Imablog Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.

Lowcountry dog park tour: Ackerman dog run

Located in West Ashley on Sycamore Ave just off St. Andrews Blvd (Highway 61), Ackerman dog run is a smallish dog park, but with lots of trees that provide ample amounts of shade for those hot sunny days.

There are three dog-lock entrances to the park located at the corners, with a poop bag station at each entrance. A water fountain is located in the middle of the park.

The dog park isn't very large, perhaps 250 m² or so. There's plenty of room for dogs to run around, but if you have the kind of dog that likes to tear around wide open spaces or go after those long throws, Ackerman may not be the dog park for you.

With an abundance of benches and shade, Ackerman dog run certainly makes for a nice spot to go hang out while the dogs run around and play.

Here is a Google map to the dog park

View Ackerman Park dog park in a larger map

Another one adopted

Mel got adopted out today and left with her new people for a nice new home in Virginia. They seemed like nice folks and I think Mel's going to get all the love and attention she needs.

Now the dogs and I will take a bit of a break before tackling another foster.

Number 5 = Edouard

TS Edouard was announced last night and is spinning out in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Looks like more rain for Texas when it reaches the coast sometime tomorrow.

Casablanca

I don't mind a parasite. I object to a cut-rate one - Rick

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine - Rick

All right, I'll make it easier for you. Go ahead and shoot. You'll be doing me a favour. - Rick

If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life. - Rick

I've got a job to do too. And where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. - Rick

Major Strausser's been shot. Round up the usual suspects - Captain Renaud

Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship - Rick

Dear CARTA

I would be more than happy to take the bus to and from work, but your Route 31 - Folly Road bus only goes past my house once. You can take me home from work, but you can't get me to work unless I want to walk a couple of miles to the nearest bus stop.

Please fix.

kthxbai

Hello little birdie

75 mph is detrimental to my fuel economy

These days, my 2000 Camry averages around 10.2 l/100 km (= 4.35 gal/100 mi = 23 mpg) doing normal city driving.

A couple of days ago, I was road tripping up to Florence (464 km/266 miles round trip), where the official speed limit is 70 mph (for most of the way), but most people drive 80-85 mph. I usually set the cruise control at 75 mph. Fuel economy on that trip came out to 9.45 l/100 km (= 4.02 gal/100 mi ~25 mpg), just slightly better (~7.6%) than what I get tooling around the city.

Contrast that to a road trip out to Walterboro (157 km/98 miles round trip) earlier in the week, where the official speed limit is a more sedate 60 mph with most of the traffic going around 65-70 mph (I had the cruise set to 65 mph for most of the trip). On that trip, the Camry managed to get 7.7 l/100 km (= 3.28 gal/100 mi = 30.5 mpg) or nearly 25% better than my normal city driving.

On top of that, to go 65 mph, the engine has to run at around 2300 rpm. To go 75 mph, the engine has to run at about 2700 rpm (17% faster) which means that much more wear and tear on the engine.

At 65 mph, a 100 mile trip should take 1 hour 32 minutes. At 75 mph, you finish the trip 12 minutes faster but use up 25% more gas to do it (if you're in my car).

Just a few things to think about.

Meetup-ing

Hey, lowcountry bloggers and tweeters! Don't forget tomorrow's meetup over at Gene's Haufbrau! See you there!

Laser writing

Pansonic Lumix FZ50 8s exposure, ISO 400, f3.2

Pansonic Lumix FZ50 8s exposure, ISO 1600, f2.8

Charleston City Paper FAIL

The map associated with Charleston City Paper's event blurb on the First Day Festival seems to be a little off the mark.

Dogs and their new clothes

Nala and Simba showing off their new bandannas

Cooper river morning

Magnolias

A Path

Lowcountry dog park tour: Hazel Parker dog run

The dogs and I headed off downtown in search of the Hazel Parker Dog Run, the third in my list of city-run dog parks (the other two being Hampton and Ackerman).

Located on the peninsula just a block or so down from Tradd and East Bay in Hazel Parker Playground (70 East Bay St), we wandered around the playground area, but didn't see anything resembling a dog park or dog run.

There was a smallish rectangular fenced in gravel area that I suspect is the dog run, but it's currently closed off. I'm guessing the city is renovating the area.

This looks like it will be a dog-lock style entrance for the dog run.

So no dog park action today. Hazel Parker dog run will have to go back on the list to be visited again in a few months time when the city is finished their work.

Here is a Google map to the dog park

View Larger Map

Welcome to Mosquitoville

All this rain we've been getting has been very welcome for my lawn, but one rather unpleasant side effect is the booming mosquito population.

