2 Engineers Retired

Lots of skaters on the canal In Ottawa this past weekend we just finished Winterlude. An orgy of skating, music, ice and snow sculptures and BeaverTails.  Plus a whole bunch of things we don't participate in (😉) Maple Taffy hardening in the snow The ice sculptures are an international competition with sections for duos and singles.  Luckily (?) this year the weather has been cold enough that the sculptures basically lasted through the entire festival.  Here are a few of the sculptures (in a bit of a tent to keep them from the rain).  From a team of Canada and Philippines Japanese Carver Russian Carving Team Ice skating on the canal was very busy with refreshment stands at various points along the way (plus bathrooms and skate rentals).  Unfortunately we decided to go on the last day of Winterlude, which turned out to be a warmish day, and the ice surface was not great.  So we, along with many ...

This day started with what was billed as a long steep walk.  And, yes it was long, and yes it was steep.  And frankly the walk on the way up did not have much to recommend it.  But at the top – well not only was there a wide ranging view there were blue footed boobys - Plenty of blue footed boobys. The Blue footed Booby is probably the poster bird for the Galapagos. I mean, blue feet???? Well we were lucky enough to see quite a few of these up at the top and most were in pairs.   Not only in pairs but doing a mating dance which to me appears to be : Walk around a bit and show off your feet -           Spread your wings wide and coo at the sky -           Hand the lady a stick Ok - there is probably more to it than that – but not much I think The feet really are blue, along with the beak.  They are very attractive birds. ...

Getting started on our dream journey was relatively uneventful.  We flew to Baltra, one of the Galapagos islands where the airport is.  Apparently this airport was a US airbase in WW2 charged with protecting the Panama canal.  The landing was initially aborted (and my heart skipped a beat I think) but landed easily on the second attempt.  They claimed wind at ground level but I have my doubts.  Then we cooled our heels for a bit in the VIP lounge at the airport while they waited for the next plane which also had people destined for our boat.   Our home for the week The boat itself was a 48 passenger (and 40 crew) arrangement which I think was perfect for what we were doing.  The various boats in the Galapagos seem to be grouped as taking on 16 people (many of these), a few mid -sized (like ours) and a couple of large (100 person ones).  We were very happy with our choice – neither too big nor too little.  There were usually ...

Panoramic shot of Old Town from the Basilica The bucket list.   Always lurking there in the back of your mind, with a “someday” attached to it.   Now my bucket list does not include any airplane (or even bungie) jumps but it does have places in the world that I would like to see.  Someday ... Well this year an amazing bucket list item happened for me.  I (along with a friend) took a trip to the Galapagos.  In my mind the Galapagos and Africa are the two stand out animal destinations in the world.  Africa for mammals (and more) and Galapagos for reptiles and birds. To get there one must first get to Ecuador.  In our case we went via Miami and from Miami I traveled on to Quito.  (My friend opted for Guayaquil).  Quito is the capital of Ecuador and has the distinction of being the second highest capital in the world at 9350 ft above sea level (assuming you count La Paz as Bolivia’s capital – if you go with ...

Christmas decorations in the halls of Parliment Here we are.  In Ottawa.  For the winter.  For a very, very cold winter as it turns out. After last year in sunny Spain the cold is particularly, well, noticeable… We decided that Ottawa would be our location of choice during the winter of 2017/2018 because this is the last year of our son’s university education (we think) and it seemed fitting to stay in country, and close enough.  We managed to get the exact same apartment this time as we did 2 years ago which is terrific.  We know where everything is and could jump right into life in our capital. Ottawa is a very beautiful city with wonderful government buildings, the Rideau canal and our beloved, near-by Byward market area.  We even managed a visitor right off the bat since a mutual friend had an important birthday.  As the seat of operations for the country it can be interesting to do some activities that relate to the government...

Ah those various tasks of fall – particularly those of fall when you live at the lake – such as taking in the boat and the dock.  Our boat is pretty basic.   Unbelievably basic.   So basic in fact that there are no seats except for whoever is driving, and even that is more of a box covered with carpeting.  For the rest of us it is lawn chairs on the aluminum checker plate deck.  Now this baby has served us well – but fancy it ain’t. This year we also had a bit of an oops (having a few of those this year apparently).  There was an amazing wind storm when I was here alone for a few days and after things settled down I didn’t think to check on the boat.  It is a pontoon boat, so what can go wrong?   Well apparently it can sink  … Turns out one of the mooring lines undid (somehow) and the boat twisted around with the result that one pontoon was rubbing on the sand bottom (it is very shallow where we keep th...

So – last we left things we had filled 2 ½ racks of a needed 5 racks for a years worth of wood fuel.  This was done with wood that we had already felled and all we had to do was cut it to length and split it.  Easy-Peasy. However  - 2 ½ racks of wood is not enough to keep us warm and cozy for a heating season.  We need about double that. So – we need to take down a tree (or a couple) There has been a tree kind of looming over the south east side of the house that truly we should have taken down before we built.  It sort of leans towards the building in one of those ways that seem a tad threatening.  So – we identified the first victim of our search for new fuel. (Mostly we don’t want to take trees from too close to our home.  I love the sight of these trees, and really don’t want to live in an open area here.  It just isn’t the point.) Now this beauty was close enough that we were kind of nervous taking it down....