Mother’s Day 2012

My mother is a special lady. She’s special to me, her son, the rest of my siblings, and to her grandchildren. She’s, in a large way, responsible for who I am today, although I’m not always sure who that is. She might be responsible for that as well.

My mother, throughout my childhood, was my greatest booster. For her, all of my ideas were good ones. I can’t remember a single critical word about my thoughts, dreams, plans. Sometimes they were met with an “ohhhh”, but in the excitement of the telling, I never really realized that she was not on my side.

We spent a lot of time driving places together. She drove me to organ lessons (which later morphed to the piano) and sat in the car, out on main street, while Elmer U tried to get my fingers to go to the right notes for the right amount of time.  She drove me to public speaking competitions (sort of a nerdy thing to do in those days) and sat through the painful repetition of the same three to five minutes of text. During those drives, when it was just the two of us, she listened.

Me and my mom, early days.

I think that, along with all of the other mom things that she did well, was the key to her influence in my life. She listened to me, gave her advice from time to time, as if we were peers. She made me feel important and valued. She made it seem that I could do anything, and that I didn’t need to follow her path, or my dad’s, or anyone else’s. I was my own person.

She’s still like that. I think she’s often surprised by the things that I have ended up doing, but, she needs to know that those things are likely her fault, because she never put the brakes on earlier.

Thanks Mom.

Leftover Sale Day

The village we call ours, even though we live just as close to two others that are bigger, holds an annual village wide garage sale. You sign up and pay five dollars to be put on the map for the day,  then lots of people from all over, converge on the village because they know there is lots of stuff available, all at once. We live 17 km from the village, so putting ourselves on the map doesn’t really work. No one is going to make a trip our here when they can put in a good day, going from one yard to the next, without investing a lot of gas.

So, we borrowed a driveway. We actually thought we were going to share a sale, but the folks whose driveway we ended up in must take a lot of things to the dump, because they only had one article to sell. We had lots more.

Most of our stuff had been accumulated through the comings and goings of our children. When they went off to school they needed stuff, bookcases, desk lamps, dishes, pots and pans, cutlery, and small appliances. All of this has been stored in our barn.  Earlier this spring we decided, since all of them are now gone and living their own settled lives, most of the leftovers in the shed were likely just that, left over.

We sorted through it all. A load went to the dump. The rest was cleaned and sorted, prepared for sale.

Our stuff in a borrowed driveway

This morning J and I were up before 5:30 and by 6 were on our way to our borrowed driveway. By 6:20, we had made our first sale and by 7:00 we were set up and ready for the crowds. J went to work and left me in charge.

Folks came. They came on foot, by car, and by horse and buggy (these ones were the biggest buyers). They pawed, they sorted, they hummed and hawed and dickered. They carried stuff away. By 12:30 it seemed to be over. I loaded the rejected, unwanted bits (they are still taking up quite a bit of room in the truck) delivered a table to an Amish family, and went home to count my takings. $183 for stuff that was just leftovers.

The day wasn’t just about the money though. It’s about community too. I visited with a lot of people who I had not seen in a while. Many were surprised to find we had moved to such a nice house in town (which we hadn’t) because they thought we still lived out in the country (which we do). Many went off with a piece of our lives, or our children’s lives, at a bargain price.

I’m sure we have enough to do it all again next year.

Garmin Dakota 20

As  you may know, we have a bike trip planned. We’ve decided on the tandem bicycle as the vehicle of choice this time and we’ve bought a trailer to pull behind it to carry our gear. We plan to use a number of bicycle trails for this trip, most of which are old railroad beds. These trails don’t show up on ordinary maps. We have been able to use Google Maps “beta” cycling directions to plan the trip, but what to do when we are actually out there?

We thought that a GPS would be a good idea. We could enter our trip and just follow the pink line. We had done this when we traveled by bike in Holland in 2007, so surely it could be done just as easily, and likely more efficiently in 2012. We went shopping online for a suitable GPS unit and bought a Garmin Dakota 20 along with a special mounting bracket for the bike. This unit is often used for geocaching.

The unit was backordered for about two weeks waiting for the mounting bracket to come, but it was still an exciting day when it arrived. We rushed around finding batteries to make it go and got ourselves to the maps section of the menu. Imagine our dismay when we found the “world map” loaded in the unit placed us in the middle of nowhere. We do live in the middle of no where, but the road that runs in front of our nowhere place was not on the unit. Some further research revealed that we could order more detailed maps from Garmin ($89-$159).  There were also couple of choices of “free” maps available to download.

