Rainwater Rambling Archive

Making Changes

A start of a new month brings new blogging software. You shouldn't notice much difference. I have made the switch from a program called Blog to one called Thingamablog, both of them are standalone blogging applications. I had come across this program last year and played around with it, but never made the switch. It wasn't until asking Carolyn if she was going to do a blog for their trip down to the east coast that I started playing with it again. I setup a sub-domain on my web server space and loaded the program on her computer. Check out her blog at http://carolyn.tanabe.ca/blog.html.

Bridge Collapse

Can you believe the collapse of the bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Having been to Minneapolis twice in the last two years, I realized that I have been over that bridge a number of times. The most recent being last August when I was there for a course.

I came across this photo on the internet. Look at all the people crammed onto a nearby bridge trying to get a better view. I think standing on a bridge next to one that just collapsed might be the last place I would want to be.

They're Off!

Carolyn and Danny made it off on their trip down to the east coast. Carolyn finally got her blog software working. The link for her blog is http://carolyn.tanabe.ca/blog.html.

Posted by Richard at 11:14 AM
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Send off

Gillian and Angela are off to Guide camp this week. They are heading back to Camp Wyoka, the same place they went last year. We dropped them off at the bus pickup point at noon.

Gillian has a couple of friends from school going and Victoria who she hung with last year at camp.

Claudia looking happy for now.

Trying to juggle the apples.

Claudia already missing her sisters.

Angela couldn't wait to get on the bus.

This year the camp has gone with an e-mail company called bunk1.com to deliver e-mail to campers. We have purchased some bunk note credits, feel free to logon and use them to send the girls a text e-mail (try to avoid the borders and extras). They are there until Saturday morning, so try to send before Thursday evening. Click on the e-mail icon below to send an e-mail.

Logon instructions
1. Username: tanabe
2. Password: rainwater

Click on the Bunk Notes icon.

Change the Message From field, and select either Angela or Gillian
Angela is staying at Carlyle
Gillian is staying at Tamarack A

Dundas Cactus Parade

We headed into Dundas to pick up Claudia and watch the Cactus Festival Parade. This weekend is the 32nd Cactus Festival.

It was a beautiful night for a parade, there was a good turn out for the parade.

 There was no shortage of bands in the parade.

Eric and Claudia watching the parade.

Claudia and I are sure we saw the same guy at the ball game on saturday. 

Some of the locals in the parade. 

The Strubs pickle mascot. 

Another bagpipe band. 

On the 30th anniversary of the death of the King, it looked like he was alive and well in the Dundas Cactus Parade.

Here was the float that Poppa helped with, it was for the Lawn Bowling Club.

The end of the parade is in sight. 105 floats later, it was almost dark when the last float went by.

Ride in the park.

With Gillian and Angela still at Guide camp, Claudia and I headed down to the lakefront for a bike ride and picnic. We took our bikes to Jack Darling Park, it is off the Lakeshore just east of Southdown Rd. Here is Claudia looking out over the lake.

Claudia in her new helmet.

Claudia sitting in the wheelchair swing, it's kind of like a seat at the Ex.

There are a couple of playgrounds in the park.

Here she is at the other park.

Claudia standing among the rocks.

The Toronto skyline from Mississauga.

Claudia posing among the rocks.

It was a beautiful day, a couple of dark clouds would go by, but they never amounted to anything.

Claudia collecting rocks, washing them off and drying them off in the sun.

Claudia with her sandman.

Take me out to the ball game...

Today Claudia and I went down to the Rogers Centre (aka The SkyDome) to watch the Blue Jays take on the Baltimore Orioles. A summary of my expenses...

Cost of parking at Yorkdale...$0.00

TTC return fare to Union Station...$5.54

2 500 level tickets behind home plate...$18.00

Service charges and taxes for said tickets...$11.50

2 hot dogs and a drink before the game...$7.50

1 Blue Jays baseball hat for Claudia...$23.31

1 ginormous bag of popcorn...$5.25

Spending the afternoon at the ball game with Claudia...PRICELESS

Unfortunately the Jays lost to the Orioles 5-3, if not for a couple of errors, it would have been a victory.

The roof was open and we were in shade for about 30 minutes and then it was full sun for the rest of the game.

The CN Tower over looking the field.

Claudia taking in the action while we were still in the shade.

The first pitch of the game by Jesse Litsch.

Alex Rios connecting on a pitch.

The Big Hurt, Frank Thomas, fouling one off his foot.

Official attendance was 33,387. They must of counted Claudia sitting in all of the seats that were empty beside her.

It was a fun day and Claudia made it until the seventh before she asked if it was over soon. She got a mini-bobblehead of Greg Zaun before the game by collecting stamps in her Junior Jays Passport. They also hand you a card when you walk in to fill out an on-line survey and according to the website, they are mailing me two free tickets to a game in September.

And To Think That I Saw it on Rainwater Drive

It kind of reminded me of the Dr Suess book this morning.

I just happened to be looking out the front door this morning and I saw a fire truck go by, but what caught my eye was it was slowing down. So I grabbed the camera and went out to see. Sure enough it stopped next door and firemen were heading to the back.

