Run 1,084: Remembrance Day heatwave

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Not seen–the incredibly balmy 17°C weather.

It was kind of a strange run.

I missed Monday’s run because I had errands that ate up a large chunk of the day, so I’d gone three days between runs. The weather today looked cloudy, but unusually balmy and indeed, it was 17°C for the run, about six degrees warmer than normal. I wore my hoodie to the lake, but had it wrapped around my waist for the run and the walk home. It was so mild that even the breeze after the run felt refreshing, not cold.

It was also Remembrance Day, and as there was no immediate threat of rain, the trail was fairly packed, this time with a weirdly large number of joggers, though none of the regulars (I got out late), along with others walking dogs and one very naughty cyclist who was riding way too fast. May both her tires get punctured by coyotes.

I started out slow and ended with an overall pace of 6:03/km, down a fair bit from my last run. Thinking about it, I cite these as possible reasons:

  • The high temperature threw me off and slowed me down
  • I was stretching my legs in bed just before getting up this morning and pulled the right calf hard. It was still tender when I did my pre-run stretching, so it may have been a factor.
  • Just plain lazy (I don’t think this applies, because my BPM was 149)

In any case, it wasn’t a bad run, just slower than normal and definitely sweatier than I’d expect for the second week of November. I saw a lot of people dressed for normal November 11 weather, but not many dressed for what the weather actually was.

The lake, post-run.

Stats:

Run 1,084
Average pace: 6:03/km
Training status: Maintaining
Performance Condition: -1
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 12:52 pm.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 30:26
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 17°C
Humidity: 68–67%
Wind: low
BPM: 149
Weight: 172.7 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,220 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (200/413/613)

Music: Reckoning, R.E.M.

Road Closed 2026/27 rewrite: Day 5

Still reading. I have read through the first house party scene. I recall a writing tip saying to never have house party scenes in your story. I actually have two and the first one is especially long.

But having reread it now, I still like it, though it could stand some trimming.

Birding, October 8, 2026: Big wind, hidden birds

Where: Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam) 
Weather: Cloudy with late clearing, 13°C

There was a lot of cloud, even more wind and fewer birds on this abbreviated day of birding.

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

Seagulls gathered at Piper Spit.

We started at Piper Spit, where we saw surprisingly few birds. Blackbirds were absent and most ducks that were not mallards were in low supply. This was offset somewhat by getting some (distant and partly obscured) shots of some Wilson’s Snipes hiding along the tall grass off to the north and west of the pier. We found them thanks to another birder with a VVBL1Very Very Big Lens.

We watched a seagull work over an ex-salmon in the shallows.

The Dowitchers had moved elsewhere, probably due to the water level being a bit higher, or maybe because of the wind, as it was very windy.

There was a single duck, but a healthy population of coots milling about the other groups of waterfowl, as they do.

In all, it was a wee bit underwhelming, but the conditions were not ideal for birds to be out in the open, and the appearance of the snipes was a nice bonus.

After this we went to the western edge of the lake to get scenery shots of Still Creek. We did not see any birds here, other than maybe a few crows flying overhead.

Tlahutum Regional Park

The big pond at Tlahutum.

Our second and final stop was Tlahutum, where the clear highlight were several Pied-billed Grebes plying the waterways and not just the Big Pond™. And while they are divers, the ones we observed didn’t dive, they just…sank. Nic and I both got shots of this in action, where the midsections has submerged and the tail and head haven’t and it looks like a magician’s trick. Grebes are weird.

We also saw some Northern Shovellers in the creeks, which is a bit unusual (they usually stick to the Big Pond) and a few Common Mergansers plying the ruddy-looking river. The light changed over the time we were here, so we were able to take before/after shots from various viewpoints.

The community garden is starting to develop its pond-like puddles, which attracted a murder or two of crows to either drink, bathe or both. There were a lot of crows around, gathering before their nightly trek to Burnaby, where all the cool crows go.

There were also multiple Northern Flickers, but other sparrow or sparrow-adjacent birds were only seen fleetingly. As mentioned previously, it was windy and maybe when you weigh next to nothing you avoid going out in the open where strong winds can bat you around like a shuttlecock.

