Swing dancing innovations

This past weekend, I spotted something new on the sidelines of the dance floor. Chip, one of our dancers, who is a professional engineer has built himself a battery powered fan that is driven by ten "C" batteries. C-size batteries are the ones about twice the size of a fig newton or your thumb. Chip has mounted the batteries and the fan on a board which uses to cool himself between dances. The fan face is on a mount which means he can just the angle at which the gusts of air hit his body. I thought it was a cool concept but a little too geeky for me.

Hints of fall...

As I bicycle commute in the mornings I find it is becoming harder and harder to wear a quick dry t-shirt as it is getting colder and colder. I'm at the point where I start the day in a long sleeve shirt and roll up the sleeves for the nightly commute. My legs are much more durable so I'll probably cycle bare-legged for a little while longer. Along the bike path there are more hints of fall each day, trees starting to develop shades of red, orange and yellow and the trees are starting to thin out as they start their annual shedding cycle. There is now a new hazard starting to appear on the horizon and that is, wet leaves on the bike path. Folks at the office say that they can almost double your stopping distance in an emergency situation could make a bad situation worse. Cycling with studded tires might be an option but I would prefer to take it easy when cycling under these conditions.

It's almost race time...

In a little over two weeks, I'll be heading to Baltimore to run in my fourth the Baltimore half-marathon. My training is progressing well and I only have two long runs before I can give my legs some much needed rest. The race comes at a good time as my running coach designed a training schedule so that team peaked for a race in Ottawa last weekend. I just have to continue the program for another week and I'm set to go. As the time draws near, I'm starting to get excited. As well, I'm looking forward to seeing Jason and Emily and catching up with them.

Geocaching and bouldering

Yesterday I went geocaching and was able to use my bouldering skills. It had a difficulty rating of four and a half stars. The highest rating is five stars. The cache was midway up a pine tree. The problem was that the lowest branch was six feet up. What to do? I had a McGyver moment and saw two possibilities brute force, or make use of my environment. About 300 feet away from the cache were two things that might help a shopping cart and a oil drum trash can. I opted to take the plastic bag out of the drum and roll it over to the tree. Once the drum was upended I could reach onto a branch and pull myself up the tree. From there I was able to climb up to the tree until I reached the cache. I signed cache log and slowly worked my way down the tree and finally landed back on the drum. I rolled the drum back to its home and was on my way.

On dancing...

This last weekend I tried another form of dancing called contra-dancing. The Wikipedia link is. I was encouraged to give it a try as many of the followers I dance with on Friday night are really into contra-dancing. As typical of many types of dancing there is always a shortage of leaders. To prepare for my initiation I watched some contra-dancing tutorial YouTube videos from a dancing group in North Carolina. As Saturday evening approached, I watched them again so I could tell the difference between doing an allemande, a star and a side pass. The dance hall is within walking distance from where I live and just across from Mountain Equipment Co-op. I arrived a little early to find that I wasn't only newbie. We were given a 30 minute crash course on contra-dancing. To ease you into the dance they pair you with an experienced dancer that acts as a mentor for the first couple of dances. Contra-dancing is a more structured dance compared to the free flowing East coast swing dancing that I am used to. The dancing is down and up a line which made up of line of leaders facing their follower. The caller is the person that calls out the moves during the dance. Below the dance starts the caller explains and walks the line through the various moves which acts as a rehearsal. Moments later the band starts planning and the caller calls out the move and the leaders and followers do their respective moves. The leader and follower either dance towards the band or away from the band. Once you reach the end of the line you sit for a couple of cords and then you re-enter the line and either dance up or down the line. When all the leader and follower pairs do there moves in sequence it is a high octane dance. The fun begins when people start to get tired or the sequences of moves are convoluted. The line will get a little screwed up and eventually self-corrects itself. I found the dancing quite demanding and opted to dance every second song. When sitting on the sidelines I realized the dance is about the leader-follower pair weaving back and forth between other leaders and followers. Tongue in check, I think I learned how some of my followers stay in such good shape by swing dancing on Friday night and contra-dancing on Saturday night every second week. We concluded evening with something special, a waltz which is something that I haven't done in a long time and only occasionally on New Years Eve. It was a really fun evening and I'm looking forward to next weekend for two reasons, a waltzing lesson and more contra-dancing.

Baltimore Race Weekend Approaches...

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be heading down to Baltimore to run in my fifth Baltimore half-marathon. It is a race that I look forward to each year as it comes at the end of my summer and fall training season and it’s how I like to conclude my racing year. There are a variety of things that I like about the race course, running around Patterson Park near the start of the race, the Lake Clifton pump house at the midpoint of the course, doing a loop around Lake Montebello and finally the finale, of running through the gates of Camden Yards towards the finish line. My workouts are getting longer, tougher and more intense as I prepare for the race. I’ve heard it rumoured that Baltimore races are for the strong runner and not necessarily the speed. I’m at the point where I still have a couple of more long runs but very soon I’ll reach a point where I can start checking them off the list and it will be time to give my legs a chance to recover for the big day.

Almost the end of summer...

This past weekend was a busy one as I headed home for a long weekend at my parent’s place. Much of my Saturday was spent driving to and from the university as well as the Toronto airport. My father has had a visiting research in town for much of the summer and I offered to drive him to the airport. On the way back, we stopped in at Whole Foods and I was able to restock on some Earl Gray Nourish Tea. The highlight of Sunday was heading over to a local dairy to have one last peach sundae as there are hints of fall in the air. In keeping with tradition, G, had his own peach sundae minus the whipped cream and nuts. He normally would have been a couple of times this summer but the car was always full with the foreign guest. On Monday, we headed south-west to Long Point Provincial Park on the shore of Lake Erie. My family camped there was we were young kids and it was great to get back there for a day trip. On the horizon, I’m looking forward to a couple of trips to the US in the fall.