Well its been a few weeks since the 24 Hour Summer Solstice ended and a few of us are feeling a little ripped off, all that effort training and we barely got a lap in before the race was called.  The only cure for that is to sign up for another one and hope for no rain!

So a group of five got together and entered a team in the 24 Hour Hot August Nights in the Clydesdale category where your 5 person team has to have a combined weight of 1000lbs.  We’ll be cutting it close as most are hovering around the 200lb mark or getting very near to it but we’ll be OK.  We even have a great team name and slogan we just need a logo!

 The Fat and the Furious: Living life a quarter-pounder at a time!

Not sure who put this video together but it sums up the 2009 24 12 Hour Summer Solstice race at Albion Hills quite well.

Well it’s done, the 24 12 Hour Summer Solstice race has ended and our Ride For Rob teams are back at home. We knew it was going to rain, but no one expected 60mm of rain to fall from 3am straight-through until 10pm.  That lead to the race first being shorted from 17Km to 15.5Km and then finally down to 13Km before finally being stopped short at midnight.  By that point it was taking riders 3 hours to complete the 13Km course with one rider commenting “It was like riding in peanut butter”.

There were 2200 riders registered and 400 at the start line for what was to be a 24 hour race but turned into 12 hours of mud wrestling.

You can imagine how muddy it was but it was actually a lot worse.  $5000 carbon fibre bikes weighed as much and were as useful as a $125 bike from Walmart. And having 27 speeds meant nothing as shifting was impossible with all the mud.  Riders took home so much mud that Albion Hills is being renamed Albion Valley :)

What was normally a short, quick uphill, turned into a slick mess.

Riders left clean but returned almost unrecognizable, but still smiling!

But in total we raised well over $30,000 $50,000 for the Canadian Paraplegic Association and our friend Rob, who braved the rain to spend the day with us!

Thanks to all for your support and donations!

First of all I wanted to say a big thank you to all of you who donated.  Your donations and support have gone a long way in making this ride a reality.  On behalf of the Canadian Paraplegic Association, Rob Buren and myself, thanks!  Your generous donations have helped me raise $1230 for the CPA and Rob!  If you haven’t donated you still can, just click the image below!

Throughout the GTA most of us are getting ready to depart for Albion Hills to set up our campsite and ensure everything is set for the start of the 24 Hour Summer Solstice tomorrow and 12 noon Eastern.  We have 50 riders split among 7 teams riding this weekend in the Ride For Rob.  While it will be a gruelling 24 hours, especially if the weather forecast holds true, it will also be an enjoyable few days for all as we are supporting a great cause and a great friend.

If you would like to follow along this weekend there are a variety of ways you can.  If you are in the GTA, Albion Hills is just North of Bolton, ON.  Sunday is supposed to be a nice day and park entry is only $6.  You can find directions here.

Otherwise you can follow along via my blog, twitter, Flickr.  I will be updating the blog with other online resources as I find them so check back often.

If you'd like to ride the trail without leaving your seat, there is this video that was shot just the other day at another race, but the same trail (1st video on the page).

Thanks again for your support!

So today we got to pre-ride the course for the 24 Hour Summer Solstice race next weekend.  This is the race we are participating in as the Ride for Rob.  The course was fast, with loads of twists, turns, fun downhills and not so bad uphills and a huge mud pit at M5!  You can see the course below and it came in just under 17KM.

The course starts and ends at M1 and the race starts and 12noon on Saturday June 20th and the last racer has to start the final lap by 12noon on Sunday and get it finished before 1:30pm.  I have been training hard for the last 6 weeks, riding over 100KM on the trails every week and it is showing.  I have lost over 20lbs so far and continue to shrink on a weekly basis.  I have also managed to raise $780 for the Canadian Paraplegic Association.

It is not too late to donate!  As a group we have raised almost $30,000 and we are still looking for your support to help those with Spinal Cord Injury! 

Please donate today!

And stay tuned, I’ll be blogging from the race and posting pictures next weekend so you can see the fun we are all having!!!

There is an area in the East side of Toronto called the Distillery District.  It is the location of the largest collection of Victorian era buildings in North America and a very unique and interesting place to visit. 

