Black Press 5000 race report coming soon.... in the mean time, a post about cats

The Black Press 5000 last night was pretty awesome. The women ran fast! But I will report on that when I have more time. I apologize but I spent the day completing my long run, uploading photos to facebook and sleeping. Now I should be getting ready for my 10 year high school reunion, but instead D's last blog post has motivated me to blog on a similar topic.

So D blogged about people owning dogs that shouldn't own dogs. Wait till you hear about this D (though you might have already). So being an animal lover myself and I know there are many other animal lovers out there, get a load of this lady. She is what you call an animal hoarder. Basically earlier this week, the SPCA raided the house and removed a total of 94 cats and kittens, yes that is 94 animals from this house and get this..... they didn't even take all of the animals. They took the ones that looked the worst. The lady had ripped out the carpet due to the cats eliminating their waste everywhere. She also punched holes in walls to give the cats more room. Yes, cats were found in walls and all over the house. Oh did I mention she didn't even own the house and that she rented?

It all apparently started when she moved in and stopped paying rent after a few months. The renter then proceeded to start the process to evicting her, but she wouldn't leave. In this process, the renter found all the cats. Because the lady wouldn't leave, the renter had the bailiffs involved, who then called the SPCA. So this lady lives not far from me actually. The house is on the backside of Hemer Lake, which is where I complete most of my runs. I cannot believe someone would put animals through this, just because of their love for the animals. I think she should go to jail, what do you think? Apparently it will cost about $50,000 to clean up the home. Here are some news articles about the whole situation.

SPCA rescues animals at cat-infested house

Animal Hoarders Kill them with Kindness

Clean up of Cedar House where scores of cats lived will cost $50,000

Eww... I just learned that some dead cats were found in the freezer

Dead cats found in freezer at Nanaimo Home

Ok... I must get ready for my reunion I guess. More blogs coming in the next few days covering the Black Press 5000 and my Grad 99- 10 year reunion!!!

Afternoon Trip to Powell River

So, today Jay got off work early and we headed up to Powell River, or well, technically we headed up to Comox (north of Nanaimo) to then catch the ferry over to Powell River. We were heading this way to purchase an 86 Blazer. The photos we had been sent and from what we had told sounded really good, so we were 95% sure we were going to buy it, provided everything turned out okay in person. We caught the 3:15pm ferry over, which docked at about 4:35, then met the guy after walking off the ferry. A short test drive and we determined that we were not going to buy the truck today. While the body was alright and it ran smooth, a few things just weren’t right, such as the fact that the transmission wouldn’t kick down a gear when you stomped on it. Plus a few other things were not quite as though the guy had claimed. So we were back on the ferry at 5:15.

Let me just say that this trip turned out to be annoying and disappointing. First off, its about a 1 hour 40 minute trip to Comox and then another 1 hour and 20 minutes on the ferry to Powell River. So we travelled 3 hours and 20 minutes via car and then 2 hours and 40 minutes by boat to make a total trip of about 6 hours…………. all for NOTHING. Ugh. Maybe it wasn’t all for nothing. The last time I was in Powell River was probably when I was 15. We used to go each year for a track and field meet. Powell River was were the BC Summer Games trials took place for our zone. So I believe the last time I would have been there would have been when I was 15. Although this time, I never saw much of the place considering we stayed right near the ferry terminal.

I took some photos of course with the purpose of posting them for you.

Courtenay welcomes you!

The Queen of Burnaby (kind of falling apart)

Leaving the Comox (Little River) Terminal

Another smaller ferry on the way (Texada Island I believe)

Powell River here we come!

On the way back, this weird golf ball looking thing near the Comox airport I think. I have no idea what it actually is, but I do think it looks like a huge golf ball.

Driving home (excuse the dirty window)

Watch for Elk!!! Have never seen one on this highway but was hoping today. No such luck though.

Back into the rain as we head home, but lucky enough to see a rainbow!

Welcome back to Nanaimo!

Snowbirds

Hey something happened in my life that is somewhat exciting!! If you read this blog and haven't figured it out yet, for the most part my life is kinda boring. At least compared to some of the other bloggers out there. Anyways, some fun happened tonight when the Snowbirds, who according to their site are "a Canadian icon comprised of serving members of the Canadian Forces." Basically for those who do not know, the Snowbirds perform an airshow. They don't come to Nanaimo often, but they were in town tonight in order to support C.H.I.L.D which stands for CHildren with Intestinal and Liver Disorders.

The show started at 6pm and Jay and I got downtown at about 5:10. When things like this happen in Nanaimo, most of the city goes downtown to attend. We parked on the roof top parking at Harbour Park Mall. When we arrived, the parking lot was already at least half full. Over the next 15 minutes probably, it was full. Of course it filled up about less than 5 minutes before our friends and their parents showed up. So they had to find parking elsewhere and we actually never ended up seeing them again. People ended up parking behind/infront of other parked cars and it was such a disaster. But it calmed down once the planes came into site.

