Whistler

Yes Christmas day, here we are in Edmonton airport leaving for Vancouver, fog has delayed the flight. It is leaving a two hours later than expected. Our bus connection in Vancouver is not going to line up so we will take another bus.
The sea to sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler where the winter Olympics are being held is a beautiful piece of construction. The highway is built part way hanging off the side of the mountain with concrete and rock bonding the three and four lane highway to the mountain . The town of Whistler is built in a valley the main part of Whistler Village is constructed at the base of the ski mountain. The village is built so there is no driving all walking streets as you wander from shop to shop and food sources.
We ventured up the Whistler mountain in a small gondola which will hold about six people and ski equipment about a twenty-five minute ride. It was quite weird there was a thermal inversion that day. At the base of the mountain the temperature was minus ten at the top at twenty-one hundred meters the ambient temperature was plus ten snow was melting and the day was absolutely stunning not a cloud in the sky sun bearing down with extraordinary heat. We then boarded the Peak to Peak gondola it holds twenty-five to thirty people. The structure holding the cables are massive. Two cables suspending the gondola and one push pulling, I heard that it is one of the longest free suspended gondola's in the world. It is a very smooth ride of eight minutes, the view is stunning all the way over to the top of Blackcomb. We had lunch out on the patio in the sunshine, viewing the valley of green pines covered in snow and the sun glistening off the snow covered peaks. Skiers and snow boarders carving the snow as they make their way down the mountain. We rode the gondola back to the top of Whistler mountain and back down to the village. The Peak to Peak was a beautiful day of unbelievable scenery and well worth the trip. Something to be aware of is to make sure it is a sunny day. I now see why so much money was spent on upgrading Whistler, there is so much skiing at this wold class facility that you can ski for weeks and not take the same run twice. British Columbia has done quite a wonderful job of preparing for the Olympics, I will be focusing my full attention all sports events this February.
Sifu Hayes www.silentriverkungfu.com
Stony Plain Alberta Canada

Feeling Buried

All the projects that I want to do seem such a huge task that I will never survive them all.
There is a basement room that needs a new floor, I am going to install in floor heating, trying to decide to go Hydro or Electric. Both are a huge undertaking.
Then there is the outside dirt wall that should be stabilized although it is frozen now (yes :-) it will be good till summer.
I picked up a thirty-year old fifteen-foot Lund boat that looks in great shape but will still need quite a few hours of TLC, and rebuild the Mercury motor for it. The trailer needs to be stripped down, repainted, new tires and rims.
Also picked up a 1984 Fiero that I want to restore or possibly turn into a mock Ferrari. The engine is in fairly good shape, what I originally wanted to do is drop a small V8 in it. That might be too large of a task!
Doesn’t seem like much, but I do like to do as much myself as possible. Looks like lot of man-hours.
Also will be adventuring more into the Cane curriculum getting the Kwoon up to speed. This winters project.
Looks like I need a big dollar retirement.
Sifu Hayes www.silentriverkungfu.com
Stony Plain Alberta Canada

Discerning

I was raised in a home that was made clear what was right and wrong. If the rules were not followed consequences would follow.
Why is the line between right and wrong not so clear anymore? It seems that truth and error they run so close together in this day and age and weird time we live in how can any one call anything wrong. Especially when society judges itself and follows Hollywood and the super jocks of our world and watch them do what ever they want. Such as curse, swear in the ring. Maybe slam a guy into the ice with a stick to the head from behind. Have no control; just pass it off, as oh the guy was just to pumped to know what he was doing. Or make society believe that he is a clean-cut family guy and when they come out of the Woods find out later he’s not. They make all kinds of money in advertising, pushing products that our children and society use. Only to find out they are leading a double life and if these lime light people can do it, well it must be OK and right. It is no wonder that violence is becoming the norm when kids play such violent video games. Practice anything enough and you become good at it. Instead of real being real it is like virtual reality is becoming reality. Our younger generation is thriving on this. We are watching a move from a standard of morality to emphases on tolerance. We have changed from a society of beliefs to a society of self.
Instead of life being interpreted honestly it is interpreted emotionally. Back in the day there was a level of morality, one was appropriate, and one was not. There was a clear line drawn in the sand which was right and wrong Now days there seems to be a line but it gets moved by the persons morality and how you feel at the moment just move the line over a bit or better yet erase it.
No rule is valid- break it. No authority is valid- ignore it. Just do what you feel is right. Style is more important than substance. Image or appearance is what is real not substance. Is morality just a choice? Do words have no adherent meaning?
We live in a world where everything is possible and nothing is certain.
Sifu Hayes www.silentriverkungfu.com
Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada

Early Celebration

Being that our family will not be able to get together for Christmas. We had an early festive fondue feast this weekend. We had a great time listening to stories of Christmas’s past when the kids were younger. It is nice to hear the house full of laughter while sitting around the dinner table. The celebration is over and everyone has gone back to his or her destinations to different parts of Alberta and BC. It is comforting to get the phone call, when they made it home safely. That’s all for this week.
Sifu Hayes www.silentriverkungfu.com
Stony Plain Alberta Canada