On a sun dappled, peaceful and bucolic English river bank trail, a former towpath (horses towing barges) from another slower and arguably gentler age, I was once jolted out of what had been to that point an idilic warm and dreamlike summer afternoon stroll in the countryside with my girlfriend, into a full-on hackles raised, heart pounding defensive mode. An inner voice cried out to me speaking of immediate danger and the need for defensive action. Incredibly high pitched and loud beyond belief, without warning the lady had suddenly let forth with a piercing blood curdling scream that spoke of…

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Had someone suggested to me that the time would come when I would be involved in a drug deal, I would have advised them in no uncertain terms to seek professional help for their madness. Yet the time did come.  Moving from luxury condo life amid the then notable quietude and relatively low crime rate of West Vancouver, Canada to the full on, or so I thought at the time, boisterous and drug centric nature of Vancouver proper’s East End was for me a challenging cultural change and adjustment. Freshly ensconced in a detached house one block from Commercial Drive,…

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Regardless of your gender and voice type, should you be even remotely serious about joining a mixed voice (SATB) choir, be sure to ask up front how long the women of the choir have had their performance gowns. Unless the gowns are quite recent, ask when they are scheduled to be replaced. If the answer is ASAP, soon or relatively soon, for reasons which the following will make clear, I would seek out another choir in possession of more recently purchased gowns. By doing so you will avoid exposure to the risk of considerable turmoil, angst, in-fighting and trouble and…

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Crevasse rescue is the process of retrieving a climber from a crevasse in a glacier. Because of the frequency with which climbers break through the snow over and thus ‘bridging’ a crevasse and fall in, crevasse rescue technique is a standard part of climbing education. Wikipedia At 10,781 feet above sea level Mount Baker, a dormant volcano in Washington State (last eruption Fall 1880) has eleven named glaciers. The Coleman glacier wends it’s way down to the mountain’s lower reaches with the terminus (sometimes called the toe or snout) located at about the 5,300 foot level. Unfortunately like most all…

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Hi. My name is Hope. I am a puppy Westie as in West Highland White Terrier. I have a favorite uncle called Barry who takes me for very long walks. Hikes really. Also, he gives me many treats. It turns out he has had a soft spot for Westies ever since unannounced, he was joined on-stage by one while he was singing at a garden party gig. The Westie stole the show – without singing. Thespians will tell you never to work with kids or animals. I get a kick out of the way Barry reacts to the way I…

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With the reality setting in that I really was swimming and in brutal conditions about a thousand nautical miles (x 1.15 for statute miles) from shore east or west in mid north atlantic, I mused that this unlikely scenario  was not something I would have willingly ever considered putting on my bucket list. The water to no surprise felt extremely cold and tasted very salty. Each enormous heaving deep ocean swell quickly translated into fast moving surface waves that were impossible to swim against and dangerous to body surf with. Raised on the north western British mainland coast within sight…

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A sailor for many years I used to race my then twenty-five foot boat ‘Quiet Fire’ in a winter ‘snowflake’ series in Howe Sound and associated waters close to Vancouver, Canada. The sound or fjord if you will, is just north west of Vancouver and penetrates northward about forty five kilometers from Vancouver’s north shore into the British Columbia interior. It is the most southerly fjord on Canada’s west coast. One race stands out in my mind in particular albeit for the display of poor judgement and seamanship on my part.  The start/finish line was set at the entrance to…

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Some years ago having booked an overnight stay at a horse ranch/bed and breakfast in Salmon Arm a small town located in the British Columbia interior’s Okanagan valley, we were a bit surprised on arrival to find the owner, whom we knew from previous visits rushing to leave. She said that she had a ticket for a 7:30 pm concert. She thrust the door keys into our hands and headed for her car. Aware for some time of the existence of the Okanagan symphony orchestra and accustomed to attending the Vancouver symphony’s concerts; even performing with them numerous times as…

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After a spine jarring, four man bobsleigh run one dark and wintery night at Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park (*) yielded the most exciting and perhaps ‘longest’ sixty seconds of my life, I doubted if anything could top the experience. I was wrong. I discovered Vancouver based Performance Drivers Club via their print literature detailing the racetrack based advanced driver training they offer. (www.perfomancedriversclub.org) After having now attended five all day PDC events, sixty motorcycle helmeted seconds at 90+ kph through all fifteen corners of an Olympic bobsleigh course seem tame compared to four twenty-five minute helmeted and expertly instructed sessions…

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As arguably a relatively normal if southpaw male, a haircut is not in the grand scheme of things and unlike my handedness, something I can generally get excited about. However that changed recently. Having had the same barber, amazingly for over forty years, I was chagrined to learn that she would be retiring. The ramifications of this went beyond the potential impact or short term lack thereof upon my long since grey remaining locks. It interfered also with my habit of going downtown, parking miles away from her salon and thus getting a free so to speak (except for the…

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