Just a quick story

I

Well something happened tonight on the way back from the city. It has been over a year since the last thing happened (the deer). This one wasn't as tragic, but it was tense. 

I was riding back after being at The Druid, I didn't feel like staying in the city tonight and I had to get out of the bar, $3 beers would just lead to trouble. 

The ride out of the city was non-eventful. It was around 21:00 so the further East I got the darker it was getting. At 'Deer Corner' I slowed down just in case the bambis were out frolicking, nothing. 

The road was pretty busy with trucks, I passed a lot of them. There was a bit of a head wind, it wasn't too bad. I got past Mundare corner and had to be in the left lane, as there was a semi parked on the shoulder. About 400 yards East of the corner there is a joint in the highway. It used to be significant, I remember driving in the car pool and hating it. The car would jolt as you went over it, disturbing a car pool nap. 

The bike went over it, just like any other time. I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye and looked at my handlebars, where the iPhone was was ....well this. 

On the top picture, taken Sunday, you can see the iPhone in its mount on the handlebar (left side to the right of mirror). 

The Lifeproof mount disintegrated and the phone went flying, it didn't come straight back, or it would have hit me. I went up to the next place I could turn around and then headed back to the joint in the road. 

I was lucky, I had my iPad with me, on it is the 'Find your iPhone' app. I located the phone and it was still online. I took off helmet so I could here the dings, when I played a sound. I heard nothing - but there was a lot of traffic, going East and West. 

I walked up and down the shoulder on both sides and nothing. I then started to hit the Ding button more. 

I heard some sonar sounds, I could tell they were coming from median. The sound was coming from the East. I walked about 100 yards past the seam in the road and there, laying on the side of the road was the iPhone, dinging away merrily.    

The phone still works, the first thing that happened when I turned off the dinging was a Facebook message from my friend Nick came through. 

My friend Toby called, I sent her a message on the iPad, to call my phone. I figured the song would be louder than the dinging. The phone worked, I could hear her and she could hear me. 

I recommend the Lifeproof case, but not the handlebar mount. 

One Month of Summer Gone

A good week and a better weekend. Work was hectic and it went by really fast as I was the only one doing the work in the unit. 

Monday  night the Fire Department had a Team Building exercise, Paintball. I got some head shots. I learned you can't aim the damn thing so it is best to blanket the opposition with fire for effect. Having been in the artillery, I was good at this. I managed to knock out a pile of guys before getting hit. 

Wednesday the power went off in town when a sub-station South of town had a transformer blow up. There was no fire call - Thank God. We can't go in there anyway, we aren't trained in high voltage. We'd go in there for rescue, but there'd be a power technician there. 

I left work early on Wednesday, I took leave, just my luck they'd close the office at 9:00 am, my boss would not let me cancel my leave. I am not sure how much I want to push this, as I couldn't cancel it by computer as they....were down. I told her before we left building and she kept saying "Approved leave". It was only three hours. 

The other side of the coin, she was doing a job similar to mine for the past 6 weeks. She had come to know what we encounter, so now she is working WITH me instead of against me. Better just suck up the lost leave. 

Friday night I did SFA. I watched 'That's My Boy' a terrible movie, it is like a train wreck though, once you start watching it, you can't stop. The family baseball game was hilarious though. 

Today I got up early, made breakfast and did my 60 pushups. I have been doing the pushups since May 2012, everyday. I have missed a couple of days, usually when I am hung over away from home. They are becoming easier now, I can feel the strength in my upper body. I usually do them before I even make coffee in the morning. 

Anyway, I had a camera club meeting at an auto wreckers. I had breakfast, grabbed bike. Oh, I picked up bike on Wednesday. I rode down 16 West to the Park and then North to the auto wreckers. The buffalo were out in force today, I have never been in the park before 10:00 am. The buffalo are fully rested and frisky. There were several occasions when I had to stop to study the guy, it was usually a male, standing on the side of the road, glaring at me. They can move pretty fast. I had to be sure I rode up to him slowly and then crank it. The first one moved, but my bike sound scared him and he went the other way. These animals can turn on a dime. I had to ride about 40kms through the park. There were 5 occasions where there were males lurking by the side of the road. This made me late for the camera club. 

