Fried Ramen Noodles

I was a bit unprepared for this race - Fall Epic 8hr at Hardwood Hills.  Having backaches and a mild hamstring strain.  I hadn't really felt like doing much and my mileage this year reflected it.   Motivation to get on the bike was lower than usual.

But my good buddy got himself a really beauty of a mountain bike!  One that had my stamp of approval, full squish, and enough travel for trail riding and most important a dropper!   All the ingredients for having a ton of fun and enjoying the outdoors.

I've often said, that if I had to pick only 1 bike.  I'd keep my mountain bike.  Sure there's rocks, gnarly roots, off camber trails, and often steep and technical descents, but there's also the fresh air, wildlife, blue skies, trees and amazing natural scenery.  And more importantly.  There's no cars with distracted drivers.  

People often see more often, mountain bikers falling and crashing.  It's part of the challenge.  The whole premise of mountain biking is changing terrain and obstacles.  Riders are more aware of this and it's expected!

On the road, it's often UN-expected, so when it happens, it's catastrophic!   One of my friends hit a newly installed rubber speed bumper on Bloor, meant to slow down cars and make it safer for pedestrians.  In any case, in the dark this speed bumper is invisible.  He hit it and has a fractured pelvis and broken ribs and a broken bike.    I've witnessed racoons and squirrels run in front of road riders causing them to fall.  I've encountered wildlife on my trail rides too.  And never had an incident.  I did run over a snake.  It squiggled away.  I felt bad and grossed out.

I've had incidents too, falling many times on my mtb, almost always not at high speed and certainly not as fast as I would be on a road bike.  And I've walked away with a dusting on my ego.  More often I look to see what I did wrong on that section and remember for my next run down.  Not a big deal.  I've even sailed over my bars into bushes on a night run in a 24hr
race.  I walked away without a scratch!  That was flukey for sure...could have been much worse.

In any case, I have ridden both, and dirt is much more foregiving than asphalt.  That's just a fact.   And I could ride fewer kms on trails and get a much harder workout.  Distance isn't everything.  Horsepower is one thing, but genetics can be against you, however bike handling skills can level the playing field as it can save a ton of energy.   Put the two together and you become a formidable athlete.

Back to this event.  Jinn was so excited and thoroughly enjoying his new ride, he asked if I would do this with him.  How could I say no?  A new mtb rider and he wants to do a race?

I owe it to him to give me the kick in the pants to give me motivation to ride!  And Kudos to the organizers for calling it out right at the start that this was meant to be FUN!  Weather was calling for chilly temps, but it turned out to be perfect!  No wind, no rain.  Cool temps but not freezing.  It was beautiful.

I did the start lap as it can be challenging to ride in a large pack and then you get to the single track which can be even stressful when a rider is on your wheel and you are stuck behind another.   Following laps will have riders strung out and later on, the field will diminish and less riders on the course at the same time.

The course was short at just under 10km and not very hard.  Sure there's a sprinkling of rock gardens and tight switchbacks but not overly difficult.   It would be an endurance/hammerfest type of race.  Pace yourself to do as many laps as possible in the 8hr window.

And because it was so quick the laps, there was not a lot of time to rest.  So endurance, constant steady fuelling was key.  I felt good after the start lap.  So good I did 2 laps consecutive the next time.  Which may not have been such a good idea, as recovery between laps is tight.  I was feeling it towards the end of the 4th lap.   So I got Jinn to do 2 laps back to back.

When he came in and looked to have left most of it out there.  That was a good sign.  It put a smile on my face.  Fun is fun.  There was nothing more to prove for either of us.

I am happy we got to race on a beautiful day, challenged ourselves, found our mojo, chatted with folks from all parts and a common love of mtb riding, and got home safe and sound.

Board game, set, match

A match made by board games.  We had been introduced to the great fun of board games many years back, but we don't play so often since it's only 3 of us and Kieran says we are no challenge.    

But these two introduced me to Catan, and many other board/card games.  It's a level of interaction that many video games cannot reproduce.

They needed a 4th player.  And they only had 3 including Kieran.  I still remember Lisa asking me if I would like to play with her, Robbie and Kieran.

She said, Kieran is very good at Catan.   It takes some learning (I even had to watch a video) and there are many facets to playing.  Never mind winning.  But don't expect the same level of play from me.  My strategy is to not look confused and lost and pay attention to how many cards I have and make sure I can differentiate the colour of my game pieces from everyone else's.   I'm basically the equivalent to a pylon in hockey...haha.   

I'd forgotten how much fun board games are to play.  And that's the key.  Have fun.

The table talk is always fun, as it always brings out the personalities and poker-like strategies each player implements during the game.  

But hey forget about the old guy and sometimes he flies under the radar and comes out on top!

