Going to the Chapel.....going to get Married......

On Saturday my wife and I travelled to London, Ontario as our oldest nephew was getting married. London is a little bit more than 2 hours from where we live. They got married in St Peters Church, which is the largest and possibly one of the oldest churches in the area

.

They had awesome stained glass windows there

This is me studying the hymn book prior to the ceremony

It was very hot with temperatures around 35C and in the neighbourhood of 100F for our American friends. There was no air conditioning inside of the church and the varnish on the pews actually was coming off onto the people's clothing. It was one of the shortest Catholic weddings I have been to, with the ceremony lasting only about 35 minutes.

The reception was held at a very nice hall with a very nice meal and free drinks - what more could one ask for?

Unlimited Beer! :)

I thought that might catch your attention.

We went on our annual motorbike trip to Pennsylvania. I have been going for about 6 years now. This year we had myself, my brother (Diesel), his wife (Diesel's wife), and Dennis (Mad Dog). We had a couple of riders drop out but hey, more beer for us but more on that later.

There was a back-up at the border crossing but it went through fairly fast. The US border guards removed people from two separate vehicles and escorted them to the customs building. They must of got word that certain folks were attempting to illegally cross into the States because they seemed to be on a higher alert than normal. I always seem to go first and explain our story of where we are heading. By the time the fourth bike goes through, the guards are "yeah, yeah, go ahead".

We head down to the Allegheny National Forest which is in northern Pennsylvania. There is a motel there that is inexpensive, has a nice restaurant right on site, and they cater to motorbikes by doing the small stuff that goes a very long way such as leaving towels out in the morning so that we can wipe the dew off of the seats and windshields.

There is a train bridge there that was built across a very deep valley at the turn of the century. In 2004, a tornado came rumbling along (likely sounded like a freight train) and torn down half of the bridge. Until then, it was a fully functioning rail line.

For the first time, we discovered that in a small city of St Mary's, there is a brewery named Straub Beer which has been there since 1872 (actually as long as the train bridge). They give free public tours from 9 am until noon, Mondays to Fridays. We arrived there about 10 am and were told to gather at the Eternal Tap. The Eternal Tap actually is three beer taps sticking out of a wall (light, normal, and dark beer). So you fill up a nice glass container (no plastic cups here) and then the tour starts. The tours are informal so you could be in a group of 12, or a group of 6 , or whatever.....whomever shows up.

We were shown how they make beer, from the time they get the grain, fill the large kettles, add the various ingredients, etc. I really wasn't paying too much attention - I was enjoying the beer too much. Then we got to the area where the beer is bottled. They reached right onto the bottling line and gave us bottles of beer, fresh off of the line. They did not even have caps on them yet and although I am not a big beer drinker, this was by far the best beer I have ever tasted. So now I have a bottle of beer in one hand and half a glass of beer in the other hand. The tour winds up soon after and we end up back at the Eternal Tap. The tour guild takes off with a new group of beer enthusiasts, and we are left along at the tap. So what are we to do. We finish the beer in our hands, and fill up again at the tap. We drink some more, look around, look at each other, and fill our glasses again :) What an awesome place and to think we have been coming to this area for the past 6 years and did not even know about it. For sure, this will be one of our must stops in future trips.

The rest of our time was spent riding through the winding roads through the National Forest, and stopping once in a while to quench our thirsts.

The ride home was uneventful.

Tim

California - Here I Come!!!

I went on a business trip to Long Beach, California last week. I have a professional designation as a RPA (Real Property Administrator) and the place that I work for has a membership with BOMA (Building Owner's Management Association). Once a year there is an BOMA sponsored International Conference with people whom come from all over the world to attend. The location of the conference changes each year and this is the third year that I have been fortunate enough to have my company send me. The first year I went it was in Denver, last year it was in Philadelphia, and this year it was in Long Beach. I love meeting people from all over the world who work in the same business line as I do.















Registration for the conference was on the Saturday and the conference itself began with the keynote speaker beginning at 8 am sharp on the Sunday morning. The keynote speaker this year was Ben Stein. I knew that he had hosted a couple of game shows in the past - one being Ben's money where contestants had to answer more questions than Ben and in doing so, they won 'his' money; and the other one that I saw was were they asked beauty contestants (both men and woman) were combined with geeks, and were asked easy questions to see how smart (or not) they were. I think the name of the show was "Are you smarter than a Beauty contestant? One question he said all 6 finalists got wrong was "what language do Australians speak"? They all answered Australian. What I did not know was that Ben has his doctorate in both Law and in Economics, that he wrote speeches for both Nixon and Ford, and that he has taught in University for 35 years. In fact, he said that he will begin teaching again this coming fall. The keynote speech is done in a huge hall, where the speaker has large screens on both sides of him so that the audience can see him (I always sit in the front - if I come from thousands of miles away, I want to be able to see), and also has those clear teleprompters in front of him (like Obama uses) so that it appears that he has his material memorized but the type is going in front of him, invisible to the audience.



















There were courses later Sunday morning and during the afternoon (I took Conflict Resolution and in the afternoon Performance of Green Buildings). Sunday night was a huge welcoming party. Monday was spent attending a couple of more courses (one was Environmental Sustainability) and also touring the trade show portion of the conference. There are lots of draw prizes but be warned, for each one you enter, the company now has your contact information and they hound you for the next year to purchase their products or services. On Tuesday I toured the rest of the trade show portion, then raced to the airport to catch a 12:30 pm flight. I arrived home just before midnight eastern time so it is quite a hike to go from Niagara Falls area to California.
















Speaking of the airport, I did not know that Long Beach is no where close to the Los Angeles Airport. When I arrived in LA, I just thought that I could take a shuttle bus to the hotel. So I searched out where to catch the proper bus, confirmed with the driver that it was for the correct hotel, and rode to the hotel - easy. WRONG. It was the correct hotel but WRONG city. I then took a taxi to the Long Beach hotel - very expensive and when I had to return to the LA airport on Tuesday - same thing - I asked everyone and they all said that they only way to get there was by taxi. If I were to do it again, I may of rented a car.


In the little bit of spare time I did have, I walked the 5 minutes down to the beach. It really is nothing to write home about. That being said, there are a couple of neat things there. There are 3 or 4 islands that can be seen easily from shore. However, they are not islands. They are actually oil rigs dressed up to look like islands so that people from shore are not looking at ugly oil rigs. There are also sea lions on the boys (okay, I know that is not how you spell this). Apparently the sea lions are nocturnal and do their hunting at night and sleep during the day. They prefer to sleep on these objects because if they sleep on the beach, they get bothered by people. The other really surprising thing about Long Beach is that it does not get hot there. I thought for this time of year, it would be swelter there but because it is right beside the ocean, it stays in the low 70's year around. At night, it actually was chilly (and once again, I did not take a jacket!)



















Lastly, from the airplane at about 39,000 feet, I noticed these round circles - extremely huge in nature - first one here and one there - and then lots. I have since found out what they are but do you know?




















Lastly and lastly again (I promise), upon arrival in Toronto, our jet was racing another jet to see who could land first. Have a look.














Tim

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 :(