Last night I went swimming for the first time in a

while. The plans was for a family swim. One parent does a workout, while the other plays with the kids, then we switched.

The plan worked out well. The kids had fun, and both Sox and I got our swim in.

My problem was that I ate dinner too close to when I swam, and I didn't feel very good for most of the swim. Still, it felt good to be in the water, and I managed 700m.

Post swim, while sitting on the couch, the whole body tired began to settle in. It is a good feeling that I get from swimming, and from mountain biking (sometimes). I still feel some muscles this morning.

This is the start of my Tour de Victoria training for 2012. Woohoo!

I went out for a cold ride today. Victoria was supposed to get snow last night, and at our house we did get some (less than an inch). I had been hoping for a snow ride, but that didn't pan out. The closer I got to the dump, the less snow there was on the ground.

Still, it was a great ride. Cold, but not too slippery. Crunchy. I love the sound of my tires creaking through snow, or crashing through icy puddles.

I had Heart with me, and she had a great time too. On Shock Treatment, the first trail from the parking lot, she was going full tilt. She was in front of me, and would sprint as fast as she could until I was out of sight. We call it a puppy run (where she runs with her bum a little closer to the ground than normal, and is running full tilt). As soon as I rounded a corner, I could see she was waiting for me in the middle of the trail, and when she saw me she would turn and sprint away as fast as possible. Very funny.

I had my Bullit out today to give myself more of a workout in an effort to keep warm. That worked very well. I even managed to work out the kinks in the recent work that was done on my drivetrain. They adjusted, but I found it was still skipping gears at very inopportune times.

My final trail of the day was Who's Yer Daddy. This is a fairly technical DH trail, but it is a lot of fun. I was 3/4 of the way down when I landed a jump in a bad spot, I felt my rear wheel slam hard into a rock. A couple corners later I felt something was off in the rear end, and sure enough I had pinch flatted.

I got out the tool kit and began trying to take the muddy, wet, snowy tire off the rim. What a pain that was. DH rims had sidewalls that are a little taller than normal rims to try and keep the tire seated better. I also had wire beads on the rear tire. It took me a long time to get the tire off.

Back at the car I went to hose off my bike, but couldn't as the hose was frozen solid! Nice. The dog dish was a block of ice too (not that Heart would have had a drink anyway).

Fall will always be my favorite time of year to ride, but rides like this are truly spectacular. If I had enough of them they may make me change my mind.

Sunday morning, out of the corner of her eye, Sue saw something swoosh by the kitchen window. It took her a minute to figure out what it was. Explaining to myself and the kids took even longer, I just wasn't getting what she was saying. Suddenly I saw it. An owl had landed in our neighbours tree!

I grabbed my camera and headed out to see if I could get a couple shots. He/she was transfixed by a squirrel until I got close then it checked me out before returning to watching the squirrel.

I went back out a second time after it had moved to a different branch. I got to close though and it bolted, completely silently. Amazing.

On Saturday night we bundled up and headed down to the foot of Cook St to watch the Island Equipment Owners Association's Lighted Truck Parade. This parade is an annual thing, and Sue, Elliot, and I really enjoy it. It's hard to tell if Amy likes it.

The lead up to the parade is hilarious because a few minutes before the trucks arrive, we start seeing lots of motorcycle police zip by with lights going. They move up in advance to block off the roads. Traffic coming down Cook gets quite confused by being forced to turn around and find a different route. Endless entertainment as more than a few drivers were lectured by the officer.

Then the trucks showed up. Wow, these guys do an amazing, amazing job of decorating their trucks. Some of them had huge trailers that were equally decked out. They do drive fairly quickly along the route, honking their horns the entire way. If you live in Victoria, and haven't seen it, you really should make the effort next year.

This was new this year. Flames shooting out of the pipes!

There is something about this one that makes it my favorite every year.

I already wrote about our last trip to Saltspring Island. What I had not done though was post some pictures from the trip to the Island.

Such a cutie! And a bit of a ham.

Keeping warm with Bopp.

The storm clouds were pretty cool. I don't think I did them justice though.