Originally home to the Gooderham and Worts Distillery in 1832 it now houses some unique shops, restaurant and street vendors.

It is also home to some interesting art work!

There are a few more photos here and I highly recommend a visit if you haven’t been! 

Updated May 19th 2009 – Increased fundraising goal to $1000 on the site to $1000!

With a little less than 6 weeks to go before the Ride for Rob kicks off I already managed to hit 100% of my fundraising goal.  When I originally signed up $500 was the default but with 39 days to go my new goal is to hit 200% for a total donation of $1000 to Rob and the Canadian Paraplegic Association.  I’d like to thank all those that already donated and…

…remind those that haven’t that you still can!  Yes that means you can still donate and help those affected by spinal cord injury!  As for me?  I’ve been rolling up the odometer on the bike and have put on roughly 200KM so far in the past two weeks and loving every minute of it.  There are some great trails in and around Burlington including Kelso and Hilton Falls.

Donate today!

A simple morning ride on October 5, 2008 would change Rob’s life forever. An over the bars incident that shouldn’t have been anything more than a laugh - broke his spine at vertebrae T11, leaving him without feeling from the top of his abdominals down.  It's amazing how quickly a spinal cord injury can happen to anyone.

One positive outcome has been the rallying of family and friends. A few things quickly  became apparent as the weeks passed. First, that Rob would be facing an expensive challenge: financially, emotionally and physically. Second, that however horrible it may be, he was actually one of the lucky ones. He still has the use of his upper body and he doesn’t have to retrain for a new job.

The “Ride for Rob” intends to do two things this year.

1. Raise money for the Canadian Paraplegic Association
2. Provide a facility for those close to Rob to help him financially.

The Ride for Rob is an event within an event as the ride will take place during a race.  I will race on a team at the Chico Racing 24 Hour Summer Solstice on June 20th, 2009 and am looking for your support!  I have committed to complete a grueling mountain bike endurance race that will certainly test each and every rider. The riders are making a big commitment and we hope you will too. Please donate generously.

You might think that a spinal cord injury is a rare event.  But someone in Ontario has one each and every day.  It can happen to any person, and suddenly life changes forever.  Living with a spinal cord injury (SCI) can be very challenging.  Luckily there are some great folks over at the Canadian Paraplegic Association (CPA) who provide advocacy for those who are disabled and provide fantastic peer support programs to help those who are newly injured.

A few spinal cord injury facts:

• Traffic Accidents are the number one cause at 45%
• Sports Related SCI breaks down to: Diving 66.0% - Rugby & American Football 6.1% - Winter Sports 6.1% - Surfing 3.1% - Trampoline 2.6% - Wrestling 2.3% - Gymnastics 2.2% - Horseback Riding 2.0% - Other 9.6%
• Resultant Disability from SCI: Quadriplegia, incomplete 31.2% - Paraplegia, complete 28.2% - Paraplegia, incomplete 23.1% - Quadriplegia, complete 17.5%
• 92% of all sports injuries result in quadriplegia
• The unemployment rate for people with SCI is 62%. 

The Ride for Rob is in its first year and we hope to both support the CPA and also help Rob.  When you donate - you will be given the option to specify if you want all of your money to go to CPA, or if you want to split it with Rob.  This second option is for those who wish their donation to be used equally to Rob directly and to help others in his situation.   Please remember, you will only receive a donation tax receipt for the portion going to CPA.

If you would like to donate you can do so at http://www.rideforrob.ca/rbuike and donations of any size are both welcome and appreciated!

Thank you in advance for your support!

Now in the last post I alluded to something about the Locker Room and you can see the efforts of that here (click on the image below).

Before heading down to Fan Fest I got in contact with the Packers fan club and asked if they would be interested in having me create a Photosynth of the locker room.  Fan Fest is the only time of the year the public is allowed to walk through the locker room and they have it all cleaned up and staged for the public.  I was happy to hear that the web/PR team was interested and lucky enough to get into the locker room alone (but escorted) to take photos before they put up the barriers to guide the tours.  I was in there for about 2 hours and took almost 300 photos to create the synth.

