What a Morning

In a movie, cataclysmic events have some foreshadowing. In life, that isn’t always the case. In the situation I am going to relate, you will have to decide if it was foreshadowed or not. Please comment below (anonymously if you want)

On Saturday, I went to the library and took out 12 books to read over the next three weeks. This is a bit ambitious, but knowing that I could probably renew them makes the whole thing a bit more manageable. I also had a couple of books sitting near the front door from my personal collection that I was thinking about reading instead of the Lisa Jewell book I ended up reading. This morning, just before leaving, I frantically grabbed a few, considered them, considered taking two of them (just in case) rejected the idea and finally settled on one.

Once established on the bus, I reached into my bag to start reading the book. Instantly, I realized that I had already read it. The plot wasn’t particularly clear, but clear enough that I had no desire to read it again. Since this is not the main hassle of the morning, I might be convinced that this is foreshadowing. However, I could be wrong. Also, it made for a boring bus ride.

While this was a problem that forced me to play telephone games rather than read, it wasn’t the worst of my morning. The worst was yet to come in the form of a mechanical issue on the subway that saw me forced out of the subway and deposited on the street one stop before mine. In most parts of the city, walking one subway stop is hardly a problem, but in this case it was one of the longer distances between stops and would have me walking about 30 minutes or more. I could have taken a shuttle bus, but the line was long and the morning sunshine beckoned me outside.

I guess I shouldn’t complain. A morning walk was better than being cooped up in a subway car or crushed on a shuttle bus–and that’s taking Covid out of the equation. There must have been some other problems because there were lots of slow moving cars mingling with the shuttle buses. At some points, I was moving on foot as fast as the cars were. One short school bus decided to take themselves out of the traffic altogether. They decided to climb up onto the sidewalk in front of me and stop. I took offence, but the absurdity of it left me speechless. I just walked on.

My students didn’t fare any better. My class was empty and the students were grouchy. I really can’t blame them as some of their cities have world class transit systems. It also probably costs a lot less where they are from.

Luckily the problem was resolved before I had to go home. I still didn’t have a book to read, but I found my MP3 player and got a chance to listen to some music. I was home before I knew it.

Hot Chocolate in a Snowman Mug

The writing of this blog is an act of introspection on my part. I have written about it before….at length. Rather than repeat myself and explain how I choose the what I am going to write about, I would rather explain a little bit about what happens, sometimes, after I choose. This will also explain why this isn’t the post I meant to write for you.

Sometime before now, and I can’t really be that specific, I chose a Moment for Today’s Perfect Moment. I spun it around in my head, possibly composed the either the first few lines of this blogpost, or had some ideas of what I was going to write. Then I forgot it. It completely slipped my mind and no amount of prodding was going to bring that back. Since this has been happening with quite a bit more frequency, I could apply the same solution I have been using lately–that is to say, I could just skip writing the blog and go to bed.

The other option, and the one I am going to take (this time), is to write about my back up Perfect Moment. It might have come in second, but that is because I had already chosen the original topic and completely forgot it. Regardless, let us begin.

Some days you just need a cup of hot chocolate. That’s a bold statement, but no bolder than “some days, you need a good/strong cup of coffee, In my case, it was too late for a cup of coffee and I was craving something sweet.

I was on the couch, watching a documentary about Ernest Hemingway that I had recorded from the PBS station across the border (WNED). It had been on my PVR for quite some time. I had missed the first episode and was reluctant to start on the second. The first had covered my favourite Hemingway book–the Sun Also Rises–and I was less interested in the rest. On this day, however, I decided to hit play and see what it was all about.

Of course, I needed something to drink while watching. I briefly considered something stronger in solidarity with Hemingway, but ultimately rejected it. Instead, I reached into the cupboard and got down the snowman mug (a cross between Frosty and Raymond Briggs’ snowman). I made the hot chocolate, went back to the TV, considered the mug and all its holiday implications, glanced over at the tree and the already wrapped gifts underneath, and pressed play. If only it had been lightly snowing outside.

The program was quite good.

Ramblings From My Week

I just want to take a minute to write a little about the week that was. I honestly don’t know if you’ll be interested in my ramblings, but feel free to comment on any of it.