Overall, not a bad outing, given how bad the weather could have been. We’ll see what the Super El Nino has for us in the weeks ahead.

The Shots

All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto. Some landscape shots captured with a Samsung Galaxy S26.

Gallery soon™.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • Anna’s Hummingbird
  • Golden-crowned Sparrow
  • House Finch
  • Northern Flicker
  • Song Sparrow

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American Coot
  • American Wigeon
  • Canada Goose
  • Common Merganser
  • Gadwall
  • Green-winged Teal
  • Mallard
  • Northern Pintail
  • Northern Shoveller
  • Pied-billed Grebe
  • Wilson’s Snipe
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • A few Ring-billed Seagulls

Raptors:

  • None!

Non-birds:

  • A few fuzzy caterpillars

Road Closed 2026/27 rewrite: Day 3

As noted at the start of this, there will be days when I do nothing.

Today is one of those days. I went out birding and my entire evening (it is 10:21 p.m. as I type this) was filled with strata-related nonsense, so no time to do anything but ponder.

I have pondered. A little.

Road Closed 2026/27 rewrite: Day 2

Decision made: I’ll be using NEO for this rewrite, We’ll see how it goes!

My initial plan is this:

  • Import the novel into NEO (done)
  • Reread the story, taking notes as needed (in-progress)
  • Write a loose outline on where the rewrite should go (pending)

After this, I begin writing on the story itself.

Run 1,083: As Debbie Harry once said, you’re too hot

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Mild, calm, with the threat of showers.

Which is to say it was pretty mild for today’s run, to the point where I paused after 3K to remove my Echo hoodie.

I missed Wednesday’s run due to a pressure headache and weird neck pain, then missed Friday’s run because I was waiting for the rain to at least not be pouring and lost daylight in the meantime.

But with birding postponed a day and no rain (for the moment) I set off today in late morning, with the run starting shortly past noon.

The clouds meant the trail was not crowded, though, perhaps being a weekend, there was a naughty cyclist. At least he wasn’t riding fast.

I surprised myself with a better-than-expected first km, then dipped a bit for the second and third before improving and having a stronger finish. Overall, it was fine–four seconds faster than Monday, with a BPM only slightly higher at 148. My left knee felt hinky intermittently, but never for long and never enough to slow me down. It feels fine now.

The one sad note was this:

You shall not drink!

They usually shut down the fountains around the first week of November, so not unexpected. I look forward to sipping again in March, maybe.

It did actually sprinkle for about 10 minutes, but waited until after I finished the run, which was nice of the clouds.

Overall, a decent wrap-up to the week.

The lake, post-run, a few minutes before light showers passed through.

Stats:

Run 1,083
Average pace: 5:54/km
Training status: Maintaining
Performance Condition: +1
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 12:03 pm.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:39
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 12–13°C
Humidity: 79–78%
Wind: low
BPM: 148
Weight: 172.7 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,215 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (195/400/595)

Music: Savage, Eurythmics

Road Closed 2026/27 rewrite: Day 1

As mentioned yesterday, I’m going to attempt to finish my novel Road Closed, which sits at around 83,000 words, 20 or so chapters and is an unfinished mess.

Every day I will update what I’ve done, even if it’s nothing. The initial updates will be a bit more than nothing, but mostly about planning and organization, two things I can be very bad at.

It’s going to be fun.

My first task is to choose what tool to write with. As I haven’t written fiction in quite a while, I don’t have a go-to piece of software, but I’ve narrowed it down to a few options:

  • Obsidian, with one or more novel-writing plugins added. The main appeal here is it’s all local and in plaintext/Markdown, so can be easily moved elsewhere if needed.
  • NEO. Not to be confused with the character from The Matrix. This is newer software specifically for novel and screenwriters, created and available for free by Hugh Howey, author of Wool. This is also local, though it makes the interesting choice to keep your files in HTML format. Still reasonably portable with an export function built-in. The one downside is it’s partly vibe-coded, though apparently that’s restricted to just the optional Cover Art generation.

I’ve imported the book into NEO and it looks pretty good for an 83,00 word mess! But that’s about all I’ve done so far.

Tomorrow…more. Presumably.

My treadmill lives!

Well, not literally. I’m not sure I would want a living, sentient treadmill.

