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Weblog -January 2010

January 1/10 (Bedrock)

In the last 24 hours around 2” of good packing snow has fallen. This has put an end to the skating on Stony Lake for now. Good skating conditions never last for long and it is usually a snowstorm that does it.

But the temperature is hovering around zero and the conditions for walking around on the ice are terrific. Today we went for a long walk –down to Oakdene and all the way around Dodworth Island. We didn’t see any exciting creatures such as coyotes, deer or eagles –only a hawk, a crow and some squirrels. Nevertheless, I always enjoy our winter walks on the ice because we can have a good look at so many cottages and boathouses as we walk by so close to them (and, almost always, with their owners far away).

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We went to the Reid’s for New Years. It was the first New Year’s party that we’ve been to since David and Teri’s party on the eve of the New Millennium -(other than very small ones at our own house). It wasn’t so bad. One way or another Kathy is going to get me to spend more time with that gang. It is easier for her, of course, because she gets to spend entire summers at Bedrock. When I fight my way up to Bedrock on a summer weekend I prefer to disengage my brain for a couple of days.

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January 6/10

I laughed when I stepped on the scale this morning. For the second ‘weigh-in’ in a row the readout said 166.6. Some people would have a fit to see the ‘sign of devil’ (Number of the Beast) staring up at them from the bathroom floor.

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January 10/10

It is 4 weeks today that I participate in the Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships. I have to be two pounds lighter by then. Now is the time to buckle down.

This is my plan: I will walk a mile to mile and a half each day; I will cut down the portions of things that I eat by perhaps 10%; and I will not sneak treats like ice cream, cookies, candies or chocolates –especially between regular eating times (breakfast, lunch, supper and my two planned ‘coffee breaks’). That should do it physically. The rest is psychological. I have to face the fact that I will sometimes feel hungry and not be able to do anything about it.

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We bought tickets to Tucson for March Break. We’re going with Kathy’s sister and niece again. Last year’s trip was great and there are still a lot of things that we haven’t done yet (or haven’t done enough). Possible adventures include Cactus Leauge Baseball, day trips to Phoenix or Mexico, a visit to a decommissioned missile silo; a visit to the ‘airplane cemetery’ in the desert, some new hikes; a visit to an astronomical observatory -and a drive up Mount Lemmon (a good example of a “sky island”).

I’ll be spending lots of time researching everything so we don’t waste any time.

Of course, the 3 ladies will want some 'lying in the sun' time. That is when I can go to the gym and get some proper exercise.

Amazingly, I will probably not take my inline skates –despite the fact that last year I found an excellent place close to the hotel. My left hip is just not right.

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January 11/10

I am working through a rowing program that will prepare me for the Canadian Championships. The Concept 2 website offers both a 4 times per week and a 5 times per week program. The “extra” session is longer and at a lower intensity (call it ‘long-slow’) than average. Frankly, I like the long-slow workouts the best. My difficulty is that, in the long run, I manage to do only 4 and a half sessions per week. I hate to drop the long-slow workout in the weeks when I can’t manage 5 workouts. Worse, I tend to drop the long-slow workouts in the weeks where the micro cycle is peaking in intensity (and so I am losing some of the benefit of the really intense weeks).

But I have come up with a creative solution. There is no reason I have to tie myself to a 7 day cycle –it’s just traditional. For the next month and probably next year, in the lead up to the big competition, I am going to an 8 day cycle. I will do the 5 workout plan but stretch it into 8 days. It’s a perfect compromise.

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I went for an MRI on my left shoulder on Saturday night. My appointment was for 3:30am. It wasn’t my choice to go to a Toronto hospital in the middle of the night but the bonus was that I ended up getting free street parking.

As I drove up Bathurst St, headed for Toronto Western, I was feeling a little sorry for myself –considering that I was up in the middle of the night! But Bathurst St was hopping with all sorts of young people coming away from the entertainment district as the clubs closed down so I started to feel a little better.

I’d had an MRI before –on my right shoulder –so I knew what to expect. The big difference this time was that I didn’t get an itch on my face that I had to fight for 20 minutes. (They keep reminding you that you have to be completely still).

It will be interesting to see if I have another bone spur. I was convinced I did but now the shoulder seems to be responding to physiotherapy so I don’t know what to think.

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January 16/10

The earthquake in Haiti has me a bit bummed out. But it’s not about me –it’s about the poor victims.

I just hope that after the heroic rescues from under the rubble, after the dead are all buried and after the homeless are temporarily provided for, that the US, Canada and other nations will build a decent infrastructure in Port-au-Prince (water, sewers, electricity and transportation) so that the people of Haiti can lift themselves out of the misery that most of them were enduring since long before the earthquake struck.

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January 17/10

My poor mother didn’t think I would be able to come and visit this weekend because of all the trouble (the earthquake in Haiti) that she had been seeing on the TV. I had to tell her that Toronto and the areas in between Toronto and Peterborough were all OK. I showed her where Haiti was on a big map of North America and showed her some of the places that she has been to ( Washington, Florida, Costa Rica and Jamaica). I think she understood a little bit better after that.

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Last week in Toronto, an 83 year old woman drove through a red light and wiped out a young mother who was pushing a baby carriage. In a short time the bigger story became whether or not we have the best system for getting old, incompetent drivers off the streets. The answer is no.

I was happy when I heard that Mom’s doctor had taken away her drivers license –because I knew she shouldn’t be on the road. Premier McGuinty seems to be saying that the system we have is working well. I wonder if he has ever had an elderly parent who thinks they are still OK to drive. You just can’t expect doctors and written driver’s tests (spaced out every 2 years) to do the job. And you cannot expect family to report elderly, possibly incompetent drivers either.

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January 19/10

I finished a book that was on my Christmas list. “ The Greatest Show on Earth” by Richard Dawkins was a fascinating read. The subject is Evolution and the stated purpose of the book is to prove that it is a fact. Why attempt to prove something that is already established as scientific fact and is self evident to anyone with as much as a high school education? Dawkins argues that it is necessary because -a huge proportion of the population of most countries does not accept evolution as fact. Worse, some ‘Creationists’ (people who believe that God created the whole world and in a week around 10,000 years ago) have managed to hijack many high school science curriculums –demanding equal time for the discussion of Creationism. It wouldn’t particularly bother Dawkins if Creationism was taught in religious studies classis but it irks him greatly to give any mention of Creationism in a science class.

Having already accepted evolution as a fact “The Greatest Show on Earth” was, for me, a celebration of the way all living things have evolved by the forces of nature over vast quantities of time. There is a whole chapter on the evolution of our own species (Homo sapiens) –a subject that I find particularly interesting.

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Every couple of years somebody tells me that I look like John Malkovich. My usual response is that “John Malkovich is a lucky guy (to be almost as handsome as I am)”. Today I looked up John Malkovich on Google Images and I do agree that he looks a bit like me –(Malkovich is a year younger so I am “the original”).

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January 21/10

After jumping through a whole bunch of hoops I have convinced the surgeon who did the operation on my right shoulder to do my left one. It helped that the MRI revealed the very same problem (a bone spur). Now I only have to wait a few months to get to the top of the list.

Unlike my right shoulder my left one is still usable to some degree. I won’t be going to any rock climbing walls, going cross country skiing or getting back into adult gymnastics but I should be able to put on my coat, paddle a canoe (slowly) and sleep on my left side while I wait.

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January 23/10

2AM Phone Call

Two nights ago, my poor mother was found outside in the middle of the night wandering around wearing only her nightie and a pair of slippers. It must been around -5 degrees Celsius. Fortunately, she was found by staff members at the residence where she lives and did not really suffer any serious consequences. As a precaution, they had to send mom to the hospital –so I met her in the emergency department. When I got to Peterborough she was totally “with it” (as much as she ever is, anyway) feeling very silly and wishing that everyone was not making such a big fuss about her confusion. The doctor did some blood tests to see if she had had a stroke or something but everything was OK and he let me take her home around 4:30am.

***

I would like to have stayed a little longer with my mom but I had a chance to make it back to Toronto in time for a “bone flow” test that one of the doctors at the Sports Medicine Clinic ordered for my back. I’d decided to get my back checked out because it has not fixed itself in 8 months –since last May (and lately it’s gotten worse again).

I am certainly not an expert in reading images from a bone scan machine but, to me, the image on the screen that I could see was pretty shocking. There was a massive white spot (at T8?). I believe that the image was picking up my body’s attempt to fix a cracked vertebra.

Perhaps I should not speculate but I am certainly eagerly anticipating the promised phone call from the doctor. My basic question will be –“OK, I broke my back but what should I be doing to make it heal?” I really don’t know whether she will tell me to get therapy, stop rowing, continue as normal, wait until I get the results of and MRI (in a few months) –or do something else.

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January 24/10

Once in a while, a science fiction or fantasy movie is produced that ‘raises the bar’ for all that come after. “Avatar” is one of those. In my lifetime there have only been two others on the scale of “Avatar”. The first was 2001: A “Space Odyssey”. The second was “Star Wars”.

I retrospect, it is amazing how fast the technology that first appeared in the making of these films is adopted and improved by others.

I have not seen a 3D movie in decades and I was surprised how far that technology has come. It was refreshing to be handed a decently comfortable (if a little geeky) pair of glasses instead of the ridiculous cardboard contraption I got at my last 3D film.

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January 30/10

On Tuesday I got a call to come in for an MRI on Thursday. It seemed like pretty short notice but I didn’t complain because I had been waiting for more than 4 months. I’ve had MRIs on both my shoulders so I know the drill. It was a bit different this time though –they had to inject a dye into the left hip joint. That part was no fun at all.

Hopefully I will soon find out what the heck is wrong with my hip, whether it is progressive or whether it is something that can be reversed or fixed. That will tell me if I will ever again do inline skating in a serious way.

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There is one thing that has been remarkable about this winter. There has not been one single decent snowstorm in Toronto. For me this is a double bonus. In my personal life, I have not had to shovel out the driveway or negotiate narrow side streets featuring two ruts in the snow (and nowhere to pass other vehicles). At work, we have not lost half our materials under a blanket of snow and are free to walk around the site without fear of falling (and sliding into an open excavation or injuring ourselves on something sharp).

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January 31/10

End of the Month Fitness Report

I worked out 19 times this month. I could have gone a bit harder but I have the Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships (CIRC) coming up next weekend and I promised myself I would do a proper taper. My weight is below 165 lbs despite the reduced workload so I seem to be in good shape that way.

 I will try to row the 2000m in 7:08. Last year I did 7:10.6 at the CIRC but managed a 7:07.7 a few weeks later at the Ontario meet. I should be 3 seconds slower due to age so 7:08 would be a very good effort.

 I had 2 MRIs this month. I need an operation on my left shoulder now –that will be in a few months. I am waiting for the results of the one on my hip. I also had a bone flow test on my back and am waiting for the doctor to tell me what is going on there.

I have not been attempting any season bests or PBs -except early in the month when I did my best 500 to date. Perhaps I will go for a 6K PB in a couple of weeks. I should be able to manage a slight improvement in that one. Below is a table of my season best performances to date taken off the Concept 2 website. Except for the 2000M all my season bests are also personal bests.

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Weblog -February 2010

February 2/10

We’ve lived in our house for 28 years and have enjoyed the big Norway Maple on our front lawn for that entire time. One of the reasons that we bought our house was that the whole street was lined with mature trees and there was an almost complete canopy over the road. Over the years, the trees have dwindled away –cut down mostly due to old age. That’s the problem with planting the same type of trees all at one time in one small neighbourhood.

Now the city has told us the tree in front of our own house is not safe and we will be losing it. We agree with the city's assessment but it is tough to see it go. One day last week we arrived home to find all of the small branches cut off the tree. I suppose they were all fed into a chipper. Some day soon the crews will come and cut down the trunk and major limbs. It will be sad and strange to arrive home and see that.

We have already told the city that they can plant a replacement tree. I’ve asked for a White Oak to replace the Norway Maple. I wouldn’t expect to be still living in the house when you could start to describe the new tree as “big”. Nor to I expect to have acorns falling on my truck. The next owners will have to contend with that.

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I remember being amazed that I could “row” my Concept 2 at almost the exact same speed that I use to run. I made a really big deal about “rowing” my first 40 minute 10K. I will never be able to match my running 10k best of 37 minutes –but I bet I could have "rowed" one when I was running those 37 minute 10ks.

Now I have found another similarity between running and rowing. The running magazines that I used to read always said that you burn about 100 calories per mile. Speed doesn’t matter for a runner. (The amount of work stays the same but it takes longer to burn your calories if you go slower).

As it works out, I average 100 calories per mile in my rowing workouts. However, unlike running, the pace in rowing makes a big difference in calorie consumption. At slower (or faster speeds) I would burn fewer (or more) calories. It just so happens that I am comfortable at the pace that yields around 100 calories per mile.

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February 5/10

I can’t believe that this happened to me! I was at work and I was standing in a shallow excavation –about 2 feet deep. The crew had some hand tools like shovels and rakes leaning against the vertical sides of the excavation and I stepped on the end of the rake. Of course, the weight if my foot on the tines of the rake sent the heavy wooden handle smashing into my face. The effect was the same as being punched in the jaw. I ended up with a small scrape, a big goose egg and some bruising on the left side of my jaw. Worse, my jaw started to ache close to my ears and I noticed a headache right away. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to eat because it hurt to align my teeth properly. Fortunately, things seem to be healing up nicely.

I could have lost some teeth –another bullet dodged!

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I am in the final days before the Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships where I will see how fast I can “row” 2000m. My weight is OK and I might even risk drinking a small cup of coffee before the weigh in. There are 8 men registered in the Lightweight 55-59 category so it is quite likely that there will be somebody who can row faster than me. It is always nice to win but for me it as all about the training. I compete simply to give me some goals and keep up the interest level.

But that is not to say that I am not serious about the race. How many others would starve themselves to make weight for a friendly athletic competition? Normally I weigh 180 lbs in February –not 165 lbs. During the race I will know how the guys in my category are doing because all the information is on the monitor. I hope there isn’t anyone rowing at exactly the same pace as me. I am just so damned competitive that I would practically kill myself to finish ahead. If someone is close to me it would only improve my time by a second or two at the most. I will do very close to my best anyway –because I will be competing with myself.

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Last evening I got a call to see if I could make it to Toronto Western Hospital for an MRI at 7am this morning. I said yes. That makes 3 MRIs in the space of a month. They were ordered by 3 different doctors at the Sports Medicine Clinic over a period of 4 months –but everything just seemed to come together after Christmas.

In the next couple of weeks I will be finding out what “ails me”. I hope the news is good.

***

This is the third time in the last couple of years that I have jumped to the top of the list by being willing to undergo a medical proceedure on short notice. It is starting to look like it is a routine part of getting service from the medical system in Canada.

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February 6/10

I went to the cottage to check things out and to pick up a few things that I want to take on our trip. I was surprised to find that I could drive all the way to the Bedrock sign. This is more evidence that there has been remarkably little snow so far this winter. Right now, Washington DC is at the tail end of a record breaking snowfall –and we had a bright sunny (but cool) day. I suppose Toronto will get hammered pretty soon –or perhaps the big storm will come just as the March Breaks begins.

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February 7/10

Canadian Rowing Championships

In lasts year's write-up I described the scene of the event. HERE It was the exact same this year.

I won my division (55-59 Lightweight) in the Canadian Rowing Championships but I was really disappointed with my time. 7:18.7 is not even as fast as I did in practice only a couple of months ago (7:14.7). Since this is the second time in a row that I have done “disappointing” times at this meet I have to think that perhaps I am not able to do my best performances at 8:45 in the morning. I do all my training after work and before supper.

I weighed in at 163.6 lbs. Only after I stepped off the scale could I drink the Timmy’s coffee that I bought down the road.

As I have said before, I won the race –but only because nobody faster showed up. Allowing for age sex and weight there were several other Masters rowers who did better that I did (in their own categories of course). One guy in my category had a qualifying time of 6:53 but ended up doing around 7:24. Later he told me he took them literally when, on the entry form, they asked for his “fastest” time. The trouble was –he did it 25 years ago!

Another “big” guy that I met last year at the St Catherines meet was registered in the lightweight category. As we sat at our machines before the race I had some fun teasing him about how “I had assumed he must have been sick.” I didn’t really get a proper explanation of how he registered for the wrong category but his punishment was that he looked out of place sitting amongst all the little fellows.

I wore my U of G sweatshirt to the meet and the rowing coach at the University of Guelph introduced himself. I’m going to be on their email list. (I wonder how much that will cost me). Rowing started at U of G after I left –as soon as they filled up Guelph Lake (a flood control effort on the mighty Speed River). The coach was telling me that they have a 2000M course but they sometimes do not have 6 lanes because when the water in Guelph Lake is low the course gets a lot narrower. Somehow, in Guelph, it all makes sense.

This is the second year in a row that the Canadian Championships have been on Super Bowl Sunday. Perhaps this is the beginning of a longstanding tradition.

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February 11/10

I might know the reason I went so slow last Sunday. I wrenched my back during the race –probably on the first pull after the gun went! I remember feeling some pain my lower back during the race and I thought that it was rather strange –but I figured I’d be OK. I am not. For the past 4 days I have been pretty miserable with a very sore lower back. This is something that happens to me a couple of times a year. This time it seems to be particularly bad. However, in the long run, my back might heal up very quickly and all will be forgotten very soon. On the other hand it could drag on for several weeks. There is no way to predict the length and severity of my suffering.

My other back injury (my broken vertebra) is also acting up –probably in sympathy with the problem lower down. Shucks.

I am wondering why I only rowed a 3k warm up before the event. Next year I’ll do 5k.

