Seine: the forgotten river II

Two years ago I wrote Seine: the forgotten river -- a short photo tour of a winter bike ride down the under-appreciated Seine River, south of Bishop Grandin Blvd. This weekend I took a short bike ride up the river north of Fermor Ave., past the Windsor Park and St.Boniface golf courses and took a couple of photos along the way. (click to enlarge)

broken pump house near Windsor Park golf course

This winter has been almost perfect for bike riding on the river because of the lack of snow. People walk up and down the river all the time, packing down a trail that is very easy to ride on. In years with lots of snow the trail might not get packed down, and it will be much more like pedaling through sand. I said "almost" perfect because there are some areas along the river that are still not quite frozen over, including one area in particular where warmer water is diverted into the river from the east.

This guy has a wicked setup: a cozy patio with fire pit
sheltered by pine trees with a decent-sized
skating rink cleared on the river.

People often ask me if I have special tires on my bike. I do own studded tires, but I don't always use them and did not have them on this past weekend. They're not really necessary unless you expect to be riding over icy surfaces. There are several spots along the river where people have cleared skating rinks, but you can usually either ride around them or glide over them. The key to biking over ice is to ride in as straight a line as possible.


At one point along the river there is a cleared skating trail that must run for several hundred meters. Sure it's a little more modest than the river trail at the Forks, but it's quieter and it was also open earlier in the season.

Damn beavers

The trail takes a diversion up onto land just north of the St.Boniface Golf Course where a beaver dam, made partially from wooden pallets, makes the trail unsuitable for walking .. for people at least. I can tell from the foot prints that dogs can't resist the trickle of cool tasty water.

Anyhow, I hope this inspires one of you to think outside the Active Transportation Path and explore a river instead.. If the nice weather holds up I might add a part III in the series before the snow melts.

CTV on Walmart / Russ Wyatt on Ski Doos

Well, let the knee-jerking begin. Somebody died, therefore we must change laws regardless of whether it makes sense or not.

Look, I'm not heartless. I actually have a bigger heart than most people, as I upgraded several years ago to a water buffalo heart on a visit to a Africa thinking it would make me better at golf. I'm not sure what this heart thing has to do with compassion, but I'm pretty sure I have that too. I also have logic. It's important to have both, otherwise you end up saying things like Russ Wyatt.

Wyatt today announced several things:
1) he wants to ban snomobiles in areas within city limits where they are currently allowed.
2) he wants to be able to seize the snomobiles if they are caught driving in said areas.
3) he wants to increase the minimum driving age to 16.

Let's discuss:

1) All we're doing is creating more law breakers for no apparent reason. People are going to do it anyhow, because there is really no reason not to except that, um, some guy who was driving in an area where it was prohibited hit somebody who was walking in the dark in the middle of a field near a Hydro right of way. Ya, that makes perfect sense. No logical fallacy there.
2) If you think it's hard to catch a car thief, try catching a snomobile driver that's afraid of having his $16,000 MX-Z 800R confiscated. Good luck. Maybe you can deploy the police helicopter to track snomobiles in a field instead of car thiefs in the middle of the city.
3) Makes sense, right? Older ... more responsible ... But is this really going to help? Driving a snomobile for 10 years before I got my drivers license helped make me a better driver. In fact, I would almost recommend that we make it mandatory.

Russ continues his silliness with this quote:

"10, 20, 30 years ago we didn't have snowmobiles that can go 160 miles per hour"

So, the reason for changing things now is because snomobiles can go faster? The olde power toboggans of yore didn't go fast enough to run somebody over? The old Jag 340 I used to drive could go 60 miles per hour, and that was probably one of the slowest snowmobiles in town. Russ is just grasping at straws. There is probably lots of straw in that field where Ken Stammers got run over. He can go there ... as long as he wears something reflective.

***

Another thing that I saw on CTV this evening was that Walmat was going to build "supercentres". They're like centres, only they're super!

This was one of the lead stories, and I thought to myself: why is this a lead story? Actually, why is this a story? Do other stores get news coverage when they expand their product line? The advertising execs at Walmart are no dummies. How do we let people know we're expanding our grocery area? Buy TV advertising? Buy billboard space? No .. just send an email to CTV. They'll broadcast it to the province for free.

I am left wondering if there was some sort of real local news that I missed. Wasn't there some kind of meeting at city hall? There must have been, because they mentioned in passing that the councillors voted to approve the 58 new cops. Is that all they did? Anything else I should know about?

I would dare to say that the things our elected officials decided today is a little more important than the fact that Walmart will start selling meat in 4 months. Mind you, after looking at the "most views" list on the Free Press web site, I might be mistaken there.

Well that was interesting...

I was just shutting things down for the night when I heard a noise from outside. Peaking out the window, I saw a little old lady with a cane, wearing slippers and a pink housecoat, walking down the street.

I kept watching as she dissappeared out of view. That's ... unusual. And not right. I should probably go see if she's okay. Should I go out there? If I don't go and she ends up falling in a show bank and freezing to death, like that lady in Toronto, then I will sort of kind of be responsible. I should probably go...

So, after quick consultation with the wife, I put on my jacket and braved the -25 windchill. By the time I caught up, she was around the corner and half way down the next street, heading towards a busier street and a retention pond.

As it turns out, my services were not really needed. Her husband, who apparently was a little less indecisive than I, had a head start on me. Watching him chase after her was a little like watching the Boissevain turtle races (I would imagine). Her: determinedly walking at a brisk 1 km/h towards the west. Him: racing behind her at a blistering 1.2 km/h yelling "Hey, where the hell are you going? Get back here you stupid woman!"