While in there I got to talk to Red Batty, a fellow Canadian, and the Packers Equipment Manager.  It was the hard work of him and his team that got the locker room cleaned and staged for the tour and got it done early so I could get in there and take the photos.  It was also a lot of fun to meet a few of the players as they finished their workouts and got ready to attend Fan Fest themselves and even got to see Coach McCarthy walk in, say hello before getting on his way.

It turned out pretty good and now I can walk through the locker room any time.  Give it a shot and find your favourite players jersey!  Or download the Windows 7 theme I created with my favourite players!

I am just heading home after my first Packers Fan Fest.  These have been going on since 2005 but this is the first one I have attended.  It was a fun weekend and I had fun meeting with Packers players, staff and fans.  A few people from the Packers fan club got together on Friday morning for a tailgate.  It was cold and blowing but about 20 people showed up including Packers president Mark Murphy.

It was great that he came out there, I only wish we hadn’t eaten all the brats already :)  Later on that night the event got started and the highlight was a meet and greet with all the coaches.  The new Defensive Coordinator, Dom Capers, was a popular guy and I got to chat with him for a few minutes, had him autograph my coaches hat and wish him luck in the upcoming season.

Really nice guy, as were the rest of the coaches.  I got to talk a bit with Winston Moss, the Assistant Head Coach and Linebackers Coach but the highlight was chatting with Tom Clements, the Quarterbacks Coach.  He was the QB for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1984 when they won the Grey Cup.  Talking to him about the Bombers and his time in the CFL was cool, I think I was the only one who wasn’t asking about Favre or Rodgers.  I also got to meet Head Coach Mike McCarthy and wish him luck.  Naturally he was swamped but I got to say hi before getting around and meeting the rest of the coaches.

Throughout the weekend was sessions where you could meet players.  I was lucky enough to get tickets (they were randomly given) to meet Wide Receivers Greg Jennings and James Jones, as well as Daryn College (with the tattoo sleeve below) and Tony Moll from the O-Line (I have a story about those two guys), Linebacker Brandon Chillar,  Long Snapper Brett Goode (who now occupies Brett Favre’s old locker) and Nose Tackle Ryan Pickett.

There were also Packers legends like Jerry Kramer, Donny Anderson, Paul Coffman and Willie Davis telling stories from the Lombardi years.  During the weekend coaches were putting on seminars on offence, defense, special teams etc…  These session were quite interesting as they went over plays with training camp film as well as game film.

Another highlight was meeting and chatting with a fellow Canadian on the staff, Equipment Manager “Red” Batty.  He started out with the Montreal Alouettes and has a Grey Cup ring as well as a Super Bowl ring.  We got to chat for a while and then I took part in his session on NFL equipment.

This is the only time of the year that the public is allowed into the locker room and I’ll have more on that later.  For now here are a few photos from the locker room tour.

At 5:25:03AM Pacific time on January 30th, 2009 a 4.5 Magnitude earthquake took place 15 miles from downtown Seattle.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/uw01301325.php#details

I survived although the empty water bottle on my nightstand fell to the floor only to be crushed by my foot when I awoke.

Me?  I slept right through it :)

I used to ski.  I used to be a pretty good skier.  I used to race, spend weeks in the mountains, teach, coach and work at a ski hill.  At some point I stopped as I got busy, I got stuck in the flatlands and after spending all that time in the mountains I just couldn’t get interested in skiing in “the ditch” anymore.

That was roughly 10 years ago but the other day, on an off day while travelling with work, myself and a co-worker decided to go skiing at Cypress Mountain just outside of Vancouver B.C.  We originally had plans to go elsewhere but a bartender told us to go to Cypress and they are hosting the Freestyle Skiing events at the 2010 Winter Olympics so it must be good.  And it was!

First off it was a BEAUTIFUL day.  While it was foggy all week in Vancouver, the mountain is over the fog and made for some amazing views and a bright, clear sunny sky.

Anyway back to the skiing…  10 years is a long time not to do anything.  A lot has changed since I last strapped on a pair of skiis.  My last skiis were 207CM long and pretty much rectangular blocks with curled up, pointed tips.  The skiis I rented were 160CM, looked more like an hourglass than a ski.  But I strapped them on, looked at my co-worker Rick and asked “Are we men or are we little boys?”

