Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Author: Garry

  • Sorry Lady

    Just wanted to say I’m sorry to the lady who yelled at me from her car on Assiniboine Ave this morning after I made a radical lane change in front of her car on the Queen Elizabeth Way bridge.

    I know I surprised you and you didn’t see me coming until the last second. It was all my fault. I made a bad decision. I’m sorry.

    I heard you say “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”, well the answer is “No”. If you had hit me you would have been trying to rear end that car in front of you. I’m sure you weren’t trying to do that either.

    I cycle that route every day so there is a chance we’ll see each other again. I made a mistake. I’m sorry and I hope you’ll forgive me and give me a second chance.

  • Old Guy?

    A few weeks back I’m out riding at the lake and I’m on the Jones Road heading north. I notice another rider up ahead and I start to work on closing the gap. I’m thinking this person must be a fairly good rider as I’m not able to close very fast, if at all! For some of the time we seem to be keeping pace and then some of the time I’m closing up a bit.

    Finally, I’m on their wheel, an she slows down a bit and I go by, we say “hello”.  Then she’s pulling along side and passing. OK, it’s on now! Turns out she’s training for a triathlon and doing some intervals. We ride along for a number of kms and I manage to keep her behind me most of the time, but she’s realy putting the hurt on me.

    We round a corner onto Airport Road and slow the pace a bit and talk. We exchange info on our riding life, she tells me about her triathlon training. I mention how I normally never meet up with anybody on the Kenora rides, and she says she almost always has a riding partner. Then it happens. She says to me, “There’s another old guy who rides out of the Longbow Lake area, do you know him?”. Old Guy! Kids these days, just no respect. And by the way you were drafting me for a good portion of the section.

  • The ways of the demon rum

    It starts of innocently enough.

    Demon Rum

    A fruity cocktail on some exotic southern vacation. You can’t even tell what’s in the drink, but it tastes so good, and one leads to another. Most likely it’s made with white rum, and that seems good enough at the time.

    But time passes, and the demon has set it’s hooks. White rum is no longer enough and you start looking for something else. Amber rum is calling, and you respond. Fruity stuff is out and you try a number of concoctions but then you see the light and move on to the real drink, Rum & Coke. Not diet coke, not “the new” coke, not coke zero, but the real thing, full strength original Coca-Cola, and life is good… for a while. 

    And then the demon calls to you again, and you slip over to the dark side, the true rum, dark, deep, and mysteriously delicious. Coke is decreasing and the demon rum is increasing. Soon you’re drinking it “neat” and it’s better that any single malt. But still, Coke is a good companion and the preferred mix for the serious rum drinker.

    Arrrr Matey,  that’s the way of the demon rum

    Demon rum

     

  • It could be one of two things

    It could be one of two things: “

    It might be that your audience isn’t smart enough, caring enough, attentive enough, with-it enough or generous enough to understand and appreciate you.

    Or it might be that you’re not good enough (yet).

    If you’re in the habit of assuming one of these, try out the other one for a while.

    “

    (Via Seth’s Blog.)

  • PJS, Coincidence?

    My Uncle Stan was in town this weekend stopping of on his way to Calgary to visit his family. We got together with him for dinner at Carol’s and of course a major part of the conversation was about the birth of our Grandson Parker Judah Stewart.

    As the evening progressed there was a lull in the conversation and out of the blue Uncle Stan says “Did you realize that Parker has the same initials as your mom?”

    I had not thought of this and it was quite a surprise! What a special connection between Parker and his Great Ama, Phyllis Joyce Stewart.

    She would have been so proud, happy and excited for Des, Eric & Parker. This little connection may not mean much to most, but for me I’ll forever more think of my mom every time I see Parker and know that one day they will meet, and that will be such an exciting time.

  • Welcome

    It was good to finally meet you in person the other day. I know it was kind of busy and you were meeting a lot of new people, but I feel that we really connected.

    When we were close, and our eyes locked, I could feel that special bond starting to form. Your grip was strong, a confident handshake that will serve you well and take you many places in this life. Despite all the excitement, you were calm and collected, adapting like a pro to your new surroundings.

    I look forward to getting to know you better over the coming years and strengthening our relationship. I’m sure we’ll have much to learn from each other.

    With much love,
    Your Granddad

    P.s. Happy Birthday Parker Judah Stewart

  • Squirrel Piss

    When I was younger I had a summer job at Furby Motors. The owner, Ken Main, was also a cottage owner on Bretton Lake where I spent may great summers growing up. Between working the summer job and hanging out with his family at the lake we became pretty good friends. One day at work I needed to get some rusty bolts of off some automotive part and they just were not budging. Ken walks by and sees my situation and casually says “Put some squirrel piss on them”. I guess from my stunned look he realized I’d never heard that phrase before. “Penetrating oil” he says.