Apparently, the planes are getting older and there is talk that this might be the last time the Snowbirds ever fly in this area. I find that pretty sad as they are a Canadian icon and they do put on a pretty good show. I took lots of photos and videos. I'll cut this post off now as the photos will push this post a bit long. Enjoy!

Various people on balconies or high rise roofs



Police helicopter patrolling the water front



Opening planes



Snowbirds!!







Flybys: so close to each other



Drawing designs



Other shots



Crazy sky towards Mt.Benson (Westwood is up that way)



Snowbirds at the airport fueling up before heading out of town

Hope you aren't bored yet, I have tons of video footage, but I will just include a few so you get the idea of the show.

Hahaha okay and then when we were at the gas station, there was this “smart” driver trying to cross the traffic so I had to film her

Black Press 5000

While I am not running this event, I did take the evening off work on Friday so that I could go watch. I have a few running friends who are competing and there should be some good races, so I am looking forward to it.

In the meantime, I am happy to say that the rain has come. Today was about 15 degrees when I ran at nearly 11:30am and raining. Light rain, nothing too major, but I definitely loved EVERY minute of my run. So much so that I completed the workout faster than I was supposed to. Oops. Bring on one more day of work and then 4 days off!

Better late than never

I have been trying to post this blog nearly all week. I was either out of time due to work or blogger just simply would not upload my photos. I have had a busy week actually, with my workouts, work, picking up an extra shift and then yesterday we had a family reunion at my mom's place. So here is the long awaited post that I promised.

My training has been going really well. After my down week last week, I was back to the tougher workouts this week. I took on the challenge though and attacked each workout provided to me by my coach. While it was tough, it felt good and I am feeling strong. Time is flying by and it's only about a month or so until I get back into the racing scene. The plan is to run fast, so hopefully the plan is successful.

For my training, I ran at Westwood multiple times this week and never once ran into a pantless perverted freak. I also ventured back to Hemer Park both to run and also to take some photos. During the heat wave, which has now cooled down thank god, you might remember me talking about the horrid smell coming from the park. While technology currently doesn't allow me to share that smell via the internet, some photos can definitely help show you what the smell was coming for. So after a workout one day, I went back to Hemer and took some photos for you all. Enjoy!

Green water

For some reason, this photo keeps appearing sideways, when its not supposed to be

Then I also took some random shots around the trails.

One thing I have never mentioned on here is that last October/November whenever I ran through one of the upper trails in Hemer Park, I would catch a little woodpecker attacking one of the trees. So on one of my days off I back to the park to take a photo of the little guy caught in the act. Well, I couldn't actually get a photo of the little guy due to him flying away when I came near that portion of the trail, I was able to catch a photo of the work he had done on the tree. The first one is a photo taken in November. A couple of months later, the tree was much worse. While I haven't seen the woodpecker there is months, I finally got back there to take a photo this week. The tree has been like the 2nd photo for awhile. I am waiting for a big wind storm to take down the tree and I expect it to land right across the trail making it an obstacle course. Anyways, here are the photos.

November 2008

August 2009

I'd post some photos from my family reunion; however, I am not sure if the people in the photo's would be okay with that. So I will hold off for now. It was a fun night and I even had a few beers. It's been awhile since I have done that. It was nice to sit back and relax and the rain even held off, which was good. It appears August is the reunion month as I now have my 10 year high school reunion next Saturday. That should be interesting. I am most likely going to attend, though I am not sure how entertaining it will be. I will definitely blog about it though; however, lame or exciting it turns out to be.

Blogger is pissing me off

I tried to upload photos 3 times to go with my blog post, but I received an error each time. Now, because I was called into work and decided to take an extra shift, I cannot finish my post. Stupid blogger. So once again, my main post is delayed. Sorry. =(

Post is coming

Sorry for the lack of the post I promised. I worked yesterday and today and just haven't had time. I will post it tomorrow I promise. In the meantime, I found out that the attack happened at about 2:30pm Monday. I was gone by 11am I think that day, so I was not around. There are a few more articles out there that say the guy walked by the girl a few times and then all of a sudden appeared without pants. She ran, he tapped her on the shoulder and tried to rip off her bikini top. He is still a freak.

I ran at Westwood today and it was pretty dead. Still plenty of people walking around, but normally there are quite a few young girls jogging around alone. I didn't see any young girls out there today. I saw groups of older people, a few young couples, some families and a few single people, but no one that young. I never felt threatened at all. I figured he'd have to catch me if he wanted to get me and good luck with that. Unless he is some type of runner, I am sure I could outrun him. I still did run with my car key in my hand rather than tying it to my shoe though.... just in case. Anyways, I work in under an hour, I had better get ready. Good post tomorrow, I promise!