Anyhow .. everything was fine. Apparently she had "watched too much late night TV" and decided to go for a walk. I can understand that. But to where, nobody knows, and the lady wasn't talking.

I walked back with them for a while and watched them both walk up the driveway of their house, which, as it turns out, is right across the street from mine. I had talked to the husband a few times before, but I had no idea he had a wife. Now I do. Good to know.

It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood

Let's go camping!










I had tee times booked for this afternoon, but .. um .. maybe next month. I do hope that this weather is killing the skeeters though. Potential silver lining...

Festival Du Voyageur (bumped)

Festival starts tonight. The City still doesn't have this on their event calendar. Apparently whoever reads this blog at city hall isn't powerful enough to make that kind of thing happen.

Have a good weekend. Cheers / santé !

***
The Festival Du Voyageur starts up next week. The Festival is the turning point of the winter to me. Even if I don't go, I know that we're heading into the home stretch when the Festival comes around. I plan on going this year though. I may even buy a button and go twice. Of the 125 different nationalities that make up my heritage, French is one of them, and going to the Festival helps to connect me to that and adds a little wee bit to my sense of identity.

But even if you're a burger-eating anglophone (*pfft*) you should still go. There are the snow sculptures and barrels with burning wood that will make you smell like smoke when you try to warm up, and if that isn't enough to make you put on your parka and paddle down to Saint Boniface, there is also music.

Some old fav's have returned like the Dust Rhinos; my old buddy Dan Frechette is playing; and Sierra Noble returns to the Sugar Shack. This may be your last chance to see Sierra Noble performing in an outdoor tent while you eat tourtière and drink Caribou. Her song "Possibility" is starting to get some radio play and I wouldn't be surprised to see this gal go on to some big things. She's got a good voice and tons of talent. It's hard to go mainstream when you play a fiddle, but you never know.

By the way, why is our only winter festival (and the second largest in the country) not on the City's event calendar?

Sierra Noble Possibility:

A dirty, dirty post

I enjoyed that little stretch of non-minus-30 weather that we had, although I was a little too busy to make the most of it.

The downside of course is the slush and muck. My car is dirty. Really dirty. I don't have a photo of my car to share with you, but if you don't mind I'll demonstrate with this picture:


That's what I'm sayin' .... really dirty.

Unfortunately for me, I can't wash my car now because it's too damn cold and my car would turn into an ice cube and my doors would freeze shut. I missed that 20 minute window of opportunity where the temperature was cool enough that it wasn't too slushy but warm enough that my car would have a chance to dry a little before everything froze. It think it was Friday afternoon some time.

Oh well. Such is life in Winnipeg. Looks like I'll be driving a dirty car until spring again.

Really, the purpose of this whole post was just to give me an excuse to post a picture of a half-naked girl. Seemed like the thing to do on a Sunday night. Hopefully some time this week I will be able to muster a few comments on the Federal budget or something meaningful. But until then:


thanks to this guy who keeps changing the name of his blog for the pictures.

Icebergs and Algae

Icebergs
I'm no scientist, but I take an interest in science. I read New Scientist frequently. They tell me that the globe is warming and the ice caps are melting at an alarming rate. I know enough to understand that "global warming" is a misnomer -- that all parts of the planet will not be affected equally due to changing weather patterns. "Climate change" is a more accurate description. Yet, it is still pretty damn hard to reconcile this global warming stuff with the frost bite on my ass.

We had a less-than-spectacular summer, an average fall I guess, and then came December:

I couldn't find daily normals so I used monthly normals for the comparison vs. actual temps and forcasts up to Christmas. For a fair comparison, since the last 6 six days are missing you should exclude the first 6. If you do that, you'll see that only two days did we get above normal for our high, and even on those two the daily low was far colder than normal. This is bullshit. I demand a refund.

When I was dying of hypothermia last March I noted that "things are looking up" because the long term forecast called for above normal temps. What the hell happened to that? Have a look at the Free Press web site: "New Storm Strikes the Northwest", "Plows hit the Streets", "Winter Rolls in Coast to Coast", "Deep freeze continues". Part of that may be lazy reporting. Just like at a party, the weather is the go-to subject when you have nothing else to talk about. Still, you gotta think that if the average temperature of the globe is increasing, then somebody somewhere must be pretty fucking hot.

Algae
Gary Doer is also no scientist, but will he listen to them? A article in the Sunday Free Press revived the debate about the $50 million plan to remove nitrogen from Winnipeg waste water, in an apparently misguided attempt to clean up Lake Winnipeg. Will the NDP listen to the experts and back off the plan? Many argue that there wasn't a whole lot of scientific reasoning behind the crack down on the hog industry expansion which has cost the province jobs. My guess is he plows ahead with the project so that he can claim he's doing something, even if he's really just wasting money. I guess you could look at it as a $50 million fiscal stimulus package to get our economy going.

Just for fun

La Niña is a ho

I woke up this morning to a 3 inch layer of the white shit on my driveway. Actually, it was the nice fluffy stuff, and this is definitely an improvement over the face-numbing deep freeze that we've had to endure lately. Every time another body part turns black and falls off I have to remind myself that this La Niña induced bull shit is actually a good thing because it's helping to
replenish the shrinking ice caps up north. But really, enough is enough. It's almost mid-march now -- we should be putting the long underwear away and polishing up the golf clubs.

Thankfully, things are looking up (for me -- not the ice caps) :