June & July in Canada... - coolish-er than Florida ((at least
it's SUPPOSED to be) - but sometimes not by much)...
Friday-afternoon, the 'Fouth':
been doing more Python programming, and some tutorials that I learned
from the 'boyss' in Quebec, they're quite experienced at this sort of
software... There's a lot of 'theory' to learn (their parents and
myself are of a similar 'generation' in terms of software
'background'. It was very interesting to discuss with other
software Legends, the origins and the losses of certain theories and
practices in the software industry...
I 'suspect' that in the future more and more of our lives will depend
on software. There is already software all around us in our
houses, cars, boats, toys, etc. In the future I suspect we'll
have 'implants' that help us do even more with even less...???
we are HOME - after a VERY LONG DRIVE (2 - 14 hour days and 1- 7 hour
day - it was a LONG TRIP to a 'very FAR AWAY LAND' - but it was fun,
educational, enjoyable, etc. -
EXCEPT, thanks to the 'Holiday Weekend' and thanks to "Hurricane
Arthur" we had to make about a 3-6 hour "detour" around New York City,
Washington, Philly, and all points along the 'east-coast' of Georgia,
the Carolinas and Virgina... - the collective 'detouring' - to say
nothing of the road-work, detours, traffic, etc. etc. etc. made what
might have been a 24-28 hour drive into something fairly well over 30
hours and that is a LONG TIME to sit in a car - needless to say I'm
going cycling tomorrow morning at the "LOST" (Lake Okeechobee Scenic
Trail) and sit for a few hours on something shaped a LOT DIFFERENT
than my Toyota's seat.
Don't mis-understand - I LIKE our Toyota-mini-van, but I think 30
hours is long enough to sit in that seat...!!!
what we found when we got home; several (a lot, actually) mangos had
been eaten by four-legged-creatures
I also picked-up over 20 'seeds & skins' - evidence of a much larger
'mango-fest' had by unseen creatures, in our absence!
A couple of days before (the second of July, I think?)
WELL - we are 'on the road home' - that's a debatable phrase,
though... - Crossed the border (only two cars in front of us!!!-
quickest border crossing we've EVER had!) into Vermont, this
morning (early (we won't say HOW early)) - but then stopped at the
'welcome' station to use the facilities and found a 'flyer' for "Ben
& Jerry's Ice Cream (Plant-tour(and FREE SAMPLES!)) - well - we
recognized we could be there and have BRUNCH - and that would be GOOD
_ so we did - AMAZING STUFF / PLACE / PEOPLE / THINGS to LEARN! - http://www.benjerry.com
Vermont has amazingly beautiful topography, and seems to grow even
more Christmas Trees than I believed possible...
After finishing our 'brunch' (of ICE CREAM) we had a great Sandwich
at "Pinky's"
(found some lady in a pink-shirt on the street, putting mail in a
mail-box - asked her (figured she was a local, - turns out VERY LOCAL
- she WORKED in Pinky's!!!!))
anyway - then we drove (and drove and drove and DROVE on Vermont's
"interior" (some might say inferior) roads - until we got near-to
"Albany" and then went through Binghamton, NY, and, now,
spending the night in Scranton, PA
While staying near-by to "Quebec City" with Ms. May's brother's family -
we found some activities for them to engage in ...
Mr. Steve got his exercise by pushing his youngest up & down all the
hills...
we found that 'city-parking' to be a 'challenge'
- on the other hand, once we figured out the 'system' it turned out to
be quite convenient...
and Mr. David took to the cycling like there was no tomorrow...
Some observation(s) about vacationing / visiting in Montreal
(French speaking, by nature, though we have found everyone we have
come into contact with speaks pretty flawless English - (at least
compared to our French which is pretty-much non-existant!!!))
1.) when it RAINs - it rains
- and having the car to ride-around it is an 'asset'
2.) when you want to EAT,
though, the car is a liability (can't find parking near where we MIGHT
LIKE to eat!)