I got to the auto wreckers and walked around taking pictures, it was a great opportunity to get up close and personal with the limos I have taken picture of outside the fence. 

After the auto wreckers I took off to Robert's place, he need me to take pictures of all of his stuff. He will be moving before October. I guess he will be getting rid of a lot. I better start downsizing, to make room for new to me stuff - ROTFL. 

I left his place around one and headed to the city and got a hair cut. One good thing happened, the bike had 187kms on it before I put fuel in it. The previous record was 170. 

Got a hair cut. 

On Wednesday I met a fellow bike rider at the Tim's on Whyte, he told me about a trip he is taking next year to Port Dover, Ontario. He wants about 10 riders, we"d ride there through Canada and back through USA. I think I may do it, it is in June. That means I won't be going to Pride in Toronto, but oh well. 

Some Canola and bike pics

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Well I sure am glad I went on vacation!. When I got back to work I wound up being the only guy in the section, out of three. Someone promised to come back and help if it got too nuts and had her new bosses permission. Well that never happened. Luckily the overtime Gods came unexpectedly to my rescue. I got 2 hours extra a night to get things done.....and I'll have extra dollars too!

Last week I wound up going to Pysanka Days on Saturday night, after doing nothing on Friday night. I only went for one beer at the beer gardens......8 beers later. I got to hang out with some old friends which was great. 

Nigel with two beer, always

Just a shirt

I wound up walking home, great thing about small towns! I did the walk of shame to get the car the next morning. 

After work I was pretty tired each and everyday. I wound up having a nap every night. Friday Night Brian called, he wanted to go to the Fair in Lloydminster - Colonial Days. Lloyd is about an hour and half East and straddles the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. The Fair was on the Saskatchewan portion. Brian, who likes gadgets but hates cell phones did not have a clue where the Fair was. Google maps on my phone showed us. Ironically it was the events page for the Town - Glass Tiger was going to be playing. 

We arrived around 6 and toured around. I think we came in a remote entrance as all we saw for awhile were the Clydesdales setting up. I got some good pictures. 

So we asked a tough looking lady where the rest of the fair was, she gave me the 'Are you a fucking idiot stare'. I said we came in the entrance behind her, and pointed and this is all we have seen of a fair. Another lady bailed up out, she said head through the bard and out the other side and warned us to watch out for horses. 

We got out the other side and found the midway. Brian found his favourite game 'Bulldozer'. This is where you position loonies ($1 coins) or toonies ($2 coins) and cause other coins to go over the edge as the bulldozer pushes. Sometimes there are bills. Brian spent about $40 to win $16 - it took him 1/2 hour, but he had fun. Then we ate.

We walked down the midway and toured the various t-shirt places, with their Sons of Anarchy knockoffs. 

Got down to the Adult Rides and took some pictures. I had a camera bag and all kinds of lens, I was not going to screw around with gravity. But I got some good pictures. 

We then wanted a beer and asked where the beer tent was, we knew we were close when we found a lot of smokers outside a building. While in there we were joking with some people out age about Glass Tiger The only song we could remember was 'Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone'.

We had one beer and then went for a walk, and wound up at the stage area where guess who was playing. 

Here are some pictures, I was using the telephone mainly. 

They closed off with a song they promised they would't play 'Don't forget me when I'm gone.....'

We wound up staying a lot longer than I thought I would. We went for a tour of the midway again, it was dark now and all the rides were lit up. I was practicing taking pictures. The automatic modes were screwed as the coloured lights came out as white. So I started to play with the other modes. Here are some pictures. One was really terrible, but it took a cool picture.

Automatic....see how boring

This was Automatic and it actually worked

I forget what mode this was, but it is a ride - I think it looks kind of cool. But this is not the result I was looking for. 

Finally i found the right alternate mode, P. I turned to it not knowing what it did. But I had a 16GB card.

All the lights are the colours they are supposed to be. I looked up the mode at home, it is kind of automatic, but not as automatic as Auto. It is fast though, and that is the key to taking these pictures. 

Well I was hoping last night that my fire cheque would be deposited as the bike is in the shop. It has beed there since before Toronto. So I was hoping to go to Edmonton and ride all weekend. It is not going to happen. 