Rick looked at me an said “we are men!”  So off to the top of the mountain for us!  If you are going to go out, go out swinging right? 

Well it took about a half a run to work out the kinks and figure out how these new skiis work but after a run it was like the good old days!

Just like riding a bike…..

The rest of the pictures are posted here http://flickr.com/photos/rbuike/sets/72157612850426926/

Merry Christmas, happy holidays and best wishes for the New Year!

Rodney & Lisa

This is a letter I wrote to Air Canada informing them of my last flight with their air line.  After two years of paying for the privilege of lousy service, over priced flights, grumpy attendants I had enough.  Air Canada will no longer be getting any of my money.  I wonder if they respond?  I don't really care as it would only go to prove my point further, they don't give a s**t!

I am writing  this to inform you that you have lost a customer.  As someone who has flown over 100,000 miles with you since October 2006 I no longer wish to be treated like crap and will no longer be flying with your airline.

I can understand the occasional mishap and have let those issues pass as they occur knowing it is part of the way things go, stuff happens.  But this last experience is the last straw and I will be flying WestJet from now on.

After arriving at the airport well in advance of my flight I checked my bag and proceeded through security and to the Air Canada lounge.  At 11:25am I proceeded to my gate to board my flight.  At 11:40 they inform us that due to a mechanical issue (cracked window) they will be putting us on a different flight and it will be delayed an hour.  How they didn't see this earlier baffles me, but whatever, stuff happens.

I walk to the other gate and have to wait almost 45 minutes as they reseat other passengers rather than take care of the 5 passengers who are going to miss their connection due to the delay.  After finally making it to the counter I have to wait another 20 minutes as the agent takes care of rebooking me on another flight.  Normally this wouldn't be an issue but the fact that she kept leaving me to attend to other passengers did not sit well.  I understand everyone has questions but taking care of one customer at a time will take the same amount of time as trying to take care of them all at the same time and won't disrespect anyone.  Strike 1!

After being re-booked I was told to go to carousel 1 to get my bag and then re-check it.  I was told my bag would be there within 20 minutes.  After waiting at carousel 1 for nearly 40 minutes I went the baggage claim area where they told me it was "on its way".  After another 15 minutes I asked the baggage claim again and was told it was in xray and it would be "no more than 10 minutes".  Again I wait and 30 minutes later am told they "don't know where it is but it should only be a few minutes".  If you don't know, don't feed me a line of bull!  Nothing pisses people off more than being lied to!  Strike 2!

After another 20 minutes my bag arrives and I head back to check in with 40 minutes to go before my next flight.  Now I understand the difference between Super Elite and Elite but with no one in the Super Elite line and the fact that I was cutting it close due to having to wait for my bag so long I get in line at which time the agent asks if I was Super Elite.

I explained the situation but she refused to service my request and I was told to go to the Elite line.  While in the Elite line the same agent takes another customer who says he is only Elite but late for his flight and she takes his bags.  After a wait I am back in front of the same agent that refused me prior.  If you are going to enforce a rule, enforce it for everyone, I have no problems with that but don't turn around and take the next person in the same situation and let them pass.  You aren't an NFL referee afterall.  Strike 3!  You're out!

The total lack of respect, courtesy and understanding demonstrated by everyone I was in contact with in this situation did nothing but solidify my thought that this isn't a bad agent, or someone having a bad day but an culture of indifference, uncaring and general thoughtlessness towards your customers that trancends role and responsibility.  No one cares.  No one has any pride in their job.

For that, although I have paid for a few more flights yet this calendar year that will put me into the Elite category once again, I will no longer be booking any flights with Air Canada.  Having flown WestJet a few times over the last few years they have a commitment to customer service that I just don't see with Air Canada.  I figure I'll give them a shot, they sure as heck can't be any worse!

Rodney Buike

I managed to find some more photos of Donald Lee’s 3rd quarter TD Lambeau Leap from the Bears game.  By far the most fun experience at any sporting event I have ever attended!  I hope one of these photographers responds to my request of a high resolution version I can print and hang on the wall!

