Happy Birthday to ME :)

Not much to report this week. I have been on vacation and have been walking every day even though we have a heat wave and are setting record temperatures every day. I try to get up early and get the walk in before the heat sets in. Mostly I walk 4.5 miles. I did walk 7 miles one day but the issue is a small blister on each heel which will not go away and which prevents me from walking further.


While walking, I was trying to think of something clever to write about - like KKK horses, or a fan that cools an entire city, or coyotes following me as I walk...anything. My only thoughts were that maybe I am becoming just normal - nothing has happened this week. Am I becoming ordinary?


About the only thing that happened is that today, May 27th - I turned 50. Fifty!!! OMG, I guess I am getting old. And here is the proof. My neighbours were very nice about inviting me out to a restaurant for dinner. They took me and my wife to a place called Betty's in a small town on the outskirts of Niagara Falls. I have been by this place many times but have never gone inside. You see, this place is always busy, but busy with old people. People with canes. People with walkers. Men with white hair if any at all and ladies with died pink or blue hair. And now, I am in there too.


I don't feel any different than I did yesterday when I was only 49, but with each day forward, I am further and further along the trail of being 50. I guess now I am old.

Toronto - What an Innovative City!

As part of my job, I had to go to Toronto for two days last week. For those of you who may not know, Toronto is the largest city in Canada, with a population of 5.5 million, which means one out of every 6 people in all of Canada, lives in Toronto.

There are lots and lots of tall buildings in Toronto. There are also lots of cranes building new buildings. The streets are busy with vehicles, business folks, shoppers, and tourists. These pictures were taken at 8 am so the streets were not too busy yet but come noon hour, they are packed.

With all of these buildings, all of this concrete, people, cars, and pavement, Toronto puts off a lot of heat. In the summer, it can be sweltering in the middle of the city.

BUT WAIT

In order to combat this heat, Toronto has installed a huge fan to cool the city. The fan is so large, it is hard to do justice by taking a picture of it but I have done my best. Boy, talking about being innovative!!!

I thought for a change I would walk along the Niagara Parkway trail. It is a trail that runs along the Niagara River which divides Canada from the USA. The trail is about 10 minutes from my house. It was a nice sunny day although a bit chilly being only 9 C. I decided to take our Vet. It is a 2003 50th Anniversary Edition model. The ironic thing about Corvettes is that although they look awesome, have tonnes of power, and are fun to drive - you try not to drive them because the more miles on them - the less they are worth. We drove this one 6300 kms last year although I have no idea how that much mileage added up so fast. So far this year, my wife has taken it to work once, and I drove it today. And a couple of trips around the block.

I walked for exactly an hour today. Thirty minutes out and thirty minutes back. It was my first time ever to walk this trail. I have driven my cars along here many times. I have driven my motorbike along here many times. But I have never walked it. I started at a place that I have nick named over the years as the 'Friendly Bench'. It is a place that I sometimes sit in the summer and watch the boats roar by, sometimes with water skiers towing behind them, the ducks and the geese swim by, and watch the occasional fish jump out of the water.

The walk was a very easy one - the scenery and the huge houses along the parkway distracted me from the actual walk - although my knees were letting me know that they were not too happy about the walk. As I came around a bend in the trail, I could not believe what I saw. OMG!!!! Amongst a field of horses, there was one horse belong to a KKK member. I could not believe my eyes. Typically you heard of KKK stories from the southern USA in the old days but not in Ontario! And not in 2010! I know what I seen. The horse still had his white hood over his head, likely from a ride the night before! I do not know what to say other than it is amazing what you find when you are out on these walks.

Tim

Need a Helping Hand and First Bike Night

In an earlier post, I mentioned that when ever I do repairs to my motorcycle, if my neighbour does not stop me in time, the next thing you know is that I am loading it into the back of my pick-up truck and driving two hours to the London area for my brother to fix it.

Unfortunately, this is not limited to my motorbike. Last weekend I decided to change the oil in my truck. I could easily take it to a Quickie-Lube type of place, but hey, using wrenches, getting oil on your hands - makes you feel like a MAN. So I put the truck up on the ramps, climbed underneath and removed the drain plug - drained the oil - removed and then installed a new filter - filled the truck with oil - removed it from the ramps and re-rechecked the oil level - topped it up a bit - started the engine - everything sounded fine - closed the hood. CRAP - the hood won't close. Checked, rechecked, triple checked - nothing left behind - no reason for hood not to close but it won't close!!! It closes mostly but the latch will not latch. It turns out that the spring for the latch broke. Guess what - off to London to get my brothers to fix it. I tied it close with a bungee cord and took the back roads all the way to London taking 3 hours instead of the normal 2 hours. I had both my brothers working on it, plus my wife holding the flashlight and my mom came over to supervise. We (actually they) got it fixed!!!

We have started our Tuesday night biker nights. It is just a word of mouth thing and whomever wants to come is welcome. This Tuesday we had Louise and Mike on their new Harley, Mad Dog on his orange Harley, myself on my Suzuki 1500, and later Earl showed up with his Goldwing. We drove around a bit, then winded up at this nice bar in a small village called Chippawa on the very edge of Niagara Falls. We had a couple pitchers of draft beer, Dog had a diet Pepsi, and Louise was nursing some kind of pink girlie drink. We were exchanging stories of previous bike trips, and when Earl arrived, we were splitting our sides in laughter with the unlimited funny takes he tells. It was a great time for everyone and as the weather warms up, there will be more people attending. It is too bad there is only one Tuesday per week :(