My Wet Coast Life

On my way home from work yesterday, i survived a JRfm bumper sticker toting minivan drifting into my lane on a corner as the car in front of me slammed on the brakes and I had to swerve at the last minute to avoid getting hit cause they still didn't see me or realize they are half way in my lane and have completely taken away my braking distance. He got a horn and salute from me. He quickly moved back to his lane after that nerve racking event and in the process cut off the driver that was behind him in his previous lane. That moronic driver then tried to change lanes into my passenger door a couple hundred meters later without shoulder checking to see if i was there or indicating his intention. He just started moving towards me and my feeble horn gave him another reminder that I was there. And of course it had not 1 but 2 JRfm 93.7 bumper stickers on it, cause 1 ain't enough. Ahhh...those bumper stickers explained it all.

Luckily, thanks to the Canada's Worst Driver series on Discovery Channel, they have given real good tips on how to get out of a jam and just common sense when on the road. The one tip that has saved me more than once from the idiot drivers, and what worked for me yesterday, is when not-so-smart drivers like to cut in between you and the car in front of you, with no indicator and no space of course, while the car in front of you is already breaking hard, thus taking away any breaking distance you might have had. Canada's Worst Driver showed me not to slam on the brakes but just to let off the gas and steer to retain control. That is why I'm still here and able to write this.

In December of '09, I wrote about how you can identify bad drivers on the road in the lower mainland by looking for the JRfm 93.7 bumper sticker(s) and how JR 93.7 FM listeners are the worst drivers but at least give a courteous warning via the red and white sticker(s).

Thank you Canada's Worst Driver for the tips over the last 5 seasons, they have saved myself a couple times now and would've been a different outcome had i not watched your show and paid attention. You can watch all of Season 5, if in Canada, here.

Now the previous night before this most recent incident, i was checking some stats for the blog and noticed traffic coming from searches for JRfm 93.7. Curious, i decided to Google it and see where my blog stands in the search results. To my amazement, i am ranked second only to JRfm's actual website when searching "JR 93.7 FM" and other similar searches kept me in the top 5, WIN! Maybe the listeners will see my article, read it and change their ways? Or they may just remove the bumper sticker so they can stay on the down low. This has nothing to do with JRfm 9.7 station and the music they play, rather their fan base's lack of driving skills. But you never know, the station could promote it, i wouldn't know as i listen to 99.3 the FOX on my commute, cause the FOX ROCKS!

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After the lack luster first weekend of July is over and Mother Nature still not giving us a summer to remember. After a not so great June-uary, I seem to be rusting instead of tanning. Looking outside at another overcast day and temperature sitting around 15°C, I look east to Ontario and Quebec who are currently experiencing a hot, humid and smoggy heat wave. Now living on the wet coast, we tend to always get cooler weather compared to the B.C. interior and prairies mainly due to cool ocean breezes keeping us in check. But every so often the wind dies down and we get the nice hot weather and looks like that is coming in 1 day for us.
Now I prefer love the hot weather. Due to my lack of insulation, you can still find me wearing pants or layers in 20°C+ weather when others are sweating and pealing off all their clothes. So i decide to go check our weather and see if the weather is gonna get any warmer and sunnier.

To my surprise, it looks like we are about to get our first heat wave of 2010! WooHoo! Both Environment Canada and Weather Network show the heat is on the way!
After calming down from the shear excitement that the sun will be out and the temperatures nice and warm, I realized I live in Rain-couver where people loooove to complain about the weather. Whether it is raining too much or not enough, someone has to be a weather hater. As for me, my body works like a human barometer and whenever the weather is inclement, my body hurts. I can now somewhat accurately predict weather based on pain and its location. Now why do I mention this?? Well sun and high heat tend to be the only times I do not hurt which means little to no pain medication for my bad back = Win.

Now for my unfortunate family and friends who tend to “die” when the temperature goes over 25°, fear not for i have put together some tips and tricks to beat and deal with the gorgeous tropical weather on the way.

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With the recent massive quakes hitting Haiti and repetitively battering Chile, a couple decent shakers for Japan and South Pacific, we have been lucky to dodge the bullet in the Pacific Northwest. And that appears like it is going to change...

Around 1 week ago, i wrote about earthquakes and the frequency that they are occurring, how the Northwest so far has dodged the bullet and if British Columbia is in line for the next big one. In the last couple days, we have had two 4+ magnitude quakes of the coast of Oregon and now this morning, Los Angeles gets hit with a 4.4 magnitude quake. Luckily, no reports of damage or injuries have been reported.

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Living on the wet coast, we are surrounded by forests. One of the benefits of living here is the ease of access to local and regional parks. Last weekend, a friend from work, RobotRogue, and I took my dog Wallace and went for a trek through Pacific Spirit Regional Park. It is located in the University Endowment Lands, west of downtown Vancouver and has over 54 km of walking/hiking trails, 38 km of which are designated multi-use.

As a little background to this, RobotRogue and I, like many techs, sit at a desk all day long. As with any sit down job, over time you get lazy and de-motivated and some people get fat as well as an indirect outcome of sitting all day and snacking. Now RobotRogue's goal is to get in shape and lose some of weight and eat healthier. He has traversed the net and found various useful sites such as Couch to 5K, which helps lazy people slowly get back into the work out routine and nerdfitness.com, who's slogan is "Helping nerds and average joes get in shape the right way, one day at a time."
Over the last couple weeks, i hear of his improvements and motivation. Now me on the other hand, i've gotten lazy over the years due to a back injury 10+ years ago and working more with less time to workout. I am lucky that i have a metabolism like a race car and don't gain weight really no matter what and how much i eat (yes, you can hate me now). I am at the other end of the scale for being under weight and standing over 6'1", i am commonly referred to as a stick, bean pole, someone who should eat more....well, you get the point. So when most people are losing weight, i want to gain it. This tends to tick off the weight loss people...

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I woke up this morning to find out another large earthquake has struck somewhere on terra firma. The unlucky recipients today are the citizens of Turkey. A strong 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck Eastern Turkey Monday morning. So you are probably thinking what's the big deal? Earthquakes happen all the time and as long as it is not in my back yards, i will be sublime about it. Now are you sure about that?

Living on the wet coast, we live in the Pacific Ring of Fire. It is a 40,000km horseshoe ringed shape area, in the basin of a Pacific Ocean, where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

We experience earthquakes all the time in this area, but most tend to be small enough that they are rarely felt. But since 2010 began, at least in my opinion, I have noticed we have been seeing much larger quakes and more frequent and most of them were around the Ring of Fire. All you need to do is check out the U.S. Geological Survey's website showing worldwide earthquakes with magnitude of 4.5+ in the last 7 days to see there have been a few...

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