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February 13/10

I sent away for some large scale Topographical Maps of a mountainous wilderness area (the Santa Catalina Mountains) just north of Tucson. I’ve now had a chance to examine the maps. Since we will be staying in Oro Valley (a few miles north and a bit west of Tucson) the Santa Catalinas are right in our back yard. Last year our little group covered some ground in the “Front Range” at the south edge of the mountains and in 2005 Kathy, Kaylee and I explored the Mount Lemmon Highway over on the east side.

There is some fabulous hiking in these hills and I have 3 routes picked out that I want to try. One of the routes features a 5000 foot drop or climb –depending on which direction you go. I am hoping to get the 3 ladies to drop me off at the low end (near the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area) on their way to the high end on the Mount Lemmon Road. I will climb and the girls will descend. We will pass off the keys when we meet on route and I will pick up the girls at the low end.

Another route that I am thinking about traverses across the mountains from Catalina State Park to the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area. The trail rises and falls over 3000 feet and covers 16 miles through some pretty rough territory. I would definitely have to do that one by myself. I suppose I will save this route for the last couple of days so I can see if I am in good enough condition to accomplish the task.

Another idea I have is to summit Pusch Peak in the Front Range. This one is only a climb of 2500 feet and could probably be done without committing the entire day to the conquest.

I haven’t made any other arrangements such as securing tickets for a Cactus league baseball game but for the most part that sort of thing can be done in Tucson at the last moment. It’s only a month before we go!

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The Winter Olympic Games are upon us. I love watching the Olympics but I have been known to overdose in the first half and lose interest in the second. I’ll have to pace myself. Skating is my favorite thing to watch –short track and especially long track. Next I like downhill and giant slalom skiing, ski jumping and cross country. Sliding sports, hockey and especially figure skating rank near the bottom.

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February 15/10

I‘ve been spending quite a bit of time dealing with my 84 year old mother. Because I am the oldest of her four sons I have responsibilities that go beyond simply being a good son. I have mentioned already that Mom was recently found wandering outside her residence, at 2PM, on a cold night -in her nightie. Her residence is part of a retirement complex but she had an apartment that was separate from the main building. She only went to the main building for supper and other special activities.

Well, now with the help of other family members, I have moved Mom into the main building. This is an event that Mom knew would eventually happen but she sure fought hard against it for a long time. She just hated the idea of living inside.

Now that she is inside Mom is finding out that is not all that bad. Most of her fears were unfounded and there are lots of advantages for a person of her age and abilities. I’ve never come out and actually said so -but my mother has been diagnosed as having dementia. The diagnosis apparently was made when the doctor took away her driver’s license a little over 2 years ago.

Even 10 years ago, Dad was warning us that “your mother is displaying early signs of dementia”. When I think about where Mom “was at” when Dad died (6 years ago), where she was at when she lost her license and finally where she is right now I realize that her cognitive abilities have been declining with increasing speed.

During the move, one of my brothers reminded me of something else that Dad used to say: “Getting old is not for the faint hearted.” I remember Dad saying that but more often he simplified it to: “Getting old is the pits.”

Although I could clearly see that Mom was struggling to find words, do math, operate electronic devices and so on –I always felt that she was still “with it” in most respects. I can’t really say that any more.

It’s difficult to see a parent “fade away” in the way that my mother is. It will only be a matter of time before she cannot function in her new setting and will have to move again to a another location in the facility where she will get an even higher level of care. And I am already starting to wonder what might lie beyond that. I don’t think the home where she is right now would be able to look after her until the very end.

Since there is not much I can do about my Mom’s situation I guess that all I can do is give her as much support as I can and be kind to her. It is certainly lucky for Mom and for us that she has the financial resources to afford decent care in her last few years.

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February 17/10

Olympics

I stayed home today because my back has been pretty sore. (It was almost better but I wreaked it again on a long walk).

Because I was home, I got to watch the women’s downhill. It was an awesome event. Around half a dozen women crashed on the course –mostly near the bottom where there was a big jump (and where they were getting tired). The favourite, Lindsey Vonn, from the US, won. She’s a cutie. I just can’t believe the nerve that downhill skiers have. They go so fast under so little control. During the broadcast the commentatorslisting off how many operations on each knee almost every skier had endured. Some people think I am crazy.

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February 18/10

I took a picture at work today. I am not sworn to secrecy but I expect that our client would not want the following information widely known. The picture was taken at a bridge in the greater Toronto area and pretty well sums up the whole project. The original bridge was built in such a way that that the deck (superstructure) on one side of the joint depends totally on the small projection of concrete (and underlying reinforcing steel) to support it, The other end of the “drop in” section is a mirror image of what is displayed.

This bridge has a similar design to the bridge that collapsed in Montreal around 3 years ago. Clearly, an enormous weight is being supported by a tiny projection. If there was a serious earthquake (or even if there wasn’t) the drop in section could collapse.

Our job was to support the bridge. The picture shows only the final stages of construction. What you don’t see in the picture are the massive caissons and grade beam which support the 3 concrete pedestals –which, in turn, support the columns and bearings which will hold up the structure for the next 50 years. Most of the supporting structure is buried.

The big triangular structures near the bottom of the steel columns are jacking anchors. 50 ton hydraulic jacks were placed under each anchor and the entire structure, as a single unit, was pushed up against the existing bridge deck. Now, in theory, the steel columns, instead of the feeble concrete projections, are supporting the entire weight of the drop in section of the old bridge deck.

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February 22/10

Kathy and I are sleeping in separate bedrooms for a while. It’s because we are renovating. All the furniture from the master bedroom has to go into one of the other 2 smaller bedrooms. It ended up that the most efficient use of space was for Kathy and me to split up.

After more than a quarter century we have decided to replace the carpet. But, I am tired of the squeaky floorboards so I will also have to pull out the old hardwood floor, re-nail the floorboards and put in a plywood subfloor. There is no chance of saving the original hardwood floor. It’s a mess.

Naturally, we will not remove the carpet and ignore the chance to paint the walls and ceiling. The goal is to be done by the time Kaylee is finished school and wants to come home. That will be mid-April.

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We are more than half way through the Winter Olympics and Canadian athletes are not doing as well as some had expected. I always thought the “Own the Podium” program was a fantastic thing but I never thought that all the money could make that much of a difference in only 6 or 7 years. If we really want to own the podium we will have to keep up the funding for many more years and we will also have to get serious about building sporting facilities and developing grassroots programs in diverse sports such as ski jumping, inline skating (because the best ice skaters come from inline) biathlon and so on.

Of course, this will never happen. Funding is going to be diminished to a truly pathetic level -and only stepped up in 30 years when the Winter Olympics return to Canada.

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Feb 27/2010

I got my shoulder operation! The surgeon’s office called on Wednesday and asked if I wanted to have the operation on Friday. It had been scheduled for July.

The procedure went well -at least from my viewpoint. The thing I will never forget is lying on the operating table and spotting two giant IV bags and wondering aloud if they were going to pump all that fluid into me. I was told that they were –but not in the way I was thinking. It turned out that the bags were not for intravenous use –but inter muscular use. During arthroscopic surgery they inject copious amounts of sterile water into the area (my left shoulder joint in this case). It was a relief to know they weren’t planning to put 4 litres of fluids into my veins.

***

Earlier this month, I mentioned that I had managed to cut down my waiting time for medical procedures on 3 different occasions by being willing to show up on short notice. Now it has happened again.

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February 28/10

“Before I die, I want to witness a full eclipse of the sun.” I have said this to Kathy several times over the years. I know that seeing a full (total) eclipse of the sun is really special because they always get such rave reviews in my astronomy magazine. Lots of people never miss a full eclipse even though they have to travel to remote corners of the earth to witness them. Often the path of the total eclipse is mostly over the ocean and the most practical way to see the eclipse is on a cruise ship. This was the case back in 1998 when I made my first, half hearted, attempt to attend one of these events. I discovered that the path of the total eclipse came directly across Aruba –the site of our honeymoon (17 years earlier) and only two days before Kathy’s birthday.

But I couldn’t get Kathy to go! She is a teacher and feels very strongly about her responsibilities to her school and her students. So I had to read about all the fun that astronomy buffs had in Aruba, Venezuala some other countries and cruise ships in both the Atlantic and Pacific. I’ve been reading reviews of every eclipse since then as well.

A couple of days ago, I downloaded a planetarium program for my new computer. One small feature of my new software shows where future eclipses will be (and where past ones were). The really cool thing is that on Aug 21, 2017 the path of a total eclipse will transit the middle of North America. The eclipse will start way out on the Atlantic Ocean and end in the Pacific. If I am still working I’ll be taking a week off to see this one. If not, I’d like to take a trip out west and see it there. The image to the left is from The SkyX Student Edition from Software Bisque Inc. This image is a bit blurry compared to what you see when you open the program.

Path of Total eclipse of Aug 21/2017

On April 8, 2024 there will be another chance for North Americans to see a total eclipse. I’ll be 72 years old then but I already know I am going to be “busy” around that time. Again this image is from The SkyX Student Edition from Software Bisque Inc.

Path of Total eclipse of April 8 /2024

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End of the Month Fitness Report:

The month of February centered around two big events. The first one was my big rowing competition on Feb 7. During the week leading up to the competition I stuck with the program –but since I was tapering for the big event the volume and intensity of the workouts was light. As already reported, I pulled a muscle in my lower back during the first pull or two and did a slow time in the competition. My back was too sore to row (or do much of anything else) for the next week. I then tried a very easy workout and discovered (the hard way) that I should invest in more rest. My back took a turn for the worse a few days after that and I decided to seek medical help. Rather than visit a doctor I went to the physiotherapist who has worked on me a few times in the past (for other problems). It was a good decision and I credit Jeff with putting me back on the road of recovery.

Just as I was considering getting back onto the rowing machine I got the call for my operation (the second big event). At this point I don’t know when I might be able to resume.

I won’t have to worry about taking my inline skates to Arizona. The March Break would be much too early to resume skating –even if I decide to skate at all this year.

I got the results of the MRI on my hip and the short story is that there is not all that much wrong with it. In the meantime I have discovered a stretch that I think might be helpful. I intend to do a lot of walking and stretching (once my shoulder can tolerate the strain of stretching my hip). Who knows, I might find my way back onto inline skates yet.

In short, my fitness level dropped significantly in the last 3 weeks of the month –but not by choice. My weight rose to 170 –not surprising under the circumstances. Walking and hiking are about the only things I will be doing for exercise in the month of March. I hope that April will bring a return to rowing and possibly skating too.

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March 2/2010

The Vancouver Winter Olympics ended with a flourish of mostly gold medals for Canada. The most memorable has to be Canada’s overtime win over the Americans in men’s hockey –with none other than Sidney Crosby scoring the winning goal. It was a perfect conclusion to a great games.

I watched a lot of the closing ceremony and there were a couple of good gags. It was great when Catriona Le May Doan emerged to light the part of the torch that she had missed out on in the opening ceremonies (due to a malfunction). They also had a mime fixing the malfunction and then pulling up the broken section with a rope. In another portion they made light of the Mounties –one of the major symbols of the games.

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March 9/10

I am starting to get excited about our trip to Tucson. My hikes in the mountains are planned, I have baseball tickets for our first day there and astronomy-wise I know when the cool stuff happens during our stay. The flights and accommodations were arranged long ago and yesterday I booked a rental car.

The weather is cool in Arizona right now but next week it is supposed to be sunny and around 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

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March 11/10

This story would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic. Two of our “supposedly grown up” daughters cannot agree how to share the car while Kathy and I are away. We are going to have to impose a solution to their problem.

NOTE TO SELF: Do not leave anything of value behind when you die or your heirs will waste a lot of time and energy fighting over it.

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March 13/10

When Kathy knows someone who is on a holiday anywhere in the sunny south she loves to track the weather and imagine what sort of a holiday they are having. She also keeps an eye on any place where she has been. Apparently things are fine in Florida (for a change) and pretty poor in Myrtle Beach (where we went once).

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We were only an hour away from going to the airport when we got a computer call. Our flight was cancelled but they were offering us an alternative flight in the early morning –going through Dallas instead of Chicago. If everything works out we will get into Tucson around 18 hours late. We will miss the Cactus League baseball game that I bought tickets for. I hope that’s the end of the bad news.

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The construction company that I work for picked up a big job this week. Obviously this is good news. The bad news is that we were hoping to pick up two big jobs.

Now there are quite a few foremen and supervisory types (like me) who are milling around (in a figurative way) waiting to get their assignments for the spring. Everybody wants to see the drawings and go to check out the place where they’ll be spending a lot of their time for the next few months –or longer.

We have 3 new jobs to start in the spring. This picture is at the site of our “plumb job” for the year. This bridge is in Toronto but it is not in the Don Valley. The picture shows only 30% of the whole bridge so it’s a pretty big one. It is not very likely that I will get to do this one. I usually have to do two or three smaller projects –all running at the same time. (More headaches but smaller in scope).

So, while I am sunning myself in Arizona, the boss will be like a hockey coach standing behind the bench and all the guys I work with will be like the players waiting for a tap on the shoulder to tell them that they are going out on the next shift. I would imagine that when I get back I will find out who is going where.

It is going to be a very busy spring for me because I still have two jobs on the go. Neither will end before I will have to get the next one off the ground. As I have explained in the past, it is starting up and finishing jobs that is most difficult. Oh well, it has been an easy winter.

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March 14/10 (Tucson)

7am –On the Plane

Over the years, I’ve been all over the map in my appreciation for the airline industry in the US. Right now I am down on it. It is worth the extra cash to fly direct.

We never found out why American Airlines cancelled our flight. We never got to talk to a live person –only a computer voice that couldn’t answer questions. Kathy has been amazingly upbeat about losing out on the first part of her March Break vacation. I would not have predicted it -having witnessed the complete and utter devastation that she suffered two years ago when her March Break was cancelled by the combination of a badly timed snowstorm and a most unhelpful Continental Airlines.

11:30am –At Dallas Forth Worth International Airport

They say that “everything is big in Texas” and when it comes to the airport they are quite correct. I never imagined that an airport of this scale existed on the face of the earth. Since I have been through Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and LAX I have to assume that I did not fully appreciate the scale of those enterprises.

The novelty of having our plans changed at the last moment is wearing very thin very fast.We can see that there are at least 3 planes leaving from DFW and going to Tucson between the time we got here and the time we get to board the plane that they put us on. It really sucks. In the end we will be waiting here over 6 hours.

Later:

We made it to Tucson, were met by Janet and Jennifer (J&J), were delivered to our quarters to freshen up and enjoyed a steakhouse dinner before going to bed at 9pm (Arizona Time). We were up for around 21 hours.

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March 15/10 (Tucson)

The big event for today was a hike over at Catalina State Park. It’s only a few miles from our accommodations. I didn’t look very carefully at the route before we left for the Romero Pools and didn’t realize there was an elevation gain of around 1000 feet. For me this is no big deal but the ladies have difficulty with gaining altitude. In the end, the girls didn’t quite make to the pools (no big deal really because the real point is to be out in the mountains). I walked a fair distance past the pools –on toward Romero pass. It was a test to see what my body can handle since I am considering some longer hikes later in the week. We will see how my legs, back and shoulder feel tomorrow.

On the way to dinner at an ultra fancy resort I told the ladies to keep an eye out for Venus –low in the west. (It was hard for me because I was driving). No sooner had I given my instructions than Kathy spotted Venus shining brilliantly in the twilight and a little bit higher than I would have imagined. It had been a cloudless day and there was nothing blocking our view of the sky all the way to the horizon. Tomorrow, we will attempt to spot the new moon –only around 30 hours old (only 30 hours since passing the sun). Normally it is difficult to see the moon when it is so new because it gets lost in the glare. The best chance to see a very new moon is when the sky is unusually clear of clouds, when the horizon is very low and when the the sun is dropping straight down toward the earth (rather than moving crosswise and down) (when the angle of the ecliptic is steep). All of these conditions could be met tonight because we are in a desert and I have scouted out a good viewing location.

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March 16/10 (Tucson)

Someone pointed out that today was notable for its contrasts. We decided to take in the sites in the area south of Tucson. Our first stop was the small town of Tubac. It’s close to the Mexican border and is a tourist trap catering to those interested in artsy endeavors like jewelry, ceramics, sculpture and so on. The entire scene was truly pathetic in my view and even the girls didn’t seem too excited about shopping there. Nobody bought anything but we did enjoy a nice pub lunch before we headed back north.

The next stop was at the only remaining site of a Titan 2 inter-continental ballistic missile (it is totally disabled). Titan 2 missiles were capable of delivering very large nuclear warheads to a target up to 6000 miles away. All the Titan 2s were decommissioned after an agreement to reduce existing stockpiles of nuclear weapons was reached with the Soviet Union during the Regan administration.

I found the tour of the missile site to be fascinating and I think even the 3 ladies more or less agreed that it was worth seeing.

The last stop was the San Xavier del Bac Mission- “the Sistine Chapel of North America”. It was interesting that a structure that size was constructed so long ago in the middle of nowhere. It is still an operating Catholic Church. It was free to enter but there were plenty of opportunities to stuff money into little slots located at fairly regular intervals throughout the church –and outside too. I wasn’t tempted to insert cash but I did buy a postcard at the gift shop.

The west side of the Green Valley (the big flat area between mountain ranges south of Tucson) is totally dominated by incredibly big piles of mine tailings. I never imagined that earth had ever been moved on that scale (except perhaps in the Tar Sands). I researched the operation on the internet and they have apparently removed 400 to 600 feet of overburden to get to the bedrock (ore) which contains only one quarter of one percent copper. In the meantime, the mines have done untold damage to the air and water.

