Laugh

Who wants to have a laugh at my expense today? ;) Well, this morning as I sat at my desk gabbing away on the phone to one of my friends I looked down and saw the cord for my palm pilot partway through the shredder. I'm just lucky it didn't short and cause a fire or something because the other end of it was plugged into the power bar - thus funny, not tragic. Picture me lifting the lid off the shredder and seeing the poor little ends of the cords all mangled and the tiny metal insides sticking out in each and every direction. I think I may have to find a different spot for my shredder - somewhere removed from all of the electrical cords for the various work-related devices I seem to need in this strange world we live in.

I'm starting to get excited for my next trip. Until this past week I was kind of feeling a little dreadful. Not because I wasn't looking forward to it, but I'm just so tired lately and I have to do a very long drive for this one. But yesterday I started seeing the adventure in it. :) That's what trips are all about. I'm happy I'm in that head space about it now. I'm going to get a library membership, I think. I want to 'rent' some books on CD for my drive. They are a little expensive so I don't really want to buy any. I hope they have some that are worth renting though, as I know that all the good books and books on CD tend to go on a wait-list at the library and I have no time for wait-lists. I've been downloading some new music because I LOVE music in the car. I have tell you: I'm the absolute best singer in the car. Bet you didn't know that eh? Between singing, audio books, and CBC radio (I'm a bit of a junkie) I should be sufficiently entertained. Two weeks til my sister ties the knot (purpose of the trip). I'm pretty much ready. The only thing I have to really do is remember to pack all of my warm cycling gear because I plan to ride my bike while out there. I'm taking it with me. :) So, more on this stuff to come...

Movie Weekend

Back in the Big Smoke again. I came early so I could spend time here with Ms. Beans. She drove down Friday night and I flew in on Sat afternoon. We stayed with her mom and spent time with her two sisters and her little niece. It was a fun weekend. One of Beans' sisters works for a TV/media company and she got us some tickets to some of the film festival shows. So we went to a movie last night - Eastern Promises. It was the first movie I've gone to in a year or so I think. It's been a while. Movie-going is not on my list of priorities, hence it never happens. I'd rather ride my bike. So anyway, Eastern Promises - quite the film. I have to say, it was very good. Very well done. The story was good. I didn't guess any of the outcomes before they were revealed. That's pretty good. The only thing was that it had some really, really, really graphic violence. That was hard to watch. The older I get the more I cannot tolerate that stuff. I sound old eh? I'm laughing at myself right now. But it's true. Anyway, if you were thinking of seeing it I would highly recommend it - gratuitous violence and all. Unfortunately for me, traveling this weekend meant no cycling. However, I was lucky enough to get out for a extra nice Gats loop on Friday night. :)

Double Century Report

The double century did not disappoint. I woke up on Saturday morning feeling like a small pick-up truck had run over me. Not a MAC truck or anything, but still - a truck. I fought with my thoughts of ditching it and going back to bed the whole time I got myself ready. On my way out the door RobbieO poked his head out and wished me well. Which was good - things like that keep me honest and trying. If I didn't have motivators in my life I'd quit things more often I think. I didn't used to be like that. But that's another story. Anyway, I went. And would you believe that on a day when you felt like staying in bed and forfeiting $125 payment for a weekend away, that you could have one of your strongest cycling days of the summer? I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't lived it. What a phenomenal ride. The weather really cooperated with us too - beautiful and sunny, warm, and a nice strong tailwind the whole way there. Sweet! So we motored - acheiving an average speed amongst our group's highest thus far. Sunday was not quite as easy. If I thought I was tired on Saturday, well... Still I managed ok. It was the mental game that was hard today. The weather held and we did not have the predicted rain (thank friggin GOD because I left my rain coat in the car - doh!!!), but it was overcast and with the fatigue everyone was less chatty today than yesterday. And while our luck was really good and the wind had changed in our favour, it kind of turned around sideways and played tricks with us for the last 60 km of the ride - crosswinds (which are sometimes worse than headwinds). When we rode through a small town after about 2.5 hrs I saw a guy coming out of his house, all bleary-eyed, with bed-head, in his pajamas, letting the dog out, with his cancer stick dangling precariously from his lips. I turned to one of my friends and inspirations, Brian, and said: "I think we've got it right". He agreed. I didn't hang around at Kelsey's after we got back because I really needed some sleep and a hot bath for my aching shoulders (note to self: do not book training with Jessica the day before a weekend of riding). And with that, the last big cycling tour of the season is over and I'm very glad I took part in it. I still have several more weeks left of cycling to do, but this was a really nice way to bid farewell to the bulk of the season. Now, back to reality...