Reading

I seem to have gotten back into the swing of reading on my commute. I finished Bill Bryson’s The Body. The Body: A Guide for Occupants I like Bryson’s writing. He can write some incredible facts about the body and explain it well, and then suddenly make me laugh out loud on the bus. It was a long read, but I learned a lot and laughed quite a bit. I also started a Bosch Novel. Dark Sacred Night (Renée Ballard Book 2) I have enjoyed this quite a bit. Bosch’s mantra that “everyone matters or no one matters is a fitting one for the world we now find ourselves in.

The Commute

The bus continues to be an interesting place to do character studies. This week saw fewer drinkers, but still lots of people who reeked of pot. Now that it is legal, can’t we make it smell better? How hard could that be? That improvement alone could triple profits.

Tools

I bought a sit-up bench and assembled it today in rather quick time. The things that made me laugh is that I had to use 5 different sized wrenches to put it together. It’s always awesome when you get to use all your tools. It is also good that they made the bolt heads and the nuts a different size. I don’t have duplicates of my wrenches and hate using an adjustable wrench.

I am pretty sure I am going to buy a saw this week. What I wanted has come on sale. Yes, it is part of the whole “Black Friday Hoopla” that seems to be in the air. I doubt any Canadian Store is now in profit, but whatever. I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade.

I finally got some stamps…oh, never mind, I should save that for my stamp blog.

Around the House

I raked up a lot of my leaves. Hopefully I won’t miss yard waste pick-up day. I usually forget to put the bags out and they have to live in my garage until spring. I really don’t want that to be the case this year. Tuesday morning is scheduled pickup.

Christmas has started early this year. The displays are out and I have heard a few Christmas songs. I have been reading about people complaining about it, but maybe this year we can start celebrating and wishing for peace on earth a little early. I don’t think it would hurt anything.

I had waffles for breakfast. Delicious.

I got to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs two days in a row. The results weren’t perfect, but the games were entertaining enough.

The End

I could ramble, but I could also go to sleep. I think it prudent I choose the latter. Feel free to comment about your week or anything I have written.

A Walk Among the Stacks

I received notification that a library book I wanted to read was finally available for me. The book (the Paris Library) was quite popular and I was way down in the list of holds. I didn’t expect to be able to read it until September. Since my reading has been horrible during the pandemic, I wasn’t really worried. Fortunately, here we are.

As I have already explained, my library has a walk up window that allows for no contact book checkout. It also has a return system that quarantines the books that are returned–or at least that is what they say. While picking up the book, I noticed that there was a new exterior door to the library. Since they are remodeling the library and several of the surrounding buildings into a new “town square” this isn’t that surprising. The library parking lot is still not open, but that doesn’t surprise me either. The sign on the door indicated that the library was open. This did surprise me because such an event would usually have made the front page of the local newspaper.

Inspired, I went in. I hadn’t been in the library since I borrowed the travel guides for my trip to Colombia. It was like I was breathing it in anew. Actually, because I entered an unfamiliar door, it did seem new. My bearings were completely off. I wandered around and ended up taking out a bunch of different books and magazines. With news of the Delta variant and other gloomy forecasts, I had to get while the getting is good.

Visiting the library looking for books has always been a part of my life and I definitely have missed it during the lockdown. I have been able to get books, but looking at books online is not the same as wandering through the stacks. Nothing can catch my eye online–though my Amazon experience would suggest that this is not true–nothing can inspire me. There is no smell of pages. There are not exciting covers or even mysterious bland covers that hold secrets. I’ve been to the bookstore, but knowing that I would have to pay ruined that experience.

In my selection, I covered a big range of topics and I am excited to go back and look for more. Now, I’ve got to get reading.

A Gift of a Book

Do you give books as gifts? This questions is rhetorical. Whatever you write (or don’t write but think to yourself) in response probably won’t change my thoughts on the subject. I truly love to give books as gifts.

I gave my girlfriend a book as one of her birthday gifts. She had mentioned having a copy, but since that one is in another country, and air travel is still difficult, that copy might as well be buried in the back of a lost and found room at a major train station–no, I don’t know why I thought of it that way. As you’ll see, books conjure lots of images in my head.

