The weather in tornados

Increasingly tornadoes have become a fixture here in the summer. In the past few weeks we've had more than we are used to and apparently some brave souls have captured some of the best video available of these monsters.

Living anywhere under the thumb of Mother Nature has it's risks. Even in lotus land the fault lines work toward humbling humanity. On the plains, we have our storms.

Sleep came last night as a welcome relief from the ongoing threats we've had going on for what seems like an eternity.

I want a little bunker with a secure dome top to watch the thrills and spills.

grad images

Bonnie's grad is over and soccer is over. The Manitoba Marathon is over, as is the triathlon weekend in St. Malo! BBQ anyone? I've been honouring wee too many of the social obligations and work is suffering and so am I. Today I can hardly muster the will to run. It's a bird of a day too. Maybe I'll see if Manon wants to go. It feels so good to be in a dry flow after all the heat and humidity that spawned a lot of nasty and dangerous weather lately.

Boo graduated with first class honours and did very well with the scholarships she won. It was a happy celebration filled with good humour and light spirits. We are going to miss her here next fall.

What follows are the bulk of the images from Bonnie's big day.

Boo and Dan outside the school


Boo standing at the red carpet


Boo and the Jeans outside


Boo and Mr. O on stage


Carol on the red carpet


Boo and Dan dancing


Boo laughing


Boo and Papa dancing


Heather, Melisa, Bonnie and Kim


Papa and PU outside the school


Justina and PU


The kids and their boyfriends


Leslie and Micho


Mamie outside laughing


Manon and Kevin inside


Marc outside


Manon inside


Meite - smiling at the hall


Meite - bright and happy at the hall


Meite - wine note


Meite and Drew laughing


Meite and Drew smiling


Snoot and Jean


Snoot and Micho

Hisser video and centipede image

A couple of videos for the curious. Snoot picked up this hissing cockroach that's really quite cool. I mean it's dead gross and all, but it's big enough that you can actually appreciate the exotic nature of it's well adapted features.

The hisser

The roach colony

There are bears everywhere just now. I don't want to run with company though, OK? Cubs with sows just isn't my idea of entertainment. I must remember to strap on a bell tomorrow before I go out.

I picked up another centipede recently to replace the one I had die on me last winter. It's a beauty, but man is it fast. It's a tiny thing compared to the 18 centimeters the last one measured. It's a Vietnamese centipede - Scolopendra subspinipes dehaani "Mau Chau" and will send you to the hospital with some serious problems. Boys! What's he thinking!! Get down from there! You'll break your neck! Put that down, you'll poke your eye out and don't put that in your mouth! Grow up!

Ah the voices of reason still rattle around in my head, but to no avail.



No eggs from the anerythristic corn snake yet, but it must be getting close. The nesting box is in place and the incubator is built and running. Anyone up for a baby corn snake in a couple of months? heheh I actually sold my first snake last weekend so there's hope for the babies when they come I suppose. Too bad it's all hatching here at the end of the season when the market has already been flooded for months.

Symptoms Found for Early Check on Ovary Cancer and over due update and images

For a cancer that has so few early warning signs, this offers some hope, albeit limited.

I'm sorry I'm so often absent here. Life is frantic with work, Bonnie's grad and a life filled with teachers in the latter part of the school year.

I have begun to run again. This is week two since finding something goofy in my foot after the run across the ice in March. I've now got some serious gait analysis behind me and some CAD produced orthotics in my shoes. Unfortunately that all hasn't produced much change in the symptoms.

A few years ago I tore one of the quadriceps muscles in my leg quite badly. During recovery, the physiotherapist cautioned me strongly to guard against being fooled into thinking the muscle needed protection long after it would be just fine to work it hard. She proved beyond a reasonable doubt for me, that this phenomenon had indeed been occurring. I thought it was wild to consider that the body would lie so clearly. Apparently quads are particularly bad for this.

I'm taking the same approach to my foot. I'll either make the injury bad enough that what is wrong becomes clear to any professional care giver or it won't. So far the foot is fine and marginally better now that I've got fifteen miles on it in a week and a half. I'm encouraged, but am contradicting the professional advice from my podiatrist. The help I've had has not provided me with anything new in the way of information about the injury or the treatment so I'm taking a gamble to see if I can influence the recovery one way or the other and frankly I don't care much which way these days.

I've got an ancient old timer running after a major rebuild. It's date of origin might be sometime in the early part of the nineteenth century or latter part of the eighteenth century. It required some new teeth to be replaced on one wheel and the re manufacture of the strike fly governor. It's old enough that the clock carries only and hour hand. I really enjoy touching the past through work with this type of work. It demands a patience I can appreciate.

The mosquitoes are rising fast now. We had a very dry and scary spring, but now the water table is high and the forest flush with all the moisture it can hold. It's still raining today, but at least we didn't get the frightening forecast for sever weather we were slated for early yesterday evening. Later on yesterday Environment Canada had bold weather warnings for heavy rain, possible large hail and a lot of talk about tornadoes. By bed time all the warnings had moved onto harass the folks in Ontario. Bonnie and her boyfriend were camping in St. Malo. It would have helped me rest had Boo actually turned the cell phone on. Agh!

This weekend is the Manitoba Marathon and I'm all booked up with that, but none of it has me running anything but errands. I'm looking forward to cheering them all on, but my run club from runningmania.com with the power of orange will be where the most fun will be.

I've been playing with the camera again.

Gray Treefrog Hyla versicolor - out of the pan, into the fire



Madagascar hissing cockroach Gromphadorhina portentosa - Manon picked this and the agama up at the expo



Agama armata - Ground Agama - Not positive this is what we own



Self - looking up from below