In the category of things on the internet, lookit what Kevin's been doing. The man is nuts, I declare. Thus I cannot figure out why I am a little bit envious.
Me, I went to the Outdoor Adventure Show today, because Elke had a two-for-one coupon and in these tough economic times, apparently, coupon use is cool, I'm told. In any case, I went, I looked, I got super annoyed by one of the kayak vendors. I was looking at the CD Nomad GTS, and wanted to know if if it was the same boat as the Solstice GTS. He said no. I asked how it was different. He gave me some airy-fairy answer about it's tiny little differences, this one has almost no rocker. I pointed out that the Solstice GTS - in fact, all of the Solstice line - has almost no rocker, and this looked like a Solstice family boat to me. He said it wasn't, *this* is a solstice, pointing to a GT. I said, yes, but I am asking how this differs from the Solstice GTS, since it looks like the same boat. He once again said things like, it may have less depth than this one (pointing to the GT again). I said, yes, as does the GTS, so how does *this boat* differ from the *Solstice GTS*. He once again gave me some non-answer, and I started walking away since he obviously knew very little about the product he was trying to sell. He followed me. I said, ok, what's the beam on that boat? He scurried back to the boat and tried to find the attached product sheet (if you don't know the beam of the various boats you are selling, you do not know the models well). I walked away. He caught up with me when he saw me at a different booth, and proclaimed, it's just under 22". I asked, once again, how does that differ from the GTS? He said, the differences are tiny, I'd have to paddle them side by each (sic) to know (An answer I would have been satisfied with? The Nomad GTS is the new name for the CD Extreme. An appropriate answer would have been, the boats are similar in overall storage capacity and depth, but the Nomad is narrower and substantially longer than the GTS, making it a boat built for speed. You can expect less primary stability in the Nomad, and even more difficulty turning it. However, it is a very very fast touring kayak. But - he didn't know any of that. I *cannot stand* when show staff not only don't know their product, but keep giving you circular answers to avoid having to say, I'm not sure, or I don't know... This is why I buy from people like Tim Dyer, and my next boat purchase will be from Tom Bergh...) (This next boat purchase will have to wait a while...)
To get over my frustration, I took off my shoes and socks and was the only person over the age of 12 who wanted a go at the slackline. And I went home with a slackline, because I *wanted* one. Now I want for the snow to stop falling and to play with that.
In other updates, Elke is still fun, I still don't like dogs, if you go to the IMAX, don't sit in the very back row (even if it was to get away from very very noisy young children) because you won't feel like you're *in* the film as much as if you sit a bit further up, I still love my studded bicycle tires and riding to work even when there is new snow, and I am ready for winter to be over. I want kayaks and biking without winter boots on my feet and backyard beers. I do not want ice crusts and snow shoveling and furnace operating costs.
No matter how passionate I am about living in Canada, when winter hits the three month mark since regular shoveling commenced, well, I'm done. Yeah, I know I said I was envious of the Alaskan snowbiking adventure. I think I'd be even more envious of a temperate zone summer paddling trip right now. But that really gets at the heart of the matter, for me. Summer is such a precious, fleeting thing in this climate that we squeeze as much joy out of it as we can. We have these wonderful long light evenings, and we have so little of the flip flop and swimsuit weather, it makes you happy like only a Canadian who lives through our long winters can be happy about sunshine on skin. I suspect the Scandinavians can relate. I expect California has no idea what that kind of joy feels like. Thus, I am weary but content.
You know, I get that language evolves, and I don't get to be the language police. Understood. But today seems to be particularly annoying. I woke up to the not-Andy-Barrie person of the week talking about "Febuary", I was half expecting her to a) talk of "nucular" power or b) discuss specific "incidences" of improper language use by a CBC employee who is paid to know better. If not-Andy-Barrie says "Febuary" once, that is an incident of poor language use. If she follows that up with "nucular", then those are two incidents of poor language use. If she does this with every sentence, then the incidence of of poor language use is alarmingly high. But incidences? Nope.
Anyway (anyway, not anyways!), back to my bitching, eh. There are areas my grammar is weak on, particularly the placement of punctuation (inside the bracket? inside the quotes? outside? depends on the sentence?) (I also know I overuse parentheses) (and ellipses...)so I know I am a pot and not-Andy-Barrie is a kettle. However, Jay at the Maple Leaf in Banff does like to send out updates about his restaurant. And these updates always include links to the menu. And because it's a Tuesday in February and I'm crazily overextended of late, I of course open the dessert menu (and start a sentence with "and", pot, kettle, whatever...) The dessert menu includes "expresso" creme brulee (they don't use the accents either, so yes, I know, it's expresso cream brooly). Now, this will make me jump up and down in anger - the Maple Leaf prides itself on its foodie-ness, after all, and unless expresso creme brulee is a cutesy way of saying it's a very quick setting custard and doesn't actually have anything to do with coffee flavour, yes, I am hopping. Espresso. Espresso. Espresso. You know, probably from the Italian for pressed, or under pressure, or something like that, not from the bad English for quickie.
That is all. I will tell you about winter biking eventually. Or about cheese! I do have things to say about cheese, but mostly, they are the things I discovered when I rode my bike to six major grocery stores to check on the price of one particular cheese. I took pictures of the labels and everything. Yes, I am fertilizing my eccentric spinster persona, what's it to you? If you were drowning in a sea of overwhelming work as I am right now, you too would gravitate to easily accomplished defined Sunday afternoon projects that involve a) bike riding and b) cheese.
Oh, and yes, I still have definite opinions on the CBC voices I let into my home. While Andy Barrie is no longer the radio crush I once thought him to be, he's better than all of the not-Andys out there except Matt Galloway, but he's got the Here & Now gig. I will still turn off the radio when some voices come on, barely tolerate others, and crush on others. I'm over the Stuart McLean crush, though.