Winter yet?

Okay it's warm enough. Today was a piddly 34 degrees with a humidex of 44. Yesterday the humidex hit 46. I should really move my office to the basement during the summer but that's a ton of work.

On an unrelated note, I have a question for I.H. and K.S., two people who recently wrote me cheques. Why aren't your cheques washing-machine-proof?! The quality is sincerely lacking... not cool at all.

On another unrelated note, my wallet is sparkly clean. As are my $5 bills. And my credit cards. And my driver's license.

Sigh.

Camping

We took our first camping trip of the year this past weekend. The place: Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, which is about 300km west of Ottawa and north of Algonquin Park.

The Canada Day holiday didn't really make for the traditional long weekend, but we turned it into one anyway. Three couples made our way up Thursday and stayed until Sunday afternoon.

Last fall, Carrie and I had bought a massive 13-person mansion of a tent, upgrading from the little dome tent we've used forever. 13-person is hardly an exaggeration; this thing is huge! We didn't quite realize it when we bought it, and we hadn't set it up yet before now. So the 17'x21' dimensions (minus some cutouts) mean that this baby can't be set up just anywhere. (Although I think I can leave some wings down to save space... yes, this building has wings!)

Three wings to be exact: two side rooms and a mud room, centred on a main square room, together forming a T-shaped tent.

Oh, and I can stand in it (probably the clincher when we decided to buy). At the centre it's 6'11". I can't remember the last time I stood upright in a tent... at least without pulling up all the corner pegs. What a luxury!

Of course all my tarps are too small to go under or over this thing, so we're waiting for a good rainfall to test the waterproofness. It did rain a little bit on Thursday, and all six of us took our chairs into the monster tent and sat around quite comfortably.

The tent was like one big Tetris piece, fitting nicely between some trees.



We got to the site first and set up our stuff. I didn't take many pictures, so I don't have a shot of all the tents set up (the camera remained elusive amongst all our junk).



On the drive up I noticed the car was sitting rather low so I took it easy. The considerable number of beverages and ice didn't help. Neither did the table I managed to cram in. Nor the various appliances we took just because we could (the bane of having an electrical site).

I wanted to take firewood but Ottawa is a regulated area, from which firewood of any kind may not be transported. Since firewood is ridiculously expensive at the parks, it's a good idea to hunt around locally for wood. My brother-in-law and I did the same last year while camping in Alberta and got a load of free wood that way.

As we neared the park on the drive up I kept an eye out for homes with firewood piles. Once we'd emptied the car later on, one of the guys went with me and we drove just five minutes before seeing a stack of wood on a front lawn. We drove in and asked for $10 worth of wood, please. We struck a deal with the homeowner who looked less than sober and smelled like pee. But we're not the discriminating sort when there's a good deal to be had, so we filled the trunk and the back seat with enough wood to last the weekend. That amount would have cost over $50 at the park.

We all had a great time sitting around, enjoying the mosquitoes and the sun. We hit the beach a couple of times. The first time we had the dog along and had her on the sand and without a leash; on top of that we may or may not have been enjoying a few cold ones. The park warden caught us and could have had a heyday with all these infractions but merely warned us on all counts. The personnel were fantastic overall, genuinely friendly, apparently liking their jobs; I don't think I've ever been to a campground where all the employees were quite this congenial. A real treat indeed.

Mosquitoes weren't the only critters we enjoyed. Aside from the occasional chipmunk appearance, we discovered a massive insect in our campsite. A bit of research leads me to believe that this is a giant water bug, also known as a toe-biter. Apparently a delicacy in Thailand. Not to judge or anything, but EWWWWW gross! Consider yourselves judged, giant water bug eaters!



We tackled a couple of hiking trails. The one we did on the last morning was done without any bug spray, as we'd run out of the stuff the night before. Not pleasant. I happen to attract bugs fairly consistently; it seems to have something to do with dark hair (maybe I should go grey). I've discovered that, apart from simply not stopping to let the bugs land, covering head and ears does wonders for one's sanity in such a situation. Perhaps I'll pack my toque next time.



Next camping trip: next weekend. Yay, I don't even have to pack away all the gear! Sister and her family are camping near Ottawa and we'll join them for a couple of days.

earthquake

We experienced a nice little earthquake a little over two hours ago (here). Epicentred about 60km north of Ottawa, its estimated magnitude is 5.0.

Fittingly enough, I was sitting at my desk reviewing and tweaking some earthquake procedures when it happened. My home office being well above grade, the movement was considerable, so I scooped up the dog and headed for the basement. The shaking lasted at least 15 seconds.

I recall my only other earthquake experience (as far as I can remember). I was at work, sitting in the Langley BC office on the 2nd floor of a building of crappy construction. The place swayed like the dickens. To discourage us from running around or doing anything else untoward, our boss yelled at us to get underneath our desks. (I wonder how many people did that in Ottawa today?!)

The 2001 quake was 6.8 in magnitude, which on the logarithmic scale is 60 times greater than a 5.0. However, it was epicentred an hour south of Seattle WA, and at the distance from which we felt it, it was around a 5 for us. It felt worse than today's, but it definitely makes a difference what kind of building you're in and on what floor.

Ottawa is in the Western Quebec Seismic Zone, which actually has a quake every 5 days or so but they're not usually too big. Between 1980 and 2000, only 16 quakes were 4.0 or greater in magnitude. A 4.0 is 10 times less powerful than today's quake; it might be felt but is unlikely to cause any damage.

Still spring

Wow, two posts in one month! I should probably stop doing this.

Last week a law student friend finished all his studies and exams. To celebrate, a few of us had a guys' night out at a cigar lounge across the river in Gatineau. It may well be the only public place one can smoke indoors between Toronto and Montreal. Cigar lounges are the only establishments exempt from the indoor smoking policy.



It's a delightful little place with a nice view, complete with vintage leather chairs. A charming chamber to have a puff and a drink and to discuss the merits of the gold standard and such ballyhoo.

I read up on cigars to know what to buy, but I quickly realized it hardly mattered as the handful of cigars I've enjoyed hardly makes me an aficionado. Nonetheless, I decided upon a hand-rolled medium-flavoured Cuban.

I found a specialty cigar shop in Ottawa to check out my options. As it turned out, the options were plentiful but for the most part expensive. Buying one at a time (rather than a case of 25) doesn't help. Of course, neither does getting a parking ticket while you shop :(. Hopefully a cigar will never cost me that much again!

In the end I opted for a Montecristo No. 4. Apparently this is the world's most popular cigar, or at least close to it. I don't really see why; it smelled like cigar, not the "hints of chocolate and coffee and" bla bla bla. Perhaps the critics are just full of baloney. Or my palate has yet to be fine-tuned so a cigar won't just taste like any cigar to me... just like all red wines taste the same (gross). Unlike with wine, I'm willing to try to develop cigar-wise. I'll just have to get a humidor and a mustard-coloured tweed jacket to round out the hobby nicely.

Cheers and cheerio then!