bring her hea’?”

“Her emphesema stay ack up.” 

“How come?”

“Waaa!”

Something like that… 

Humidity shock

Published on November 26, 2007 in Snow and Travel by taro. Closed

Just got back home. Yikes! The culture shock not so bad since buying the Angus combo meal with poutine upgrade at YVR airport Burger King (BTW, the most expensive lunch of our trip!) got me prepared for slow service shock, but this humidty and heat! Guaranteed if i had bought some Tim Horton’s doughnuts to bring back, they would have turned into a gooey mess by the time I reached the end of the jetway.

Anyway, it was a very good trip. Good way to start the season, with a trip just long enough to get the legs going, but not enough to burn them totally out. We were pretty hardcore flying the redeye on Wednesday, catching Whistler Taxi on arrival early Thursday morning, checking into hotel, and hitting the slopes right then. Come back for more details here later. In addition to Dave’s hints, watch for Fabio and Root, the “powder” poaching pirates, and dammit, why’s it start totally snowing when we’re leaving?! It’s sure to be a 10cm or more flu day tomorrow in Whistler! I’m sure 1cm accumulated during the time we waited for the Perimeter Express van.

Thanksgiving Snow

Published on November 26, 2007 in Snow and Travel by risu. Closed

I got back from Whistler last night from a long weekend of snowboarding.  Root, Fabio, and myself flew up on Wednesday night and hit the slopes on Thursday morning.  I rode on Friday and Saturday and flew back on Sunday in order to make it in to work this morning.  Root and Fabio come back tonight.

Conditions were fairly good for opening week, with a little under a meter (39-inches) of accumulated snow.  There were a few secret stashes here and there, but the marked runs were scraped down to the icy substrate by Saturday afternoon, especially toward the bottoms, or on the green runs back to the lifts.  Nothing out of the ordinary.

Dining was good as usual, but the fall of the USD versus the CAD made things hurt a little all around.  I got $0.93 CAD per $1 USD when I converted.

Expect more in future posts, like:

Los Luchadores!

“Viva La Mexico!” …(bam-bam-bam) “Security!”

Last Tracks

Jibtastic 

Where the heck are my socks?

Published on November 21, 2007 in rant and Travel by derek. Closed

Why is it that every time I need my socks I cannot find them?  Its not like I dont have enough socks.  I end up buying socks every time I cant find them.  There should be at least a dozen pairs of techincal socks in my house.

This again lead to a frantic packing session!  I hope I got all of it!  If I missed someting important because of the distraction of hunting madly for socks, I’m gonna be really grouchy.