On my new bike

So here is the story (and its not of a man named Brady)... Actually I never watched the Brady Bunch, it was always on after the cartoons, I was too young for the Brady's when they first aired. (Now I suppose its the remake that gets the ad dollars... damn I just dated myself didn't I?)

Anyway my plan was to pick up my beautiful new 2006 Specialized Roubaix Comp Triple on Friday April 18 and ride to my new home. Sigrid Ziegler (see What I'm reading on the right) was even going to help me set the bike up, get the pedals on, get the seat to the right height, all that good stuff. Then on Wednesday, April 16 Lesley told me that Friday night we would pack and move stuff to our new home. So that very evening, Wednesday, I had to skate to the bike shop and then buy bike shorts and ride to the new place. (By the time I asked, Sigrid already had plans, naturally, so was unable to help me, which as it turns out was a real shame.)

Now I want to stress, I can ride a bike, I've been riding without training wheels since quad roller-skates were all the rage. Besides a street car track mishap in 1995, not far from where I live now actually, and a four or five-year-old suddenly pulling out in front of me in May 2000. I have not crashed on a bike since the 1980s. Well the bike store was good enough to attach my pedals to the bike and my cleats to my shoes, but nobody at the store bothered to tell me that I can loosen the toe clips with nothing but a hex key.

I managed to make it from the store near Dufferin and Bloor along Bloor to Roncesvalles and down to the pedestrian bridge over the Gardiner/Lakeshore. Well as I was turning a 180 degrees down the ramp to get off the bridge, I started to loose balance and could not free my foot fast enough. (The results of that crash are on my Bont Vaypor's, my rear derailleur and my right elbow.)

I biked along the MGT towards the new house in the East end. I got as far as Queens Quay and York street when I encountered a red light. Remembering that I fell to the right previously, this time I made sure to keep my right foot free and ready to arrest any fall. Naturally the wind, from the south, blew me to the left! (The evidence of that crash is my busted pride and the witnesses who saw an idiot who can't balance on his bike at a red light!)

Saturday after moving some (760 square feet) hardwood into the bedrooms to acclimatize the wood and assembling an Ikea bookcase in the basement (here's a silly question, why is assembling crap from Ikea so damned hard? And why does all their stuff look so bloody corny?) I went for a quicky out to Mississauga and back, it was a nice little 50km ride, but hardly had I set out when I took a wipe out at another stop. Well this time someone was good enough to tell me exactly what the problem was, my pedal was too tight.

I went to a nearby bike shop, where the staff were very helpful, ever before I bought anything, which was awful nice. The owner told me something rather blindingly obvious yet at the same time something I was not already doing. Before I stop, long before I stop, I should be freeing my feet from the pedals. He also told me that I should not bike further than I am willing to walk until I have a repair tool, a spare tube and an air pump. (Well the air pump I am going to cheat, after all I can always go to a gas station, the tool I bought and I will pick up a spare tube, just as soon as I learn how to replace them!)

On the ride home I was biking with Herb Gayle, well Herb skated, we actually managed to have a pretty decent conversation. Remarkably I had a real struggle keeping up with Herb, I figured that a cyclist should be able to keep speed with even the best skaters without too much trouble, wow was I wrong, Herb is fast.

Sunday I went for a quick skate, too much work to do around the house, but I bumped into Ed Duncan (see the readings at the right). It turns out Ed disagrees with my thoughts on Tibet. His argument is that athletes who spend years preparing for the Olympics should not have to worry about politics. I agree with him, although I doubt the Israeli athletes in Munich in '72 worried about politics or Black September. Ed actually knows someone who would have been on the Canadian team sent to Moscow in 1980, except of course we, in The West, boycotted that game in protest over the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet bloc countries as we all know replied by boycotting Los Angeles games in 1984. The Afghans would go on to reply to all of the above by hosting the people who flew airplanes into buildings on Tuesday September 11, 2001. I highly doubt Al Quada or the Taliban cared much that the West boycotted the Olympics 21 years before that horrible day.

Its a complicated thing, I am not even sure what my opinion is on this. Perhaps Athletes should compete, maybe they should all wear Tibetan colours when they go on the podium? Maybe not. But it seems rather trivializing to me to be having games and celebrating sport while not far away people are dying. The whole notion of the Olympic games has reached a new level of crass in my opinion - and that upsets me. The Olympics were not supposed to be about Propaganda but since 1936 that's all they've really been about.

Since I am not sure what I believe anymore I think I should end on this note. I read recently that the first modern Olympic Opening Ceremony was a creation of the Nazis. Makes sense, the torch, the elite athletes, the marching about, it all smacks of Nazi imagery. Maybe in Vancouver they can put an end to that tradition?

On moving

The American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman (who according to many from the South, in particular, South Carolina was anything but civil) said: There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell. (June 19, 1879, Michigan Military Academy). There is relevance in that quote when the subject of moving to a new home comes up.