We only had a short time back at our temporary residence before I dragged the ladies out in a quest to see the new moon –only about 30 hours since passing the sun. It was still daylight when we got to the viewing place but Kathy spotted Venus right away. Over the next few minutes Venus sank lower toward the horizon, the sky grew darker and the thinnest of crescent moons became more and more visible. At first, you could only see it in binoculars but after a while, and knowing where to look, you could see it with the naked eye. We were lucky that the few clouds toward the west did not interfere with our viewing. After we drove to the restaurant, I spotted the moon once more –but it was mostly obscured in a band of clouds. Our meal, at a steakhouse, was very informal and very tasty.

So, on the macho side of the touring day we had the missile site and some serious tailing piles. On the more feminine side there was the artsy town of Tubac, the Mission and a bit of astronomy. It was a good day!

Later:

I want to mention that I managed to find the star Canopes very low in the southern sky during the trip. Canopes is the second brightest star in the sky (after Sirius) and is only just barely visible from latitudes as far north as Tucson.

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March 17/10 (Tucson)

This was a day of relaxation. The girls went shopping for part of the day while I finished one book and started another. Although I relentlessly lecture Kathy about overdoing her tanning routine it was I who was caught off guard and managed to sunburn my back while lying around the pool. It’s not too bad.

We notice with delight that Tucson was the hotspot for the USA –at 84 degrees F!

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March 18/10 (Tucson)

Today was our big hiking day. In the end, Kathy and I did an 8 mile, ‘point to point’ hike through the Santa Catalinas –starting at the Mount Lemmon Road and ending at the top of the Sabino Canyon tram loop. To make our ‘point to point’ possible J&J did an out and back. It was a great hike that I would do again in a flash. It was a downhill hike –losing around a net 1000’ in the 8 miles that we walked. The vegetation was quite sparse. We were above the Saguaro cactus habitat and well below the pine forest. Considering that we were hiking mountain canyons, the going was reasonably easy. At a couple of places where we were switchbacking on what amounted to vegetated scree slopes Kathy became very uneasy about the narrow path and steepness of the fall. She made it though. She didn’t have a lot of choice. There were some missing signposts on the route and it was lucky that we had a good map. It would be easy to take a wrong turn and end up in a bad situation. Luckily, I am a decent map reader.

We also took the opportunity to drive up the Mount Lemmon Road to the top. Four years ago Kathy, Kaylee and I failed to get to the top because we were turned back due to road construction. The Mount Lemmon Road starts at around 3000’ in the Sonoran Desert and ends above 8000’ in a Ponderosa Pine forest. There was plenty of snow at the top but I think the ski season was over. All the streams leading from the top were flowing with more water than you would expect in a desert. The temperature at the top was 45 degrees F –at the bottom it was 75. At 6 degrees per 1000 feet this was twice the “normal” rate of temperature decline. Especially in the morning we saw dozens of cyclists climbing the mountain. The sheer number of cyclists was really amazing. We had already noticed that Tucson is a bike friendly town with a bike lane on seemingly every major road and a lot of serious cyclists all over the place.

Later: I forgot to mention that we saw two white tailed deer near the beginning of the hike when we were all together. They were so small compared to the ones in Ontario that I was doubting they were deer. However, a mountain biker that happened along at the same time told us they were deer. I guess that desert dear are adapted downward in size.

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March 19/10

We had another easy day with no major activities except shopping and dinner out. I almost finished my book. The weather had cooled off to only around 70 degrees for the high but Kathy has had about all the sun she can handle so it’s OK.

The most exciting thing that happened was just before supper. Kathy and Janet went for a walk through the wash to the east of the villa and had a great look at a Bobcat. They were surprised how small he was. They also saw some rabbits so that explains why the bobcat was around.

According to Wikipedia, Bobcats are plentiful in the US. They can’t handle deep snow so they become rarer in Canada where the Canadian Lynx is better adapted. I gather that it’s not uncommon to see a bobcat in an urban setting such as Oro Valley which is very spread out and has dry washes running everywhere. However the Bobcats are there to hunt rabbits or other small prey and not to scavenge garbage.

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March 20/10

The last full day of Kathy and my holiday was the day that J&J had to leave. Taking J&J to the airport split up our day a bit but we still had a good chunk of time left in the afternoon.

We decided to do a moderate hike back at Sabino Canyon. On this trip to the canyon we took the tramway up to the end of the loop and walked out on the Telephone Line Trail. Kathy did this trail last year with J&J but it was my first look at the bottom part of Sabino Canyon. Together with the hike on Thursday I can now say I have walked the entire Sabino Canyon –east branch. The west branch will have to wait. To walk the west branch all the way to Romero Pass would require a trek of 16 miles in a point to point type of excursion. I would have to build up to this. Perhaps in the future we can spend a month in Tucson.

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March 21/10

Kathy and I spent our anniversary traveling. I am pretty sure we have done this before. We got home without incident.

General Impressions of the Trip

• J&J are good travel buddies.
• The Santa Catalina Mountain Range offers some great hiking.
• Kathy is a strong hiker.
• It is simply amazing that a place like modern day Tucson can even exist in such an arid climate.
• I am getting pretty tired of the 2-hop system of US style air travel and will probably start paying more to do single haul flights out of Pearson.
• I don’t like going to fancy restaurants- where menus are written with code words I don’t understand and don’t care to learn. (Give me a tavern or steak house any time).

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March 28/10

I was correct in my prediction that “The Boss” would tell me which job I would be doing next as soon as I got back from my trip. I’ll be on Lawrence Ave E rehabbing two railway bridges in the vicinity of the Don Valley Parkway.

I have to get those two sites up and running while at the same time finishing up the two jobs we have been working on all winter. I will be extremely busy for the next 6 weeks or so and it is almost a blessing that I can’t skate or row right now.

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I don’t think that I have mentioned getting the results of the MRI on my back. I saw the results before the doctor that ordered the test and they seemed pretty horrifying to me. The short story is this: Last May I fractured a vertebra in my back (T-10). This led to a herniated disk which is pushing on my spinal cord. There are other problems too. The doc at the sports medicine clinic thinks I probably am in need of an operation and has referred me to a neurosurgeon. I suppose this is pretty bad news but at least I have an explanation why my back does not get better and also why the pain that I feel moves around to different places.

When I read the MRI report I wonder how it is that I can actually walk and am not in total agony 24 hours per day. The doc that ordered the tests (there were several) seems to think I should be experiencing incapacitating pain. I am happy to report that I am actually able to get through a normal day with only a minimum of pain and inconvenience. However, it is true that things are not improving and I gather that I might expect them to get worse in the future. I wonder what the neurosurgeon will have to say and how long I will have to wait before I get to see him.

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March 31/10

My Poor Mother

Kathy and I went up to Peterborough to help Mom celebrate her 85th birthday. We noticed lots of flowers around her ‘apartment’ when we arrived and we asked my mom if my brother and his wife had brought some to her on the weekend. Mom replied that she had not seen them for a few weeks. (This seemed a bit strange because we had thought that Alec and Chris were going to go up on the weekend). A couple of minutes later Mom said “You’ll never guess who I saw just recently –the Lawyer”. I laughed and said that she must be talking about my brother Alec. Then I asked how she describes me when she can’t remember my name –(the bald guy)?

I started referring to my brothers as the lawyer and the teacher but Kathy elbowed me in the ribs and I surmised that I must be overdoing it.

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End of the Month Fitness Report

This month I came pretty close to doing absolutely nothing to forward my fitness level. As a result, I am sure that I must have gone a fair amount backward. Oh well, I can always get it back.

I did manage to get 3 fairly serious hikes under my belt on the trip to Tucson.

My shoulder is still bothering me (from the operation) so it is too early to start rowing again. The same injury stops me from skating.

I hope that I will be able to start doing something by the end of April. I am not sure how my back will react –so I’ll have to resume my activities with caution.

I weighed it at about 171.

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Weblog -May 2010

May 5 /2010

Toward the end of last year’s rather short skating season my left skate started to make some weird noises. I knew what was going on. The crack in my skate (That happened when the car tire drove over my wheels) was getting worse. Here is how I described the situation in last September’s ‘Fitness Report’:

I other bad news, near the end, I was starting to notice that my left skate (the one that is cracked from my incident with the car) is making funny noises when I skate. I made some inquiries (to Bont) about getting it repaired but after seeing pictures of the damage they told me that the skate is beyond repair. Now I am in a Catch 22 situation. I don’t want to get new skates because I may not be able to skate any more but if I don’t get new skates then I won't be able to skate anyway. I will never go back to the skates I was using a few years ago –too much pain.

 After 10 outings in 2010 I realized it was time to attempt a repair on the skate. I figured that the alternative (no repair) would render the skate pretty well useless in another few months. I am hoping that my repair will prolong the life of the skate for another 2 or 3 seasons. Since I am not an expert in matters of carbon fibre and epoxy these figures or only wild guess’s on my part. The cost of materials was 50 bucks so I am investing very little in the venture. The worst thing is not being able to skate while the epoxy cures properly. The guy at ‘Smithcraft’, the epoxy specialty store where I bought the material, said it will fully cure in 7 days. I hope I can stay off the skate for 5.

I have no illusions that the skate will be as strong after the repair as it was when it was new. The good thing for me is that the crack does not really affect the critical ankle area. If the crack got worse I expect the skate would soon be unable to resist the torsional forces exerted during the push (especially when I accidentally push too much with my toe.

I wondered about trying to fix the crack by injecting it with viscous epoxy but I figured this would be very difficult because I would be unable to see whether or not the crack was filled. As well it seemed likely that many of the individual carbon fibres crossing the crack would have already failed (and the fibres provide the tensional strength).

So, I decided to add a couple of layers of carbon fibre over top of the cracked area and hope that the repair will bridge the weak spot, I know that it will all depend on the bond I get to the existing carbon fibre shell. I expect I will be able to tell visually if the bond is holding up to use. I might also hear or feel mini failures as well.

Tomorrow, if the weather is good, I will test my repair.

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May 7/10

I went into Home Depot on the way home from work. I was wearing my orange construction vest and decided not to take it off. I wanted to see how long it would take a fellow customer to start asking me questions about the merchandise in the store. It only took a few minutes before an old guy made the mistake. I was chuckling inside when I told the poor guy that I didn’t work at the store.

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May 9/10

Yesterday was a very windy day. If the big tree in front of our house was still standing I would have been really nervous about a major limb falling down and hitting our house or car. As it was, it was another Norway Maple across the street and down 3 houses that lost a branch and caused damage to the house beside.

Meanwhile the cops have put yellow caution tape across the street and sidewalks because there are live hydro lines down on the ground.

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May 10/10

At long last we have moved back into our bedroom. The last couple of weeks have not been fun because Kaylee came home from university and Kathy and I were forced to sleep in a queen sized bed which was pushed up against a wall. Luckily Kathy tends to get in before, and out after I do.

To finish the bedroom completely we have to purchase and install new closet doors, window coverings and light fixtures but these things will follow quickly because they are hard to live without.

The whole process was slowed down quite a bit because of my shoulder operation. It is a lot more difficult working with only one arm.

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After a 9 day layoff I finally got back on the blades. At first the layoff was due to my skate repair (and the fact that the epoxy needed to cure properly). Personal circumstances prevented my return for a couple of days and then the weather got ridiculously cold, wet and windy. Anyway, I feel better now.

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May 15/10

My right knee has been bothering me a bit lately. I finally decided that inline skating was the likely cause. Before yesterday’s outing I shifted the frame (out at the front and in at the back). I immediately had the feeling that I had more power in my push and that it was easier to get my weight onto the outside edge. “Good for me” I thought.

But by the end of the workout my knee started to hurt in a different place. I guess I’ll put the frame about half way back to where it used to be and see what happens.

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I took a couple of wooden lawn chairs that I built 29 years ago to the dump. I knew Kathy was tired of my creations when she spent $460.18 to purchase two new ones. She didn’t even give me a chance to bid on the work. If the new chairs last for 29 years I’ll be 86 when I deliver them to the dump in my pickup.

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May 21/10

I’m a lucky duck! Kathy “did the kitchen” when we moved my mother into the main building at the “home” where she resides. There was a lot of stuff that “had to disappear.” We brought a lot of it home to go through (and mostly throw away). Among all the stuff that we had to toss out was a hidden treasure. It was a 2003 jar of my Mom’s excellent homemade marmalade.

I’m not 100% sure -but I think 2003 was the last year that Mom made marmalade. For sure it was the last year that she made “good” marmalade

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The weather has been great for the last few days and I have been doing lots of skating. Each day I tell myself that I should take a rest but at the end of the day I, at least, want to go out and cruise around for a while (even if I am not pushing myself to the limit).

I have been getting around to a lot of different trails and have really been enjoying the change of scenery. It is so easy to get into the rut of always skating in the same place.

It has been a year since I hurt my back so badly but I am amazed that I seem to be able to skate as well as ever. I have been taking things very easy so far and working myself into condition more slowly than usual but if things keep going as they are I am going to end up regretting that I gave up my position as a Flying Fossil. Perhaps if I survive my first few sets of short intervals I will call up the boys and let them know I could be a sub for somebody.

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The repair on my skate is working perfectly. There are no more strange noises when I torque the skate. Visually the patch looks OK and seems to be holding up fine.

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May 24/10 (Bedrock)

When Kathy and I arrived at Bedrock we found out that there were racoons in the attic. We had an inkling that we would be dealing with “critters” this weekend because Kathy had noticed some displaced soffit during a quick stop at Bedrock three weeks ago. It wasn’t the first time. I had kicked an adult coon out of the attic a year and a half ago. This time was different, however, because it was a mother and 5 offspring.

I took a flashlight up into the attic to investigate. Naturally, the mother and kits(?) were all huddled together in a place that was impossible for me to reach. Kathy started making suggesting like loud music and apple cider vinegar but I had a better idea. As luck would have it, I could access the nest by simply removing some siding -2 battens and a board to be precise. Removing a few screws with my electric drill was all it took.

The mother ran off into a different part of the attic when I took off the board. The babies, who probably weighed under a pound, were as cute as can be. I lifted each one by the scruff of its neck into a large recycling box and brought them down to the ground. We decided to leave the babies, in the box, in the woods, close to the screened verandah where we could peak at them easily and perhaps see the mother come to get them. I put the board and battons back on the cottage after cutting off any possible access to the area with some heavy duty wire mesh. I left the (outdoor) access to the attic wide open so the mom could escape.

The kits made a loud squealing sound when they were disturbed and crawled all over each other in a futile attempt to get out of the box. Finally, just before dark, we heard a particularly loud squealing and discovered that one baby was missing. We didn’t see the mother so we were not sure if she had taken one of her babies –or whether perhaps a coyote had found the stash. We waited a long time for another baby to disappear but nothing happened. Finally I decided to examine the attic to see if I could find the mother. If she was there I expected to see two eyes staring back at the flashlight beam from a dark corner somewhere. She was not to be found so I closed the door and hoped for the best.

Several times in the night we heard the loud squealing and had to hope that the mother was coming to pick up the babies one at a time. The alternative was unthinkable. In the morning all the babies were gone. Since there was no noise from the attic overnight we were now sure the mother racoon was outside. I wonder if the mother has found a decent place to raise her brood.

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May 25/10

For 12 years I have kept logs of my inline skating workouts. I write down the weather conditions, location of the skate and my route, what I wear, the condition of my wheels and any other comments that I might want to remember.

So far this year I have been going nuts because I was not able to find my log for 2008 and 2009. I just love to look at what I was doing the year before –how fast I was doing certain routes, what the weather was like, how many miles I was putting in and so on.

Finally, tonight I opened a file up in the loft and there was my long lost log. I know I will spend a lot of time pouring over my records from previous years and figuring out where I stand. Upon quick examination I would say I am 5 or 6 weeks behind my last year’s pace. That is OK because I started 2 months late.

The most surprising thing was finding out that I have used my current wheels over 60 times. I don’t think I have ever gone over 50 before now. With larger wheels, careful rotation and better technique my wheels have been lasting longer than years ago. As well, I am sure that years ago I was enduring far more pronounced flat spots than I would ever put up with now.

Anyway, tonight I tossed out the old set and put some brand new wheels on my skates. According to my log, tomorrow will be first time since March 9, 2009 that I have skated on brand new wheels (except for the 24 Hour Race last year). You have to be a skater to appreciate the joy that I will feel tomorrow.

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May 31/10

Well that’s frustrating. I tried to look back to my post of April 30/10 and I realized that all of April is missing. I guess I erased it when I was adding a table for the month of May. I went to the 3 major search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo) to see if there was a cached copy of my site from around the end of April. That way, I would be able to recover my data (I did this once before). Unfortunately, all 3 search engines have done web crawls that encompass my site during the month of May. My musings for the month of April may be lost forever.

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End of the Month Skating Report:

Because there is no report from the end of April I will recap the season to date. I got a very late start –doing my first skate on April 4th. Because of my recent shoulder operation (as well as big problems with my back) I had no business being on skates –but I just couldn’t help myself. The weather was so beautiful and I was getting so out of condition. . . A very nice thing about getting a late start to the season is that you seem to be making progress faster than normal. It is really because the warm weather arrives sooner, you are less constricted by layers of clothing and your muscles can do more work. In any case, I seemed to make good progress until I decided to repair my cracked skate. After waiting for almost a week I had some personal commitments and then the weather turned against me. At least the repair was a success and I was well rested for my second push.

I have recovered all my speed but endurance is still a problem. I hope things will start to improve here too. I’ve only just begun to feel the weariness that overtraining brings. I’d almost forgotten what it was like. Anyway, I suppose if you never felt that perhaps you had pushed yourself a little too much then you could be certain that you were not training hard enough.