Maps are big. The first one we found was over 800 MB. Our internet connection is not fast. After 10 hours of downloading we had a map and figured out how to load it on to the mini SD card that did not come with the unit. Quite a few more hours were required to figure out how to transfer the map that we had made on Google maps on to the GPS unit. Finally, we had our pink line.

We had stumbled across another map that promised to be much more detailed. There is something about thinking that you could do better that drives us to distraction. This download was 3.6GB so it had to be better. We started the download. It went overnight and then I spent five hours working on various projects at Coffee Culture just to get a better internet connection. Once we had the whole thing, we could not get it to work at all. We watched the video directions on Youtube over and over and could not get the thing to work.  We found a different version, downloaded it for a long time, struggled to get a clean copy on a disk and finally installed it to our computer. So far, other than topographic lines, I don’t see that it is that much better.

Getting the GPS to work has been a journey in itself. We’ve spent way more time than anticipated on the project. I sure hope the pink line is worth it. J has started printing off the Google maps because she’s not sure that she trusts the machine. She might be right.

Tandem or Not, Controversy Solved

A week or so ago, I wrote about an upcoming cycling trip we are planning for the end of May. The post ended with some indecision. Do we ride our tandem bike and pull a trailer or do we ride our touring bikes as we did in 2010 and carry pannier bags?

The decision has been made. We are going with the tandem. Part of the answer came on a ride last week with friends who are serious riders. We rode the tandem into town (18km) had coffee with them, and joined them on the first half of their ride which went past our door (29 km). These folks like to ride hard and we were able to keep up quite nicely. Normally, J, who is a smaller person, would be found far in the rear and I would be somewhere behind the leaders and on the edge of cardiac arrest. This time, we spent a considerable part of the ride leading, and never were very far from the rest of the pack. Two can be better than one. (in more things than biking…our wedding text).

Suggestions for a name for this bike would be appreciated

So, this past weekend we went shopping on cyberspace for a trailer and ended up buying one from our local bike shop. It had been in inventory for long enough that they were willing to part with it at a lower price than any we found on the web.  We’re going to be long and corners will be wide. We will be a little more vulnerable. If a bike fails when there are two, the other can ride for help or parts. If a pannier breaks, contents can be spread between the other seven. Now all of our eggs are in one basket. Hopefully the entire route has good cell phone coverage!

Tandem Bike Compatibility Test

This test comes courtesy of Santana Cycles Inc, a company that specializes in building tandem bikes so the results may be a little skewed.

Will you like it? Can you even do it? By taking this test, you can discover all this and more in the privacy of your own home.

Answer each question individually to obtain your 0 – 50 solo score. Then, total both of your scores to determine your combined 0 – 100 point tandem quotient. Finally, compare your TQ to the scale to find out if a tandem is in your future.

Question #1.

Would you enjoy spending more time together?

Give yourself two points if you share at least one meal a day at the same table. Add another two points if you are often in the same room during leisure hours, and an additional point if you spend your leisure time sharing the same activity.

Question #2.

Do you value fitness?

Give yourself a point if you think your level of fitness is more important than your weight. Add another point if you are currently in good health, and a point if you’d like to be in better shape a year from now. You gain another point if you participate in an aerobic activity at least once a week, and yet another if you use stairs instead of an elevator.

Question #3.

Do you need to control stress?

Give yourself two points if you have a full-time job. Another point if you commute more than 15 minutes to get there. Add a point if you have children at home, and another if you don’t eat three square meals each day.

Question #4.

Do you enjoy the outdoors?

Courtesy Santana Cycles

Give yourself a point if you get the winter blues. Add another if you enjoy walking in your neighborhood. A big point if you enjoy gardening. Another point if you are a hiker or camper. And a final point if you participate in an outdoor sport, like playing tennis or golf, or coaching soccer or softball.

Question #5.

Do you have children?

Give yourself one point for each child, and an additional point if they live at home. Sorry, no points for dogs, cats, or tropical fish. Five points maximum.

Question #6.

Do you enjoy travel?

Give yourself a point if you go on an annual vacation. Another point if you don’t visit the same place year after year. A point if you’ve ever vacationed on an island. A point if you read travel magazines or the travel section of your Sunday paper. A final point if you enjoyed the local cuisine on your last vacation.

Question #7.

Do you value teamwork?

Give yourself a point if you wished the two of you looked good on a dance floor. Another point if you work on your taxes together without arguing. Another point if you share access to a joint checking account. Another point if the two of you share a favorite movie or song. And a final point for sharing a hobby or sport.

Question #8.

Do you like to socialize with compatible couples?

