Tempus Fugit

Goggle Reflections

A little more Photoshop practice. The manipulation that you can do is quite surprising the first time you do it. Even though I knew what was going to happen, the first reflection in the goggles gave me quite a jolt. I hear the little inside voice say, “You’ve got to be kidding!”.

The first FOG ride of the year was great. It was cool at about 1°C and a fair breeze, but still a great ride, well for most of the way. About 21 of us set off at 10am and several turned back at Lockport while the rest of us headed over to Birds Hill Park for a couple of laps. After 1 1/2 laps, I decided that I needed to head back and 5 of us started the return on Hwy 59 while the rest of the keeners headed of for another lap at 35-38kph.

Thinks were good until I got out onto Hwy 59 and we were cruising at about 37-38 with a tail wind. Aerobically I seemed fine, the legs were burning a bit but there was this feeling deep in the pit of my stomach that said “slow up or throw up”. I opted for the “slow up”, and drifted back from the group and limped into the parking lot, well off the group pace for a 74km ride. A little zapped, but feeing good.

Friday was my first cycle commute of 2009 and it was good to get back on the road with the mountain bike as opposed to idling in traffic with the truck. The first think I noticed is that I seem to have neglected the bike a bit from some previous winter ride and the drive train had a little rust on it and was a little noisy, but shifting was still fairly good. I’ll need to attend to that this weekend.

I followed my usual route downtown taking the bike paths to the Niakwa park area, detouring over the Fermor bridge as the Seine flooding had the bike path bridge well under water. Only the tops of the hand rails are visible. After that it was down DesMurons, over to St. Marys and into the heart of the city. Traffic was typical, and drivers were good to me.

At work when I entered the locker room I was greeted with a bit of a mess. Some co-worker treating the area like his personal space and there is a pile of towels and “other stuff” in the corner, and more personal items left in the common shower area. Time for a friendly reminder that this is a shared space.

Today should be my first ride with FOG this year, unless it starts pouring before the 10am start. I’ll ride in the rain is it happens after we start but I’m not so big on setting out in a downpour. Gary S. is running a great blog for the club and it looks like he’ll be keeping us all in line this year. Unlike last year, I’ve been training since January and have been out on the road several times already this year, so I’m hoping not to suck too much on the first group ride. It should be fun and I’m looking forward to seeing the group agian.

An incredible full red-orange moon on the western horizon and Orion’s Belt over the driveway, what a welcome to the lake on the first trip of the year.
With the fireplace blazing and the mild temperatures, the cottage was quick to warm but the first few minutes in bed were quite exhilarating!

What do you think? Does it look like Sin City? I’m not sure as I’ve not seen the movie.

This is no April Fools joke, unless you consider Mother Nature a joker. Even though we Winnipeger’s should know better, we still expect it to be warmer, and to have is stop snowing sooner, and of course it would be nice if it didn’t flood everywhere, but such is not the case.

Out the front window this morning.