Back in April, I told the Flying Fossils that I would not be able to participate this year but now I regret it. A few days ago I told them I would be a sub if anybody needed one. My guess is that, in the end, I will get to take part. It could be a fast year for the Fossils. There are a couple of recruits who are faster than me (by all reports) and last year I was the 3rd fastest. I am not sure about any other events because longer races hurt my hip so much. So far, the hip pain has been tolerable –in part because I found a good stretch.

My weight is steady at 171 lbs.

**************************************************

Lindsay finished the Ottawa Marathon in 3:51:50. Good show Lindsay!

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Weblog -June 2010

June 4/10

My Poor Mother:

Mom and I decided to watch some boats come through a set of locks in Peterborough and I was delighted that one of the lockmasters engaged an American couple by getting them to pose for pictures (with their own camera), letting the woman turn the crank that closes the gate, offering them advice on where to moor their yacht for the night, where to have dinner and so on.

I was following the antics of the young lockmaster with great interest when I realized that Mom could not hear what was going on. Except for that fact that her TV often seems to be on unnecessarily loud, I had never realized how deaf she was.

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June 13/10

Last weekend I went to the funeral of a close relative who was only 3 years older than I am. His death was a complete shock –although he was a lifelong smoker and he did succumb to lung cancer. They say you can’t draw conclusions from a sample of one but it would seem on the surface that lifestyle matters.

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When I built the cottage it was a long process –but I know that I shingled the roof in March of 1995. I remember thinking that the cottage would need reshingling around 2010 and again around 2025. I figured at the time I would be OK to undertake the task in my late 50s but probably not in my early 70s.

The shingles on the front half of the cottage (which face the lake and also the sun) have deteriorated to the point where I have no choice but to replace them. Fortunately, I still have the skill and energy to undertake the task. I will be using a new toy for this venture –a pneumatic roof stapler. It will be interesting learning to use a new tool.

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It is starting to look as though I will not be competing as a Flying Fossil this year. The roster is full and the likelihood that a position will become available is not that great. I can’t complain because at the time the team was looking for a commitment I had not skated in 7 months and not had any real exercise in several weeks. I suppose I should be happy that things have turned around so quickly. It would be nice if I could simply enter some other races but the marathons kill my hip now and I can’t put in the long skates that you need to get ready for them. That is why I like the 24. You skate your butt off for 8 minutes –but then you get a long rest where you can attend to any problems that arise. The event just perfectly fits with what I can still manage to do (skate fast –but only for short periods).

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June 15/10

It is very seldom that someone I don’t know calls out to me when I am skating on a bike path. But it happened earlier this week as I passed by a skater coming toward me. I didn’t really catch what he yelled out to me but I pieced it together over the next few hundred meters. What he said was something like “I read your blog!” On the surface this seemed preposterous because I thought only one of my brothers and one or two of my daughters ever read it (and then only when they are really bored at work).

I was in the middle of my most difficult workout of the week (4 x 3.8km at the fastest possible pace I could muster) and when I saw the gentleman again on my next interval I knew that the correct thing to do was stop and say hello. But I was smoking along at around 30 kph and I really wanted to do my workout without interruption so this time I yelled at him. “Did you say you found my website?” And I heard him say something like “Yes –and I really enjoyed it”. By the time that registered I was 100 meters down the path and regretting even more that I was being so non social.

The guy looked to be about my own age and far less experienced on his blades but he was moving along well and seemed to be enjoying his outing. I hoped that I would see him again during my warm down but I missed him. I found myself hoping that I would see him another day so I could apologize for my single mindedness. I even told my lovely wife about the incident with another “old guy”. And then I got a letter to my website:

Subject: from the newbie in the bicycle bright yellow/green shirt
(and the Rollerblade speedmachine 110 skates)

Ed

It was good seeing you today.

I started ice skating two years ago for the first time in decades.
Last winter I started skate skiing and loved it
and wanted to keep doing something similar
so I took up inline skating in April.
I've been taking lessons with Stephen Fisher and that's helped a lot.

I really like your web page and blog.
It's given me lots of help and inspiration!

Mike

P.S.
I skated the Hamilton Beach trail with a friend on Saturday
in the 40kph East winds. There were a few surfers! but
the trail wasn't that windy for some reason. The trail is great,
just as you write.

P.P.S.
I was born in Mimico in 1952 and spent my summers in Marmora :)

My Reply:

Ed

I biked for 5 years (the last four as a Randonneur) until my knees
protested too much
so I know about doing interval training.

I also know the difference between starting a new sport
(like I did with cycling and TBN) and getting serious (Randonneuring).

I've been out to the unofficial TISC workout at Lawrence Park Collegiate
and watched the full practice at the John Redmond track in Etobicoke
(it dates me to mention that he was my high school math teacher!)

In the last five years I've taken up cycling, cross-country skiing
(both classic and skate-skiing), long-distance swimming and now
inline skating - we're not getting older, we're getting better.

Thanks for the great web site
and see you on the trails.

Mike

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June 19/10 (Bedrock)

There must be something wrong with me. Years ago Kathy would come to bed with a flannel nightie and still complain about being cold. Often she would put an extra blanket on the bed and she always wanted to turn up the thermostat. At the same time, I was sleeping naked and doing my best to fight off extra blankets and fiddling with the thermostat.

But now I am the one feeling the cold. I can be sleeping peacefully away under the covers only to discover that it is so hot in our bedroom that rational people have thrown off all the covers. If I followed suit I would freeze to death.

I think I better tell the Doctor about my problems on my next visit. I’m sure she will be concerned.

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June 22/10

I got onto a fellow skater’s blog somehow –and I couldn’t believe what I was reading. This guy wasn’t going to be happy until he could pull a 10k in 17.5 minutes. I have been pondering this and I have to conclude that his course is a little short. He would be a big name in inline skating if he could actually pull a 17.5 minute 10k.

**************************************************

I should thank Candy Wong. She invited me to join the TISC team for the Montreal 24 so I decided that it was time to see if the Fossils wanted me or not. . . I’m in with the Fossils –but I would have skated proudly for TISC if things had somehow worked out that way.

The TISC skin suits look really good. It would have been nice to have one of those.

________________________________________________________________________

June 23/10

Big news! Lindsay has accepted a Post Doc position at Yale! They want her to start as soon as possible –as early as August (but circumstances might keep her in Ontario until September). Lindsay was chosen from 3 final candidates that were all flown in and interviewed. Her job will be to design and initiate studies that relate to breast cancer and exercise. She’ll be working in the Health, Emotion and Behaviour Lab –which is a part of the Psychology Department. Her term will be one or two years depending on how things go.

Lindsay is only weeks away from defending her PhD thesis now that she has a real job. She could have let things drag out for another year at Western, solidified her research credentials and taught some courses but this course of events will look even better on her resume. Lindsay is already known as a strong teacher and now she will have rock solid research qualifications too.

Kathy is over the top with pride and excitement but she is apprehensive about Lindsay going to the US. I think it is fine. I’d rather have her within driving distance than in Alberta or BC. However, I am sure that Lindsay’s life will be a bit more complicated with a move to the US. One way or another, I am sure I’ll be visiting New Haven, Connecticut in the fairly near future.

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June 25/10

In the normal course of my day at work I deal mostly with men who are far less educated than I am. I am not saying that they are not smart (because many of them are) but their knowledge of things academic is pretty limited. So it was that I could not easily find people with whom to share the good news of Lindsay’s new position at Yale.

**************************************************

I think I post something about this every year. I am so glad that we are past the summer solstice. Today the stupid chirping birds outside my window woke me up at 4:38am. But, soon the days will become shorter and I will be able to sleep much better.

**************************************************

I ran into Herb Gayle in the Eastern Beaches. He reports that he is skating with TISC because he needs the competition to do his best in all the races he goes in.

Whenever I skate with Herb I am shocked by the pure power that the man possesses. He has come a long way from the days we both showed up to TISC practices in 2001 and 2002. Back then, I was the one that (at least for marathons) knew how to prepare for and excel in them. Now I can’t even draft the guy. He can take off whenever he wants. It’s amazing.

**************************************************

We had an earthquake in Toronto –a rare event. It was not very serious and I did not feel it. I may have been driving at the time. However lots of people did feel it and have good stories to tell their grandchildren.

**************************************************

The G8 and G20 are taking place in Toronto this weekend. No matter what happens it will be a non-event for me. I am not planning to go downtown. In fact, I am Bedrock bound and will be up on the roof for a few hours each day trying to get the new shingles on the roof. My new compressor and roof nailing gun are the cat’s ass.

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June 29/10

My knees were hurting so much that I couldn’t skate right yesterday. The pain was coming from under my kneecaps and was happening when I was trying to support my weight on my gliding foot (with my knee bent at a fairly steep angle).

Kathy suspects that it is the shingling of the cottage roof that is doing it. She says that she noticed I was squatting in a very awkward position (for my poor knees) during part of the time we were working together up on the roof. This is a possibility, and I agree that my knees are hurting from the shingling –but I think the cause is a simpler one. I think the injury is simply from carrying the 80 lb bundles of shingles up the stairs. Or perhaps it is both of those things together with the skating I have been doing that is causing the problem. Whatever the case, I hope the problem goes away. It is no fun warming up for 15 minutes and still feeling pain.

**************************************************

Kathy will be moving to Bedrock for the summer –tomorrow. When it comes to summer holidays teachers have a pretty good deal. But, I doubt that I could hack the job of being a teacher. It’s way too intense for me.

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June 30/10

End of the Month Skating Report:

The big news for the month is that I will be back with the Flying Fossils this year. The 24 Hour race will be held on the Civic Holiday weekend. The team would seem to be about the same speed as last year –except that we are all a year older. Eight of the 10 skaters will be holdovers from 2009. An interesting addition will be Roger Olsen from California.

I only skated 14 times during the month –that’s all I felt like doing. The quality of the workouts was fairly good (for an old timer). Late in the month I lost some of my normal enthusiasm because my knees, especially my right knee, started to really bother me. I hope it is the shingling because if it is not then I am in trouble.

I am not inclined to participate in any competitions this year other that the 24 Hour. It is always possible that I could decide to go to Duluth. This would depend on the 24 and how all my aching joints are feeling in the week before the race. I have given up entering early (and getting a discount) because I have wasted my money too many times.

I weighed in at 170 this morning.

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Weblog -July 2010

July 5/10

I went slowly today because of the heat and pollution. Those things never used to bother me.

**************************************************

Although the Eastern Beaches is my favourite place to skate I will admit that warm weather weekends and hot weekdays in the summer can be frustrating. I’d forgotten about the stupid line-up for the swimming pool (and how it blocks the path on hot days when the pool is open).

**************************************************

After 3-4 weekends of work centered on reshingling the front of the cottage I am very happy to report that my back, elbows and even my shoulders are are getting stronger (rather than falling apart and stopping progress in its tracks). As well, I think my knee problems are caused by inline skating and not the roofing work.

**************************************************

I found my poor mother trying to brush her hair with a toothbrush at 5am last week at Bedrock. She gets confused at night.

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July 6/10

Today I decided not to head down the DVP at the end of the day. Yesterday was too brutal at the Beach. Instead, I took 401 EB out to Port Union and skated the route that I used to frequent when I was doing the bridge at Kingston Road and the Rouge River. What a difference! I skated hard for 45 minutes and never had to significantly slow my pace. As an added bonus I skated very well.

I think skating in Port Union will become a regular occurrence for the next month or so –at least until the weather cools off.

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July 7/10

In this part of the world our whole psyche is geared to the cycle of the seasons. We observe countless milestones every year. Sometimes, depending on the weather, things happen earlier or later that what we would consider normal. But in my life there is one thing that is absolutely predictable. As soon as Kathy heads to Bedrock for her extended summer stay the lawns in Toronto will turn brown and the formerly invisible weeds in the flower beds will grow to the height of 4 feet in only a few days. The weeds will thus become indistinguishable from real flowers. Whether Kathy returns for a short stay or comes back at the end of the summer the result is the same. I am in the doghouse.

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July 11/10 (Bedrock)

From time to time I go out for a skate on a calm day. It usually turns out to be a great workout in terms of my average speed or length of time it takes me to do a known route. This, of course, is due to the fact that skaters cannot benefit quite as much when skating with the wind as they lose when skating against the wind.

It is funny though. On calm days I am not necessarily happy during my workout. This is because I feel like I am skating against the wind whichever direction I turn. That’s exactly how I felt on Saturday. But when I looked at my watch at the end of the run I was happy indeed.

**************************************************

I decided to only watch the second half of the World Cup Final between Holland and Spain. I wore my orange shorts in support of my team but near the end of regulation time, with the game in a scoreless draw, I put on an orange T-shirt as well. Then Spain scored in overtime.

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July 12/10

This year I have been doing my short intervals on the Martin Goodman Trail beside Lakeshore Blvd between Leslie and Coxwell. This section of trail is far less spectacular and far less used than the trail to the east. But the trail is straight, flat smooth and wide -so it is a good place to skate as fast as I can.

Today, an interesting thing happened during my first interval. I was skating eastbound, swinging my arms and otherwise doing everything I could to finish my interval as fast as possible. Near the end, I heard a horn honking to my left. Over in the fast lane a pickup truck driver was yelling out to me through the open passenger window. We were going roughly the same speed. In an excited voice the guy yelled out “HEY BUDDY –YOU’RE GOING 40 KILOMETRES AN HOUR!” I guess he was impressed. I was pretty winded and could only muster a thumbs up for my new friend.

And I can only wish that I was skating at 40kph. In actual fact, I was probably going about 32. (I was going against a light breeze and up a very slight grade).

_______________________________________________________________________

July 14/10

I had an interesting skate yesterday –for several reasons.

I get bored with the same old route all the time so I went to skate the Upper Don north of Leslie and Sheppard. It’s really close to where I am working right now.

After 3 pedestrian bridges, some rough asphalt and a short, steep section the pathway becomes pretty decent all the way to Steeles Ave. It provides me with an uninterrupted 10 minute skate –one way. The first thing I noticed was that some huge weeds beside the path had been surrounded with snow fence. I realized right away that they must be giant hogweed, the invasive species of weed that has recently been reported in the Don Valley. It doesn’t look that threatening –but I didn’t get any sap on my skin or into my eyes.

Where the path ends at Leslie just south of Steeles I was having a short break when I discovered a wild raspberry bush. I picked off a nice plump berry and ate it before heading back down the path. Twenty minutes later I had a few more smaller raspberries before heading back south for the last time.

And the whole skate was a reminder of how I love to make inline skating just a little more extreme than it already is. I actually enjoy the blind corners and sharp turns –where it is risky but fun to charge through at high speed. There is always the danger that you will run into a cyclist or pedestrian or even another skater coming the other way on the path. There is also the possibility that there will be an unseen obstacle or the chance that I will ‘catch and edge’ and go flying off the path for no other reason that my own lack of skill.

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July 19/10

For fun, I decided to pull out my skating log from the year 2000. I wanted to compare “where I was at” back then with “where I am” right now.

2000 was my 3rd year of inline skating (although I called it rollerblading back then). I was going through rec skates at the rate of better than 1 pair per year partly because of the aggressive nature of my skating and partly because I was pushing excessively with my toes. I averaged 13 outings per month during the best part of the season and the average duration was about 40 minutes. I did not believe in rests back then. 2000 was also the year I entered my first competition and the year I skated a single time with TISC at the old Max Ward Loop.

I was 47 years old for most of the season. I had a fairly good idea of aerobic training principles from my days as a runner and I definitely had the attitude that I was engaged in “training up” my aerobic capacity with each workout. I had about 5 different places that I would go to skate and at each spot I usually had a couple of different routes to choose from. I always recorded my route times and with most workouts I was trying to beat my previous best time. As with the two preceding years, I enjoyed great success pushing my route times lower and lower because of the combination of better conditioning, better equipment and better technique. It was clear to me that equipment and technique were important factors in the speed equation.

Until I went to my single TISC workout and was told (by Gillian Clarke) about an approaching marathon skate in Niagara Falls almost all of my workouts were under an hour. Only when I decided to “see how many fancy 5 wheelers” I could beat in the Niagara Marathon did I start to extend my workouts.

The highlight of the 2000 season was late in October when I exceeded even my own expectations by doing the Niagara Marathon in 1:37 on rec skates and with almost no benefit from pack skating. If I knew then what I know now (with regard to pack skating) I would have been several minutes faster and much better rested at the finish.

At the end of the season I joined a gym for the first time in 25 years and resolved to join TISC in the spring. The gym did indeed helped me preserve my fitness level (the main goal). The TISC experience and the 2001 season is a story for next year.

***

2010 is my 13th year of inline. I’ve been on my current skates for exactly 3 years. They were about the best that money could buy when they were new. The skates are my 4 th pair of “racing” skates in 10 seasons and I am expecting to get a couple more seasons out of them (now that I have patched up the damage caused by a car tire). This year I have been averaging about 13 outings per month, the very same as in 2000. However, I take rests fairly often and actively skate for perhaps 45 -50 minutes on average.

Clearly, my best days as an inliner lie somewhere between 2000 and 2010. My aerobic capacity has declined roughly 10% simply because of age. I have more than compensated with dramatic improvements in equipment and technique and I am still a lot faster than I was in 2000. Nevertheless, I am not quite as fast as I was around mid decade and I am no longer able to match my old route times.

I still do all of my skating on local pathways (except at the cottage) and I still spread my workouts between 4 or 5 locations. During my 13 years skating the local pathways I have noticed something that I did not realize in 2000. Skating paths evolve. When entire routes or just new sections are newly constructed they are smooth, fast and a joy to behold. The degradation starts right away and is largely dependent on the standards used in construction. Ravine paths fall apart faster and are not normally built to high standards in the first place. Especially along the Lakeshore, pathways evolve with the addition of new and rebuilt segments. As a result of pathway evolution I rarely skate a route in 2010 that I could have done in 2000. (They have either significantly changed or have degraded to the point that they are no fun to skate anymore).

