The Semester Ends

Our first semester at Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo is well nigh over. Eli submits her final project in the intaglio course tomorrow. Also tomorrow, I give my final exam and will grade it Tuesday morning. Wednesday we'll try to catch the 6:30 AM ferry from Departure Bay to Vancouver's Horseshoe Bay and then drive up to Whistler where we'll stay 4 nights. Our ski holiday overlaps that of my once-upon-a-time boss, Ray, and his spouse, Patti. They know Whistler-Blackcomb and can show us around.

After the ski holiday, we'll stay a night in Bellingham, and then drive to Spokane to spend the holiday with 'the family', always fun. I'll take a side trip to Sandpoint (perhaps with Eli) to get some things done and, hopefully, get in some visiting. Our return to Nanaimo is tentatively scheduled for December 28.

The second semester begins on January 8, so I'll spend some time getting ready for the course I'll be teaching. It will be Linux-based, but will be at a sophomore rather than a senior level. The course is very hands-on, aimed at system administration for a small business computer network.

Yesterday we hiked up into the region west of Westwood Lake. Recent snows are nearly melted away, so we had lots of streams and mini ponds to ford. The waterfall sounds kept with us most of the way. Large stumps (~6 feet in diameter) from early logging have become planters for other vegetation. The second growth is large and well established, with a huge first growth orphan here or there. This will likely be an area we continue to explore over the winter. It's low enough to retain scarcely any snow and has good tread, with just an occasional tricky spot. The trailhead to the spiderweb of hikes is about 15 minutes from our Nanaimo home.

The prior weekend, we went on one of the college-sponsored outings. Instead of kayaking, it featured xcountry skiing and/or snowshoeing at Mount Washington, up island about an hour and a half drive. As on our other outings, it was fun to interact with the young folk. The downhill portion of the ski area is significantly smaller than Schweitzer, our home area, but gets much larger crowds, having no competition on the island. The xcountry trails, however, are reasonably extensive.

One of our newer purchases is a 'club' which is a steel bar that attaches to an auto's steering wheel to act as an an anti-theft device. It works best if the surrounding cars have no such device. We call it our 'Nanaimo Bar'. This neighborhood is sketchy and the parking is unsecured, so we thought this prudent, especially in the face of recent local car thefts.

Richard
2006.12.10