G is for ...

For some reason when the calendar changes over to August, it feels like the summer went by so fast and it's nearly over.  Especially when they start to play back to school commercials, when the mornings are dark and I see the odd skunk or raccoon making it's way in the pre-dawn, and when the outside temperature starts to feel cooler compared to June & July. 

It's been a while since we have been, but when the CNE is on, that's a signal that the end of summer is here. Which also means K will be heading into 3rd year university. Some of his friends all start heading off to get settled in their off campus housing rentals.  Not sure which is scarier: watching your kid grow up this fast, or eating something called a “Kool-Aid pickle” at the Ex. 

G is for G license.  K passed his road test to get his full G license. Which means he can finally drive himself places.  He was already doing this with his G2, but now he's good to go and no more tests to pay for.  Young Drivers has a G Road test prep course.  They schedule everything, but they mistakenly booked a G2 test instead of a G.  And the MTO would not refund me over the phone, and they would not refund ME in person, it had to be Kieran with my credit card.  It was such a process pain.  

But I get it.  They want to prevent any scammers from executing another gold heist at the airport.   Good luck with that.  Only 1 way to stop that from happening again.  But it's likely impossible as that was an inside job.  And those guys have disappeared.

This just means he'll be asking me to leave the Venza for him, since the other car is a manual transmission. And I will need to remember to check the fuel gauge, in case he brings the car home on fumes. Also, my insurance bill probably just fainted.   

What can you do?  It is what it is.  At least if he gets a job and needs to drive to work, he's all set. We dislike driving, especially in the city.  The traffic jams, and the many aggressive and generally many bad drivers.  This accident involved no other cars and it was in school zone.  I asked around, but no one saw this driver flip the car on its side, they only heard the aftermath.

It's more dangerous to walk and bike around the city cuz some driver could take you out.  Keep your head on a swivel and eyes on alert.  Better yet. Stay inside.  But even bad drivers will ram a car into a brick house.  No place is safe!

G is for Grit. Cycling-wise, I finished the Sir Sam’s Everest challenge. Needed 88 climbs, but went full overachiever mode and hit 91. Why? Honestly… I don’t even know.   I thought this would be a good challenge to focus on.  I had to change the trails I rode at Sir Sam's to focus on repeated climbs.  There are 6 trails that I enjoy riding there.

1. Crash N' Carry
2. Time Warp
3. Rocky Road
4. Python
5. The Ridge
6. Lou's Loop

The Ridge is a challenging technical climbing trail with some long rocky sections that can be tricky to get through without putting your foot down.  My HR ratchets up quickly on this trail.  It's not easy, and I always feel like I will damage my bike on the rocks.  But I've learned to ride it.  I can do it almost every time now.  You need to have your legs feeling fresh.  Any fatigue will get you caught up on the rocks and you'll either need to reset or walk your bike or worse.  Getting through it without putting my foot down or caught up always feels like a win.  Never fails to put a smile on my face when I can ride through it like a skilled rider.  I've ridden it enough to know the lines to ride and it's just a matter of keeping the wheels moving.

The rest are all downhills trails.  Fun, flowy and fast with a bit of air for flair.  I got a new Norco Fluid FS C2 in June of 2024.  I love it.  It's a few lbs heavier than my 2016 Optic C2, but it has bigger knobby tires for grip and longer travel and just feels smooth and buttery on the technical downhills and landing gap jumps.  I was pushing the limits of my older Optic, the newer Fluid has a different personality and is very capable going downhill over gnarly Ontario terrain.

There is no prize for completing this Everest challenge.  I don't even know where I am in the leaderboard standings.  It says they will publish a leaderboard.  I have yet to see one.  So I kept on grinding up the ski hill.  I had never before this year done more than 6 or 7.  Usually I would do my 5 fav trails.  My goal for this challenge was to do at least 10-11 per weekend (Sat & Sun).

Everest rises up to 29,031ft and Sir Sam's is 330ft.  The Sir Sam's Everest requires 88 climbs to the top - hike or ride.  If you hike and happen to do the lookout tower, that adds another 120ft.  I was watching people do repeats on the tower as I rode by at the top, thinking to myself - they have a lot of repeats to do.

• Sat June 20 - 8x (Start)
• Sun June 22 - 3x 
• ----- 11 / 88 | 12.5% ------
• Sat June 28 - 7x
• Sun June 29 - 5x
• ---- 23 / 88 |  26% -----  
• Sat July 5 - 8x
• Sun July 6 -  4x 
• ----- 35 / 88 | 39.7% ----
• Sat Aug 2 - 10x
• Sun Aug 3 - 6x
• ----- 51 / 88 | 56% -----
• Sat Aug 9 - 8x 
• Sun Aug 10  - 4x 
• ----- 63 / 88 | 70% -----
• Fri Aug 15 - 11x 
• Sat Aug 16 - 7x
• ---- 81 / 88 | 92% ----------
• Fri Aug 22 - 7x - 88/88 - Done!
• Sat Aug 23 - 3x  - 91

I figured I could complete it in 8 wks. Which would have taken me to end of summer. By August I was half-way and feeling the drag of the repetitions and wanted to try to get it done sooner.  This year the summer weather seemed to come about a month or 2 later.  Usually it cools a bit in August, but it was a heat wave for much of it.  The weekends I managed 10, 8 & 11 repeats were draining, but I was determined to get this over with sooner rather than later.  ChatGPT helped me with fuelling and water bottle strategies.