When choosing a book for someone, it probably falls into three categories (when I started writing this paragraph I only thought of two. In the space of ten words, I had to totally revise my ideas.) These categories are:

1. A book you love that you want to share with everyone (Barney’s Version, Waterland, A Prayer for Owen Meany, ….)
2. A book you think is perfect for them–why you think it is “perfect” for them is a matter of conjecture, but I don’t have time to discuss that or why we are so often wrong in this area.
3. A book they expressed a desire to read or that is quite popular at the moment. ( I suppose this could be two things, but not always)

The first of these is pretty easy. We all have books we love and we want to share. Sometimes we can’t give the book, but we can recommend it hard enough that we might as well have driven the person to the bookstore, slapped the copy to their chest and taken the money from their wallets to pay for it. (see what I mean by those images). If they were smart they could just go to the library and borrow it for free–but that doesn’t do much for creating an image unless your library is one of those beautiful museum style libraries they always managed to show in films. Don’t be surprised or upset if they don’t love it as much as you do. How could they?

Is there a book you have given as gift multiple times?

The second is much harder. If you know them well, and you are well read, you may well be great at this. I am not so good at this. My oldest sister reads broadly and I cannot really discern what she would like that she hasn’t already read. My second sister would rather reread Helter Skelter than find a new book. My youngest sister has a passion for Canadian literature. Sadly, I only know of one bookstore that makes an effort to have a Canadian section. It is near my workplace, but since the start of the Pandemic, it really hasn’t been available to me. It features used books, but my youngest sister doesn’t mind. She sees it as more environmentally friendly and more cost effective. My father would like another series like Lonesome Dove. My mother is really into biographies. My girlfriend likes Harry Potter and the Horse Whisperer. Since I have already bought those, I am going to be hard pressed to come up with something next time.

As for getting books that are “hot” or “popular”–this explains why I have copies of the Satanic Verses, A Brief History of Time, and the Complete Solution to the Rubik’s Cube. They were good reads, but I haven’t heard any of them spoken of since.

As for me, these days, I have been collecting books about bicycle maintenance and the science of riding better and stronger. I have collected some DIY and woodworking books (with many more on my Amazon wishlist). I picked up a few classics from the bargain table back when the bookstore was open. I have been reading about the fascinating history of postage stamps and their place in critical historical events.

I do hope stores will open up again and maybe I can go rummaging through a used bookstore in hopes of finding something unique–like the time I came across seven Harlan Ellison novels in a used bookstore in London Ontario. After all, the hunt is the amazing part.

Is there a book or series of books you are looking for? Is there a book you found in the most unlikely of places that you would like to tell us about?

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Back to my Roots

I received a couple of messages today from people wondering what happened to my blog. They weren’t actually inquiring why I haven’t been writing, but where exactly my blog went to. As you can tell by the address, I have officially downgraded (sounds kind of depressing) …reverted (yeah, that sounds better) come back (ooooh! even better) to the free WordPress blog.

I also realized that I had better write something so email followers will get new, address correct notifications, and people who follow on the WP site will see me again. I hope this doesn’t cause me to lose any followers.

One of the nicest things to happen to me in relation to this were the words from my girlfriend. She texted me that she hadn’t been able to access my blog for the last couple of days. After explaining the change to her in detail–because like a lot of people men I sometimes talk in a shorthand that leaves out details–and telling her the new address, she reminded me that my blog is not only mine, but that “it’s part of her memories too” and that “it felt like she was losing it suddenly.”

Obviously, I was quite touched by that. She is the only person I can be sure has read every single post I have written. There may be others, but I know she has read them all.

One of my best friends wrote me as well. We rarely talk about my blog, so I was touched by his concern as well.

I sometimes lose sight of the fact that there are some people out there who actively follow this blog and have been very encouraging. Thank you everyone who has taken the time to write comments and thank you to everyone who is silently following. I should appreciate all of you more.

I know what is like when bloggers you like have gone silent. I miss Heide, Bike like Crazy, Hunida, Milly, When do I get the manual, and so many others. It is like I am missing something.

For those of you who are still around and the new ones I will discover, thank you for putting forth the effort. I am still reading, even if I don’t know what to write in your comment boxes.

Hidden Amid the Junk Mail

The mail carrier arrived during my break time today. I grew up thinking that mail carriers had a pretty set routine. They wouldn’t arrive at exactly the same time every single day, but they would be within some kind of window. This does not seem to be the case with the delivery to my house–or more specifically to the group of mailboxes across the street from my house since I lost door to door mail delivery. The postal worker arrives at different times each day. The window for delivery seems to be between 10 and 4. This is not a complaint. It is merely an observation.

