May Miles and Renovations

Despite the snow and torrential rain I put 687 km on the girls in May. It would just be nice to ride and not always be cool but at least the snow is finally gone, he said looking skyward with fingers and toes crossed. I've been piling on the miles during work days and it is helping shed weight, 59 lbs this morning. Only 5 pounds to my first goal weight of 230.

The bathroom and kitchen floors are done after a crazy day where the plan changed three or four times. I was alone at work with all kinds of obstacles including no phones, orders, warranties and shipments piling up around me as I'm trying to talk to the heavily accented installer. Leveling cement won't work we need to put down some plywood, or you could take up old tile. Not right now I can't just do what you have to do. I'll fight it out with Sears when the bill comes in. The painting is ongoing. Hopefully the bathroom will be done by Thursday and the vanity in Friday. Saturday is booked for HNO meetings and Sunday is going to be a much needed day off.

It's Time

Enough overeating, enough lazing about, enough excuses. It's time to get back to feeling good. Sciatica seems to be on it's way out, hands are no better but no worse either. I need to get more active and lose a bunch of weight, I was much happier and felt so much better before I let it all slide and then conned myself into thinking it was all because of physical ailments. Physical ailments didn't force me to up my intake when I couldn't do some of the things I enjoy to burn calories. Stay tuned, it's going to be an ugly start but drastic measures are in order.  

Cleanup & Startup

This morning I deleted 5 other blog projects I had running. A couple of them had seen no new posts in over a year. From a singlespeed bike blog to flight sim logs I had separate blogs for a bunch of ideas. I have 2 others under different accounts and one on Wordpress I can't even log into. The wordpress blog was one I started under sports administration and thats what I'm going to reopen. It's something I know a little about, maybe I can help somebody getting started in the president's shoes somewhere.

Almost Back

The Dell is almost back to 100% operational, almost. I trashed the registry somehow and had to get remote help from the Dell folks to get Windows back. Could have done the re-install myself but I had a file that wasn't backed up that I required. I wanted to do it anyway but was not as prepared as I would have liked. I now have a bootable linux cd in case anything like that happens again. Backing up regularly, which I do, does not save all the programs you have installed so that is the biggest headache. I have a few things left to re-install, flight-sim being the biggest and nastiest to deal with.

I attended the second meeting of the Active Transportation/Education committee yesterday and I have to say the ideas coming out of the group are very progressive. If we can get even 1/3 of them implemented Thunder Bay will see big change. Some of the proposals seem so far off the wall for a small city (rent-a-bike like Paris/Montreal) but there is money out there to make it happen so we'll see. I'd be happy just to see some more trails and bike lanes for getting around town. The first bike lanes open this spring so it should be interesting to see how it goes over.

Look Ma I'm on the TV

I can't say it was all bad but the process is frustrating at best. It all started a month ago when the company was asked to sign a petition requesting curbs, storm sewers and gutters on our crescent. Because of our location on the 90 degree curve in the road we face a huge bill for the added goodies based on frontage. The petition was successful as 14 of 16 property owners were in favour. The other nay was on the opposite side of the same corner. Here's where it gets ugly.

The petition form clearly states all rules must be strictly adhered to. One of those rules is that signatures for incorporated or limited companies must be beneath the corporate seal. Most of the property owner's signatures should have been topped off with a seal, none appeared. When we brought this to the attention of the city clerk he just waved it off as 'not a big deal, it's an old form'.

Next we asked how to appear before council to speak to them about our position that the tax to be charged would be unfair. We were told to put the request in writing. That was done in an e-mail (not my choice) and rejected. We were then told we had to explain the who, what, where and why of our position. We did that and it was allowed. Upon delivering the document the clerk's assistant gave us the outline of how to apply, prepare and deliver a deputation before council. Just a bit late. The day of the council meeting we checked the agenda online and there was another accepted letter that looked very similar to our original.

We were told that our submission would be distributed to members of council and they would have time to read it over so we were not to read it before them. I prepared a synopsis and delievered that, while trying to word in some last minute suggestions from another source. We were asked a few questions from an obviously unprepared council, dismissed and then had most of what we said negated by the city engineer. The other presenter (another issue before council) read his every e-mail and showed pictures and maps etc. If I had known a laptop was available I could have done something far more convincing. 

I had spoken to one of the two aldermen I know and thankfully he guided us through most of the process and asked questions and got the whole mess put back to the engineer for options to be presented later in the budget process.