Last Friday - I was done with the challenge.  I still don't know where I am on the leaderboard.  Whenever I am there on the weekends riding, I don't see any other crazy nut doing repeats.  But I don't ride there during the week so I don't know.  However, I feel at least now I can enjoy my rides there and do any trail I want and not focus on doing many repeats.  A few times Tresa would call and I had a few more repeats to do and miss meeting up for coffee in town after her dad would do his daily dump and donut run.

G is for Genuine. Then there’s our 23rd wedding anniversary. Twenty-three years! We keep forgetting the actual date, we always have to ask each other is it today or 2 days from now?   There's no secret.  It's honest effort, humour, communication and appreciation.  Without these ... it doesn't matter.  It'll fall apart.   

We watched the movie F1 at the Queensway Cineplex.  Friends had said it was good! It was a great movie to watch on the big screen!  Like Top Gun but for Formula 1.

There's like no one in the theatres.  It's a bit sad.  But maybe it's because it had been out already for a few months.  Maybe the VIP theatre had more people.  We did see a coyote in the parking lot as we were leaving.  It's certainly not buzzing like it was.  Hopefully it comes back.  But going out to the movies is such a great experience, regardless.  I kinda like that it is no packed like sardines.  And no one behind you kicking your chair.

I still remember the Twoonie Tues though.  Nachos.  Popcorn with fake oil butter is still there.  That butter never goes bad.  They still have lots of trailers, and I was done half my popcorn before the movie even started.  Just glad I didn't have to go pee halfway through.

So yeah — August. Family wins, big climbs, fried food, and a reminder that time doesn’t slow down.

Who AI r U?

I have been known to ask a lot of questions.  Luckily for me there's something will respond to each and every question I post.  I wasn't a big user of ChatGPT, but in recent months I have found it to be very useful when I needed some guidance or direction.

Google searches require a lot of reading and sifting through.  You can read a lot of articles.  But wouldn't it be great to ask your question(s) and get a response, you learning by asking right?  Then your question becomes more specific.  That is the basis of a prompt.  The better your prompt, the better the response from ChatGPT.

I have been using it to help me understand where I was in my recovery from injury and find balance in all my activities.  What used to work for me in years past was no longer working.  Struggling to find my legs, and my energy levels.  I didn't want to guess, I needed recommendations and direction.  And a few months on,  it's been working out.

We are on the cusp of change.  It's been coming for some time, and it's becoming more evident and its evolution is accelerating.  It feels a bit odd, maybe because it's been quite useful.  But it's a relatively new tool, and I don't completely trust it.  I doubt I ever will, but it's like when the internet came about.  This will take time, to become mainstream.   We all have to find a way to make it work for us, or get left behind.

Change can be good thing.  We had to get our Wolf stove serviced and I found out years ago that I could change out parts to make it look like new.  Tried as I might, I could not clean the top of the stove of all the baked in food in the burner pan from a decade of cooking.  

After the service the top looks so good.  I took this pic before we started cooking on it again.  So what's old, looks new again.  Now we gotta make sure we don't spill cooking over into the pan.

What's new is out.  I don't recall so much trouble scheduling my wisdom teeth being yanked out.  With K, it was rescheduled twice.  May wasn't good cuz of summer school courses.  Then we had to take account work, driving lessons, then summertime.  There's never a good time.  You just have to do it and then move forward.   

K was in some discomfort the day of the procedure, and the next day he had to get someone to cover for him cuz he was still reeling from the after effects of the procedure. But after a few days of pain killers and antibiotics, he was feeling more himself.

It's mid-summer, and the warm weather is nice, but the lack of rain is wreaking havoc across the country.  Uncontrolled fires, haze and smoke made it look like it was always a chance of rain.   The seasons feels like it's been delayed by a month.  Chilly weather continued to the beginning of June.  And typically the heat waves end by start of August.  But it's mid-August and it's hotter than ever.

It's been a warm summer.  Feels like summer for a change.  Usually we have more thunderstorms, but this year has been a dry one.   Any rain we get is short lived.  Not enough to keep grass and plants alive.

Enjoy the weather while it lasts.  Because soon enough you'll miss it.  Already the days are getting shorter.  It's now so dark out when I go for my morning rides. the skunks are still wandering about.  I saw one ramble through our laneway to go hide in our neighbours backyard somewhere.

BTW in that top pic.  I took that before 5:30am and it's due east.  If you zoom in the middle, there are 2 celestial bodies you will see.  The brighter one is Venus, the other is Jupiter.