Horsing Around!

First off...I apologize for the lack of blog activity this week thus far. (I've been really busy with school but it's all good now). I just wanted to quickly talk about a great fundraising event I took place in over the weekend. I also wanted to say thanks to horse trainer extraordinaire Randy Bird for a great time. Over the weekend I had a chance to take part in "Tanner's Dash For Cash" in Harwood. This event was part of Randy's Equine Education Clinic and was in support of Easter Seals. Tanner is a four year old horse that was rescued in poor health and has grown into an amazing athlete. He shares a lot of qualities with the children that Easter Seals help to support. Tanner's story proves that when one is given a fair shot at life, anything is possible. In this charity race Randy and Tanner navigate through an obstacle course at high speed while I hang on for dear life and balance out the trailer through tight turns...to avoid tipping. (We did almost tip at one point...very cool).

This was a timed race between myself and one of Randy's staff and (just check the pic above) even included a water hazard. Begginer's luck must ahave been a factor because I actually won one of the relays. The real winner though was the Easter Seals Society as spectators were invited to buy tickets to win a ride with Tanner with proceeds helping out this great organization. Just looking at the pic above you can see why this prize was worth the investment...what a rush! (Although I did get a bit wet).

Wet Weekend?

It’s a big weekend in terms of events (as per usual for summer in the Kawarthas) and once again many of them are relying on the weather. This Friday and Saturday the Smashed ’09 Beach Volleyball tournament is on at Boston Pizza on Lansdowne…outdoors. This Saturday the MS Society of Peterborough is holding their Putt n’ Play fundraiser (behind Pizza Hut on Lansdowne) where you can toss a water balloon (or several) at CHEX Sports guy Tyler Calver. On Saturday night our CHEX news anchor extraordinaire Jaye Makinson hosts the Festival of Lights and running all weekend in Harwood Randy Bird will hold is Equine Clinic where I will race Team Tanner in a charity carriage race in support of Easter Seals on Saturday. Visit his website for details. Unfortunately it looks like a good chance of rain through out the weekend but, as the model above shows, there is a chance we could steal a few decent hours of weather on Saturday. Let’s cross our fingers that this forecast model holds true.

Saying Hello to the High!

Well it finally felt like summer today...for a while...sort of. Okay, the daytime was still slightly off the seasonal average (27) but 26 was not bad and with the Humidex it felt closer to 29. So what's with the warm-up? Well on Friday we were talking about the lack of a Bermuda High on the weather map contributing to a cooler than normal summer and we're finally seeing that high develop. A Bermuda High is a semi-permanent feature that pushes warm, moist air into the region contributing to our normally hot and humid summers. This feature's clockwise rotation kicks in warm tropical air (mTw) during the summer months. In contrast, its west coast cousin (the Pacific High) does the opposite for the Pacific coast. (The high's clockwise rotation in this case pulls in cool air from the north [mPk] keeping west coast summers cooler and less humid). So does the "better late than never" appearence of the Bermuda High mean we'll finally see a warmer summer? Well...maybe. It is only a contributing factor but it's appearance isn't going to hurt.