Today, the mail arrived early enough that I could go out and get it before teaching my next class. I am expecting some accessories to Zwift with. I also bought a bunch of stamps for the stamp collection. Sadly, none of those things came today. Instead I got an ad for a new housing development north of where I live and some coupons for pizza. A new house would be nice, but the payments would probably be astronomical. Pizza would also be good. You could imagine which coupons I kept.

In addition to this exciting mail, I also got a catalogue for Busy Bee Tools. I have been there before and you can read about it here. I guess I put my name on their mailing list. This doesn’t bother me because a catalogue full of tools sounds like a great idea.

I sat and looked through the catalogue while drinking a cup of coffee to finish off my break–it is quite a lengthy break. I poured over the pages and started reorganizing the fantasy shop in my head to accommodate all of these tools and the projects I would build. I spent my break in that fantasy world. Maybe it was my imagination, but the coffee tasted even better. It brought enough calmness that the rest of the classes were a breeze. I even told my students about it and one of them, who also happens to follow the blog, asked if it was Today’s Perfect Moment. I didn’t detect a note of sarcasm, so I told him exactly what I am writing for you. Yes, indeed. Getting deeply entranced by the catalogue is Today’s Perfect Moment.

And So it Begins….

After several weeks off, I am back to work tomorrow morning (or this morning depending on when I post this and when you read it). The commute will be quite easy– from the kitchen to the office should only take ten seconds or so. Nonetheless, I would be lying if I said I didn’t want another week of vacation.

Though I should pick one Perfect Moment for the day, I want to shine a light on a few of them. Just so you know, some of them deal with support and its role in our lives. There might be a lesson here somewhere…..but don’t worry, there won’t be a test.

Eating

My girlfriend was kind enough to prepare a delicious, healthy, and not highly caloric meal for me. I can’t erase all of my bad eating habits in one fell swoop, but with a little encouragement I can make some positive eating changes.

Accountability

When I wrote my list of resolutions, I stressed that accountability was an important part of these things, and I stick by it. The whole reason to list them here was to encourage myself to have some accountability. I even set myself a timetable to measure my accountability. However, it never hurts to have some help.

In that vein, A Dude Abikes reached out to me to propose supporting each other in the accountability phase of our goals/resolutions. I thought that was fantastic. Support is key to achieving a goal, and having support that lets you know when you are slacking is also important.

Starting in on my goals

Sometimes, my goals are thwarted by my own stubbornness. You see, I have a couple of books I am somewhere in the middle of from 2020. I don’t know why I didn’t follow through with the books, but neither is a challenging read, and neither is dull. If I only had one book on the go, I would probably not worry about starting another one, but with two (actually 3 if I include Lawrence Block’s stamp book) there seems to some internal resistance. However, yesterday, I finished one of them (Lee Child’s Past Tense–it is a Jack Reacher novel and I think Tom Cruise has ruined them for me). I had about a hundred pages to go and was able to blast through them pretty quickly.

This should free me up to start reading books that I will count towards my goals for this year. Since I started this at the airport in Colombia a few days before Covid turned my world upside down, I can’t count it in this year’s books.

I also managed to Zwift today. I put in a good effort and I even had a few minutes to tweak my avatar. I still am pretty low on the learning curve, but I will continue for a while before making any drastic changes. I still need to explore the training sections and do some of the sprint tests.

From This Day Forward

Photo by Olya Kobruseva on Pexels.com

First and Foremost

Happy New Year everyone. It is bittersweet saying it, but I want to start off the year positively.

Though I know turning the page in the calendar isn’t the end of the pandemic and really doesn’t change anything, I think there is a little bit of optimism in the air. I feel as though we are turning a corner and I want to look ahead to my year.

Optimism

I feel as though the vacinations will make a difference and I will be able to take a trip this year. I don’t know where, but I am confident that it will happen.

Work will get back to normal and I will be teaching full classes again in person. Students will once again make it to Toronto to study English and the competitors which weren’t able to stay open will allow those that did to recover.

Challenges

There are lots of political, economic, and geographical challenges ahead. There will also be lots of fallout when we finally count the cost of the pandemic and political turmoil. Some things will have changed and others will bounce back. I can’t predict it, but we will have something to teach our children.

Resolutions

I am not afraid to make a few resolutions for the New Year. What I will do differently is check in here every quarter (or earlier) to see how I am doing. I’ve got to hold myself accountable and this is the best place to do it.

