Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Posts

  • Cottage Projects


    New Corner Post
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

    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.

    White Windows
    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

    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


    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

    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.

    Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

  • Floating Dock Launch


    Artistic Anchor
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

    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.

    Three Pails Full

    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.

    Anchors Aweigh

    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.

    Inspection Crew

    Surprisingly, they don’t seem afraid and actually swim closer for a better look and hang around the dock for 15-20 minutes.
    Crusing Formation


  • The need for speed

    The need for others to know your speed that is.

  • Food Fight


    Who’s got my fish?
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

    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

    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.

  • Daily Double


    Air Kiss, awesome stuff!

    First road ride at the lake this year was a little more interesting that some. I followed the usual route of heading out Storm Bay Road, east on Hwy 17 and then taking the bypass, Hwy 17a west back towards Winnipeg and then turning back on Hwy 17 into Kenora, a stop at the Safeway Starbucks and back to Storm Bay.

    What made this ride a little unusual was a flat, not just one flat but two! One flat on the rear at about 37km into the ride and the second on the front at about 73km,  within 1-2 km of being back at the cottage. This little CO2 device is my new best friend on a ride. It’s the first time I’ve used one and it was very impressive. One little “pfssst” and the tire was at full pressure. This is in comparison to 100+ strokes on a mini-pump which never really reaches the preferred riding tire pressure. I did have a mini-pump with me as well and I used it fill out the tube on the first flat. Later in the ride I stopped at the LBS on Kenora and picked up a tube and some patches. This turned out to be a very good move. After a nice coffee at the Safeway Starbucks it was on towards home. This section of the highway has several rough gravel sections where they have torn up the road to put in new culverts across the highway. I’m blaming these rough gravel sections for at least one of the flats.

    The annoying part of the ride, besides having two flats, was on the second flat I realized the mini-pump was missing in action. Fortunately the Air Kiss had enough left to fill the second flat as well. Later in the day we drove back to the place where I changed the first flat expecting to find the pump, but no luck. It’s now on the shopping list with a couple of more CO2 cartridges.

  • Cottage Opening for the 2010 season


    Failed Parts

    With the great weather we’ve decided to open the cottage a week ahead of the traditional May long weekend opening. We had a birthday celebration for Scott with the whole family on Friday and then drove out later that night arriving at a little after 1am. Eric, Dez, and Kellie are out with us as well.

    After sleeping in until about 10am, I’m up and thinking that sitting on the dock and enjoying that the first coffee of the day would be a good idea, and it would have been, except for the traditional bug infestation that happen every year at this time. Since they just hang around the water’s edge, I retreat to the gazebo where there are almost no bugs and look out at the lake with my coffee. Very peaceful and enjoyable.

    Enough of that, there are things to do and number one on the list every year is to get the water system up and running. Things progress well as the intake line is put back into the lake and primed, but then I notice that the water is pouring out of the foot valve. This is not a good thing. It’s also the first time in 28 years where the foot valve has failed like this and it is only a year old but the O ring is totally shot! That’s the black worm like thing in the photo with all the cracks in it is what’s left of the O ring after one season of use and a winter. They just don’t make things like they used to.

    Anyway, this puts getting the pump running on the back burner so I finish up prepping the rest of the water system as breakfast is being made. After breakfast, Eric and I head off to Kenora to get a new O ring and a couple of other parts, one being a new galvanized piece of 1 1/4″ pipe. Last year, the piece in the photo was leaking ever so slightly but this year, after fixing the foot valve, and bringing the system up to pressure, it was doing a nice imitation of a fountain spray, like at the Bellagio.

    After draining down the system a bit I was able to replace that piece and the rest of the water system came online with out any further complications. The rest of the day was spent putting winter things away and bringing out the summer stuff, getting deck and dock chairs in place, raking the postage-stamp yard etc. And then of course there is the septic system. Starting it up is ever so much nicer that shutting down. It’s just connecting the various components and putting the air compressor back in place and plugging it in.

    Now that the water is running at the hot water tank is up to temperature, a nice shower is the reward for the work of getting the system functional. It’s been a great day, both sunny and warm, and as always any day at the lake is a great day. Looking forward to a BBQ dinner with Shirley, Eric, Dez & Kellie, perhaps followed by a movie.