Almost the end of May !

May made up for the crappy weather in March and April. It did rain on Friday and Saturday, but that was ok - we needed it!. 

May is a month of change for me. My son was born on the 4th. That was a big change. I ran the Vancouver Marathon and herniated a disc in my back. I quit smoking 9 years ago on the 17th and my marriage ended in May. Last year, I hit the deer going home of the Monday night of the long weekend. It is just one of those months.

Well the weather was good, so I got in a lot of riding. The car goes parked for days on end. I was on call for the long weekend, a subliminal way to avoid deer? It was actually a busy weekend, a call everyday - well during the 24 hour period. Three of the calls came at 2:00 am. I was on the last call, which was the worst one. A Dodge pickup travelling really fast, over 170kph on the highway hit a PT Cruiser from behind, it was going about 120kph - the speed limit is 110kph. The impact drove the rear of the car down. About a hundred meters later the windows all broke. The pickup crossed the median first and drove over the West bound lane, then some railroad tracks and then implanted itself in  the ground. The car continued going East, then it drove across the median and came to a stop on the shoulder of the Westbound lane. 

They were lucky there were no cars coming the other way. When the call came in it was reported as two separate Motor Vehicle Accidents (MVA). That is because the truck was 1 kilometre from the car. 

There were 5 persons involved and some alcohol. 4 people survived the MVA. The 5th person was in the back of the PT Cruiser and he was airlifted to a hospital in Edmonton. He later died. 

The accident scene was huge and the road was closed off. There was a lot of talk from people at work who were inconvenienced the next day. They wanted to know what happened - all the who, what, when, where, why & hows. One person thought it was rude she wasn't personally informed about it. They have learned not to ask me, I am not a rubbernecker and the Fire Department has a privacy policy (the accident description which I provided is available in the media. I think the scope of the MVA is kind of glossed over. 

Well I have been hanging out with Nick, Ryan and Robert (Thelma). They all wanted to do something on the long weekend, Vegreville did not figure into it - lol. 

This weekend they are all busy. I took Friday afternoon off and went into Edmonton. I went to see Fast & Furious 6. It was a good movie. Normally when there are 6 instalments they get lame, this is not the case with #6. The cars and the action are great. The plane scene goes on a bit long though, what runway in the World is THAT long. 

Saturday I stayed in, it was pouring. Today I had an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) Safety Course which started at 09:00 am. I decided to rest up for it. I like motorbiking, on roads. The Fire Department got a new ATV for fighting bush fires and in order to drive it you had to have a certificate. 

Bikes and ATV have somethings in common, but they don't ride the same way. It was an intensive course, classroom was an hour and 6 hours of riding. I will be a sore puppy tomorrow. We covered everything, it will probably be a long time before I get to ride/drive one again. But it was fun. 

The course ended early and we were waiting around for lunch, one of the guys arranged it. Well he said he did. We were sitting around for an hour waiting for food, the Arranger had bailed. Finally we got a text that the person who was bring the food had to work 4 more hours, could someone go get food. 

That person texted back that the order was never placed. We bailed. The Sun was out and I took off to Edmonton. 

Next weekend I am off to Calgary, which should be fun. 

Well the Sun is still up, back out riding!

Spring has arrived

Been awhile, this blog will be all over the place. First off, I'll try adding a video of a great experience. I rode into the city today, it is supposed to go to 29C, it didn't look warm outside, but it was. 

I took the long way to the city, past the obscene sausage in Mundare. The road was quiet, really quiet, that is until I went to turn left to the park. then there were about 10 cars in a row. That kind of day, eh.

I tried to find the place when I took pictures last week, I couldn't. I think a lot of water evaporated. So no pics of the beaver, from this week. I'll post the one from last week. I caught him by fluke, I took the pic and he was in it, I saw him later when I wasn't looking through camera viewfinder. 

I stopped and took some pictures of the trees, the leaves are new, a kind of light green. I took some with my travelling companion, the bike. While riding South I saw a car parked on the left side of the road and people all over the road. I also saw bison scampering, although my bike is not loud, it is louder than a car. They all scampered down to the side of the road. 

the road was not that wide, and they were almost on it. I took a wildland course through the fire department. We dealt with animals, bison are not the stablest animals in the forest. They change direction really fast, they can start and stop fast and they like to charge things. 

So i am standing there assessing whether I am going to go or not. I decided to go, bison maybe fast but I have 1400cc's between my legs. I started bike, hit record on my iPhone which was mounted on the handlebars and went. I went slow, then sped up when passing the first group. Then there was a guy standing there all by himself. I slowed down and waited for him to blink then I cranked it.

To quote Macklemore 'That was fucking awesome!"

When I go to city I went to Tim Horton's on Whyte to share it with some people, the only ones there were people that never venture outside city. 

So the ride today was good, I got to think about some things. Riding a bike normally allows for that to happen. Riding in the Park is like a power boost. 

So last week Ryan, a friend asked if I was heading into town. We had been having a thing over a year, inconsistent Thing, but he wanted to meet up. Last week we did and he texted me on Wednesday and asked if I would be around on  Friday. We did hook up, but I think this is not going anywhere, all he wants to do is hook up; not date. 

Saturday I was home and cleaned up some more, went to gym and did laundry. I went for a ride in the country with my co-worked Brian. That was fun. 

While riding Nick, the artist guy texted me. He had sold his moped, which he had been trying to do for awhile. We spent a couple of hours texting back and forth, when I wasn't riding. 

Nick is a lot younger than me, but he is into older guys. I am not sure where I stand with him, I feel like a creep hitting on him, due to the age difference. But truth be told, there is hardly any available guys in my age range. Ryan is close, he is available, but he is not looking to settle down. 

Nick is way more mature, despite his age. So we are texting back and forth. Sometimes innuendo and sometimes not. I think I went too far with the last text, who knows. 

This is something that i have noticed for years about men, especially gay men. I am not sure if it is a mood or whatever, but walking on eggshells is the best description. I had a room mate, really just a room mate. He was a neat freak. Anyway he was Welsh, sarcasm is the nature of the beast. The last time we spoke he said something rude and I joked 'Fuck off' and he did. He chose to take that as the out he wanted. How do you deal with that? Straight guys are a lot better than that....but they have their moods too. I think women deserve a medal for putting up with theirs. 

Anyway, I read some articles and there was one that I found very interesting. Closeted gay men tend to  out perform straight guys. Not saying that this is always the case, but because they are closeted and do not know how to meet a guy, they tend to devote themselves t their jobs or their interests. I had heard this before, but some guy actually did a paper on it. He had these guys volunteer to be interviewed, respecting their anonymity. It struck a chord with me as I have always been pretty good in what ever line of work I am doing. Anyway, it is something to think about. 

I was thinking about this on the bike, what do they do when the closet game doesn't work anymore. They get to forty or so and are still single. People start to wonder. You'd think these guys would change, come out of their shell. But they don't, their internalized fear prevents them. I am sure that these guys are your neighbours with the perfect lawn, hyper polished car and so on. They go away to a place for holidays and screw their brains out, then come back home to resume the facade. I have met some of these guys, usually when I am travelling :). 

Busy week at the Fire Department - farmers lighting fires to burn their trash. The wind blowing strongly did not appear to be an issue to them. That is until the fires spread. 

I remember one call in, you could hear the terror in the guy's voice as he said the fire was coming towards his house. The fact we were 20 minutes away was probably also a factor. We got it out and the house was saved. 

Going back out to play....or ride around anyway. Here are some pics. The video is at:

http://youtu.be/nxqK1mMP9Og