Heartbeat

Yesterday, I got to hear the new baby's heartbeat. The midwife called it "doppler", the machine that they use to listen to the baby's heartbeat. It sounded like a high frequency swish-swish-swish-swish-swish. I also got to see the heartbeat on the ultrasound as well. It was a really cool moment. Everybody is doing well, only twenty eight weeks to go.

Put-in

Here is my usual put-in. N42°11.587' W84°16.511' A short walk with my portage wheels from my house.

This also happens to be the last photo from my Pentax Optio WP. It seems to have stopped working. I can turn it on, but it does not display an image on the screen. I read through all of the troubleshooting procedures, and I cannot find a solution. It will display each of the different view options, but will not show what I am actually trying to take a picture of. So I press the button, and the flash goes off, even in bright daylight, and it takes a black picture. I guess I will have to send it in for service.

I may not have many new pictures for a while. I have a disposable film camera that I have started to use in the interim, but its not going to be the same.

Has anyone else had any problems with their Optio?

Wildlife

I took this picture while paddling last Saturday. There was a lot of wildlife out and about. I saw great blue herons, sand hill cranes, swans, Canada geese, mallard ducks, mergansers, and I also saw a bat in the middle of the day. The bat kind of surprised me, because I have never seen one in the bright sunshine before. He dove out from under a tree, and just tapped the surface of the water about twenty feet in front of my kayak and the flew past me at about a paddle length away. It was a bat - no doubt. Kinda neat/weird.

Spring!

What a beautiful day. 80 degrees F air temp and 56 degrees F water temp. I was surprised that the water has warmed even that much. First time out paddling this season (pool sessions don't count). I tried out my Greenland paddle as well. I will have to sign up for a beginning Greenland class at the WMCKA symposium at the end of May, just to figure out how this thing is supposed to work. I even remembered the spf15, but now I have some funny tan lines.

Miners Castle Revisited

This is some new news from the great white north.

Miners Castle is eroding. Here is what it looked like the last time I saw it.

Slow Progress

I'm still working on the Greenland paddle. I have the urethane on the tips and I started rubbing in coats of tung oil. The problem is, I will leave a generous coat of tung oil on it overnight, and when I look at it in the morning, it all soaked in and doesn't look like there is any oil on it again, so I rub in another coat. After the third coat, it is starting to look like it is building up, so I will keep at it.

I went back for a second rolling class on Sunday (with a euro paddle). I still haven't been able to get a roll all by myself yet, but I learned some more. With my goggles on and the nose plugs of course, I was able to relax enough and slow down to reduce each stage to simple mechanical steps so that I could assess my form. I still have a problem tucking and extending my right arm far enough during the sweep to keep the paddle at the surface of the water. Each time my instructor(Rob Taylor) would help by positioning my blade at the surface, I could execute the roll with enough force that I would need to brace on the oposite side to keep from capsizing again, but I just can't seem to get into that sweep position on my own yet. So last night I rode my bicycle ten miles and did twenty sit-ups. The only reason I did only twenty, is because I couldn't do twenty one. I'll keep working on losing weight and building my ab strength.

Correction

A little correction to the last post. Urethane on the tips, not epoxy. I plan to buff out the freshly urethaned tips with steel wool tomorrow night, and then give the entire paddle a good coat of tung oil. I'll have some more pictures then.

My New Greenland Paddle

Finish sanded and ready for epoxy on the tips and a couple of coats of tung oil. I still need to burn my initials and the date into it also. It turned out pretty good, and I'm happy with it.