I rarely compete any more. Injuries and illness have made it more difficult to keep up with the pack and I was never all that big on travelling a long way to races. However, I still like to have a competition on the horizon to give my workouts some meaning. The 24 Hour Race in Montreal has been keeping the competitive juices flowing for the past few years. Sometime I will go back to Duluth.

For the past 2 winters I have rowed a Concept 2 rowing machine in the basement instead of going to a gym. I don’t know what I will do this year. I suspect that the rowing was bothering my back last winter.

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July 21/10

It is getting close to the 24 Hour Race. This event will probably be my only competition this year –and it will mark only my second competition in the last 3 years.

I was absolutely ecstatic after last year’s 24 but the vertebral compression fracture I suffered 2 weeks before the race eventually put an end to the 2009 season. I will never know for sure how I managed to muster such a good performance in such difficult circumstances but certain things are clearer now – more than a year after the injury and race.

The compression fracture itself is not normally a problem with respect to skating. However, if the injury is acting up then it is hard to skate because it is very painful to go from skating position to vertical. I believe it is rowing (my new passion) that delayed the healing of my compression fracture for so long. After 7 months, (when I finally got an MRI) I still had a herniated disk at the site of the fracture. During this entire time I plugged away on my rowing machine 4 or 5 times a week. But, as soon as I stopped rowing the herniation started to heal itself and I have been feeling progressively better since February.

This year’s 24 will be great from the viewpoint that my back will be in better shape but there is a downside as well. I have not been cross training on my rowing machine.

Last year I expounded on a long list of things that made me skate so well. It may turn out that the cross training was one of the most important. This year’s results will be an indication.

I intend to judge my results in comparison to the other 3 top skaters among the Flying Fossils -Alan, Cale and Larry. I would love to be as close behind (or ahead in Larry’s case) as I was last year. I will announce the results after the race.

_______________________________________________________________________

July 23/10

As a typical male I never remember to bring reusable bags into the grocery store. At first it bothered me to pay a nickel for plastic grocery bags but I have decided that now I don’t mind at all. Before Toronto mandated that retailers charge for bags, grocery stores handed out the most pathetic (wimpy) plastic bags that they could get away with. Now that they can collect a nickel in composition, the bags that you get are 3 times as strong and twice as big as the former ones. Since we have to use something for kitchen garbage bags I am overjoyed to get the new better quality ones –even at the cost of 5 cents.

**************************************************

Last Monday, getting out of the truck at the end of the day to skate was the hardest thing I did. And I skated poorly (although this was almost a given at that point). I must have been sick because I certainly wasn’t over trained. Thank goodness my Wednesday workout was a good one.

After 10 years I understand that there are high and low points in the training cycle. This is the case whether you follow a very scientific program or just wing it (I’ve done both). In any case, it seems to me that this is a pretty good time to be struggling (2 weeks and a few days before a big event).

It is now time to do a psych job on myself. I am about to put on a new set of wheels. With the new wheels will come faster route times and extra confidence that my preparation for the 24 Hour Race has been adequate.

_________________________________________________________________________

July 25/10

Last night I went outside in the early evening to see if I could see the 4 planets that are visible right now in the evening sky. The real challenge was to spot Mercury low in the western sky before it fell below the horizon (but after the sun was down far enough). There were a few clouds around but I found Mercury with no problem (using binoculars). A few minutes later I picked out Regulus (one of the main stars in the constellation Leo) from the sun’s glare. Mercury and Regulus are very close at the moment.

Of course I had already spotted Venus (it was my guide to the location of Mercury). Soon after, I spotted Mars and Saturn a little east along the ecliptic (the ‘imaginary’ line in the sky that the sun moon and planets all follow along).

With my mission accomplished I headed inside -away from the pesky mosquitoes. For sure, I am a fair weather astronomer.

**************************************************

The shingling work on the cottage is finished. However, I decided to re-shingle the Gazebo “while I was at it” so I am still playing with my new compressor and shingle nail gun every weekend. I would have finished this weekend but I was one bundle short so next weekend will be the last.

On the main structure, I had a close look at the shingles on the back side –and they are still in pretty good shape. I’ve decided that the back side roof will be fine for another 5 years. NOTE TO SELF: replace the shingles on the back side of the cottage in the summer of 2015.

I’ll be 62 in 2015 and hopefully I will be OK for 1 final re-shingling job.

______________________________________________________________________

July 28/10

Kathy and Lindsay might be on their way back from New Haven. They found an apartment for Lindsay but were not sure how they would spend the extra day they had budgeted for the job. There was some talk of going to NYC for a look around. I am sure their decision will be obvious on the next Visa bill.

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July 30/10

End of the Month Skating Report

I have been skating well and have not been suffering unduly from any of my orthopaedic problems. The worst thing that is happening right now is pain from under my kneecaps when I first start skating. It usually goes away during the warmup but sometimes I will struggle for the entire workout.

I’ve only been doing 3-4 workouts per week but at least 2 of them will be pretty intense (for an old guy). I seem to be doing about as well as last year before the 24 Hour Race but the event is later this year and I was hoping for some “breakthrough” performances by now. A possible reason that it has not happened may be the fact that I have not been able to do anything on my rowing machine. Perhaps the main reason I did so well in last year’s 24 was the cross training. This year’s race will tell the tale.

I will probably not skate at all on the long weekend. This will be part of my taper for the next weekend. As always, I want to be properly rested but at the same time –well tuned. After a few days off I will skate somewhat less intense workouts than normal in the few days before the big event.

I weighed in at 170 this morning. Perfect.

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Weblog -August 2010

August 1/10 (Bedrock)

Quasar the cat wasn’t in the cottage this morning when I hauled myself out of bed. That’s pretty normal –he often sneaks out when Kaylee (or someone else) opens the door late at night. But it was very unusual that he was not waiting by the door to get in. He didn’t show up all day. That is so completely out of character that we know he was either very sick or already dead.

I have always been concerned that a coyote would get Quasar but he loved the outside and it was totally impractical to keep him in. Quasar lived a good life and was almost 14 when he disappeared. I am sorry that he is gone and I will miss the little guy but I am glad that I don’t have to watch him get old and infirm. These days, people go to ridiculous lengths to keep animals alive.

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This is Regatta Weekend. Kaylee came very close to winning the Women’s title in the Crowes Regatta and said she had more fun than she has had in years. Kaylee and Lindsay won the Bang and Out.

Today in the Mile Swim the two of them finished 3 rd and 4 th in their category (open Women). This year, Kaylee finished ahead of Lindsay with a time of 19:40. Lindsay did 20 minutes flat.

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Aug 4/10

The hardest thing I do in inline skating is to taper before an important race. I really want to get out and hammer a couple of workouts beforehand. This is always good for the self confidence but not so good for the legs.

I seriously feel that I may have overdone my taper for the 24 –so I am probably fine and will not be able to blame under training or overwork if I do not perform up to my own expectations.

**************************************************

A Regatta Update:

Kaylee won the Senior Ladies overall trophy at the Juniper Regatta. She teamed up with Andrew McGuire in the mixed events. Andrew is a phenomenal paddler. Kathy’s comment was –“I guess I have to go and get another trophy engraved.”

Kaylee and Lindsay were only 2nd in the Bang and Out

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August 6/10

Quasar the Cat (1996-2010)

“It’s better to burn out than to fade away” (Neil Young)

According to Quasar’s first “owner” he was born in September 1996. He was castrated and declawed within his first year and understandably developed an aversion to vets. Roughly 8 years ago, Quasar’s first owner left him with our family so she could travel for a year. When the single year turned into two it seemed to everybody involved that Quasar would be better off living out his days with us.

Quasar was a big cat with long legs and was all black except for 3 white spots on his chest and belly. The largest of the spots was visible from the front when he walked toward you. He was a very friendly cat (letting the neighbourhood kids pat him all the time) but he was definitely not a lap cat. On rare occasions he could be “tricked” into sitting on your lap but it did not happen very often.

I would like to think that Quasar ruled the neighbourhood using his sheer size alone to dominate. However, he lost a couple of fights (no claws) and had to get health care at the local vet.

Quasar was an excellent traveller but was always a little confused when we moved him between Toronto and Bedrock. It would take him a day or so to settle down. At Bedrock he didn’t seem to wander very far away. Uncle Ian’s woodpile was one of his favourite hangouts. In Toronto he didn’t wander too far either –but there he had territorial issues with other neighbourhood cats.

We will never know exactly what became of Quasar but we are pretty certain that he fell prey to a wild animal. The most likely thing is that a coyote grabbed him. Perhaps one day I will find his collar and tag deep in the woods.

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August 9/10

Montreal 24 Hour Race

I had a great time at the Montreal 24 Hour Event this year. This was my first inline competition of any sort since last year’s event, 14 months ago. It was great to renew acquaintances with a multitude of skaters aside from the Flying Fossils.

I followed my regular routine of driving most of the way to Montreal on Friday and driving in to the race track on Saturday morning. I got a bit stressed out when I sat on an expressway for almost an hour and only moved about a mile. I bailed out and ended up lost in Montreal but I got back on track by following the signs to the Casino. At the end of the race I had a similar (construction related) issue where I tried to follow a detour and ended up coming to a place where detour signs were pointing in two completely different directions. That pissed me off. I was lucky to find my way through that mess.

I arrived to find that the course this year was to be partly on the narrow, rough and hilly path through the woods. We did this in 2007 and it is not fun for anyone. Oh well, I reasoned that it is the same for everyone and there was no point getting upset about it. However I think that some of my teammates may have had more difficulty with the change (both psychologically and physically).

The skating conditions were pretty good but not quite as ideal as last year. I can’t say the wind was strong but it was annoying and at times it seemed like a gale force wind coming home along the straightaway. This is the place where your legs are really starting to burn and where a wind in your face is devastating. One of the Fossils (Ken) was pointing out that last year the wind was helping everyone up the straightaway and this may partly account for last year's fast times. [Now that I am thinking about it, I remember doing a really fast lap (solo) last year and wondering if the wind had shifted at the exact right times to always be at my back].

As a team we stuck to our 10 man skating order for 5 rounds before breaking into 2 teams for the night. Like last year, I slept the early shift but unlike last year I ended up on the same sleep shift as Cale. Because Cale is willing to skate all night without a rest some Fossils benefit from being part of a 6 man rotation for 4 hours instead of a 5 man rotation for 4 hours. I was really happy to see the other guys starting to appear at 6am. My times were getting steadily worse by then.

Being a “numbers guy”, I was interested in everybody’s lap times –not just my own. Before I created the spreadsheet (to review all our lap times etc), it seemed that Alan and Cale were struggling compared to last year and that Larry was skating really well. Since it was Larry, among all of the Fossils, whose times were most similar to mine in last year’s event, I had the feeling that I was not skating particularly well. In fact, the spreadsheet proved that I was skating well and edged out both Alan and Cale to end up posting the second best average speed among the Fossils. Of course, Cale would have been faster if he had not done so darn many laps.

I had one disastrous lap. A light rain shower hit at the very worst time for me. I rushed to put on a set of rain wheels that I had purchased years ago - but had never tried. They are only 100mm and I have been on 110s for 3 seasons. Between the slick track and new wheel size, I lost concentration on skating fast and posted an unworthy time of 10:11. My next worst time was 9:44. Right after my worst lap, I did my second best one: 8:52 (with some help) –on my final turn. My first lap was 8:47 (a straight pull). The rain came and went quickly and only hampered half the rotation.

Peter and John skated as I would have expected from their efforts in previous years. Stephen and Ken showed up a little out of shape; Stephen because he is battling injuries and Ken because he has been too busy to train much. Brian, a new Fossil, did really well and could easily beat me next year. Roger Olsen, the other 'new guy', did a fantastic job –especially considering his 68 years. Roger posted an average lap time of 9:39 and narrowly beat out Peter as the 6th fastest Fossil. --

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This is a good one:

According to Kathy, I once told her that if she ever runs out of fingernail polish remover she should not worry because I have gallons of the stuff stored under the cottage. I barely remember saying it but I don’t doubt that I did (say it) because fingernail polish remover smells exactly like acetone and both products are well known for their ability to remove paint. And besides, I would never miss an opportunity to let Kathy know she is paying 10 times what she really needs to.

Tonight Kathy called my bluff. She didn’t have enough of the real stuff to finish the job but she started it anyway –remembering what I had said months or years ago. After finishing 3 toenails she ran out. Without saying anything to me, Kathy went under the cottage looking for my miracle substance. She discovered some paint thinner and after scrubbing her toenails with it she declared that I was in "big trouble" because the stuff under the cottage does not remove toenail polish! After sorting out the sequence of events I laughed and told Kathy that I never intended for her to use paint thinner.

I went down to look for some acetone and luckily for me I had some (but only a pint)(I tend to exagerate). I still didn’t really know if it would work –who knows what else they put into the real product. Happily, I soon discovered that I was not, after all, in "big trouble" because the acetone was working just fine. Since then, I checked the label on the empty bottle of polish remover to discover that, indeed, acetone is listed first. There is also a long list of apparently unnecessary chemicals in the mixture.

Later:

My friend David points out that acetone is pretty volatile. I suppose some of the other chemicals in the real nail polish remover are meant to reduce the hazards. I am not really suggesting that ladies purchase acetone rather than polish remover. My real point was to Kathy: polish remover smells like acetone and in fact acetone is the number one ingredient.

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August 11/10

All of a sudden I am half way through my (single week) of summer holidays. Of course, the first weekend was dominated by the 24 Hour Race and Monday was mostly devoted to recovering from the ordeal. Yesterday I drove my truck back to Toronto and got Kathy to pick me up at the GO Station in Oshawa. This Friday, Kathy and I will drive to Parry Sound and get a boat ride to Pinky and John’s cottage on the outer islands of Georgian Bay. It has been 40 years since I have been in this area and I remember that it is a really special place.

I finally finished all of the shingle work around Bedrock and have removed my scaffolding from the perimeter of the Gazebo. I have installed some shelves in Z-Woodshed and put up some blinds in Ed’s Shed and Z-Woodshed (so intruders can’t peak through the windows and see the stuff that we have stored inside.

I have had some time to reflect on the 24 hour Race. With all things considered I did very, very well. I really can’t figure out how I could manage to post a faster overall average speed that both Cale and Alan. I could explain one by assuming that they had an off day but to surpass the results of both these superhuman skaters can only mean that I did really well. As I have said before, I thought I was not doing so great because Larry was doing so well.

I am already looking forward to next year’s 24 Hour Race I think I will volunteer to be the team leader.

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August 13/10

Last night the sky was clear and I actually remembered to go out and watch the Perseid Meteor Shower. I saw 8 meteors in 24 minutes -6 of them very bright and long. I also saw some possible meteors out of the corners of my eyes but you really can’t count those ones. My rate of detection (one every 3 minutes) was a far cry from what some people saw last year (3 every 1 minute). Although there was no moon to interfere with viewing the peak of the shower was predicted for before dark in North America.

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August 17/10

Kathy and I spend last weekend at an old Georgian Bay cottage 10 miles out from Parry Sound. It has been 40 years since I have been to this part of Georgian Bay but I am happy to report that it has not changed much. To me the smooth granite rocks are the prime feature of this landscape with the pine trees, islands, sandy beaches, clear water and so on playing an important supporting role. This area is so special that you really have to see it to fully appreciate it.

Pinky and John’s cottage is a classic. The first part was built in the 1940s and is a log cabin. Additions were added over the years but these were done with regular framing methods. They have electricity (not everybody up there does) but they still use an outhouse. A recent luxury is an outdoor shower with hot water –no hot tub for Pinky and John. The cottage is on an island and this complicates life because people and materials have to be met at the marina, transferred to boats and transported 10 miles over water.

My final impression of the weekend was the realization that I am starting to look really old. I don’t really notice this myself when I look in a mirror but I just spent the weekend with 7 other people who are exactly my age and I kept thinking they all looked really old.

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August 18/10

Every day, for the first week after the 24 Hour I expect that I consumed more calories than I used up. It didn’t help that I was on holiday and not inclined to get much exercise. Thank goodness things have turned around this week.

***

I tried my rowing machine tonight. I want to find out if the herniation at the site of my compression fracture has healed enough to let me row. We will see.

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August 19/10

The world is not sending money and other support to Pakistan even though there is a terrible tragedy taking place (massive flooding). Why?

I think it is because Pakistan has nuclear weapons. For me, if a nation has nuclear weapons then they should be able to look after themselves.

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August 23/10

Peter Doucet sent me a link to this photo -taken at the 24 hour race. It shows the same look on my face that was on the picture from last years event. My technique seems to be OK but I could certainly be lower.

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Aug 25/10

Out of the blue and for no apparent reason, my right knee became so sore that I could hardly walk. The pain was from somewhere in the middle. Yesterday it hurt so much that I bought some Advil (which didn’t seem to make any difference). It is very rare for me to take pain medications. All of a sudden, near the end of the day, I realized that the pain was quickly dispersing. Today I can still feel it but I am pretty confident that everything will be back to normal in a couple of days.

I would sure like to know what caused the problem and what the heck was going on inside my knee.

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August 26/10

I opened up a newspaper at work and noticed a picture of a guy who looks just like me. His picture was in the paper because the police say he has robbed at least 6 banks. I am half expecting the cops to bust into my house tonight (and beat me up before asking any questions).

On a lighter note: yet another person told me I look like John Malkovich. Somebody was saying that I should eat at some fancy restaurants during the Toronto Film Festival and see if I can fool anybody.

Later: I was thinking that my best chance to be mistaken for John Malkovich would be if I was accompanied by a "starlett" -young, tall and beautiful. My daughter Amy would fit the role quite well.