Our position is that council is dicriminating against a commercial property. The provincial municipal act provides them a means of charging out the improvement but also has guidelines for reductions where frontage is not 'just and equtable'. They use one part of the act and then apply the 'residential only' term where they see advantage.  They say they have a written policy, which they can't seem to find. We say even so the policy is breaking the municipal act so it does not matter. The act defines a lot, and also defines a citizen. If they can discrimnate against one type of lot, can they then discriminate against one type of citizen? I think we know the answer to that one. Stay tuned...

January Recap

I managed to hit my biking goal for the month just topping 400k, 28% more than January'08. February will be tough to stay ahead of last year with only 28 days and 500+ km to mash. I'll weigh in tomorrow morning to see if all the pedalling and walking has made a dent in the 30 pounds I'm trying to shake. I walked every day to work and was only picked up for Brandyn's birthday and once for Dim Sum. The coldest days should be behind me. The sun is just turning the horizon pink as I head in and still up as I make my way home at 5, so spring is coming, slowly. Get ready girls.

I had a nice surprise to finish the month off as a long lost friend traced me down through Facebook. We've e-mailed and talked on the phone a few times in the last 30 years or so but I think this time we're going to stay in touch. Right Bear? 

Surprise Surprise Surprise

In the who would've thought it possible category, a black man in the Whitehouse, gas goes under $1/litre and city council unanimously approoves improvements to infrastructure for cycling. I'm not sure I can take all these surprises at once. I hope Mr. Obama can take the Americans on more historic adventures as we all know we'll be following right on their tails through good or bad. Gas prices continue to tumble, somehow we're not quite as cheap as the provincial average of .87 but who would have thought it could drop this far this fast. Not that it makes much of a difference to me. And finally when I took on the survey project that was part of the presentation to city council I never dreamed we'd see any real action or that I might someday actually ride on the improved trails or bike lanes. I just hope that issue number two doesn't change the mind of our council. Low gas prices won't last long and they have been known to do a 180 on an issue or two in the past.

I have to say that daylight savings time really bites. So far the mornings have been only moderately brighter and even Tueday when the sun was shining it was down before I got home at 5:30. I had to run the lights on the way home tonight. I'm not real sure where the savings are, I was already good with dark mornings but now I get it at both ends. Just a matter of time I guess.

Days 1 and 2 on the new software were a nightmare as people who thought they were ready froze under the gun. Things that were supposed to be easy weren't. I spent hours running back and forth putting out fires and trying to keep my own work going. I got lots done today and found a few more features that we needed work arounds for. Tuesday balanced where Monday didn't, until we remembered that Saturdays sales were included. The one big advancement on the new software is I can trace any transaction back and find out who, what and where it all goes wrong.  

November 49 miles
11-05, Cecelia:6 miles 50 push-ups

11-04, Cecelia:15 miles 50 sit-ups

11-03, Cecelia:9 miles 50 push-ups

January Workouts

Treadmill: 22 miles
Cecelia: 44.4 miles
Ethel: 150.09 miles
Total: 216.13 miles
Weight +/-:0
February goal: 280 miles

Project Eyowen

She finally got her first coat of primer last week. I'm hoping to heat up the shop on Saturday and add a few more coats of grey and then start layering on the glossy orange. I have a few new parts ordered for her and she'll get a few castoffs that Bridget won't be needing soon. I found some Giant decals on e-bay and may order them as well. the fun is just beginning.

Project Eyowen: Ready to start Paint Stage

I have the frame totally strippped down, the crank and fork removed and she's ready to be shot blasted. I decided on a nice gloss orange as the main colour and the front fork will be black. I have almost everything ready and just have to find a few hours to get this stage done.
I'm looking for a scrap bike with drop handle bars to cut and flip. If the bearing in the bottom bracket are good I'll order a new single speed crank and a higher gear for the other side of the flip/flop hub.

Project Eyowen

A few weeks ago I was in a customer's shop and noticed a Giant Acapulco bike off in the corner. I asked about it and the owner told me to haul it away if I wanted it. I stripped down the frame and used the handle bars and stem on CeCelia, along with the new brakes I imported but the new setup only saw about a half dozen rides before the snow hit. I decided to give the Giant frame some fresh paint and then switch the singlespeed setup from CeCelia over and create a new bike to be named Eyowen (Ay-o-when), you'll have to guess the source of the name. I'm torn between my fav colour orange and a nice classic tan for the job. Once I get into a paint store I'll decide. The frame is in at FCD where it will be shot blasted, primed, painted and then clear coated. I'll have some pix up as Project Eyowen progresses.