First to the Ring

This was an invite that I genuinely felt great accepting.
1. I'd never been to the MacMaster campus.  Tucked in a beautiful area of Hamilton, with lots of character.
2. I could barely remember my own iron ring ceremony.

The occasion? My nephew was receiving his Iron Ring, and he asked me to be the one to present it to him.  As the first of the "kids" in the family to graduate from engineering, it was a true full-circle moment.

Lou was happy and proud.  Very fortunate I was able to be there and be a part of it.

I knew the story, most engineers know it beforehand anyways.  But it was vague and so long ago that I didn't have other parts that were quite interesting.
1. Made in Canada: This is a uniquely Canadian institution. You won't find this exact ritual anywhere else in the world.
2. A Literary Touch: The ceremony was actually developed by Rudyard Kipling in the 1920s, at the request of Professor Herbert Haultain. Kipling understood that engineers needed a "calling" that emphasized the gravity of their work.

3. The Symbolism of Failure: One of the most sobering parts of the tradition is the origin of the steel. The rings (and the ritual hardware) are linked to the history of structural failures in Canada (the Quebec Bridge collapse was real). It reminds us that if we fail at our jobs, people pay the price.

Glad the day was nice.  Chilly but at least it wasn't raining.  It was a beautiful clear day.  The day before was dreary.
Always seems like someone was watching over us to clear the skies.

If it was crap weather, there would have been more fender benders.

Leaving the Macmaster area on the highway, an accident in the far left lane.  Young black kid in a Civic and an older white dude.  Guess who rear ended who.

Then getting on the QEW another accident with 3 cars, again in the left most lane.  No wonder our insurance is going up and up.  These folks need to chill the #f down when driving and pay attention.

Once nice thing about heading out to the Hammer.  I stopped by the Copper Kettle in Waterdown to bring home some fritters.  Unfortunately.  They stopped making the pear one, only apple now.   Still delicious!

If there's one reason to Stay in School it's this ratio of girls to guys. ^^^
My nephew and his engineering friends.

Do your best, work hard, and good things will come of it.

Sun sets on Art

The sun rises in the east, brightens our day and provides warmth as we go about our day, and then sets in the west.  Tomorrow it will do it again, regardless of what happened today.

There is a rhythm to life that we often don't notice until the tempo begins to change. We come together in the beginning, we gather through the middle years, and eventually, we find ourselves gathering once more to say goodbye.

Last week we said goodbye to our Tito Art.

It is a quiet, inevitable circle.

We go through our routines, like the rising and setting of the sun.  Change is always difficult.  We get injured, our bodies readjust resources to heal a wound.  And for a while we might feel some pain.

Saying goodbye is one of those instances when a piece of you is no longer there.  It feels different. Because the world you know has changed forever.  Something that can't be undone or replaced.  That in itself is a very powerful statement.  Acceptance is up to the individual to find what works for them.

There's no magic spell, or words, or fix.
But eventually the pain minimizes some so you can make it through today and continue on to tomorrow.  The realization that there is a piece of that person that is always with you, forever.  They gifted it to you, and no one can ever take it away.

Winters of Winters Past

We have had more snow this year than in previous years.  It reminds me of the amount of snow we would get many years ago. 

In recent years the snow we have been getting hasn't been much.  Sometimes if you wait a day or so it'll melt away.  But this end of January snowstorm was a lot of snow in 1 day.  That pile of snow is higher than the 4ft high chainlink fence.  When the day started there was a few inches there.

I had gone out to clear snow 4 times.  I have a Toro e21 snowblower.  I had to charge it half-way through the day.  

When I went out for the 3rd time, the snow in my backyard had accumulated to my knees.  It was piling up around our car in the backyard.  It was the most snow I can remember coming down in a matter of hours.

You can see how much snow we got on our awning and roof tops.  It was was coming down a few cm/hr.  Which doesn't seem like a lot.

That laneway between the homes adds to the effort of clearing.  There's nowhere to throw the snow.  At least this snow was fluffy.  Just a lot

I had ordered our usual North Of Brooklyn pizza for noon instead of supper, before the snow became too much for anyone to deliver let along drive.  And it was coming down fast.  Every time I had come back in from clearing, it almost seemed like I hadn't shovelled at all.

Just as I was wrapping up, the 3rd time, the snow plow came through.  So I spent time clearing the piles it pushed around my car and driveway.  My neighbour had only been out 1x earlier.  You can see how much was on top of his SUV.  It looks like a cargo van.

But this past Family Day/Valentine's Day weekend the temps warmed up.  It was around 0 deg C on the Monday, and on the plus side as we made our way back to the city.  Yesterday was a balmy plus 6.  Today it's raining.  Dreary.

Pasta-fazoo

I’ve been meaning to make pasta from scratch for a while. For some reason I just never got around to it. It’s so much easier to just grab a box of dry noodles — they’re always around the house, super convenient, and honestly, I don’t even know if they ever go bad?