While wandering through a field at Hazel Parker Playground for the latest instalment of my Lowcountry dog park series, what I thought was just weeds whipping against my legs turned out to be me being stabbed by several dozen mosquitoes. When I looked down, my legs were practically covered in mosquitoes feasting away. Needless to say, many of those didn't survive to make use of their meal, but my legs are going to be one big itchy mosquito bite soon.

Time to dig out that mosquito repellent.

Lowcountry dog park tour: Mixson dog park

The next stop on the tour takes me and the dogs up to North Charleston to the Mixson neighbourhood (near the Park Circle area), an area still under development but with a dog park already.

The dog park though, is a tiny little fenced in area that would probably fit in most back yards, so I don't know that I'd really call it a dog park. However, as the fine print on the sign says, it's only a temporary dog park. Hopefully as development of the area continues it will be replaced with a much larger more permanent dog park (one where you don't have to worry about tossing a ball outside the fence.

This one I'll have to come back to in a year or so to see if anything has changed.

Here is a Google map to the dog park

View Larger Map

On the heels of Fay

Here comes TD Gustav, which the NHC declared with a 2PM update. It went from being a disturbance with 30 mph winds all the way up to a tropical storm with 60 mph winds in about 8 hours. Looks like Cuba will be in for another good soaking. A few more days should show if Florida is in for some more rain.

The n lap barrier

One of the things I hate about running on a track is the monotony. Even back in high school when I was running track, the most I could manage was 4 or 5 laps around the 400 m track before I got so bored out of my skull I had to stop.

Still running on the somewhat smaller track at work, still doing the 6 laps (1 mile). It's become much easier now than when I first started. Still sucking wind at the end of 6 laps, but recovering much faster. I'd probably be farther along if I was a little more consistent in my running.

Now my challenge is to break that 6 lap barrier, the point where my mind and body have become used to stopping. That mental and physical barrier can be a tough one to get past. When you're first starting out, you can barely make the distance, and when you do it feels so good to stop. Then after your endurance has reached the point where you can make the distance without collapsing into a puddle of goo, you've become used to stopping at n laps. The legs shut down and Brain thinks "Ok, done! Finally!". Running in 28°C+ weather doesn't help things much either.

I'm ready to up my distance a bit now, so I think it's time to get back on the road now and leave the track behind.

TD8 on the way

A system moving out in the mid-Atlantic was designated Tropical Depression 8 at the 5AM update, and from the looks of the 5-day forecast, might become the first one to significantly affect the east coast sometime late next week. Could become a tropical storm as early as this evening, in which case it would be TS Hanna. Still too early to be certain but this definitely one to keep an eye on.

Update: A little earlier than I expected, TD8 has been upgraded to TS Hannah with the 11AM update.

HANNA HAS BEEN MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST...OR 300/10...DURING THE LAST 6 HOURS. HOWEVER...A MOTION TOWARD THE NORTHWEST IS EXPECTED OVER THE NEXT 2-3 DAYS AS HANNA MOVES AROUND THE SOUTHWESTERN PERIPHERY OF THE SUBTROPICAL RIDGE. THEREAFTER...THE TRACK BECOMES MUCH LESS CERTAIN AS IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN HOW HANNA WILL INTERACT WITH A MID-LATITUDE TROUGH FORECAST TO MOVE OFF THE U.S. EAST COAST. MOST OF THE DYNAMICAL MODELS SHOW HANNA BEING LEFT BEHIND IN AN AREA OF WEAK STEERING. HOWEVER...THE TRADITIONALLY GOOD PERFORMING GFS FORECASTS HANNA TO TURN NORTHEASTWARD AT DAYS 4 AND 5. THE OFFICIAL FORECAST ASSUMES THE FORMER OF THOSE SCENARIOS AND SHOWS A SLOW WESTWARD TRACK.

What is it #1

In an effort to engage myself in more photography, I thought I'd start a series called "What Is It?" where I post pictures of things that I don't know the name or function of.

This is something that I saw hanging from some power lines while stopped at a red light (Folly and Maybank if you're curious, but I've since noticed these at other places). The cables going into either end suggest to me some kind of monitoring device, but I could be wrong. If you happen to know what it is, by all means leave a comment and enlighten me.

Lowcountry dog park tour: James Island County Park

The dog park at James Island County Park is what I would consider the crown jewel of CCPRC's three dog parks.