There is many a person here today who looks at a new home as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell! For anyone who has never bought a property, you have missed a real treat, for anyone who has gone through the excitement and anticipation, the pleasure... the sheer unmitigated delight of land transfers, lawyers, agents, appraisers, water, electric, telephone, cable, predelivery inspections, contractors, bank drafts, bankers, insurance, mortgages... need I go on? Should you by chance have bought from someone else (that is, your property is not a new build), or a condo, sorry, but you really have not experienced property buying the way it was meant to be. (Americans who read this, don't get smug, from what I hear you guys have it a lot worse.)

Just a small sample of what I am dealing with. The agreement of purchase and sales for our new home was to close on February 8, 2008. The builder pushed the date twice, ultimately the date the deal closed was April 15, 2008. (That is why I have not been posting to the blog or going to TISC, I am absolutely swamped.)

Now April 15 was a Tuesday, on Thursday, April 10, I called my lawyer to find out how much money I would need to give him, in the form of a bank draft to cover the various closing costs, including down payment, land transfer taxes, legal expenses and so on. Surprisingly the lawyer answered the phone, not his assistant, she was given the day off. But my lawyer took the time to go through his files, a promising sign, and told me over the phone the problem. It turns out his assistant was well on top of the situation and had in fact contacted the builder several times, starting on the 8'th asking for the paperwork so that we could pay in time. The builder ultimately delivered on Friday (April 11) late in the morning.

Lesley, my lovable wife, had the dubious honour (as the only person in our family to have a regular bank account, some other time I can describe the horrors of PC bank as applied to home buying) of going to the local bank branch to obtain a bank draft for several hundred thousand dollars. Initially the branch refused because they were not her home branch, don't have her signature on file, cant get through to anyone at the home branch. Ultimately I called the local branch and asked who was going to pay when the builder sues me because I cannot get the money to make the down payment, or any other closing costs? (Implied in my question was, do you guys want me to sue you?)

Its amazing what a threat of a civil action can do when there is good grounds for said action.

Tuesday morning the mortgage company, who already has a mortgage on our current property decided to inform my lawyer that they require proof of home insurance prior to signing over a lot more money. (Thanks guys, you only knew this was coming for the past several months so asking for that sort of information the day of the deal closing is a sign of a really well run organization.) I got the mortgage secured by around noon. At around 1 or 2pm, after the builder's lawyer got the bank draft from my lawyer's trust, the builder's lawyer screwed up again (recall the were late getting the paper work). They deeded over the easements and the garage, but neglected to deed the house. Ooops! (Actually that particular error can share blame between a law firm that I won't name, and the Ontario Land Registry Office.)

Naturally much of the house remains uncompleted, including the garage and landscaping, sometime very soon I will have to list out all the defects in the Tarion 30-day report.

Oh and of course I have to move all my material possessions from our old house to our new house and sell the old house, yummy!

I was going to put in a thing about biking here, end on a happy note, but I'm just too tired. Suffice it to say, I have my beautiful new bike, I love the thing but the bed beckons, the stress of moving and 50km rides seem to get to me.

On Philosphy and Skating

Yesterday I skated, this should not come as a surprise, I skate pretty much every day that I can. (Although after my two skates on the weekend, 42km and 47km respectively, I needed a day off, which was Tuesday.)

Anyway I met up with Herb Gayle who does not not have much of a presence on the web. Herb and I had a very interesting conversation whilst piddling around, one thing he said to me was he does not maintain a web presence precisely because it becomes political and distracts from skating. I happen to enjoy writing and just as I skate for love of the sport, I write for passion of words, still given the politics around having an opinion that some people vehemently oppose, makes me think that Herb's attitude has a certain appeal.

Herb and I sped up, and I managed to keep up for a whole 100m or so before a tight turn that I could not take at the same speed. Herb's a much better skater, both technically and in terms of raw strength. According to my GPS yesterday I maxed out at 36km/h. Not bad, but given the strong tail wind, I can do a lot better.

In other news, I skated to work today, the first time this season. The road was ugly, lots of gravel and there are an awful lot of really lousy drivers out there. But its nice to get into the office in under 15 minutes, door to door.

On Skating and on being wrong

First things first, since Wednesday I have skated every single day except Friday when it rained. My knees are in a million different kinds of pain, but its all good pain, mind you I think I really better shower soon. If I haven't by the time Lesley gets home she's probably gonna divorce me as soon as she smells me. (Today I skated from our place a block West of Bathurst to just East of Hurontario then turned around and skated into the wind all the way home. Total distance, almost 47km, top speed about 41km/h.)

Anyway a few days ago Lesley and I were furniture shopping and we came to a store that sold office supplies. Lesley asked if they had any Barcelona chairs, the proprietor, eager to show his stuff I suppose, did not have any but did start to quiz us on the history of the Barcelona Chair. So here are some useless facts should you ever find yourself being quizzed by bored office supply store proprietors. The Barcelona chair was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and was first put on display in the 1936 Worlds fair in Barcelona Spain. (Only on further research I realize the proprietor is full of crap, there was no World's Fair in Barcelona in 1936, which makes sense since as I said to Lesley as soon as the quiz was over, it is hard to imagine how there could be a World's Fair in the midst's of a civil war!) In fact the World's Fair was the 1929 fair in Barcelona Spain.