I am past being mad about this. The month of June was a right off for riding, it rained just about everyday. The one day I rode it, it broke. It turns out the lack of activity and a short ride to work killed the battery. The shop took 2 hours to find the battery was screwed, so it cost $300 before I said replace the back tire, now it is $600. 

I am starting to think that the camera is a better hobby than biking. The bike costs more for insurance, maintenance and just about everything else than the car. There is the thrill of just about getting killed every time I ride it. But I am not finding the camaraderie that I thought I would. Just like in the gay community, I am into guys, thats about all I have in common with the community. 

The camera club is good though, these guys get out and do something and talk to each other. Then we rate each others pictures. It is fun, but cameras are like bike, expensive. 

I think it is time to make a choice on the bike. I like to travel, but the car is more practical than the bike. Hell you can bring a tent and sleeping bag. I don't have to worry about safely packing the camera in the car either. 

I think I am going to complete the riding season and seriously evaluate the bike. Brian is suggesting a Jasper, Icefields parkway trip in September. I am looking forward to it. 

If I sell the bike it will be over the Winter, people are willing to pay more for a bike at the start of a season than at the end. My Reality is changing, as it does.   

Toronto Pride Parade

Geez, this is not my day.....this is the second time writing this - Blogger erased it, now I am writing in Pages.

Sunday 30 June was the Pride Parade in Toronto. I asked Thelma where he was going to go see it, he didn't know. He had some things to do before the parade, so I went off on my own. I went to Church on church, it was there that I had my first sighting of Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulclair - politicians. The undercover cops were ..... and how did I know, a guy with jeans and an untucked shirt. the shirt was open and there was his belt, guns and all. 

Justin Trudeau to the Right

Thomas Mulclair on the right.

The OPP recruiting

I donated some cash to the church and then headed to get some breakfast and coffee. I knew there was a Tim Hortons on College and Yonge....Police HQ is 1/2 block away. 

May as well take pics while in a line-up

I got the breakfast sandwich and then headed to Starbucks to get a coffee and sit - no room to sit at Hortons. 

Two Dapper British guys who got to Yonge Street early, just like me. 

After I finished I walked up Yonge Street looking for a good place to watch the parade. I didn't find anything on Yonge, a guy I had met earlier on in the week said to watch it at Church and Bloor. I didn't want to watch it there as it turned a corner and it was also the start of the parade. I wanted them to get warmed up a little. So I found a place on Bloor, between Yonge and Church. When I chose it, I was in the shade. As parade time came the shade went away. 

Peter, on the right

I played with the camera, as I was really early. I was taking pics of myself, using the iPhone as a trigger. People started to fill in the space around me. An older gentleman named Peter stood next to where I would be, he told me to move over to the fence as people will come and take my spot. Sure enough.....

To the East of me was G - a straight girl, looking for love in all the wrong places. She had a whole troop with her, and I later learned a knapsack full of water bottles. She decided to try and hook me up too, as you will see in the pics. 

G - sitting next to me

Using telephoto before parade started.

Some guys had bigger ones than me

The parade started with bikes and then EMT's appropriate, as the bikers may need TLC :).

Thelma texted me just as the parade was going to start, he asked where I was and I told him. He told me I should move to Yonge Street. I said I was going to stay where I was. i went to the Dyke Parade on Saturday and knew that being third in was like hell. Especially if you wanted to take pictures. 

The parade lasted about 1.5 hours and lots of water came my way. Some of the pics  have water droplets on them, sorry. I had to switch lenses when I couldn't get a good shot with the fisheye. 

Yeah, G is the reason he is looking at me

Street Hockey, moving down the street

I told him he looked fabulous

G got some too, She flirted with this guy relentlessly

I forget the order of the floats.....enjoy

No they weren't playing In the Navy

The Firefighters came by with a truck, they weren't spraying water out of it. They were using water guns, I asked then where's the 38. They then soaked me. 

G called him over 

Transit cops - G needed more water 

I had a lot of fun, some lesbians came at me to soak me, saw my camera and just pumped water on my shorts, yeah...there. 

I got lots of swag, it was flying at you, along with the water. 

I had to head back to the apartment to get rid of stuff. 

I decorated Lana and had her smile....yeah, that's a smile. 

I was sure glad I only drank ginger ale the night before. The parade would not have been so much fun if I were hung over.