It turned to be a tree sort of, kind of on fire. There were embers deep below the surface of the cedar tree. Very odd. So what looks like the local fire department gardening and watering Julie's trees, is them actually soaking the ground and turning the soil to find out what caused it.

A Day at the Beach...

We're trying to cram in a few more outings before the end of summer. Today we headed out to The Pinery Provincial Park for a day at the beach.

The weather was good, not too hot, and the water was quite warm.

We got there around 11:00am and it was quite empty. By the time we left around 4:00pm, it was busier, but not packed.

The girls had a blast playing in the waves.

Angela jumping over their sand hurdles.

We had quite a bit of beach to ourselves.

Claudia trapped in the sand.

Gillian and Angela working on the their booby trap, hoping to catch a booby.

Three happy girls.

Claudia checking out a butterfly.

Closeup of the butterfly.

Claudia having a snack.

A flash video (1.3 mb) of the girls playing in the surf.

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A Night at the Inn

We're staying the night in Sarnia at the Holiday Inn. We have a view of the trucks heading into the USA over the Bluewater Bridge.

It has both an outdoor and indoor pool. After dinner we went to the indoor pool.

As far as hotel pools go, this one ranks right up near the top.

We got a cot for Gillian, not sure how comfortable she'll be sleeping upright.

Pool, pool, bridge, beach...

We continued our mini outing on Monday morning starting off with a swim in the indoor pool, followed by the outdoor pool.

The girls thought it was too shallow, only 4'3" in the deep end, so we ended back in the indoor pool. The indoor pool is actually on the second floor. You can see the windows in the above picture (top left).

Angela and Claudia synchro jumping.

A flash video (1.5mb) of the girls doing their synchro act.

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A view of the border crossing from the hotel parking lot.

The Bluewater Bridge from Sarnia to Port Huron, Michigan.

Looking north to Lake Huron.

Along the St Clair River.

Under the bridge.

I suppose this is to scare off the terrorists.

Susan and I.

We headed back to the Pinery for some more surf and sand. However, the surf didn't co-operate, it was very calm compared to yesterday. The girls were quite disappointed.

Claudia trying to stand on her surf board.

The girls decided they were going to build a teepee.

A little miscalculation by Gillian.

Not bad considering they only used driftwood and sand.

Summer's almost over.

It was a long day, but very enjoyable, we ended the day with dinner in London and then back home.

A Day at the Ex!

We headed down to the Canadian National Exhibition on Wednesday for a full day. We drove down and parked under the Direct Energy Centre. We started at the Canadian Forces exhibit. Here are the girls in a tank.

The lego tower, the largest lego tower ever built at 29.03 m.

This year we purchased the ride bracelets for the girls and myself. We definitely got our moneys worth, thanks to Angela, she wanted to go on everything, twice! We started off in the Kids World area.

Angela on the submarine ride.

The first time the girls lined up for this ride, they stopped running it, due to a couple of bolts falling off, a little while later the ride was running again.

Gillian and I on the big ferris wheel in Kids World. (photo by Angela)

It was a hot, humid and smoggy day down at the Ex, but the forecasted rain and thunderstorms never materialized.

Claudia on the merry-go-round, Gillian in the background looking thrilled.

Angela giving five's as she passed.

We headed back to the car for some lunch and saw the stone guy doing his thing.

The one he was working on is in the center.

After lunch we headed over to the Farm, Food and Fun Building. Here is Claudia talking to a turkey. It was trying to peck at her bracelet.

Her is Claudia wearing her chicken hat, pretending to be the mother hen, all the chicks kept trying to peck at her beak.

Claudia and Angela.

It was on to the main midway for more rides, Claudia measured in at 46", so there were a number of rides that she could ride on or ride if I went on with her.

Gillian wouldn't go on this one, so I went with Angela, we are sitting at the left side.

Claudia having a sno-cone on the midway, funky containers to replace the original cones.

A view from the top of the giant ferris wheel.

More of the midway.

Claudia went through most of the fun houses when the other girls went on rides she wasn't tall enough for.

Angela and Gillian went on this one a couple of times.

If you can see the pink and yellow crocs, that is Ang and Gillian.

After dinner it was time for a few games.

Looking down the midway around 10:00pm.

Another fishing game.

Angela testing her strength.

A couple of rides to end the day, we went on the log ride again, the girls went on twice more since there was no lineup. The first time we tried to go on it in the afternoon, they stopped it and said it would be closed for an hour. We were actually sitting in the log and had to get out. The guy was good and told us to come back and we wouldn't have to wait in line.

The fireball at night.

We saw part of the Sean Kingston show at the Bandshell, who's he? He sings Beautiful Girls. Gillian and I sat through an hour of other acts before he came on stage. Susan and the other girls had gone back to Kids World and came back just as he was coming on stage. It was a long, hot, and fun day at the Ex. I will put some video up of the day.

CNE video

Some flash videos of our day at the CNE. The first is of Angela and the turkey (1 mb).

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This Claudia pretending to be the chicks mother (1 mb).

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The last video is Claudia dancing on the midway. I said she should put a hat down and maybe people will throw money in it (2 mb).

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So Long Red Car...

We said good-bye to our red Corolla today, it is being traded in for a Toyota Yaris. Here are the girls in front of the Corolla.

I will post some photos of the new car soon.