3.) when it's a provincial holiday,
(like today) and they're going to have a fancy rock-music-show at the
Olympic Stadium and they're going to have a parade (and it RAINs)
things get funky on the roads (on TOP OF THE One-Way-Streets and there
ALWAYS are - in EVERY TOWN road-repair-detours)
4.) but - none of that detracts from the fact that they have some REALLY
PRETTY buildings (see below) - and those 'facts' enabled-us
at about 08:10 or so a.m., to drive around (for over 4 hours) an
almost deserted city-scape and run a few red-lights and make a few
wrong turns - all in the name of really SEEING the city... - and doing
it all from the comfort of the car.
5.) YES - we could have walked and/or done the "Bixi"
thing (shared-use-cycles (like we did in Vienna, Austria,
last year)) - but - well - the car ended up being a benefit from the
standpoint it was faster than walking or cycling, it has LOTS of glass
so we saw a LOT of things - much FASTER than we could have any other
way - (and we saved a LOT of calories, too...)
6.) if we had been '
(GPS) track-logging'
the ride-around looking at things - the track-log would look like a
rats-nest of string - I think we got lost more than we knew where we
were going - and Ms. May was, for some time working with a map who's
north arrow escaped her - and then the Nuvi (Pyscho Betty) seems to ONLY
"ReCalculate" when we're in the middle of a six-way-intersection trying
to figure out where to turn to?
7.) when you think you want to go 'here' and/or 'there' and you put
those coordinates into the GPS that's a GOOD THING, the BAD THING is
that the GOVERNMENT (like ALL governments, EVERYWHERE) will either
block-off the Inter-state (yeah, Canada has a system of roads like that,
too)) - the government will either block-off the exit you need or a key
one-way-street that you need and - of course - the Nuvi doesn't KNOW
THIS - so you're left 'holding the bag' trying to figure out which way
to go. - it helps, A LOT to have someone there - who has some semblance
of 'sense of direction' and who can read the GPS and do a 're-calculate'
in her head, faster than the Nuvi can...!!!
a few pictures of various things - in no particular order...
we decided we just HAD to do this one trail (along this canal (so it
was about 99.9% FLAT!) - so we spent a might over 3 hours (only about
2 hours actually pedaling) in this foolishness - we learned A LOT
about RIDING in the RAIN - it'll take a whole bottle of 'TriFlow'
to recover the cycles - after getting drenched!
just ONE of the MANY churches in the area that 'appears' to be old
& famous, but in reality they are OLD & FAMOUS...!!!
this is the public-bicycle-exchange / ride-to-from-anywhere in
Rockville Maryland where there was a very nice cycle-trail, that we
did NOT use these bikes on...
this is 'Hudson Falls' in New York
a view of one of the islands where we rode our cycles
a friend's son took this picture of a nearby iceberg!!!
A 'castle' in downtown Montreal (with some 'new-construction'in the
background; picture by Ms. May...
how to take a jacuzzi bath without
getting wet
these blackberries were too small to eat, but - that doesn't mean
that the local bears might not leave them alone, luckily we did NOT
see any bears along this path..
SOME-How (and I don't know HOW) when we were in North Carolina - a
few months ago - I got an (un-deserved) reputation as a cooke-monster,
hence this recent gift...
This (section) is from MAY (2014), but today is Sunday, 1 June, and I
just went kite-boarding AGAIN, this afternoon,
and I want to RE-STRESS THIS ISSUE:!
It is ASTOUNDING, SHOCKING, AMAZING what an 'upgrade in technology'
can do for you, in many realms.... and I never thought about
something as simple as the Kite-Board-Kite being 'technology driven' -
but it's been a real eye-opener.
I'd recently upgraded my Mac OS "X" laptop, from one that was six
years old, and the newer technology was DEFINITELY worth the price on
many areas, though I have to admit I'm severely disappointed in the
battery-life. YES the newer technology is DEFINITELY BETTER - but
it is still not what I 'expected' (in other words my "expectations" have
NOT been exceeded...