I also don’t own a pasta machine to flatten or cut the dough nicely.  I thought that was a prerequisite to making pasta. But I figured: I have a rolling pin, and every recipe I found made it look surprisingly simple. Honestly, even simpler than making my own bread. And you don’t actually need a machine — just roll it thin and slice it with a knife.

I was home by myself, there was a Leafs game on tonight against the Canes and not feeling overly hungry, and pasta is always a good, simple meal.  It's also a nice distraction in case the Buds stink the rink.  So I decided, okay, today’s the day. Let’s make pasta.

All I used was:

• 00 flour
• Eggs
• Fancy salt
• Olive oil

That’s it.

You mix everything together right on the counter. (Still not sure why it can’t be done in a bowl like bread — but it ends up on the counter to knead anyway.  So clean the counter before you do this) Once it comes together, coat it lightly with oil, cover it, and let it rest for about 30 minutes so the gluten can relax.

After resting, I split the dough into quarters. Rolling each piece out flat actually wasn’t hard — just a bit of patience. The video I watched suggested lightly flouring the sheet, folding it gently, and then slicing so you get more even noodles. It worked great.

Start to finish — mixing, resting, rolling, cutting, and cooking a portion — it was about 90 minutes total.

Fresh pasta cooks fast. Just three to four minutes, since it doesn’t need to rehydrate like dried noodles.

I tried a piece after about three minutes, and honestly… my eyes lit up. It was astonishingly good. I wasn't sure what to expect. The best pasta I'd ever tasted was in Italy, it was melt in your mouth. This wasn't that. But it was very good. Every other pasta has been the boiled dried packaged variant.  Everyone I asked beforehand said homemade pasta tastes way better than dry noodles, and they were right. 

It was tender, delicious, almost buttery — even without sauce. But I did add some sauce, grated parmesan, and freshly cracked pepper.  Simple meal.  And simple to make.

I even made that board. Ha. Honestly, I did.

Won over the World

They may not be 2025 World Series champs, but they won the hearts of fans worldwide.  This was the funnest group of guys to watch in a post season run, I have ever witnessed.  They'd lose, then come back.  Then do it again and again.

I've never watched baseball as intently like I did this fall.  The strike zone overlay was helpful.  It was an insanely entertaining post series from ALDS, to ALCS to W-S, and the games within the game.  The strategy, decisions, choices, and outcomes.  I watched most of the games by myself, but towards the end it was with groups of others in watch parties that were everywhere.  I loved it!  A nation united behind 1 team, bringing energy to the field, home or away.   It didn't matter.

The Blue Jays Manager said something similar to this in a post game interview, if there is one constant, it's that time marches on, win or lose.  Spring training comes around.  A new season starts.

He also apologized to the fans.  One MLB analyst said he didn't have to apologize for anything.  Which is true.  But apologizing is a very Canadian thing.  We apologize for everything.  The MLB analyst couldn't relate as he was American.  But we Canadians, appreciated his words and Schneider represented the Blue Jays organization as Canada's MLB team, in a very Canadian way.  

Thank you Blue Jays for an incredible post season run.

Looking forward to next season.  The Bounce Back Jays!

A Quiet Place

My aunt passed away yesterday. I will always remember her for her regal stature — the kind of quiet strength that drew respect without ever demanding it. To me, she moved through life with a calm certainty, knowing what she wanted and taking each step toward it with purpose.  But family always came first.

In her, I often saw reflections of La — that same grace. Just like La, I somehow thought she would live forever.

I didn’t see her often, but the internet has a way of shrinking distances. Through my cousins, I would send my hugs and kisses — small reminders of love that reached across the kilometers.

Rest peacefully, Tita Rit.
We love you, and we will miss you.
Say hi to Ma & La. I miss them too.

95 tops 90

There was this Everest challenge at Sir Sam's this year, its purpose was to raise money for their Ski Patrol.  No prizes, just recognition of your accomplishment.  I had my reservations when I signed up for this challenge in June, as their logging system was a google form, and it was an honour system for logging the number of climbs you did on every visit.

The challenged ended on Aug 30 when they put the leader's name on the webpage. I even did another 4 repeats on the last day of the challenge.  I had asked how far behind I was as I was had completed 95, and found out the leader had logged 90 climbs.  Unfortunately the distance log form only captured 80 of mine.  But Strava logged all 95 of my climbs.

There was no prize, only bragging rights (even that I felt a bit robbed of since another person got the recognition.  I did send along my strava links as proof of my 95 climbs).  

I do not intend to do this challenge again.  I like having a variety of different ride options - mtb, gravel, road.  This took some of the fun out of mtb this summer for me as I was trying to do volume vs quality.  And I rode solo for a lot of it.  Almost all of it.  It's not like there's ton of trails.  But I did accomplish some PRs.  I had never climbed double digits on a single visit.  I did it 2x.  I never ride there Sat & Sun.  I did that pretty much every visit to get to 95.  My next goal was 100.  But I was cut short, and kinda done with mtb this season.

I took a selfie when I hit 88, and had ChatGPT generate an animated version of it,  I thought I would post it anyways.