But due to our patio being unavailable because of ongoing construction on the property, I’ve had my trusty treadmill in the folded-up position, to allow stuff to be stored in the office. And yes, I have a treadmill in the office, it’s right behind me as I type this!

But as of tonight, most of the extra stuff has been moved out and the rest has been shuffled about to make room for the treadmill to assume its normal stance. Since it was last like this 15 (!) months ago, it was a bit dusty. I cleaned it up, then got on and did a nice 16-minute brisk walk. It worked fine. I worked fine. I sweated because the fan I usually have in place is not in place. But overall, it was nice to get back on. It will come in handy on days where one of those pesky atmospheric rivers makes running outside suboptimal.

The treadmill! I did not wear either pair of shoes shown when using it.

I’m going to finish (another) novel

The (another) is because I have actually already finished one, The Ferry, which started as a long short story then got turned into a novel one NaNoWriMo1The complete and utter self-destruction of that organization still boggles my mind to this day (2009, I believe). It really needed to a rewrite or two, but I never got around to it and I feel if I’m going to try completing another novel, I should pick one of my many unfinished ones that has more good stuff already in it, thus requiring less good stuff be added.

And that novel is Road Closed, which I’ve talked about here before. A lot.

The last time I mentioned it was November 17, 2024–about two years ago, and I said this:

The unfinished novel is my own, Road Closed (the title will almost certainly be changed to something else, should the novel ever be finished). The prologue outlines the tragic summer and drink-to-forget beginnings of young Christian Warren, setting the stage for the five-year jump ahead as the story begins proper.

But the rest of the book–which is currently sitting at around 70,000+ words, is a bit of a mess. And it’s not the mess where you can just keep writing, then go back and fix the messy bits later. It needs serious surgery. But I kind of want to try, because that prologue still delights me today.

It actually sits at just under 84,000 words, but otherwise the quote is accurate. It needs serious surgery, but so did I this year, and I came through OK, so why can’t my story? A couple of cool scars will look even better on it.

So here’s my commitment in public. I’ll report back, possibly in tears, at some point.

Run 1,082: Cooling down

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Even cooler, but sunny and calm.

I talked myself out of doing a short loop at the lake and doing a full loop instead, though still only 5K for the running part.

It was the chilliest run of fall yet, starting at 6°C and rising only one degree by the end. I wore two layers, but swapped out my regular t-shirt for a long-sleeved one. In the end I think I was a bit overdressed–not for the walk to the lake, but for the actual run and then the walk back. Noted for next time. The humidity was high and didn’t budge during the run, which may have also factored in.

Bonus: you don’t have to wait for the water in the fountain to get cold. The fountains are still working.

At the end of the first km, I felt comfy, but my Performance Condition was a mere -1. Also, my pace was 6:05/km. I was running in grandpa mode–and continued to do so for the next two km. Technically it may have been the next three because the watch reported the 4th km as 5:59/km but the post-report rounded it up to 6:00/km. I did some math, which is probably dangerous for me when running, and figured if I put on the gas for the final km, I might manage to still get an overall pace under six minutes–and I did!

I came in at 5:38/km for the last lap, which gave me an overall average of 5:58/km.

I didn’t have any issues at all during the run, so I can’t explain the slow start, other than it was cold and maybe it just took me some time to literally warm up. The run was fine otherwise.

For some reason, nearly every dog owner had their dog (or multiple dogs) off-leash today, which is unusual for Burnaby Lake. Boo to them, I say. The owners, not the dogs, who were relatively well-behaved.

Also, post-run I saw two Douglass squirrels chirping at each, and saw some Steller’s Jays and a nuthatch bouncing about grabbing seed. In all, a good start to the week.

A Douglass squirrel sitting on a tree stump, chirping.
Chirping squirrel #1
A Douglass squirrel sitting on a tiny branch on a cedar tree, also chirping.
Chirping squirrel #2

Stats:

Run 1,082
Average pace: 5:58/km
Training status: Maintaining
Performance Condition: -1
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 9:55 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 30:02
Weather: Mostly sunny
Temp: 6–7°C
Humidity: 88%
Wind: low
BPM: 147
Weight: 171.4 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,210 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (190/387/577)

Music: Shuffle play