    To this day every time I reach for the Liquid Wrench to help with a rusty bolt I think of Ken and the good times we had at work and sailing on Lake Brerton.

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  • With a little help from my friends

    I thought I knew how to change a flat, and I do, but last Saturday I learned a lot more. I learned how to do it with the help of friends.

    It was the first official FOG ride of the year and we were about 45 minutes in and just about to turn off Main St back onto River Road and the bike was feeling a little funny. Just after the turn it was for sure the dreaded flat on a group ride. Protocol has everyone stop and wait for the flat to get fixed, so there is a little pressure to get it done quickly.

    Flying through the change the tube is out, wheel and tire checked quickly and new tube installed an re-inflated. Just as I’m putting the wheel back on the bike I notice it’s flat again!

    Lesson #1: Be quick and careful.

    One of my friends has a very close look at the tire by turning it inside out and flexing it back. This process discovers a small piece of glass which is pried out. Now we’re ready for another tube.

    Lesson #2: Have lots of the right tubes.

    I have a 2nd tube with a short stem and the new rear wheel with the Powertap has a deep rim. Friends to the rescue as I’m given a tube. A quick but careful tube and tire assembly followed by a CO2 inflation and we’re good to go.

    Another 30-40 minutes go by and it happens again! Another flat! Frustrated I call for a pickup but the friends insist that they will help get me on the road again. A close look at the wheel shows that the rim tap has moved leaving 3 exposed spoke holes that most likely caused the tube to puncture. Another friend supplies the solution with self adhesive tube patches to cover over the spoke holes. Another friend supplies another tube and while inflating with a borrowed frame pump because i left mine at home, I hear the dreaded psssssss sound. The metal valve stem has snapped! Unbelievable!
    I’m given another tube and this time all goes well and were back on the road.

    Lesson #3: Know your equipment.

    The rest of the ride was uneventful. I’m the only one who flatted, the only one to delay the ride, twice, both for an extraordinarily long time.

    Lesson #4: Always ride with friends.

    Thanks to everyone who helped me get through the ride, gave me tubes, patches, pumps and offered encouragement. Thanks to all who waited patiently.

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  • Commuting

    This is the first week without the truck and a full 5 days of bicycle commuting. So far I’m not missing the truck too much and with the unusually warm weather it’s not been much of a hardship. In fact, last night I biked home in shorts! Not all the days were easy. On Tuesday, the melt from Monday coated the streets with ice and it was quite tense trying to stay upright while listening to car spin their tires and sliding all around me.

    The Sasquatch got another commuter upgrade last night as well with a set of new Specialized tires. They are much quieter and probably a fair bit faster with less rolling resistance.

    The new cycle commuting routine is getting down to a science and snow, ice and cold are no problem. We’ll see how it goes in the rain, that will be the next challenge.

  • Steel Beast Rides Again

    Well, pretty soon the truck is going back, and I’ll be making the daily work commute using different forms of transportation. It will either be the bus, or by bike. I’ve made a few test runs on the bus and it seems like it will be quite acceptable. The only thing is I’m not all that crazy about keeping to a strict schedule that is required by the bus, I like to be a little more free flowing. Fortunately, the bus schedule at both ends of my route has buses arriving quite frequently so last minute departure changes should not be too bad to deal with.

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    My other option is to up by cycle commuting game to more of a year round endeavour. Several folks at work are hard core, right through the winter, every day cycle commuters, that put my casual “if it’s not raining” three season cycling to shame. So, here is the new strategy, as yet unproven, but I’m now ready to go.

    I’ve brought back the “Steel Beast” now tricked out with a new seat, fenders and panniers. Who know that the 30+ year old Norco Sasquach would get this kind of use? Cromoly steel at it’s finest, nearly indestructible, a little on the heavy side, but that just makes for a better workout.

    The Sasquach was my 1st mountain bike from way back in the day and it’s hard to believe that I traded in a Honda 550F for a bicycle. Ah, the sacrifices you make for children, but that’s another story.

    My new work location is not quite as convenient as my prior location as I don’t yet have access to a full time locker. With the panniers I think I’ll be able to transport and store the extra gear during the day until a locker becomes available.

    So that’s it. The old bike has been given a new life was as hard core year round commuter ride. Now lets see if I can become the hard core year round rider!