The JICP dog park is the largest of all the dog parks located in the Charleston area, providing ample space for dogs to run around in and perhaps best of all, a lake for dogs to go swimming in.

Two beach areas provide plenty of room for dogs to run around and jump into the water. On hot days, the lake is where you'll find most of the dogs.

Two dog lock style gates for entering and exiting the park provide for smooth flow. A water fountain to the left of the gates as you enter provides water (although most dogs will just end up drinking from the lake anyway) and there's also a hose so you can hose down a muddy dog. A couple of picnic tables and the retaining wall provide a spot for people to sit down, and for some of the dogs, a bit of shade. While the dog park isn't fenced in, trees and bushes lining the perimeter of the park and the lake serve as natural barriers, although some especially motivated dogs have been known to escape the park by swimming across the lake.

Admission to JICP is $1/person, but once you're in you can avail yourself of the dog park and all the other facilities contained within the park. The dog park is the only area where dogs are allowed off leash though, so if you decide to go for a walk around the rest of the park, you'll have to put Fido back on the leash.

One of the main disadvantages of the dog park is the lack of any kind of shelter or shade. If you're there on a hot sunny day, you'd better have plenty of sun screen on. A walk through the water helps cool off the feet, but you'll have to be on the look out for dogs barrelling by, and prepare to get wet from dogs shaking off. However, if things get too hot, you can always head out and go for a walk along the many miles of shaded trails within the park and then head back for more dog park fun.

A piece of advice before going to this dog park: make sure you have a reasonably reliable recall on your dog before going. The park is a really fun place for dogs to go, and sometimes they can be reluctant to leave. If you don't have a good recall on your dog, then you're liable to end up chasing your dog around trying to catch him long after you originally planned to leave.

Here is a Google map to the dog park

View Larger Map

Door spiders

This is what I almost walked into at my front door when I went to check the mail.

The lower one was the one that startled me first.

Grabbed my camera to take some pictures, and when I backed up for a slightly longer shot, I noticed the second one higher up. Here it is from outside.

The bottom spider's web spans pretty much the whole doorway.

Here they are in their zoomed in extreme close up glory (click on the image for an even bigger version).

I'm thinking maybe I should start leaving the front door light on to attract some nice juicy bugs for them at night.

I guess that's what you get when you don't use the front door. On the plus side, I bet it makes a great deterrent against random people wanting to knock on the door.

Blockbuster.com turn around time vs rental plan

I've been using Blockbuster.com for movies for a while now, and until recently have always had pretty decent turnaround times with their TotalAccess plan. With movies going back to Columbia SC, I'd usually get notification that the movie was received the day after dropping it in the mail, and another notification later on that day or the next day that the next movie had been sent. Sometimes that movie would arrive the same day I received the notification, but usually I found it in my mailbox the next day.

The TotalAccess plan includes the option of stopping by a B&M (brick and mortar) Blockbuster to exchange movies there, instead of by mail. Since that was something I never found myself doing, I decided to switch to Blockbuster.com's vanilla Blockbuster by Mail plan instead.

That's when I noticed a drastic change in turn-around times. Now it's maybe 2-3 days before I receive notification that a movie has been received after dropping it in the mail, and another 2-3 days before I receive notification that the next one is on the way. Considering they advertise 1-2 business day delivery, I'm starting to feel I've ended up on the slow end of their service. With DVDs going back to Columbia (and presumably coming from there too), I should definitely be within a 1 day delivery zone. Considering the 1-day turn around time I used to have with the TotalAccess plan, the only reason I can see for the decline in service is the switch to the vanilla Blockbuster by Mail plan.

Is this surprising? Not really I suppose. Since you're paying more with the TotalAccess plans, naturally you expect a higher level of service and convenience (in the form of instant turn around with in-store exchanges along with a few other perks). According to this informal analysis of Netflix performed a few years ago, they also throttle movie rentals to give new subscribers a higher level of service.

Is turn-around time a big deal? While it was nice having a 3-4 day turn around cycle (time between movie return and receipt of a new one), many times that movie would end up sitting on the shelf for a week or two (sometimes more) before I got around to watching it. Sure, there were periods where I'd go into burst mode watching movies (watch them the day they arrived, send them back the next day) so the quick turn around was handy. Most of the time though, it's a few days before I get around to watching the movie. In the grand scheme of things, an extra 2 days on that turn around cycle isn't really a big deal (at least for me anyway). YMMV. If you're a constant burst mode watcher, that quick turn around might be important for you, so stick with the TotalAccess plan. If not, save a few bucks a month and go with the vanilla BbM plan.