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August 28/10 (Bedrock)

I had to cut down a red oak just behind the cottage because it had more dead branches than live ones. I suspected that the trunk and larger limbs were hollow and I was correct. Unfortunately for family of black squirrels they lost their home.

It was both amusing and sad to see the little critters running out from the end of the just felled section of the tree that had crashed to the ground. I hope the family all gets back together in a new home even nicer that than their last one.

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August 29/10 (Bedrock)

This is the first “normal” summer weekend that I have enjoyed in the past 4. Last weekend, David and Teri were here. Two weekends ago we were at Georgian Bay and the weekend before that I was in Montreal. It feels good to get back to the old routine.

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I spent a few minutes to built an Inuksuk using granite sets that did not make it into the construction of the front piers. I think I will play around with different locations and components until I find the best place. Then I will use pennies and perhaps loonies as shims for the final creation. I think I will clean the rocks in muriatic acid too.

It seems to me that in the arctic where real Inuksuks are made the component stone is some sort of sedimentary rock –perhaps shale. This makes Inuksuks a little easier to construct because the stones are flat and different thicknesses are readily available.

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August 30/10

I guess it was bound to happen sometime. The Northshore Inline Marathon has just changed their main promotional photo (the first one you see when you go the website.) I liked the old one because I was in it.

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August 31/10

End of the Month Skating Report

August was a study in contrasts. The first part of the month was dominated by the 24 Hour Race in Montreal. It was great to get back with my Flying Fossil team mates and skate some fast laps of the race track. I must have done most things right in my preparations for the event because I was the second strongest among the Fossils (although Cale would have been faster if he had done fewer laps).

The rest of the month has been a struggle. For a couple of reasons I skated very little in the 10 days after the 24. Then, after a couple of decent workouts I developed a very sore knee (completely unrelated to inline skating). I am not sure how it happened but my theory is that I did it when carrying one end of a canoe across a very light floating dock. I think the dock may have unexpectedly lurched in a sideways direction –and my knee had to compensate. Anyway, the knee was so sore I could hardly walk so I didn’t dare to skate. Yesterday I finally did an easy run and I seem to be OK. Today was even better -almost back to normal.

I have not completely given up on the idea of going to Duluth. It will depend on the next few workouts. This year will be one of my last chances to do the race. I am going to have to give up competitive inline pretty soon. My knees are going to make sure of that.

I am worried about what I will do to stay in shape this winter. Every time I try to row my back hurts for several days (at the site of my compression fracture). I really do not want to join a gym but I am thinking about it.

My weight is 171 and I am happy it is not more. I skated 10 times.

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September 3/10 (Bedrock)

I take a prescription medication and several other non-prescription drugs (a vitamin, a baby aspirin. . .) every day. In all honesty, it is not really a big deal when I forget to take my pills. That is why I can make a big deal out of it when I actually remember to take my pills for several days in a row. (I always know I’ve remembered because I put all my pills into a plastic container that holds a weeks worth of pills and the leftovers stick out like a sore thumb).

Kathy always has the same reply to my self-praise when I don’t forget to take my pills. It’s a lucky thing that I was not responsible for birth control –(because if I was I would probably be the proud father of at least 10 children!)

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I often look for Venus in the west (when it’s there) around sunset but I don’t ever remember seeing it before the sun actually set. Tonight I spotted Venus at the exact minute that the sun was officially setting. This is only a big deal for me because Venus is actually visible during the day if you know exactly where to look.

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September 4/10 (Bedrock)

I signed up for the Northshore Marathon. Cale and Margo Carvel are letting me stay with them. I’ll be flying (Porter) to Thunder Bay and renting a car for the drive down. I am planning to do a decent hike somewhere along the route home. As usual the travel days will be Friday and Sunday.

I signed up late this year because at least twice in the past I have booked my flight and registered for the race only to hurt myself at the last minute. Apparently I am going to be OK this year.

It is worrisome that I have not skated very much this year. On the other hand, I did damn well at the 24 hour –so I am not altogether out of shape. I am most worried about getting tired in the latter part of the race. I have come nowhere near to skating the marathon distance this year because I know my left hip will start to hurt. It will be interesting to see how far into the race I get before my hip becomes a big factor. I suppose that I would be wise to keep my expectations for the race to a minimum. At the same time, I don’t want to enter the race with a lack of confidence. I have a serious psych job coming up.

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September 8/10

There is a high profile murder investigation going on in Orangeville, Ontario. The 42 year old woman’s body was found only a few miles from her home where she was apparently murdered. When the authorities found her body they also found some work boot footprints that seem to belong to the murderer. The work boots are the exact same type and size that I wear.

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There are only a couple of days left to the Northshore Marathon. As usual, there is rain in the forecast. I hope it doesn’t happen.

I got an interesting email from Terry Holm (one of the organizers and also one of my age group competitors). He wanted to know if I thought we should have our own start for the elite grand veterans –or whether we should go out with the 45 year olds. I voteed to have our own start but I very much doubt that it will happen that way.

If the elite grand vets do have their own start we will be in danger of being caught by the Wave A group. If we go out with the 45 year olds a lot of us will get dropped before the end. That’s life.

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September 9/10

I almost showed up at the car rental desk in Thunder Bay with an expired driver’s license. I’m sure they would have told me to take a hike. Luckily, I realised that I was driving around without a valid license on the last day before my trip.

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Yesterday I remarked that I had the same work boots as the killer of the Orangeville woman. Today the guys at work noticed my boots and advised me to be careful.

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If you are a fan of The Weather Network then you will not be expecting rain for the Northshore Marathon. If you follow the US Weather Service you will be expecting rain. But, you will also be wondering if they are correct about the wind direction. Overnight Friday the wind direction will be east. On Saturday it will be south-east.

An east wind during the race would be a dream come true. South-east would not be so great. An east wind with no rain would be heaven.

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September 11/10

The Northshore Marathon is done. This will be my last one. I am not sure what drug I was smoking when I decided to come to the race.

I was a bit surprised to meet about a dozen Toronto Skaters at the Toronto Island Airport. All of us were on the flight to Thunder Bay. From the Thunder Bay Airport we departed to Duluth in 4 separate vehicles. I was solo because I was hoping to hike some hills on the return trip. I took my time on the way down –something that prevented me from being able to purchase some 110mm rain wheels (the only place selling them ran out minutes before I got to the booth.

Why would I want rain wheels? Because the forecast was for a fair amount of rain –starting in the early evening and not ending until after the race. Why didn’t I bring my 100mm wheels along? Because I am stupid.

In the morning, we discovered that the pavement was absolutely soaking. The rain had (more or less) stopped and the temperature was pretty warm for Duluth in September. The wind was very light.

When the bus arrived at the start line we were told a wild story. Because of a derailment someplace else a train had been parked across the road between the staging area and real start line. They were trying to get the train moved but if it could not be the race was in danger of being cancelled. Within minutes the train moved away.

In the end, the Elite Grand Veteran’s did not get their own start. We went out with the 45 year olds and the pace was fast right from the start. It was not too long before I had lost the lead pack –not really a big surprise. Several of my Fossil team mates hung on but only two of them made it most of the way (Larry and John G). Cale and Alan (of all people) ended up dropping off and skating with the pack I was with for a while. However by the time this happened I had given up on the race. My left hip was killing me on all the up hills and accelerations and I was exhausted from the sheer effort of trying to skate fast on soaking wet pavement. I fairness, I doubt that having rain wheels would have made much difference.

I skated for a long while with Rob, another fossil, before we caught another guy. After another mile or two 3 guys caught up. By now I was going too fast for comfort and I dropped off the back. I waited for the elite women and the advanced men (Wave A) to pass me. The women did it a couple of miles before Lemmon Drop Hill and Wave A passed me on the diamond grind area between Lemmon Drop Hill and the Tunnels. The diamond grind area was a big story of the event. Authorities had recently cut longitudinal grooves into the concrete between the Lemmon Drop and the first tunnel. It was ridiculously hard to skate. I was honestly scared. I heard later that Steve Larios had a spectacular fall and broke his collar bone.

The tunnels were ridiculously slippery but my misery was not over. Right at the top of the last ramp I felt something go in my right knee. It seems to be the same injury that kept me off my skates for a week in August. It’s very sore and I know already I will not be hiking tomorrow.

My time was an absolutely pathetic 1:33. Generally it was a slow year. That is the story of the race. I will do a post mortem in a day or two.

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September 16/10 (Duluth Post Mortem)

I have had a few days to reflect on the race. I certainly do not regret going but I was definitely disappointed with my result. That said, I have no real right to be disappointed since I had not been doing the sort of program necessary for me to do well in Duluth. I really don’t know what I was thinking when I signed up for the race. Not only had I been getting by on around 3 skates per week but I was not doing any speed work, hills or cross training of any sort. In addition I had to take a week off before the race because my knee was too sore to skate. I managed to re injure my knee during the race –only this time a bit worse.

I know why I had the confidence to sign up. It was because I did well at the 24 hour race in Montreal. The good result in Montreal is hard to explain because I was on (more or less) the same pathetic training schedule. I suppose that sometimes you luck out.

Actually though, my real problem is my left hip. It is the hip that stopped me in Duluth and it is the hip that is the thing that stops me from skating harder in practice. Really, I have to get to the bottom of my hip problem or give up skating the marathons.( I can do the 24 because it only starts hurting on the backstretch).

The wet conditions were a killer for me. My skating style does not transfer well onto wet pavement. My damn right skate slipped out so many times that I hurt my hamstring. Or perhaps, my damaged hamstring is somehow tied into my aching knee. Today I am not sure which injury is bugging me more. Oh well, perhaps in a few more days I will be able to walk without limping.

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Sept 22/2010

Since the Northshore Marathon (11 days ago) I have barely been able to walk. As the ultimate ‘macho man’ I have been shrugging off the pain and expecting that my right knee will heal itself. This strategy has not worked very well because my knee is not getting any better. Yesterday, I went searching for my knee brace (the expensive one that I bought when he old lady drove over the wheels of my left skate while I was skating on a county road near Bedrock) down in the basement. I found the brace and put it on right away. Things have been better since then.

Today I made an appointment with my family doctor. (I thought about going to the ‘Sports Medicine Clinic’ but it seems to me that they have become such a money grabbing machine that I am embarrassed to frequent the place). I do not know a lot about knee injuries but I am afraid my doctor will tell me I have a cartilage problem that will probably require surgery in the long run. In any case, I will keep the brace on for now and then follow the advice of my doctor after that.

Meanwhile, I can’t even stretch properly – forget about getting any real exercise.

Last night I had to watch as my daughter and my wife lifted up a heavy couch and loaded it into my pickup. When we arrived in Guelph, Kaylee and two of her female roommates did the heavy lifting.

At work, I have to get the labourers to lift 5 gallon pails of concrete sealer out of my pickup –they must think I am a total wimp.

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Out of the blue “the office” told me I was getting a new pickup. They asked me what I wanted (to drive for the next few years) and I told them I wanted to reduce my environmental footprint by downsizing to a Toyota Tacoma (from a Tundra). I am not sure I made much of an impression with my employers but I will feel better wasting precious resources in a smaller pickup.

The truth is that my work vehicle ferries me around between construction sites –but only rarely is required to actually transport materials or supplies. And I can say all I want about reducing my environmental footprint -but a huge consideration in getting a narrower vehicle is the ease with which I will be able to back down our narrow (inner city) driveway.

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September 27/10

I am not really clear on when Lindsay “officially” gets her PhD and can call herself Doctor Duncan.

One possibility is that it happened when her examining committee told her that she had successfully defended her thesis. This happened last Friday -an hour or two after we attended her public lecture. We were pleased that there were a couple of dozen people at the lecture because the poor girl was up against the Kinesiology Grad Student Golf tournament. (both options ended with significant beer drinking and apparently there was lots of cross-over late in the evening.

Another possibility is that the magic moment was when she hoisted the “Gobblet of Knowledge” in the “Grad Club” (a campus bar) with her academic advisor Craig Hall.

Yet another possibility is that “Doc” will become an official name only after the chancellor of the University of Western Ontario bestows her degree at the graduation ceremony which will take place in May 2011.

But the reality is that that the moniker will probably stick when a university official processes some official document sometime in the next few days.

Kathy and I were honoured to attend Lindsay’s public lecture and delighted to meet Craig (for the first time) at the Grad Club. We enjoyed a dinner on the back patio of a restaurant close to Lindsay’s apartment with Craig’s wife a member of her examining committee a couple of Lindsay’s close friends, Kathy’s sister Janet and Kaylee. We were not so sure about the bar Lindsay chose for her late night festivities –but nobody expected us to stay long anyway. It was a great day.

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September 30/10

On Tuesday I got my new pickup. On Wednesday, Kathy and I went down to London to help Lindsay pack up her stuff for the trip to New Haven. On Thursday I drove around between jobs with a mattress, box spring, small couch and a variety of boxes loaded into the back of the new truck. Everybody thought that my wife had kicked me out of the house! Tomorrow we are driving to New Haven Connecticut where Lindsay will take up residence.

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End of the Month Skating Report

It wasn’t much of a month –fitness wise. I skated a few times leading up to the Northshore. Unfortunately, at the race I skated poorly and badly twisted my knee at the top of the final ramp. Since then I have endured a cycle of injury, healing and re-injury. I finally broke out my expensive knee brace. It helps me to not twist and reinjure my knee but is really awful to wear. I had to watch as Lindsay and Kathy did all the heavy lifting while we loaded up the truck and van for the trip to New Haven.

My guess is that I have damaged the meniscus (cartilage) of my right knee and that I will not be able to do very much of anything until I have an operation. My family doctor agrees that it seems to be a cartilage problem. She sent me for X-rays and if she gets the expected results she will refer me to another doctor with more expertise (who will no doubt order additional tests and prescribe physiotherapy) before deciding that an operation is necessary. BUT –don’t get me wrong. I hope I recover and don’t need surgery. It is just hard to imagine my knee responding to physio after 3 weeks of limping around in pain.

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October 2 /10 (Bedrock)

Kaylee is 20 years old. There are no more teenagers in the Duncan family. This is the first time we have not had at least 1 teenager since Lindsay turned 13 in 1996. The earliest that Kathy and I could have a teenaged grandchild would be 2024 (unless one of my daughters is pregnant right now and not telling us).

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Our plans for the weekend have been foiled! We thought we were driving to New Haven but Lindsay’s “papers” from Yale did not come through. Now we will have to go on the “Canadian” Thanksgiving weekend. We unloaded my truck and stashed everything in the garage so I wouldn’t have to listen to the ‘wife finally kicked you out’ jokes all week.

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October 3/10

After my self-pitying End of the Month Report I started to ask myself the following question. Do I really know that I can’t get back into rowing my Concept 2 –even if it is at a reduced level? The answer of course is NO!

Yesterday I decided that I would test my will power and try to find the level of rowing activity that my back will allow me. The obvious thing to do is start off very slowly and very gradually increase the frequency, intensity and duration of the workouts. It is important to take it really slowly because I want to find out the activity level that I can tolerate (so I can revert back to that point if I end up pushing things too far).

Why would I assume that I can’t row? First, it is now clear that rowing delayed the healing of my back injury. As soon as I stopped rowing in early February things started to get gradually better. Second, every time I hopped onto the rowing machine for an exploratory workout my back would hurt for a few days afterwards. It seemed clear that I was screwed.

Anyway, I did a couple of ridiculously easy workouts over the last 2 days and I am pleasantly surprised that my back is feeling OK. I am sure I got my heart rate over 100 for the first time in 3 weeks. It actually hit 120 on the first day. On the second day my average HR for a half hour workout was 108. Even if I can’t manage to get any more exercise than this I will be somewhat fitter and a lot happier.

And the really good news is my knee. I think the rowing must be good therapy for the knee. The activity is not weight bearing, involves no twisting whatsoever and requires the full range of motion. Since the first workout my right knee has improved dramatically. I would never have believed it.

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Loaded for New Haven

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October 12/10

We have arrived back in Toronto from our trip to New Haven CT and agree that it was a pretty good way to spend the (Canadian) Thanksgiving Weekend. Lindsay’s apartment is in a great location and she can easily walk to the “lab” at Yale. I suppose the building dates from the 20’s. It has high ceilings and is 5 stories high –but has no elevator. I was so glad that Lindsay’s apartment is on the ground floor. (I wonder if the rents get cheaper the higher you go).

We delivered a fair amount of Lindsay’s “stuff” and helped her with the initial setup of her apartment. The layout of the apartment is not without its challenges because the largest room is at the back where it is impossible to locate a decent sized couch because of an awkward turn in the main hall. Right now she is planning to have her bedroom at the front of the apartment in the smaller room but, in the end, she might decide to move it to the larger room at the back. In any case, the place needs a lot of work but I am sure it will be a real home when we visit again.

Our trip coincided with a visit from Ryan (Lindsay’s boyfriend) –who missed his plane and ended up driving all the way from Halifax! He arrived just in time for dinner at an Italian restaurant close to Lindsay’s apartment. On Sunday morning we all had a tour of the Yale campus. This was my first look at an Ivy League school. I expected to be impressed and I was. I figured the buildings would be made from limestone and have tons of ivy growing up the walls. Instead, the stone was (I think) sandstone and there was no ivy to be seen. I was surprised how confined (small) the campus was but Lindsay reports that there are only about 10,000 undergrads at Yale. Law, medicine and so on are, of course, post graduate programs. The small number of under grads partly explains why the campus has not been ruined with big new buildings (as has happened at U of T). We had lunch in downtown New Haven with Lindsay and Ryan before heading out.