(Courtesy Green Bay Press-Gazette – Evan Siegle - 1:58)

(Courtesy Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal – Benny Sieu - 1/28)

(Courtesy Chicago Tribune – Jose M. Osorio - 5/41)

By the way, you can spot me in all the photos.  I am the guy with the green cap with sunglasses sitting up on the brim of the cap!

37-3 was the final and what a game.  I’ve been lucky with the games I’ve picked to attend with the scores being 34-0 over the Vikings, 42-20 over the Seahawks in the playoffs, the Monday night game against the Vikings was the closest at 24-19 but 37-3?  What a fun time, a big win and it sure quieted the few Bears fans sitting around us :)

The Packers were ready and you could see it!  Aaron Kampman was thinking about eating Kyle Orton for lunch (and did force a fumble that lead to a 4th quarter TD)

Donald Driver signalling he is ready to start the game!

Part of the 2008 Draft class, Jordy Nelson, Matt Flynn and Brian Brohm!

Just before the game started there was the USAF fly by, this time it was a trio of helicopters, not as loud as the F-18 jets the last time but still very cool.  You could hear them coming from far and the echo in the stadium was deafening!

But the best part of the game?  Section 134, Row 2, Seat 12, aka Lambeau Leap zone and we got piled on!  Donald Lee jumped right in our laps when he scored his TD in the 3rd quarter and right there in the mix was me.  I was pushed, shoved, squeezed, stepped on and drenched in beer but it was the most fun all day!

(Photo courtesy the Chicago Tribune)

In case you have troubles picking me out I circled myself in the photo and that is my hand on his helmet!

And oh yeah, the Bears still suck!  Sounds so much better when 70,000+ are chanting that at the same time!

UPDATE!  I found the following picture on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal and picked myself out as well :)

(Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal)

And if you can spot me I am circled again.

Good times!

Lisa and I headed back to the Royal Botanical Gardens on Thanksgiving to check out the rest of the exhibits.  Overall it was an interesting event and I am glad we made it.  This piece was my favourite…

…which is explained here.

There were a few others that were interesting….

…and this one, which I added a Sepia tone with Windows Live Photo Gallery, that I am getting printed to hang in the living room.

A while back Microsoft Research released a new tool called Photosynth.  Photosynth is a software application from Microsoft Live Labs and the University of Washington that analyzes digital photographs to build a three-dimensional point cloud of a photographed object.

That is the technical description but in a nutshell you can take a bunch of photos of an item or area and the program will "synth” them into a 3-D space you can zoom in and out of.  You will have to install the Photosynth plug-in but once you do you’ll see what it’s all about.

It is a very cool way to display photos and I made this one with 28 photos I snapped of my Packers wall :) (Click to View)

I was just about to cut the grass in the backyard when Lisa and I (well it was actually our cats) discovered the following.

Two baby bunnies curled up, keeping warm and waiting for mom to return with some food.  This isn’t the first time we’ve found this in our backyard.  I guess it is true what they say about rabbits…..

For the first time since September 20th 1992 there was a quarterback starting for the Green Bay Packers whose name was not Brett Favre.  It was a long run with Favre at the helm but it is Mr. Rodger's Neighbourhood now!  Here is a pic of history in the making!

It was a great game.  Home opener, A-Rod's first start, a division rivalry against the (supposedly) improved Vikings and Monday Night Football to boot.  Having not been to a MNF game before it was a different experience than normal.  It just seemed more exciting.  Maybe it was seeing the MNF crew on the sidelines pregame...

... or maybe it was that with all the stuff that went on in the off season that it was good to get back to football.  Either way it was great seeing the first play of the 2008 season, the opening kick off taken by rookie Jordy Nelson.

A little later on in the game came A-Rod's first rushing TD via a QB sneak, something that was rare with Favre at QB.

Of course it could have just seemed different after the brain rattling fly over by the USAF F-18's :)  Talk about loud!

You can get a sense of the fly over in this great NFL Films Video and then see the rest of my photos from the game at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rbuike/sets/72157607223904637/