Downtown Fire
by garry.c.stewart on Aug.24, 2010, under Grab Bag
Just a little bit of excitement downtown today. Shorty before 5pm there was a fairly large fire in an apartment complex downtown.
In fact this apartment fire was right behind the IBM building at 400 Ellice Ave. between it and Portage Place. As I walked over from the GWL offices at 444 St Mary I could see the thick black smoke pouring over the top of Portage Place. I walked up the back lane where lots of people were milling about looking at the fire and all the police and firemen on the scene. This back alley behind the IBM building is where the lockup cage for my bike is located. After changing into my riding gear and taking a few photos I head down to get my bike from the cage only to find that the whole area is cordoned off with “Do No Cross” police tape. I speak to an office about trying to get my bike, but it’s no-go. They are concerned that the fire might spread to a very large power transformer that is right on the edge of the alley across from where my bike is and cause an explosion.
After about a 1/2 hour wait the officer calls me over and I get escorted over to get my bike. We have a brief chat, and I’m on my way. Something a little out of the ordinary, that’s for sure!
August Long Weekend
by garry.c.stewart on Aug.04, 2010, under Grab Bag
This years fireworks at the annual Harbourfest celebration were the best ever. Some of the displays were very spectacular and they had some great combinations of simultaneous low and high she action that was very effective. The phone snapshot does not do the event justice.
Kenora Harbourfest fireworks display
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Cottage Projects
by garry.c.stewart on Jul.24, 2010, under Maintenance and The Lake
Yesterday’s project was power washing the lower deck in preparation for staining. Today, after the morning ride around the bypass, I finished off the new corner post on the cottage. Last year I replaced the deck corner post on the same corner and prepped the area for this post. Instead of concrete block pads, I’ve poured pads directly on the rock and anchored with several pieces of rebar drilled into the rock. That should stay put for a while.
On a previous week at the lake, I repaired one set of the front windows and this week, the other pair is on the list.
After completing the post task Shirley and I were completing the
staining of the upper deck, but a sudden rain shower called a halt to
that. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to goof off for a while. What? Now
it’s sunny again but we’ll need to wait for the deck to dry up again, so
it’s off to the dock for a little tanning.
What a difference a week makes
by Garry on Jul.17, 2010, under Activities, Cycling and FOG
The thought originally for this post was about my weekly FOG ride and the bulk of it will be, but a lot has happened in the last week and things are working out better that anticipated.
Anyway, last weeks FOG ride. As you may or may not know the “F” on FOG stands for Fast and the “O” stands for Old and both are subject to interpretation. “O” can be anywhere from 23 to 60+ and “F” has a significant range as well. The fast speed is still refered to as fast, and trust me it is very fast. The slower speed was once referred to as “Endurance”, as nobody really likes to be in a slow group but there seems to be 2 “slower” speed groups emerging. I like the new name for the 35-38 kph group which is now being referred to as the “Classic” speed, which when I joined a couple of years ago was the only other that fast speed. Anyway, I’ve ridden with the fast group off and on and usually get dropped in the process, but hey, it’s a great challenge and fun to really go hard.
The last two weeks I’ve ridden with the fast group. Two weeks ago it was a lovely sunny and warm day. We did just over 100km at an average speed of 36.4km and there were some very quick sections of the ride to get that average speed. Yes, I got dropped a couple of times but was able to rejoin and hang with the group most of the way.
This week it was cloudy, raining on and off and cooler. At the starting point folks were hanging around looking at the sky, not getting the bikes out of the cars and hesitating on getting ready to ride. Finally, at 9:10 we get under way with 18 riders. 9:13 we’re stopped at the side of the road with the 1st flat of the day. The city really needs to sweep off the shoulder on the Perimeter bridge over Henderson as this is a frequent cause of flats. After we’re underway again you start to get used to the wheel spray from the rider in front. At times it’s hard to tell if it’s raining our just spray, and then it rains harder and you get your answer. Shortly, my shoes are soaked and initialy this is quite uncomfortable but after you get used to that, being wet no longer matters.