Leaving after lunch on Sunday meant that we could have a mini-Thanksgiving with Amy and Kaylee on Monday. We ended up taking the same route home that we took to go down –the New York State Thruway and the Massachusetts Turnpike. I wanted to take a different route but we had a computer malfunction. (Kathy would say it was my brain that was malfunctioning).

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October14/10

Kaylee, who lives in Guelph most of the time, landed a job teaching swimming lessons and doing some lifeguarding at the Y near her house. Good for her!

***

And speaking of Kaylee, she told us a funny story. She lives in a residential neighbourhood close to the university. The neighbourhood is composed of single family dwellings that were built about 30 years ago. However the units were cheaply built and it seems that a sense of community was never really established. In any case, a huge number of the properties have been bought up by “slum landlords” and rented out to students. Kaylee lives on a cul-du-sac where most of the houses are student residences. For a joke, someone dismantled the real street sign and hung up their own –Bangerville. Kaylee thought it was hilarious but apparently the cops came by and pulled down the sign. I wish I could have seen that.

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Until yesterday my rowing program had been going well. I’d been very slowly increasing my intensity and duration and was not having any problems with my back. That was great. And until yesterday I actually had the feeling that the rowing was good therapy for my right knee. (Not only was my knee actually feeling better but it made sense that it would be feeling better. That’s because my knee tracks in a straight line (no possible twisting), the activity is not weight bearing and the full range of motion of the joint is employed in the execution of the rowing movement.

But yesterday I only had a short time to squeeze in a workout. I set up the workout on the monitor and started rowing. Right away my knee started crunching. I “worked through the pain” (it went away after a few minutes) and finished the workout but today I am back to walking around with a pronounced limp.

The correct response would have been to get off the stupid machine and forget about the workout –but I am too stubborn to be able to do it. Maybe next time.

Later: The knee prbolem turned out to be only a minor setback.

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October 17/10

I can’t believe my good fortune! I use 8 devices, on a regular basis, that use rechargeable batteries -but 3 of them use the exact same charger. Naturally, all of the other 5 employ different systems.

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I noticed a little town on a map of the Niagara Peninsula when we were passing through. The town is called Effingham and I can’t help but wonder how many people think the real name is Fuckingham.

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The most amazing thing happened. Kathy asked if I wanted my jeans washed and I said “sure”. Then instead of washing my jeans she grabbed my work pants. Kathy claims she checked the pockets but when I went to switch the load to the dryer I discovered a handful of change still in the right front pocket, a comb in the left rear and my pocket knife in the watch pocket. I can’t figure out how they went through the whole washing process without anything ending up in the bottom of the washing machine.

And the most amazing thing of all was the fact that neither my cell phone nor my wallet were in the pants pockets when Kathy tossed them into the washer.

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October 22/10

If I stand on the bridge that takes Lawrence Ave over the DVP I can see 4 bridges that I have worked on. To the east is the Lawrence Bridge over the East Don River. I put a new deck on that one in 1996? To the north is the DVP Bridge over the east Don. That was also a complete deck replacement and was done with a different crew in 2000. To the west is a bridge I am doing now –the Lawrence Bridge over a CNR railway line (it should be getting a new deck but it is not). That was a different bunch of men. To the south are the 3 tunnels that take DVP under a railway line. I was involved in putting concrete sealer on the semi-circular roofs in 2003 during a closure of the DVP (when our main job was a little further to the south at the Wynford Bridge.

When I drive along Dupont, just south of the tracks, I can count 4 more railway underpasses that I have done in the last few years. And when I drive on Alan Road it seems that I have rehabilitated just about every second bridge.

I would imagine that nobody has rehabilitated more Toronto Bridges than me.

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October 23/10

I’ve been pulling away on the handle of my rowing machine for 3 weeks now. I think I have already said that my back is not a problem, and in fact it actually feels better now that I am rowing. Perhaps the improvement has something to do with more regular stretching aimed at my back muscles.

I was starting to worry that I am not feeling inclined to pull all that hard and I decided to look through my training log of last year’s workouts. Sure enough, I was not really getting the flywheel spinning fast until around 4 weeks into the program. The difference is that last year I was 2 months ahead of where I am now (and I started off in better condition too). I am not worried about that –the main thing is that I get some exercise. I imagine that I will enter a competition or two this winter (to keep up the motivation level and perhaps to make me watch my waistline) but I am not focusing on that at this point.

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Happy 25th Birthday to Amy. It's quite a milestone. Amy and Pete are off to the Dominican Republic for a one week holiday.

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October 24/10

There seems to be something wrong with my heart. My rowing machine is equipped with a Polar heart rate monitor. Last year it was pretty reliable. This year the monitor does not register my heart rate when I go above around 120bpm. It works fine until I get to that point. I wondered if the problem might be the computer so I brought out the wristwatch device that I use for skating and the same thing happens. This is scary.

Many years ago my doctor sent me for an ECG. When the results came back I was summoned to her office and asked if I was an “athlete”. She explained that the ECG report indicated that my heart rate was abnormally slow and that an “electrical signal” was happening “too early”. However, when I confirmed that I was an “athlete” she told me that everything was fine. This gives me hope that I am still OK but clearly something about my heart has changed in the past year and I am going to have to get it checked out. And it is really annoying that I don’t know my heart rate when I am rowing. It is one of the things that I like about it.

LATER: I tried a different chest band and discovered that the one I was previously using is defective (at least for me).

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I never listed to my iPod when I am skating but the rowing machine is a different story. Now that I have gone through my (pathetically small) play list a couple of times I have started into podcasts of some of my favourite CBC radio programs. Once I catch up on those I am going to try downloading a free audio book. I heard on one of my CBC shows (Spark) that there are quite a few titles already available and many, many more to come. I am thinking of trying a Mark Twain (Huckleberry Finn?) and perhaps some Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes). If I can enjoy those ones and still row at a decent pace then I might take on something a little more difficult.

An added bonus is that I my new truck has an iPod auxiliary jack so I can try listening to audio books on long drives. I tried that once with tapes from the library but, of course, the tapes were damaged.

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October 26/10

Rob Ford was elected mayor of Toronto last night. I was one of the ones who did not vote for him. It is going to be Mel Lastman all over again. Since the company I work for does a lot of work for the city I can be pretty sure that moral among the people I work with will be pathetic.

But –I really hope that Ford can somehow convince city employees that they should work harder for less and help him dismantle the city with smiles on their faces.

***

And also last night, Kathy and I picked up a brand new Honda CRV. I hope it will last until the municipal election of 2018 –at least.

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My Poor Mother

I guess it is fair to say that Mom can’t read any more. This summer she would spend hours trying to read one chapter of a simple romance novel. The poor thing cannot work the controls on her TV set and can almost never find a suitable show to watch.

Telling time is almost beyond Mom now and her only chance to comprehend is with an old style analog type clock. Numbers are mostly a mystery. My brother reports that last weekend she didn’t know the difference between a loonie and a twonie.

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October 28/10

This makes me laugh:

Often when we rehab a bridge we have to put up “bird screens” to keep the pigeons from roosting under the bridge and creating a “nuisance” on the sidewalks below.

I recent years, there is often a "requirement" which forces us to hire some “experts” to “humanely” remove the birds so they don’t get trapped inside the same wire mesh that we are installing in order to keep them out. Of course the greatest concern (for the public –not me) is for the eggs and very young birds that can’t fly. The adult pigeons simply fly away when we come too close.

If you ask the pigeon experts what they do with the eggs they collect you will find out that after very carefully gathering them up in view of the public they simply toss them in the trash when they get back to their headquarters. It is the same story with very young hatchlings but older hatchlings can be relocated to a nearby spot and have a decent chance of being found by their mothers.

But the men that work for me have another way of dealing with the hatchlings. They eat them. When the Portuguese guys can catch a few hatchlings they will take them home and fatten them up for a few weeks. I am not sure of the finer details but, in the end, the birds make some sort of a meal for the captor.

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October 29/10

My first trip through the automatic car wash with my new truck was ‘one to remember’. I my defence, I am not all that familiar with the controls on the new vehicle –but they are similar to my old Toyota pickup. Anyway, I paid my money and drove up to the door of the car wash. It was a “touchless” wash but there was a track that is supposed to guide the vehicle through the wash.

I pushed the button to roll down the window when I approached the keypad. I punched in the activation code and started to roll up the window. As soon as the window was up I realized that the intercom was giving me further instructions so I rolled down the window again and the voice told me to roll up the window.

When I pushed the button to roll it up nothing happened! In the next few frantic seconds I tried everything that I could think of to get the window up but nothing would work -it was stuck all the way down. After a short time I felt the “claw” grab onto my front wheel and start dragging my truck toward the initial rinsing station. In my mind I had a clear and horrifying vision of what it would be like to go through the entire washing cycle with the driver’s side window down. It wasn’t pretty. I had no choice but to stomp on the brake and resist the forward motion while I fiddled some more with the buttons that should raise the window. The belt that was supposed to move my truck forward was making some very strange noises and I was afraid I was damaging the “works”. Nothing would work so I reluctantly put the vehicle in reverse and tramped on the accelerator pedal. A few feet back I somehow managed to get the window up.

At that point, a smart person would have put the vehicle in park and gone to see the attendant. But oh no –I decided that I should drive into the car wash and try to pick up where I left off. I got to the point where the windshield was getting a good rinse and stopped. I was hoping that the “claw” would pick me up but I could see out the side window that I was not moving forward. I decided to drive forward a bit more and that is when the shampoo completely covered all the windows. I got the feeling, after a while that I was not moving so I drove forward some more. Nothing much happened. Then I realized that the truck was tipped on a crazy angle and I figured that my tire must be riding up on the side of the track. I cranked the wheel and gave it a bit of gas and the truck levelled up nicely.

Just at that point enough shampoo sloughed off the glass that I could see out the windows. (At around the same time the car wash turned itself off). It turned out that my left front wheel was completely off the track on the left side and the front bumper seemed to be jammed against some of the machinery. The truck was angled at about 15 degrees from the intended direction of travel. I couldn’t go forward without doing damage to both my truck and the car wash so I put it in reverse and tried to get the front wheel back in the track. The back wheels would only spin. A smart person would have put the truck into 4 wheel drive at this point but instead I put it in park and went to confess my sins.

There was no car wash attendant so I had to talk to the guy selling gas. Naturally, he was too busy to come and help me but from inside the booth he opened the exit door (which I forgot to mention had closed -thereby preventing me from escaping even if I got straighten out). He gave me some advice on how to get back on track which didn’t really work but I figured it out myself when I had some time to think.

After I drove the wet and soapy pickup out of the car wash I parked and assessed the damage. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the truck! Lucky break! I decided to go back into the booth to see if the attendant would give me a “free” wash –and he did! However, I figured that the he must have been thinking I was the stupidest person that he had met all day. I sure felt like it.

And why would the window not operate? I never figured that out.

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October 31/10

End of the Month Fitness Report

Sometimes writing these monthly reports really put things in perspective. This was the case last month because after thinking about what I had written I realized that I had not properly investigated the possibility of resuming workouts on my rowing machine.

It turned out that I can row –at least at the intensity level I have managed so far. This is fantastic and I have slowly been increasing both duration and intensity for the past 3-4 weeks.

I am not really sure I want to compete in the Canadian Championships this winter but I am starting to think along those lines. My weight has slipped up to 173 or more and I would have a lot of work to do to get down to 165. I suppose I could always compete as a heavyweight but I like to win so much that it would be tough. Now that Lindsay is living in New Haven it is more tempting to fly to Boston for the World Championships. I would get blown away by the competition but I would be able visit with my daughter.

I will start a “sort of” diet on Monday Nov 1. Basically I will not allow myself to eat outside of meals and coffee breaks, I will cut down a bit on the Tim Horton donuts and bagels, I will cut my orange juice with water and I will drink my whiskey straight. That, together with rowing a few extra miles should be enough to shed the love handles.

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November 6/10 (Bedrock)

Kathy is enjoying her new Honda CRV. I forgot to mention that when we picked it up we were handed a “scratch and win” card. I had been told earlier that we were guaranteed to “win” $250 but it could be $500 or even $2500. Of course, we had to buy a car to get the chance to “play”. The card was a 20 by 20 grid of circles that could be scratched to reveal the prize. We had to scratch only one. Clearly, most of the scratch sites were “minimal” winners because when we scratched our card we were told that nobody had won more than $250. But Kathy beat the odds and picked a $500 winner!

 After I agreed to the price for the CRV and shook hands with the sales guy I was introduced to the second half of the sales team. It was Valerie’s job to sell me an extended ‘power train’ warranty, rust proofing, a tire care package and some sort of “interior upholstery protection scheme. There were probably other offers that I don’t even remember. I declined every single one. All of those things are just gravy for the dealer and amount to super expensive insurance for the consumer.

After declining the rust roofing I went to the Automobile Protection Agency website to see what they had to say. Sure enough, the website advised against dealer installed rust proofing and advised purchasers of new vehicles (who wanted to drive them for more than a few years) to go the Krown Rustproofing. That’s what we did.

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November 10/10

Kathy was telling me that she found herself telling a story about me at work –and her colleagues were defending me. It started with a conversation we were having on the weekend. I wanted to set up a single space heater in the cottage to keep the place warm enough that the pipes wouldn’t freeze and break. I wanted to know the cost of the worst case scenario –(that the heater would stay on at full output for a solid month). I told Kathy that since the heater was rated at 1500 watts that would be 1.5 kilowatts. I told Kathy that running the heater for an hour would be 1.5 kilowatt-hours. I got a piece of paper and multiplied 1.5 times 24 (hours in a day) times 30 (days in a month) times 10 cents (the maximum cost of electricity) and got about a hundred bucks. I told her the cost would actually be less because the heater probably would not stay on all the time and the average cost of the power would be cheaper that 10 cents. We plugged in the heater and left and I didn’t think about the conversation again (until I heard the story).

Kathy didn’t exactly say why she told the story but I imagine it was to demonstrate what a geek I am. Well, if that is being a geek then I am proud to be in the club.

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November 11/10 (Remembrance Day)

I went up to Peterborough today to take my Mom to the Doctor. I wasn’t too busy at work so I decided to get to her residence in time for the Remembrance Day ceremony. It was in the atrium and they had all the vets in chairs at the front –seven men. In the audience there were perhaps 50 women and 3 men including me. This demonstrates a couple of things. Mostly men fought in the 2nd World War and women are much more likely to survive into old age. They used recorded music for the ceremony and the hymns were not well sung by the assembled crowd but it didn’t really matter.

The sad thing was that my mother did not want to sit at the front with the other vets. She did it one year but one of the old guys gave her a hard time and she has not wanted to sit at the front since. I was never clear to me what the objection to Mom being at the front was. Perhaps he thought that Mom was confused about where the “women” were supposed to sit. Worse, he may have accepted the fact that Mom was in the Navy but thought that she had not really risked life and limb in the service of her country.

At lunch, Mom and I talked a bit about her experiences in the Royal Canadian Navy. I gather that Mom enlisted in 1943 or early 1944 after finishing grade 12. She did her basic training west of Toronto and was shipped off to Halifax soon after. Shortly after, her whole unit boarded a ship and was taken to St. John’s Newfoundland –a foreign country at the time. The trip was a memorable one because the ship was being tracked by a German U-boat and had to take “evasive action”. Apparently they cut the engine and drifted around on the high seas during rough weather and most of the new sailors lost their dinner over the sides of the ship.

Once in Newfoundland Mom was engaged in training sailors how to pinpoint and destroy German U-boats. She has never been very clear about the exact nature of this training except to say that some of it took place in a pitch black warehouse and there were lots of explosions.

Mom says that she was still in Newfoundland (in the hospital with appendicitis) when the war ended. She soon ended up back in Halifax where they removed her appendix. Mom went on a memorable trip to New York City with some of her WREN friends before returning to Halifax and was then shipped back home. She was at home in Peterborough when she got a telegram informing her that she had been released from duty.

In the winter of 1946 Mom went to “rehab” school in Toronto to quickly make up her grade 13 (so she could enter the U of T). It was in “rehab” school that she met Dad. She was the only girl in the class so I suppose Dad did pretty well out of that. Dad always liked to say that “your Mother was a ‘good looker’ when she was younger.”

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November 14/10

A couple of times in the past I have come across a few dollars worth of pennies and wanted to get rid of them. In the old days you could roll them up in scraps of paper and take them to the bank. The last time I tried that they wanted the pennies rolled in something other than scraps of paper. That is when I decided that it would be easier to just spend the pennies.

Tomorrow I am going on a penny spending campaign. I have less that $3 so it won’t take too long. I decided to see how many pennies I can spend at one time so I Googled “legal tender in Canada” and found out that the limit is 25 per transaction. This is my plan: when I go into Tim Horton’s to get a coffee (medium). I will pay with $1.10 in “silver” and 23 pennies. They won’t complain –but if they do I will explain that they are “not permitted to refuse 23 pennies –so there.”

It is easier for me to spend pennies than it is for a lot of people because I can bury quite a few pennies deep in the pocket of my work pants and hardly notice that they are there. When I go fishing for change the pennies will be there –ready for action.

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November 20/10

I got a set of drawings for my next job. It’s at a GO Station in Oakville and my (main) job is to construct a (rather large) building which will contain a bunch of stairways and wheelchair ramps leading from a parking lot either up towards a platform or down to a tunnel which will take GO patrons to other platforms. Because of the stairs and ramps the “layout” part of the job is pretty complicated. The fact that we will be building in the dead of winter further complicates the job. At least I know I will not be bored this winter. (But I might be cold and miserable).

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For some reason I have become interested in Iridium Flares again . In orbit around the earth there is a “constellation” of 66 Iridium telecommunication satellites –plus a few spares. The antennas on the satellites are so smooth and flat that they direct incredibly bright, fast moving “beams” of reflected sunlight onto highly predictable paths along the surface of the earth. Iridium Flares are so bright that they can often be seen in the middle of the day. You just have to be looking in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. My astronomy program has an Iridium Flare function but there is also a website that predicts the flares.

