As promised, Mark Scriver’s photo of me doing a little surfing on Pushbutton, before the inevitable flip. The water’s going from right to left, the object of the game is to slide into the wave as its base and resist its request for you to leave. If you get into the sweet spot, you don’t have to fight the current: you stay still and the river flows past you. Talented people like Paul and Mark can stay quite a while, and do wild tricks. It’s really kicky to be in the middle of this massive deluge of water. Then, the wave twists the boat and it’s time for a nose full of water.
All posts by Peter
My Day Yesterday
I went to grandma and grandpa’s. I went swimming with my dad. I was watching weather channel. I love working on the computer. I love having dinner. I went to the car. I was watching DVDs. I had some chocolit cake. It was delishus. Today is my birthday. I’m 9 years old.
Cheep
So your notion of dangerous dinosaurs may have to change, just a little. In China they discovered a fossil bed where many dinos were caught in an eruption and, I gather, buried in ash like the residents of Pompeii. This left a perfect impression of their outsides too. And some of the two-footed predators, including an early tyrannosaur, were covered in feathers.
More here: Dinosaurs may have been a fluffy lot – Sunday Times – Times Online.
Perfect Day
Grandma took us to the Toronto Islands yesterday. And what a day it was. It was Jon’s first time, for the ferry and for any sort of ride.
It was so good that I’m still exhausted from it. So I’ll let the photos and captions do the talking.
A bit of trepidation on the ferry, but it quickly faded.
So then it was time for lunch. Whenever we go somewhere new, first thing is it’s time for lunch.
Jon with Franklin at the new Franklin Children’s Garden, a wonderfully gentle place. Not quite as wheelchair friendly as they think in places (wood chips are very hard, and soft sand is a no go).
The watering-can fountain at the garden, which provides small cans for the kids to fill up and then water a large assortment of vegetables, including eggplants (one of Jon’s favourites).
First ride ever, the antique merry-go-round. Waiting to start was hard, but we got the idea.
So this was our next quarry. Circa 1890-something.
He cackled with glee each time we dropped over the precipice.
We rode this three times over the afternoon. Becuase of the length of the ride, it even outranked…
The flume. In line, Jon noted a number of people were screaming and I asked him whether he was a laugher or a screamer. He said he was a screamer. He was wrong, from the moment we started to plunge, he laughed his head off.
A lovely dinner at The Rectory on Ward’s Island. Jon and I were to split a hazelnut coffee chocolate layer cake, but it had a very mature flavour and a heavy crumb, so the little bum ate way more than his share!
On the way home from the very perfect day. Jon is a little fazed because the evening ferry makes two stops before heading home.
Ungulate Fever
I
can quit
anytime
I
want…
5 rides at the zoo yesterday. All but one on Scootles (Sally’s daughter). Thanks to all the wranglers and sad goodbyes to Jessie, who moves from camel wrangling to special needs teaching.
Back from Ottawa
Well, we’re all back from a quick trip to our respective rivers: Laura and Jon stayed at friends near the St. Lawrence in Gananoque while I whipped up to the Ottawa so that I could gain more respect for the river and those who ride it. Paul said I looked more confident this year, and I’m glad because I confidently missed my line on a couple of rapids, and ended up swimming a bit. Mind you, never in bad places.
Also tried to surf tougher holes, which means that most of the time I got a good sinus flushing and more swimming. Though I got to sit on a foam pile a few times, bouncing stationary on the wave or side-surfing. Twice my sit-on-top violently threw me off and then continued to surf the hole without me. Paul, Eric, Mark, Ian and Paul would reportedly then make all sorts of ooh and ahhhs to convince those who had missed my dumpage that I was still in there, surfing upside down. The sad fact is the boat did better without me.
It was something to go down the river with a group with such strong skills. Paul, Eric and Ian showed their stuff, and Mark made it look easy. Young Paul Scriver showed me how my boat can ferry with a competent pilot. All of them made me want to spend some hours bombproofing my rolls for next year–I know that I’ll still be dumping– but then I’d be able to just roll up and get back in line. Now that I’ve hit 40, having to haul myself back into the sit-on-top as it drifts downstream is losing its charm.
Mark had his camera with him, I hope to get some pictures of the fun at some point. In the meantime, there’s always images from last year, when I made my line…
In a World…
If you go to the movies, you know these guys.
QuickTime here. Darn, it’s been slashdotted.
Windows here.