Give yourselves a point if you’ve invited friends over for dinner in the past six months. Another point if it was a full-blown dinner party. Add a third point if you’ve recently accompanied another couple to a movie, ball game, concert, or play. Two more points if you’ve ever shared a vacation with another couple.

Question #9.

Can you cycle near home?

Give yourself a point if you don’t live in the city. Another point if there’s a bike path within ten miles of home. Add a point if you live on a rural road, or are within five miles of a rideable dirt road. And two more points if you are willing to drive thirty minutes to reach a place that’s fun to ride.

Question #10.

Are you already a cyclist?

Captain give yourself five points if you already understand shifting, braking, pedal cadence, and flat tire repair. If not, give yourself four points just for being willing to learn.

Stoker give yourself one point if you are already a cyclist or a point even if you haven’t yet learned the ropes (cycling experience is not a prerequisite). Add two more points if you can appreciate the extra freedom of riding in the passenger seat of a car (instead of driving). Give yourself another point if you’re not a backseat driver, and a fifth if you have faith in your potential captain.

Check your Test Results

Spring

Spring has now been with us for well over a month. Temperatures have been warmer than normal and we seem to be missing a lot of rains. We did get a good soaker a couple of nights ago and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

We planted trees just the day before the rain came. Planting trees on our property has become a bit of an annual practice. The property right around our house is very hilly. Our lawn had some slopes that would stop our four wheel drive lawn mower and were maybe not the safest to cut. Over the past four years the steepest bits have been planted to a variety of evergreen trees (200 so far). We have also planted deciduous trees, maple, ash and soft maple around the perimeter of the lawn and now inside the perimeter as well. There are about 50 of those, some came from the bush on the property while others were purchased as seedlings. Recently, I’ve been transplanting volunteer maple and ash that have grown in the flower beds.

Getting deciduous trees to start has been a bit of a hassle. The first ones we planted came from the bush about six years ago. We dug them up carefully, used a post hole digger to make a good hole, and even used a bit of bone meal to provide nutrients. While some of these trees have taken off and are now over ten feet tall, others are smaller now than when we planted them, and still others have died and been replaced. Granted, the soil where these trees a planted is not the best with sand and gravel in some areas. Where the soil is good the trees have grown.

We have actually had the best luck with the deciduous trees that came from the nursery. I don’t think that it is because the stock is so much better, but rather, because we discovered Tubex tree tubes at the same time. Deciduous seedlings, in their natural environment, grow underneath the forest canopy. I’m taking them from there and asking them to grow in the open. The tree tube protects the small tree from the wind, creates a bit of a moist environment, and creates a greenhouse effect that gives the plant a little more heat. The results are amazing compared to trees without the tube. The trees reach out of the tube and will grow two to three feet in a year compared to the six inches that their non tubed brothers and sisters manage.

Last week, just before the rain, we put in a hundred more evergreens, balsam fir, white pine, red pine, and white spruce. I have less lawn to cut again and we will need to put up with a few years of ugly, waiting for the trees to have enough height to be seen above the grass. The wait will be worth it.

Of all the things I love most about spring, the best is wandering around looking at how all the things we have growing here change. I love to imagine the possibility of rows of trees towering over me. Spring is such an amazing time of growth and renewal.

God is at work in all of it.

Cycling Trip 2012

We’ve been planning another long distance bike trip for this spring. Those who follow this blog will remember that in 2010 we did a couple of trips, one to Pelee Island and one around Lake Ontario. Last year, our cycling took a hit from walking, both on the Camino and on the Bruce Trail, so apart from a number of shorter local trips, the bikes did not get much of a workout.

This spring, in fact, about a month from now, we hope to spend most of two weeks in eastern Ontario and Quebec. We’ve mapped our tentative route which includes stops in Ottawa and a visit with friends in Montreal. This trip also includes the piece of the waterfront trail that we did not do two years ago when we turned right and followed Lake Ontario at Kingston.

There is a small debate that needs to be cleared yet. Two years ago, in the spring, we bought a pair of Opus Legato touring bikes which we used for the previous long treks. Later that year we bought a Miyata tandem which we have put a few hundred kilometers on. The debate is: do we take the touring bikes with pannier bags or pull a trailer with the tandem? We know that we can move faster with the tandem, but it is less maneuverable in urban areas. J and I do like each other, but can we stand being so close together for 950 km? The tandem does mean that no one gets left behind, and we can talk to eachother more easily. Going with the tandem also means buying more stuff, we don’t currently own the trailer, so this is a concern as well.

The debate continues, but one way or the other, we will ride.

Stay tuned for the  end of the story……