The same store owner proceeded to grill me on the easy stuff, seeing as I work downtown. He asked where on King street I could find a Barcelona chair on display? Well that's obvious right at Bay and King in the TD Centre, designed by none-other than van der Rohe. Now I still have some investigating to do, but here the store owner was even more confident when he told me van der Rohe did not actually design the TD Centre, in fact it was an associate of van der Rohe, I believe Philip Johnson, who was the architect of record for the buildings. But everything I can find on the subject says that van der Rohe was in charge of the project and had the master vision.

The owner also said Johnson designed the Seagram Building too, but according to Building New York, The Rise and Rise of the Greatest City on Earth, van der Rohe, chose Johnson as a partner but van der Rohe was the brains behind that building too!

I guess the moral of the story is, unless you are really really sure, don't show off. You end up looking like a complete idiot.

Lesley had asked me to write about war, and how it sadly seems to be the greatest motivator of the human condition. But it seems instead I had to spend the better part of an hour confirming everything that store owner told me was a shades of something between close and completely wrong. Oh well, lovers of violence, no war today, maybe tomorrow.

On skating in the cold

Yesterday I did 19km on the Martin Goodman Trail. There was a pretty strong head wind but not nearly as bad as Tuesday. I maxed out at about 32km/h and averaged at 18km/h. Which I admit is not nearly as good as times I get in Hamilton, but two things in my defence:

1. Skating times are always worse when it is cold than when it is warm.
2. The MGT is a much more technical course than Hamilton, and with all the snow and pot holes I had to slow down a few times.

Anyway I came across a very angry article about the dysfunctional nature of the Olympics. At some point in ancient history the Greek tradition of the Olympics was ended because the games were too elaborate, too expensive and too irrelevant. I wonder, the fundamental purpose of the games, people coming together in celebration of sport was pretty much a write off from the Berlin games of 1936 on. At what point do we ask the important questions without getting shouted down? Because it does seem that finding a voice of moderation is becoming increasingly difficult as recent comments to my blog (and on the other end of the spectrum) the article I linked to above suggest.

When the moderates are shouted down, who will keep the peace?

On shout outs

I have to admit I hate the expression 'shout out'. I'd rather say 'tip of the hat' or something similar, but that would be lexically incorrect, On tip of the hat hmmm, maybe On tips of the hat.

Anyway I think it appropriate that I thank Georg for a good laugh. I have not had one of those from a comment here in quite some time. Have I actually had a funny comment before? (I rather doubt it.)

My plan yesterday, now that my muscles are no longer a frozen mass of protein, was to skate to practice. One little problem, an intense headwind, according to Jacky Schu(see Passion On Wheels on the right) it was 70km/h with gusts up to 83km/h. (I have to admit, I find that hard to believe, but perhaps around 20km/h with periodic gusts to 40km/h seem a little more believable, when I skated with the wind I was able to keep up with debris that was being carried by the wind.)

The wind was from the west, and I had to go west to get to practice. I think the wind alone would not have broken my will, but the cold did. I make a lousy Canadian, I just cannot take the cold.

When we arrived in Texas back in late February, or was it March 1? I remember driving out of Dallas Fort Worth Airport and seeing a couple hard core cyclists on the roads of Irving TX. Hardcore not because of the the weather, about 20 degrees and sunny, but because they were out on suburban roads with reckless drivers. When I think back to that divine temperature, I think to myself I could live in Texas, then I remember the concealed weapons laws and I think... uhm, no so much. But San Francisco? Or maybe San Diego, one of these days I'd like to see what San Diego is like, I've been told its very nice there.

Oh here is a great post recovery snack I've dreamed up that works well for me. Take some instant almond paste soup from a Chinese supermarket, add glutamine and boiling water. That is probably the easiest way, besides perhaps, chocolate milk, to get glutamine into your system. Since I am lactose intolerant that is probably the best way to get glutamine.

On Humor

Love your enemies. It makes them so damned mad.

-P.D. East

This was from a letter, that I really liked, in the Saturday (March 29) Globe and Mail.

About that Canadian bacon

You should have modified the Associated Press obituary of Herb Peterson (March 28) for Canadian readers. The obituary of the creator of the Egg McMuffin listed its ingredients which included "Canadian bacon." It should should have been called back bacon.


My wife and I discovered this difference between American and Canadian English the first week we arrived in Canada from the U.S. My wife asked a butch, "Is that Canadian bacon?" The butch quipped, "Lady, all our meat is Canadian!" - Peter A. Reich, Toronto.

Actually when I was young I remember we used to call it Peameal bacon. When we went to New England in the summer of '93 we were at a restaurant that served Canadian bacon on the side, dad, a third generation Canadian had no idea what Canadian bacon was. Its a cute little letter, I liked it, I imagine the butcher knew exactly what the Mrs. Reich was asking for, but hey any chance to poke fun at the little differences.

Anyway I went skating today and it was COLD, too cold, gave up and went home. After dinner I am going to hit the elliptical machine - I want warmer weather dammit!