Summer's End Century

Technically, in metric terms, it's more than a century. And it's also twice. So it should be called a double century, plus 40. Anyway, I think originally this ride was an imperial century (100 miles), times two. And that's actually 324 km. And since we live in a metric society, here in the civilized world, they then decided to offer a real century ride, except that there is no way you can get to Cornwall in 100 kms on a bike because you can't take the 4-lane highway unless you are a motorvehicle. So, this weekend I will ride two 120 km rides because once I get there, well I kinda hafta ride home. Of course there is always the possibility of phoning someone here at home and begging and bribing them to come and get me if I really feel like I can't possibly ride home. But that's unlikely. Yet still comforting. Especially since today I'm getting that "I'm really tired" eye twitch. Still no resolution to the excruciating fatigue. But I'm working on it.

Right now I'm making my carbo-load dinner: tuna casserole. I was talking about it with some friends the other week and I've made it twice since. Yum! It will be the perfect dinner before riding tomorrow. Lots of protein and carbs. And speaking of the kitchen, I seem to be having a war with nature in there. This week some bees seemed to think the kitchen window sill would be a good final resting place as they prepared to die. Ick!!! And for some reason the mice seem to be coming in too. They like the cutlery drawer, so I took all of the cutlery out the other week and super-sanitized it and it sits atop the microwave on the other side of the room until further notice of my successful extermination of said pests. I have set the traps and bait (they love nuts so I chop them up and sprinkle them all over the traps). Unfortunately yesterday I forgot to put bait on the traps and I heard them playing in there last night. Buggers. I got up from bed ever so quietly and still they heard me. I will win. I know, I'm not proud of it, but I cannot have dirty little mice living in my kitchen! Besides, if they are allowed to continue to roam they will eventually find out where I hide the food. And that will not be good.

Back to work and back to reality this week and it wasn't so bad. I felt slightly more motivated than I have been as of late. Once I get my energy levels back up I'm sure I'll feel a lot more motivated. Just the fact that everyone is back from holidays and I can walk into offices and actually see people makes it a lot better. And I sat in on a really good lecture today at the hospital on heparin in stroke. OK. You probably don't need to know more than that. I'll start boring you.

Back to reality also means back to traveling a little more regularly, and WOW when it rains it pours. I have many a trip to take in the next 3 months. So I will try to keep the updates on travel fun and add pictures because I'm finding the photojournalism thing is super fun for me too. First trip though... the Century (times two, plus forty). I got a smaller camera now, and will take it with me to capture the carnage.

The 6-day Weekend

Can you call something that was 6 days long a weekend? Hmmm. Well, it certainly was a break, full of R&R. I didn't ride as much as I thought I would. I did do 2 rides in the park. One of them on the last Sunday bike day of the year - my first time though. For those unfamiliar with the term, Sunday Bike Days are Sunday mornings from the May long weekend to the September long weekend where they close 4 different parkways in the city for cycling, roller blading, etc. In the park the close it only until 11 AM (the other parkways are closed until 1 PM). I was still in the park when they opened the gates to vehicular traffic on Sunday and because it was a long weekend - holy crap! - there were a lot of cars that came in. And motorcycles. Those bikers really like to ride the windy, hilly roads. I was so sad as I cycled out of the park that day. Thinking that it was the last one. And I had enjoyed it so, so very much. And it was the last one. Sniff. As I rode home I made a decision to skip some of the Sunday group rides next summer and do park rides instead. Because I loved it so much. And I need to do that more. The hills are fabulous now. They aren't easy. What I'm saying is that I enjoy the challenge and no longer feel like I'm dying. Yes, that's what I'm saying. I love that ride. OK. Yeah. I'm daydreaming about it as I write. I finished my 6 day hiatus off with a 50K ride tonight. Felt good. I rested a lot this weekend and I was getting nervous about riding the big tour I'm doing this weekend. Tonight was good enough to make me feel more confident again. I can do it. I wanted to take some nice pictures this weekend. Maybe some to post. Instead I really didn't get up to too much. Other than resting and a little bit of apartment cleaning (not as much as I'd have liked), the only other major thing I did was to create my training plan for the off season. I spent literally about 4-5 hours. Now I know my start date and what I'm doing every day for 30 weeks. I'm pretty excited about it because I can envision my progress as I put the training down on paper. Passionate, passionate, passionate. It makes life fun.

Now it's back to reality. Eek!