Just back from a week on the East Coast, visiting Family and taking the new car for a 4000 km test drive. Visited Saint John and took in the “Just for Laughs” comedy festival, which was hilarious. Danny Bhoy is a must see! Drove out to Lawrencetown Beach hoping for some surf, but missed the swell by a couple of days. The waves there were actually smaller than they were on our previous trip, which is really saying something. Spent an afternoon wandering around Halifax, taking in the sights and shopping. Picked up 2 bars of wax and a $10 web cam which made my day. Arrived back home on Friday evening, a 13 hour drive from Fredericton. Looking forward to some Great Lakes Surf before it starts snowing. There are a few pics from our trip here.

Construction has started on the proposed GO Station Parking Lot Expansion at the Rouge Hill Station. The field between our Townhouse and the Waterfront Trail has been cleared and all the trees have been removed. The good news is that the trees that were obstructing the view of the Lake are now history. As soon as I can get a decent web cam mounted on the roof in an outdoor housing, we should be able to see the waves breaking on the shore. Click on the image for a larger view.

After 5 months of not being able to lift my left arm above my shoulder, my appointment finally arrived. I saw the surgeon, who suggested I try a cortisone injection. Got a 2 for 1 deal, so what the hell, had a shot in the left shoulder and one in the right hand. Took all of 5 minutes. The next day my hand felt like it had been run over by a bus, but I was able to lift my arm above my head. A day later everything is almost back to normal. Why did I have to wait so long?

Yesterday, much to the horror of my neighbours, I climbed onto the roof to inspect the Weather Station. All is well and unlike me, it seems to have “weathered” last winter without any significant damage.
Whilst up there, I took a series of photos of Lake Ontario and stitched them into a panorama. Depending on the donations I receive, this will eventually be the view from the user controlled PTZ Web Cam mounted on the roof. Click on the picture above and a larger one will appear in a new window. The larger picture can then also be enlarged and scrolled left and right to get the full effect.
A few trees blocking the view of the Lake will be removed next month when the new GO Station Parking Lot is constructed. Also during the windy winter months when there are no leaves on the trees the view of the water is a lot clearer.

Firstly, a big thanks to all who have shown interest in the Web Site. My goals are to upgrade the WebCam and Weather Station. At the moment everything on the site is paid for out of pocket. That includes the home based web server running 24/7 and all the hardware.
If you would like to show your support please click on the PayPal donate button. Any amount, no matter how small, will be appreciated.
Depending on the donations, I would like to mount a Pan, Tilt and Zoom webcam in a winterized housing on top of the roof which would be user controllable through a browser, similar to this example.
If you have any suggestions, please contact me.

In March I hurt my left shoulder by falling down a flight of stairs. How and why shall remain a mystery, Of course, as usual, I decided to ignore the pain, figuring that it would go away in a couple of days. That didn't happen so eventually in May I had x-rays and saw a doctor who confirmed that my shoulder was separated, muscles and ligaments were torn and my rotator cuff was damaged. Tried some physiotherapy, but the result is an appointment in August with an orthopedic surgeon to schedule surgery hopefully before Christmas. Well, not being able to lift my arm has certainly cut into any chances of surfing and windsurfing so far this year. A bit of a bummer as there have been some good days. Looks like I have been relegated to take photos...

Took in the latest Star Trek movie last weekend with Lynn and really enjoyed it. For an in depth review of the movie, check out Mark's Blog. He is an avid fan of the series and has a wealth of knowledge in all "Trekkie" things. Something I fail to comprehend is that why the Vulcans, a very clever people, allowed the Romulans to drill a hole in their planet without some sort of retaliation. This really mystifies me. Any comments Mark?

Please sign the petition to help Chuck and to ensure that there is a 3rd Season. This show airs on Monday evenings at 8:00 pm. and is really worth watching especially for us Geeks!


Renew NBC's "Chuck" For A 3rd Season! - Start A Petition Today

Added a page, “Free Stock Photos” courtesy of Big Stock Photo, where you can download Royalty Free Images to use as you wish. It’s not everyday you get something for nothing.

I have just updated the “Contact Me” page to include “Captcha”. Hopefully this will reduce the volume of spam messages that pile up in my InBox.

My new SeaSpecs arrived in the mail yesterday. I am very impressed with them and should be able to try them out on Friday afternoon, as it’s supposed to blow. Will post a review after Friday.

Words by Walma highlights the writing, editing and other talents of my brother in law, Mark W. Walma. It is also the home of the Phillip Gold mysteries, a series of exciting novels and short stories featuring the lawyer-turned-investigator, Phillip Gold. Pop over to his site for some interesting reading...

I have added a Contact Form to the site, so send me a message...
There is a limit of one attachment per email.

TravelKind.com has an article and some pictures on Surfing the Great Lakes
My Web Cam and a link to the Origin Web Site are also featured.

I have replaced the iSight with a Sony DCR-TRV110 Camcorder which was donated by Brad. It has a great zoom lens wich results in a much closer and clearer picture of the lake.
It is connected to a Mac Mini via a Sony DVMC-DA1 Hardware Codec Converter.
Check it out on the Web Cam page and feel free to leave a comment.

I am testing 2 Cameras to replace the iSight Web Cam.
The image on the left is from a CCD Camera with a 12mm fixed lens.
The image on the right is from a Sony CamCorder with a zoom lens donated by Arden.
Now I have to figure out how to put the streaming images onto a web page.

Added a Tokina 2X Converter to the iSight.

Finally got the Web Cam working. It is an Apple iSight and I am in the process of adding a 2X Converter to it. Should refresh every 15 seconds. Pointed at Lake Ontario at Port Union Road..