(this picture is of my
new Cabrinha
(<<==VERY SLOW web-site) control-bar - not a trivial price, I
might add, and - yeah,
I know, I know, I know it's definitely NOT MUCH TO LOOK AT, but YES it
is BETTER!
(Newer Technology) and though complicated, it WORKS VERY VERY WELL!!!)
and this is a picture of the new adapter for my pumps that will inflate
the kites - and this technology is ALSO MUCHER BETTERER...
I've also upgraded a couple of my Kite - Board - Kites, to the newerest
designs AND control bar(see picture just above), and though the price of
Kite Board Kites has definitely skyrocketed (I remember when it was
(considerably) less than $400 to buy a kite (and bag), it is now well
over $1,200 for a similar item. I think that the proliferation of
graphics (none of which, I might say, make the kite fly any better), as
well as more complex designs (aerodynamically (which DEFINITELY make the
kite fly better)) has caused this increase in retail pricing...
the 'One-Pump' system is definitely a LOT better than the old system,
now that I've had a couple of days to try it out... - I'm still not 100%
sold on the idea of the unique-way they have to hook the lines to the
kite, nor in how a number of joints depend, mostly, on 2-3-4 stitches on
a sewing machine, but I'm told the stitches won't break...
The increased pricing, also, I'm certain has NOTHING to do with the fact
that there are a LOT MORE PEOPLE in the market, now...
ANYWAY - VERY SATISFIED! and VERY HAPPY with my 'new technology' things
- I also bought a new Fluke 289 DMM (if you don't know what that is -
I'm not going to tell you) - in January - and it's a WONDERFUL New
Technology thing, also... AND _ Fluke will bring-out, this summer,
something called "Fluke Connect" that works through your smart-phone
(with Bluetooth) and does a LOT of very fancy things...
Other New and WONDERFUL THINGS for
June, 2014:
1.) It's June here in South Eastern
Florida and the weather is getting WARMER
2.) because of the above 'fact of
life' - we've started to use the air-conditioner to cool-off the
house so we can fall asleep
3.) as of Today, the Hurricane
Season is 'official'
4.) it's RAINING right now - and it
RAINED when I went kiteboarding - but - well - RAIN is a 'fact of
life' here!
5.) and we have bunny-rabbits all
over our yard
6.) and we went to visit Mr. "Mom
Back" this morning - he's a local cat that lives in one of the '(un)
gated (golf) communities' nearby and he's a pretty nice cat -
actually he's not really a 'cat' - per-se, he's more of a
'cat-pet-absorber' - he'll absorb as many cat pets as you want to
give him, I don't know where he puts them all but he'll purr and
accept cat pets much longer than we usually have...
MORE to come, a little later on in
the month - VERY busy these days!
A note, though: books by "Lee
Child" (creator of the "Jack Reacher" series (of which there
is / was a recent movie of the name "Jack Reacher" (Starring Tom
Cruise and Rosamund Pike)... ANYWAY Lee Child has written a
number of books featuring this character and some of them are VERY
GOOD! - You might want to check-them-out at your local library
and/or order them on-line...
Another author note: "P.T.
Deutermann" has written a whole bunch of books and I've just
finished four of them that have to do with the US Navy, and things
like drugs and foreign / renegade submarines, and Annapolis
and other things in which, in each book he takes a case of "It may
look simple, but it's COMPLICATED", and there's always a 'what is
the RIGHT decision to make' and RIGHT in who's eyes, the Navy's, the
Public, the Law (and who's law, the Navy's law or the public's
law)...
- These books bring to light a LOT
of the ambiguous things that people in that august body have to deal
with but I'm sure that corporate types, politicians, and others face
similar dilemmas... VERY GOOD Books: "Scorpion in
the Sea", "Dark Side", "The Edge of Honor", etc
Mr. Panda-Bear's web-page:
http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/PandaBear/PB.html
