pixelazy I was trying to figure out what this little spider was because I either haven’t seen one of these in my backyard or I haven’t been looking close enough. Either way, the #botanicgarden once again proves the place for some #insect #macro #spider pics.

pixelazy The roses were in bloom at the #botanicgarden and the bees were busy doing their thing. #insect #macro

8r4dsfeets Despite the heat I went for a wander through the #botanicgarden

8r4d This morning’s #coffee house writing efforts brought to you by something other than Starbucks for a change. The extra fifty cents for my brew might be worth it for the upgrade in atmosphere.

8r4d An early morning #running sesh in 25C temps to beat the #heat for what is looking to be a 35C day and my planned route thru the shade was blocked off by a police zone in the woods and on a nearby path. Hmmm.

gamerdad These night flights ate scenic in their own way while I’m actually playing, but the subtlety in the view is much less impressive as a screenshot. It’s too bad, I guess, that I’m not taking and making videos on this trip which tonight took me deeper into the states and part way across North dakota from Minot to Devils Lake just as the sun had set. I’ve been enjoying the zen of these hour long flights with little to do between takeoff and landing besides point the joystick control on a level course, so I spend a good chunk of my flight listening to an audiobook or a podcast, whatever is handy. That’s the joy of #flightsimulator I suppose—you can just settle in and zone out while logging some time. On a side note, as I closed down the plane and checked my log book a Steam trophy appeared in my notifications letting me know that after tonight’s night flight I had tallied 100 hours of flight time on my profile. So that’s a thing.

gamerdad I left Canada and as I approached the giant cliffs at the border (or maybe it was just a data rendering glitch?!) I crossed into North Dakota where I have never been to in real life but which from the air seems very similar to Saskatchewan except maybe for the abundance of airports south of the 49th. This leg of the journey took me from Estevan to Minot which I presume means a lot to people other than me but which to me means as much as two other random cities on a map and once again arbitrarily chosen because of their relative distance and the shortness of my attention span for #flightsimulator flights longer than an hour.

8r4d This gives new meaning to the term “field work” doesn’t it? #keyboard #writing #summer

gamerdad With the return of the real world hot weather on Monday morning, I was back in the basement continuing my #flightsimulator adventure and taking one last Canadian leg as I flew my little orange plane from Moose Jaw to Estevan which is just a few steps away from the Saskatchewan/North Dakota border. I’ve sort of got it in my mind to take a trip down in the direction of Chicago where I actually visited and ran last fall, and yeah again, I could just load up O’Hare airport and zoom around the city, but there is something about earning the view by flying all the way there that just feels right. So, instead I just toddle along at about 100 NMPH and see how many legs it will take me to fly to the windy city. I will say tho that the game was acting a bit wonky today, setting the time to late in the day (which I didn’t notice until I was about mid flight) and then landmarking the airport in the middle of the forest to the west of the runway (while the buildings were to the east) which resulted in me parking the plane under a tree and hoping the log book records my flight as valid even though the luggage guys were going to have a heckuva time unloading my suitcase.

gamerdad I’ve had my eye on a way to continue my adventures through the early 90s comedic adventures of the folks from Cicely Alaska, and Amazon provided this week as the DVD box set of all the seasons went on sale briefly and I happened to be in the right place at the right time to nab myself a copy. Yeah, I did write DVD—that wasn’t a typo. I don’t think I’ve purposefully bought a new-in-the-wrapper DVD in at least a decade, at least since we upgraded to Blu-ray and then have pretty much fallen into the streaming era and turned most of our physical media into interior decorations. And here i went and bought a box with 26 of them inside. But I gotta admit that there is something both nostalgic and appropriate in settling into this classic from my youth as I begin (well, continue) my full-series binge (still in season one) and feel those retro vibes from the old school way of watching this terrific show. One part character study, one part fish out of water, one part magical realism and a whole lot of wholesome classic television for these crazy dark days. Let’s roll.

8r4d While most of the #runcrew was off in the mountains sweeping up the last couple legs of Sinister 7, a few of us stayed behind for some Sunday #running in the #rain followed by the regular coffee meetup.

8r4d The girls set out on a solo #kayak adventure this morning, tho my adventure involved trying to wrangle the air pump to cooperate and inflate the darned thing. Hopefully they can read the map I drew so where they exit the #river and where we park the car later match up. #rivervalley