Archive: June 2005

The Canadian Cancer Society wishes to thank everyone who participated in Edmonton's annual Relay For Life. Special thanks go out to the event's participants, survivors, sponsors, organizing committee and volunteers

Congratulations, Edmonton, for celebrating cancer survivorship and paying tribute to the lives of loved ones lost. Thank you for your support in the fight against cancer!

The Successes of Edmonton's Relay For Life in 2005:

$629,235 raised
2,200 participants
222 teams
3,598 luminaries
350 survivors
200 volunteers

In my May 27 log I mentioned that I would like to meet Olivia Butti someday. Well, today was the day. We had a job fair to hire staff for Klondike Days and when we went for a sandwich, there she was. Very nice chatting with her for a bit.

Somebody sent me a link to The Survivor Movie, a very inspirational slide show. I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch it.
From www.TheCancerCrusade.com.

Well, I'm good for another 3 months. Called for the results of my CEA blood test and everything is OK. The doctor himself is gone for a week, so the receptionist had another doctor check the results. Hence I did not get an exact number to compare to 3 months ago. Off to enjoy summer... :-)

As of today, I am an on-line storekeeper at CafePress selling various merchandise with lily images. If this takes off, I will put up other items with varying lily images. Perhaps I can turn my photos into money yet...

Took today off, even though it rained most of the day. All of my christmas, spring, and orchid cacti went outside today.

A friend of mine invited me to go shoot pictures in the Rocky Mountains this weekend, but at the last minute could not make it. As I already had booked the time off, Cecile and I went by ourselves. We left at about 1:30pm as Cecile had a meeting in the morning. Forecast was rain, but until Edson we did fine. Then it started to come down in buckets. After Hinton, the 4-lane divided highway became a 2-lane non-divided highway and due to the rain, visibility was reduced. That almost cost us our lives. At one point, I went "holy crapoly" because there was a vehicle in my "single" lane. I had to hit the shoulder (fortunately wide enough) to avoid a head-on collision. While we were thanking God for saving our skins, I'm sure the driver of the other vehicle must have sh!t his/her pants.
After we checked in to the Jasper Inn, we went for a walk and had dinner at some restaurant where my Bison medallion was actually bison strips...

Saturday, day 2, was cold, dark, rainy and gloomy. First we went to Amethyst and Pyramid lakes. Stopped at the Jasper Tram, but it was too cloudy to make the 1.2km trip up the mountain, so we went to the Athabasca Falls instead. On the way there (hwy 93a) we saw our first black bear. As I found out later, I was shooting with too slow a shutter speed so most long shots came out fuzzy.
Afterward we checked out Jasper Park Lodge and a way down Maligne Road.
We had dinner at the Jasper Inn's dining room.

Contrasting yesterday, it was sunny, but windy. Went back to the Jasper Tram (a cable car to almost the top of Mount Whistler). We could not even find a parking spot, so we decided to drive to the Columbia Icefields and stop at places we never stopped before. Saw another two black bears. These bears were not cubs, but probably siblings not of breeding age. Met some Dutch people from Meidrecht on vacation here. Very nice people and we talked for over half an hour.
The Columbia Icefields were cool, no they were cold... Cecile and I walked from the parking lot up to where the ice was melting. It was cold and exhausting (there was a notice posted for people with heart and lung problems). I was glad to be back at the van. There we fed some birds, a crow/raven and some relative of the blue jay but beige and black.
Had dinner at the Marmot lodge.

Monday, time to check out and go back home. But before that, we finally made it up the Jasper Tram. It did not freak Cecile out even though it was quite a trip. On top, some guy was fooling around - pretending to drop off the mountain - and Cecile and this guy's family were freaking out. But there was no shear drop (there would have been fences) but it just looked serious.
I was surprised at the vegetation above the tree line. Most flowers were so very tiny, and I wonder how they produce seed. There don't seem to be too many insects around.
Drove to Maligne Lake but decided to postpone a boat trip as it was getting too late. On the way back, we saw another two black bears

We've had bad and good weather, seen lots of wildlife (bears, elk, deer, mountain sheep, various rodents), wildflowers (lilium philadelphicum, indian paintbrush, and many unknown), but I think the two most important things are the time Cecile and I spent together, and a deeper appreciation for the beauty around us.