I've been to Kleinburg countless times, on my bike, and familiar with the coffee/pastry shops,  but never have I been to the Doctor's House.  This place is a wedding destination.  You can get married here in the chapel, have the reception and even consummate the marriage in your very own suite.  Due to COVID, weddings have been churning out like an assembly line.  On this particular date, there were multiple weddings going on.  I could not believe it.

Kleinburg is very pretty.  The McMichael Art Gallery (Group Of Seven) is typically the first thing that comes to mind when Kleinburg  is mentioned.   The grounds around the gallery are very very pretty, There are parks all around it, spanning from Islington to Pine 
Valley and south of Major Mac.  I've ridden all the way up to Kleinburg through the parks and conservation areas that connect all the way from Toronto.  It's a bit of a twisty route and easy to take a wrong turn, and encounter some park maintenance or construction, but the upside is you avoid all the bad drivers.

There was some logistical challenges for us for this weekend.  We had to collect a couple of 80+yo to ensure they got to and from the wedding safe and sound also in comfort and on time, as the ONE always seems to wear a watch and check it often to see when lunch and coffee breaks are.  Also dinner body clock alarm goes off at 3pm.  Soon after afternoon break.  It's an incredibly tight schedule for someone to follow.  There's not enough hours in the day to accommodate all these food breaks.

I was showing Reinhold how to take photos without his thumb getting in the way.  For a 90yo, he's a glass half-full guy.

This is the second time I've had Coronitas. They are 200mL sized bottle of Coronas.  They feel small but your beer doesn't end up getting warm when you get to the bottom.  

It's a nice change from the 500mL tall boys and whatever.  Bigger is not always better, despite what our US neighbours say.  Quality over Quantity is best.

The church was beautiful.  I've seen it on my rides, I didn't realize how new it was.  And due to COVID lockdown preventing weddings from happening for 2 yrs, there was a backlog on church ceremonies too!

It was a beautiful and fun day/evening.  The weather was amazing.  Very thankful to have been privileged to be included in their celebration. 

We got to enjoy the Kleinburg village, mingle and meet family and sample hors d'oeuvres.  They were very very good.  I was worried I was going to fill up on them before dinner.

One of the few non-selfie stick pics I had.  This courtyard off the dining hall is beautiful.  At night it's such a tranquil place hang out and walk off the food or chill and cool off from the dance floor. 

I didn't really think this flash mob Knock 3 Times dance was gonna actually happen.  As it lead up to the day we snuck in a few practices and recorded the video so we could all not look like pretenders.  

And as the DJ announced us, it was getting stressful and I quickly realized I didn't have enough blood alcohol to chillax.  

But the song and dance went on, surprisingly and not so surprising, people joined in.  Guess they all watched the Filipinos on YouTube too.  And turned out to be such a memorable and fun thing!  The best gifts are priceless.  And that's all that mattered.

You know...Selfie-sticks may be too cool for school.  But who cares.  The stick with the BT remote button came in handy 

Hello Yellow

Every woodshed deserves a ramp.  Why not a yellow one?  So that's what I did.  Also that latch is a DIY too.  I did check what off the shelf latches were like and cost, and then searched for home made latches.  I was initially thinking to make one totally out of wood.  But this final version was a lower profile and turned out to be simpler and slicker.

I brought a little piece of our home into that door with that latch.  I totally McGyver'ed this latch mechanism.  It works great and looks almost medieval.  I love how it turned out.

I have to say.  The planer I bought sure came in handy to make the ramp flat.  The boards it is mounted to were warped and I was able to shave things down so it laid flat.  I wasn't sure how much use it would be when I found it as a clearance item on one of my morning coffee walks in the aisles of HomeDepot.  But it has been one of the most useful tools I've got in my toolbox.  Not all deals are found online.  The best are found walking around in a bricks and mortar shop.

The metal bar is a piece cut from our old banister.  I missed throwing it out and glad I still had it cause it was RE-used and RE-cycled - one less thing to go to land fill.  Same with the knob.  I cut a short piece from this old wooden closet hanger rod I had leftover from a reno.  I saved them in case I needed a large dowel for some project.  It's the Reinhold in me.  You just never know when it will be useful again.  But sooner or later you gotta just let it go, or you will quickly have a junk yard and then need to get a dog.

Before I started on this task, I asked Tresa's dad how he wanted the ramp to be built.  Actually before I did anything I asked him if we could build a ramp for the wood shed.

There's an 8inch drop from the door opening to the ground and there was an old stump in front of it making it awkward to get things in and out of there.  Especially the larger heavier things.  He said OK.  Actually he said it like this: "If you want to build a ramp, build a ramp. That will be good."

Then I got to work on sourcing materials.  Everything was re-used.  from the 2x6 boards to the yellow composite.  Everything.  It didn't cost me a dime.  Except for the physiotherapy for my aching back, hauling up a bag gravel and all the other materials and levelling the ground and prepping it.

It looks so much better now.  I like these little projects.  It is just a woodshed.  But everything is better with little TLC.