After Lockport the group splits up into “fast” and “others”. I’m torn. There are only 4 guys going in the fast group, and I know it will be wicked fast. But, being a sucker for punishment I hook on to a wheel and we’re off. Well, that doesn’t last too long and I’m trailing off the back quite a bit. Then, I’m joined by another rider who’s trying to rejoin the fast group. We work together at about 40 kph and are keeping pace this the fast group ahead, but can’t close the gap. Eventually, we rejoin the fast group as they slow down at the corner of Hwy 44 & 206 but then the speed is on again. Once in Birds Hill Park our mileage is only about 36km as we’ve taken a non-standard route, so we’re doing laps of the park to make up the distance. I’m taking short pulls at the front and doing my best to hang on to the group. At one point I stay a few seconds too long at the front and almost can’t get on the wheel of the last rider as I drift to the back of the paceline. I’m looking at 3-4 feet and giving it everything to close up. Note to self, shorter times at the front. On another occation I’m think it’s really hard to get back on and I look down at the cycling computer and I’m doing 50 kph to get on the train!
This keeps up for an 88 km ride at an average of 34.6 kph and just two minutes before we’re back at the cars it really pours just to make sure we’re really soaked. All in all a great ride.
Birthday Surprise
by Garry on Jul.17, 2010, under Family
Looking pretty happy about this.
Somebody got an early birthday surprise, and from the looks of it in this photo, the “surprise” was worth it! Way to go Scott.
Happy Birthday Mandy, lots of love, Mom & Dad.
Return to MDH
by garry.c.stewart on Jul.09, 2010, under Cycling and Travel
It is looking like there will be a second trip to do some mountain biking on the MDH trail in 2010! A tentative date of Sept 18-19 has been suggested and this also might be the largest group ever. I hope the Ranch is up for this.
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Floating Dock Launch
by garry.c.stewart on Jul.04, 2010, under Grab Bag
Normally, the floating dock or swim platform would have been set in place much earlier in the year, but I needed to build some new “anchors” to replace the huge rock that got away last year.
To replace the rock, this year there are three five gallon pails filled with rocks held together with cement and an eye bolt for attaching the chain.
These three pails, each weighing 100+ lbs. are linked together on the end of a 50′ chain. I’ve positioned them at one end of the dock for launching, and they are causing the dock to seriously dip down in the water.
Once in position the pails were edged very close to the edge and then pushed over. It’s quite calm today so the true test will come on a day with a strong south-west wind, then we will see if the new anchor system hold.
Immediately upon splashing into the water this huge group of pelicans comes over for a look.
Surprisingly, they don’t seem afraid and actually swim closer for a better look and hang around the dock for 15-20 minutes.
The need for speed
by garry.c.stewart on Jun.09, 2010, under Grab Bag
The need for others to know your speed that is.
Food Fight
by garry.c.stewart on Jun.07, 2010, under Grab Bag
On the weekend we were out on the lake boating back to the cottage after finding a geocache on Strawberry Island and we noticed a large number of birds on the shore of another island. We headed over and counted in excess of 10 eagles, a number of turkey vultures and half a dozen pelicans, all fighting over some fish remains on the shore.
The funny part was that as we approached the eagles moved off to perch in near by trees and while they watched the pelicans returned and one of them made off with the fish!
However, all of this action provided a great opportunity to get some good shots of the eagles and pelicans. The sun was out and the afternoon was warm as we floated over a sand bar before heading for home. Our little boat isn’t quite like this one, but it’s taken us on some great adventures on the lake. All in all a great afternoon on beautiful Lake of the Woods.
Commuter Challenge
by garry.c.stewart on May.31, 2010, under Cycling
Today is the start of Commuter Challenge Week, and as it turns out my ride into work this this morning was a little extra “challenging”.
My route takes me over the Seine River on a path that parallels Fermor Ave. A rider in front of me slowed and stopped just as the path was descending towards the river. After a rain there is typically a little mud that washes onto the path and I thought he was just being a bit of a wuss so I charged on without really looking at the river. Well, when the river is high a short section of the path goes under water, but no problem there is a dirt mud trail that bypasses this section so I forged ahead getting the bike and myself royally messy. And then I came to a full stop. The path and bridge was under 2′ of water so this required backtracking through the mud again, and up over the bridge on Fermor with mud flying every direction off the tires. An excellent adventure to start the day.