A few years ago I went to the trouble of finding the exact latitude and longitude of our house, setting my watch to within a couple of seconds of “real” time and going out onto the street when there was supposed to be a flare. I took Kathy out with me as a witness. Sure enough, we both saw the flare in the middle of the day in a clear blue sky. I suppose the sight was not all that amazing but what was cool is that I could do all of the work necessary to actually see the thing.

Now I have the following fantasy. I am working outside (probably engaged in some sort of layout work or perhaps supervising a concrete pour) and my phone alarm goes off to remind me of an upcoming flare. I keep a close eye on the time and with a few seconds to go before the event I tell whoever is working close to me to look at a certain place in the sky. I count down the seconds and the flare occurs just as predicted. The guys ask what it is and I reply that it’s a satellite, tell them it happens all the time and leave it at that. It would be something like when the “explorers” would tell the “natives” that the sun was going to disappear (a full eclipse of the sun).

Anyway, I will report here if I am successful in my quest to see another Iridium Flare.

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November 22/10

Would you like to see an Iridium Flare? The procedure sounds complicated but it is really not.

Step 1: Go to Google Earth and zero in on a spot where you spend a lot of time (home? work?). Place the cursor at the exact spot where you will stand to observe. It is best that there are no tall buildings. You want to be able to see most of the sky. At the bottom of the screen is the latitude and longitude of the point where the cursor is located. Write down the co-ordinates. They will be in degrees, minutes and seconds. One or two seconds will not make a difference to this venture –so round off the seconds and don’t give it another thought. Before leaving Google Earth take careful notice of where north is situated. Later, when you are outside to observe a flare, you will need to know what direction to look.

Step 2: Go to http://www.heavens-above.com/ look under “Configuration” and click on “Create new user account”. It is not strictly necessary to create an account but it is easier. For one thing, if you don’t create an account you will have to convert your co-ordinates from degrees, minutes and seconds to decimal degrees (a struggle for a surprising number of adults). Another advantage is that you can have several observing sites.

After registering you can enter the co-ordinates of your first observing site. It is critical to also enter your time zone. Scroll up to (UTM-5) for Toronto. Around Toronto you can enter 100m for the elevation but it is not critical. Then go to “Home”. Check under “Configuration” to make sure that you co-ordinates are entered (they will be shown in decimal format).

Under “Satellites” look under Iridium Flares click “next 7 days” or “Daytime flares for 7 days”. If there are any upcoming flares all of the important information will appear. I recommend a copy-paste to a Word document so the info is at hand when you need it. Before leaving the site you can click on “Altitude” and “Azimuth” to see what they mean (if you don’t already know). This information will tell you exactly where in the sky to look for the flare. Altitude is the angle up from the horizon. 45 degrees is half way up. Azimuth is the number of degrees clockwise from due north. 270 degrees is due west. 180 degrees is due south.

Step 3: The last (planning) thing you need to do is get your watch set to the exact correct time (the closest second).You can do this near the bottom of the Heavens Above home page or at the National Research Council:

http://time5.nrc.ca/JavaClock/timeDisplayWE.shtml

Step 4: This step is not strictly required but I think it helps to set my phone to remind me 5 minutes before a flare. In my phone I enter the Altitude and Azimuth and exact time that the flare will occur. You don’t have to be looking at the exact right place in the sky but you have to be somewhat close. You don’t need special instruments for this –just point yourself as close as you can in the direction of the azimuth and look up the required number of degrees. Good luck!

Final Hints: If you want to look for a daytime flare you will have to consider the location of the sun in the sky. This information is supplied (by the Heavens Above website) together with all the other info. If the Sun and flare are closer that around 30 degrees it might not be worth trying to spot this one. As with any sort of amateur astronomy clouds will wreak any chance of seeing a flare.

If anyone uses these directions to see a flare I would love to here about it.

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November 23/10

A rare email to my site:

Subject: Would you like to see an Iridium Flare?

DAD!

YOU ARE SUCH A DORK!

Love, Lindsay

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November 30/10

End of the Month Fitness Report

I have continued to pull away on the handle of my rowing machine 4 or 5 times a week. I’ve been getting home early enough from work to slip in a workout before Kathy gets home. This fortunate situation could end when I start working in Oakville (in January).

I have noticed that I have not been able do as much work at a given heart rate as last year. At my age I have to expect that. However, in one year the difference should be barely measureable. Perhaps things will improve in a few days or weeks.

My back is feeling better all he time -a big relief! My right knee (the one I injured in Duluth) is bad. I think I need an operation.

I have been watching my calorie intake for a month now. I am not one of those dieters who weighs myself only once a week –so I get to be somewhat frustrated when, day after day, there is no noticeable weight loss. However, at long last I have started to notice a slight decline. I will state my weight as 172 for the end of November a drop of a pound (and a half). It’s a long way down to 165.

Ed's Sk8toronto Website

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December 2/10

Kathy is being mean to me. I am trying to lose my love handles and there is Haagen-Dazs ice cream in the freezer, homemade cookies on the kitchen counter and somewhere around is my absolute favourite chocolate treat that she buys every year at the One of a Kind Show. I’ll be doing well just to not gain any weight in December.

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Dec 8/10 (30 years since the death of John Lennon)

After quite a few attempts I finally saw an Iridium Flare this morning. This one was particularly bright and was visible in a fairly dark sky. I was driving to work and was a few kilometres due south of the job. My data (Asimuth, Altitude and exact Time) was for the jobsite coordinates but I knew I had a good chance of spotting the flare on a line due north or south. I parked on a small side street and waited until 7 seconds before the predicted time before looking up. As soon as I looked it was there. Later I found out that the data had been updated and the flare had been moved up by 4 seconds. On top of that my watch was about a second and a half slow.

How much of a thrill was seeing the flare? Admittedly, it is not exactly a life changing experience. What is cool for me is the predictability of the phenomenon and the somewhat onerous process that one has to follow in order to spot a flare. While I am not planning to drive miles out of my way to spot a flare I really want to see some more. The flare I saw was from Iridium Satellite number 46 and seemed to be travelling north.

What happened the other times in the past couple of weeks that I have looked for a flare and not spotted it? One time it was bad data, another time the sun was way too close to the spot (I don’t bother with those ones now) and several times there has been too much cloud cover. A couple of times I suspect the flare was too dim to spot in a bright sky without being able to narrow down the search area.

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December 9/10

Reading the Toronto Star every day is tough. The Star hates Stephen Harper, hates Rob Ford and hates Bill Blair (the Chief of Police in Toronto). Despite the fact that I agree with almost everything I read I almost wish that I was reading a different newspaper.

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Today around 5pm I failed to see 2 more Iridium Flares. Again, I am not sure why I didn’t see them. However, it is safe to say that they were not bright enough to catch my eye in the conditions that I was presented with.

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December 11/10

Wonder of wonders! Last year Kaylee had to drop ‘accounting’ because she was doing so badly that she could not possibly pass. We were all quietly thinking that perhaps Commerce had been a bad choice for Kaylee. Now Kaylee reports that she has aced the final exam –after doing extremely well on the midterms. Good for Kaylee.

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Today I passed the 3 million meter mark in indoor rowing (lifetime). It sounds like a lot but 3 million meters is 3 thousand kilometres. Since an average workout is around 10k 3 million meters represents around 300 workouts.

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December 16/10

My Annual Christmas Letter:

Hello to all our friends.

Merry Christmas! We hope this letter finds you well.

As far as Kathy and I are concerned there have been only a few major changes since last year. We bought Kathy a new Honda CRV –her second CRV and our 4 th new vehicle in 30 years. I got a new pickup, a Toyota Tacoma this time, but it is a work vehicle paid for by my employer. Last March Break we got away to Arizona to do some hiking (and other things) and next year we will spend a week in Palm Springs. Kathy and I are both still working and both our mothers live in old folk’s homes. We spend as much time as we can at Bedrock and are starting to consider possible additions, out buildings and renovations. It looks as if we will retire to the cottage in a few years. This March will mark 30 years of wedded bliss.

Kathy and I are both in reasonable shape but are not without complaints. Last summer, Kathy injured her shoulder in a swimming race at Stony Lake and clearly requires some sort of medical intervention. I’ve had surgery on both my shoulders so I am a picture of sympathy. I wrecked my right knee in my last inline skating marathon and suspect that it will only be properly repaired by more surgery. My fitness plans for next year do not include inline skating!

Of the 3 girls Lindsay’s life has changed the most. Last spring, she landed a “Post Doc” position at Yale. Lindsay had to fast track the completion of her PhD so she had a very busy summer but is now Dr. Duncan and is safely ensconced in the small town of New Haven Connecticut. Lindsay’s research at Yale will be in the area of breast cancer and exercise.

Amy happily left her job at Sears and is now working at the Chapters/Indigo Head Office. Amy still lives at home (well, let’s say that our house is her official residence and the place where her laundry is done) and squirrels away money for the future. Amy spends a lot of time with boyfriend Pete (who just happens to have an apartment within walking distance of the Chapter’s Head Office. Amy and Pete have travelled a little since their grand return from the Far East but the recent trips have been to holiday destinations rather than serious explorations of the world.

Kaylee is now in 3rd year in Commerce at Guelph. This year she is teaching swimming at the YMCA rather than waitressing for extra money. So far in her short life, Kaylee has spent all her summers at Stony Lake. Last year she was the head swimming instructor for the Cottage’s Association Swimming Program. This year she is hoping to be involved in running the store. In effect it’s a short term small business run during the summer by a pair of Stony Lake students out of an old storefront property leased from the Cottager’s Association.

We wish you all the best for a happy, healthy holiday season!

Love from all of us,

Kathy, Ed, Lindsay, Amy and Kaylee

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December 18/10

In the past couple of weeks I have spent a lot of time making a “model” of the GO train station that I will be building starting in January. It was a great way to totally familiarize myself with the shape that the station will take. Among lots of other things, I will be responsible for “line and grade” –so it will be me who has to tell the carpenters where every twist and turn begins and ends.

I made the model using Google SketchUp –“a free 3D modeling tool”. That program is the most fantastic “free” thing that I have ever found on the internet. It takes a lot of time to learn how to draw things with SketchUp but they have great online tutorials.

The building is not really a Go Station –but rather a structure that will aid access to the trains from the “wrong” side of the tracks. Right now all the patrons have to enter the station from the north. When we are done there will be a big parking lot on the south side. The model shows the structure without its roof. The roof will be made of precast concrete slabs topped by a thin layer of concrete. The slabs will go up in a single day.

The entire building is made up of doors, stairways and ramps that allow access down to the tunnel under the tracks or up to the south side platform. The entire structure is composed of reinforced concrete and sits directly on bedrock. It will stand for centuries.

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December 19/10

We have a reclining chair in our living room. When I want to use my laptop I usually sit there. A couple of weeks ago I started to notice that my chin was itchy when I sat on the chair with the computer. I finally figured out what was going on. The hair on my chest is now so long and coarse that it tickles my chin when I am scrunched up with the computer. Now I have to start cutting back some of the undergrowth.

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I have stated in this blog that June is my least favourite month of the year. The reason, in short, is that I can’t get enough sleep. Now I am coming to the realization that I hate December even more –for the opposite reason. There is so little daylight! I certainly am not lacking sleep but I am always tired and ill tempered (and quite frankly) depressed every December. Until now I have always thought that the combined stress of work (trying to finish up jobs before freeze-up) and Christmas (with the multitude of associated expectations) was the cause of my discomfort. I don’t think so any more. It’s the lack of sunshine.

Later: Four years ago I wrote a similar but more lengthly post on the subject of December sunlight (here). I had forgotten all about it. I hope I start remembering why I feel depressed in December. It would help.

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My 3 daughters and their cousin Jennifer are all together in New York City this weekend. Apparently New York is a good place to go shopping. That seems funny to me because when I was there I didn’t see on single Canadian Tire or Home Depot store. And, come to think of it, there were no Zellers either.

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December 21/10

I cannot claim to be so excited about last night’s total eclipse of the moon that I got up just to see it –but I did time my pee break to coincide with totality. The eclipse was OK but not really worth losing any sleep over.

The moon was so far overhead that I could'nt see it out the back window. I had to go up into the loft and look out through the skylight.

This morning on the way to work a much brighter full moon was still quite high in the western sky.

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December 26/10

The annual orgy of gift giving is over for another year. Again, in a household of girls, the theme was clothing. This is a good thing because in some ways clothes are ‘expendables’. Another theme was books (since Amy works for Indigo). I got 6. The first one I want to read is “Sh*t My Dad Says”. I’ve seen snippets on line and in the book store and I know I will be laughing out loud. I surprised Kathy with a push lawn mower to replace the one we use at home. I hate the old one so much that I never want to cut the lawn. I told Kathy that part of the gift is an extended service contract (all work performed by me) –so it will be up to me to figure out how to set it up properly and keep the blades sharp.

I received a Yale hoodie to go with my Guelph one. Lindsay made sure to have the Yale bulldog featured on my sweatshirt because my father once gave me a bulldog figurine –inspired be the fact that (to him) I displayed a lot of bulldog characteristics. For the next year I will keep the Yale hoodie for ‘special occasions’. The U of G hoddie will now be mixed into the regular rotation for everyday use –including work.

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After several more failed attempts to see iridium flares I spotted one from the sunroom window. I am starting to realize that unless the sky is pretty dark you have to narrow down the search area to a minimum. If the sky is light you will probably miss spotting a flare if your gaze is off by only 10 degrees. This would be especially so when the altitude is low.

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Dec 28/10

This same thing happened last year. The difference is that this year I figured it out. After a couple of months of rowing the tops of my feet started to get sore. It is only the skin and only in certain places. At first I just blamed the fact that you have to use the tops of your feet (pulling against the straps) to pull the seat back for the next ’catch’. But finally I examined the tongues of my running shoes and discovered that they are rough and abrasive in the same areas that my skin is sore. I am not really sure if the shoes were designed that way or made incorrectly. With ‘normal’ use the shoes would never present a problem but from now on I will be looking closely at the underside of the tongues of any running shoes I buy and expect to use for rowing.

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One of the books I got for Christmas was a travel guide book for Southern California. I assume it is because we are going to Palm Springs in March. Now I am finding out that Palm Springs is ‘rebranding’ itself as a gay friendly tourist destination. It’s a good thing I’m not homophobic!

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December 30/10

End of the Month Fitness Report:

I have continued my workouts on the rowing machine. In all honesty, I can’t say that I have noticed any improvements in my fitness level but I have not really been into testing myself to the absolute limit. Right now I am thinking that I will get the Canadian Rowing Championships (my annual rowing completion) out of the way and then test myself at each of the distances that I recorded times for last year. I hope I don’t lose interest after the competition. This tends to happen to me.

My weight has not been dropping as fast as I had hoped but this is understandable since I am only putting in a half hearted effort at shedding my extra pounds. I stand at 170 lb. Considering the time of year a loss of 2 lbs in a month is OK. I would say that to be 165 lbs by February 6 is not an outrageous proposition. I am headed in the right direction and the last pound or two will be water. I think I have said before that if I don't happen to 'make the weight' at the big competition I will be OK with it. I really don't want to overshoot by 3 pounds like I did last year.

Later: I was only a pound and a half under 165 last year -not 3.

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The animals at Stony Lake always put in a good show for us at New Years. We have only been here a few hours and we have already had a great adventure.

After arriving in the mid-afternoon and getting organized, Kathy and I went out for a late day walk on the ice. It was starting to get dark and we were heading back to the cottage when I spotted a very large bird in the middle of a protected area between two islands. I pointed toward the bird who was very active at this point and Kathy said that she heard some squealing (squeeking is the word she actually used). When we got a little closer we could see that the bird was eating something on the ice. Because I had not heard any squeeling I wondered if the bird had brought his meal to this secluded spot for some fine dining. I worked my way closer and closer to the bird (Kathy is much more timid and always stays 20-30 feet back) and we learned a little more each time we closed in. In the end, we stood about 20 feet away as a red tailed hawk devoured the remains of a freshly killed muskrat.

The power of the bird’s beak to rip through the flesh of the muskrat was very impressive. Kathy is a little more squeamish and at the point when the muskrat’s innards spilled out of his body cavity and onto the ice I knew that it was time to go. We only had to get a foot of two closer to the bird in order to follow our intended path but this was enough to make the hawk take flight. He took up a perch only a short distance away and watched as I examined the remains. I wanted to have a good look at the victim (and especially the tail) because I was not sure what it was. Now that we were this close we could see that the hawk had pounced on the muskrat only a few feet away. We could clearly identify the track that the muskrat had been leaving in the snow. It ended abruptly and bloodily only a few feet away from where he lay now. I had a close look at the tail of the animal (the body was not really identifiable) and confirmed, upon my return to the cottage, that it had been a ‘common muskrat’.

As we continued along our planned route back toward the cottage we followed the trail that the muskrat had been leaving in the snow. We ended up following the trail for several hundred meters –almost all the way around a fairly large island and then in a straight path toward the mainland. This is only a guess but I would say that the victim was a young muskrat lost out on the ice –exposed and defenceless.

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December 31/10

Kathy and I went back to see what had happened to the remains of the muskrat. Before we had left the original scene the hawk had flown away completely. I wanted to see if the hawk had returned to finish the feast. He did not. Foot prints in the thin layer of snow told us that a single dog-like animal (likely a coyote) had found the body and almost completely cleaned up the remains. The only things left on the ice were some of the fur (but no hide), the skull (but no jawbone) and one or two of the internal organs. I was a bit surprised that the tail, claws and all the bones had been devoured.