Reading

I used to read 60 or more books a year, but once I cut my commuting time from two hours to 30 seconds, I didn’t read nearly as much as I would have liked. It also didn’t help that the library was closed or even when it functioned, it really didn’t allow for browsing.

This year, I am setting a modest goal of 25 books.

Writing/Blogging

I resolve to

1. write at least six short stories and one novel this year. I have been claiming that blogging was exercise for writing fiction and this year will see me finally follow through on that. Too long have I been sitting on things that need to see the light of day.
2. blog five times a week. Specifically, that means I will blog here four times and at least once on my other blogs. I know I should sort out a schedule, but that really isn’t something I am comfortable doing.

Fitness/Cycling

This is a difficult area since I have so often failed in the past to follow up on these goals despite their importance to me. I hope by writing this that I will take a bit more accountability in this area.

I resolve to

1. Zwift at least 4 hours a week in January, 6 hours a week in February, and 7 hours a week in March and April. I didn’t wait for the New Year to start before jumping on this one.
2. get out on my bike as early as possible this year and put some road miles on my bike. This will also mean joining the club early, and using the technology in place to gather people for some casual rides before official club season.
3. stretch three times a week and follow all the stretches in my cycling stretching book. Obviously, I cannot do them all in the first week, but I hope to be doing all of them by April.
4. do body weight exercises at least twice a week.
5. drink fewer carbonated soft drinks and plan to eliminate them by summer.
6. be a serious and able B level rider within the club.
7. take part in the club time trials.
8. go on one cycling vacation this year.

All of this should result in weight loss, but in reality, diet and muscle building offer the best hope in that regard. Zwifting alone will not do it. Eating better should be a goal, but since listing a bunch of food I shouldn’t eat has never been successful, I should learn the lessons that foods can be eliminated slowly, but a better mental attitude towards eating needs to be acquired first. Actually, a better mental attitude towards everything above needs to be acquired first.

House Tasks

There are lots of things to do around the house, and I could list dozens of tasks (if not more), but I will list the ones that need dealing with right now. Many of these can be done rather quickly, but always seem to get pushed to the backburner. Hopefully by listing them, I will actually get them done.

I resolve to

1. paint the kitchen and hobby room.
2. organize the kitchen cupboards and pantry.
3. organize the laundry room and get rid of the boxes that I was “saving in case I need them.”
4. get the e-waste to the e-waste depot as soon as they open to the public
5. replace the curtains in the bedroom.
6. cut down on the stuff in the filing cabinet.
7. Make planters for the back yard.

I could name a lot of other nebulous tasks like declutter, but without a clear goal and a clear way to measure if I achieved the goal, there is no point in listing it.

Travel

I would love to make a list of goals in this area, but I will have to wait and see how this turns out. The best I can do now is save money so I will be able to pay for it.

Final Thoughts

Okay 2021. Bring it on.

Some Reading Material

While it didn’t happen today, it is recent enough that I don’t mind writing about it. It may sound funny, but since we are still in lockdown, maybe it won’t. I was finally able to check some books out of the library.

I am a big believer in the library because it saves me so much money. They have so many books that I want to read and so many magazines I want to read or skim through. In years past, I read over 60 books a year. At 15 dollars a book (though these days the price is closer to 20) I saved 900 dollars. Even if the books were used, that would be at least 300 dollars.

The library has an ebook system, but I needed to take a tutorial to figure out how to work it and then transfer the books to my Kobo. I was scheduled to do this after I got back from Colombia. However, the pandemic struck just then and things haven’t been the same since. The library is working, but no one is allowed inside.

To get books or magazines, you need to reserve them online and wait until your order is ready and they contact you to pick them up. When you get to the library, you need to text them your name, library card number and parking spot. You also need to open your trunk, and tell the worker your name (without getting out of the car) when they approach. They then place them in the trunk. When the worker is a distance away, you can either close the trunk or reorganize the material.

Despite the hassle and not really being able to browse, it actually wasn’t too bad. I managed to get a whole stack of Canadian Woodworking magazines. They might inspire me to make some amazing creations. If they don’t, we’ll I am sure I will find something useful in them.

I haven’t checked into the return system, but I guess it will just make use of either the nighttime return slots they have always used or maybe the new digital return kiosks they had previously installed.