On moving, from a cat's perspective and on organized skating

Well as I have documented elsewhere in this blog I have two little guys. Kilu seems to have taken well to the new home despite some early problems. I have little doubt that the trauma of seeing all the things that Kilu knew of, computers, clothing and the like, suddenly in boxes, then gone, then Kilu himself, being relocated was more than a little traumatizing for the little guy. His first night he hid in the basement and he still cries a lot when Lesley or I are not around, but at least he's becoming more sociable, just like he used to be.

Kalubi is a different animal completely, he has moved from hiding in the cat litter, to hiding in the front parlor to hiding under the laundry sink, but the basic theme of hiding is central to Kalubi's life (or lack-there-of in this case) style.

Meanwhile the 30 day Tarion report of deficiencies we have found now exceeds 20 items and there's still 7 days left! (Remarkably my issues are mostly modest, a scratch here, a misaligned cabinet door there, inadequate insulation here, etc.)

As I sit on the bed typing this Kilu has decided to climb into bed, crawl under the blanket and is now a lump near the foot of the bed, adorable little guy, but my allergies are going to be bad all night... oh well!

In unrelated news, I am trying, with little apparent success to organize a marathon length skate along the North Shore of Lake Ontario here in Toronto. The way I see it:

1. Driving to Hamilton (a 60km one way trip) is a shameful waste of gas and cause of green house gas emissions.
2. Hamilton beach is just way to easy, its a straight bloody line, for heaven's sakes even Duluth is harder than that!
3. If we ever want to have races in Toronto we should probably start by having organized group events first.

Anyway I hope some people decide to join me, if not, then I guess I go it on my own and then spend the afternoon unpacking and building shelving. (Its not as if I lack for things to do on weekends these days.)

Speaking of weekends, my new goal, bike to Oakville and back. Achieving that my next goal is Hamilton and back. Also, in honour of Ed Duncan (see my readings at the right) I am going to do my damnedest to live a carbon emissions free lifestyle, no driving to work or recreational driving if at all possible - which I suppose means if I go to Hamilton to skate I will have to use my bike to get there. From now on, if I don't need to drive somewhere, I won't. (And yes, I'm installing compact florescent lights all over the house.) For the curious among you, as it is still a little cold outside, the heat is on, set to 20 degrees, once I switch over to chilling, the thermostats will be set to 25. None of this hotter in the winter than the summer lunacy.

On the horrors of moving.

I have to write much of the following on my Black Berry. I've been stealing Internet access from the neighbours (they really ought to enable WEP, but in the meantime, at least I have access until the cable gets installed.) Much of this post is rather bitter, its been a frustrating week for me, where success is measured in the number of boxes unpacked and failures in the number of defects found in the home, un-plugged dishwashers, broken boilers, etc.

Is it a rational desire to want to burn all of ones material possessions and start over, rather than pack and unpack them? I don't think my insane urges mark me as an arsonist. Rather I suspect as anyone who has moved after years of domestic tranquility will, no doubt agree, my urges reflect a reasonably well adjusted individual trying to come to terms with an awe inspiring pile of crap, because ultimately that's all our Worldly belongings are, a pile of crap!

Over a period of about a week, starting April 26 we managed to empty our humble home of everything, and move all of it, in cardboard boxes, to our new home where all our stuff is, still, in cardboard boxes.When we first took possession, the furnace did not work, this was fixed but I am having trouble getting someone to admit error, and so far it appears I am responsible for a $135 repair bill. The dish washer did not work either, the installer never bothered to test, had he done so, he would have determined that there was something wrong with the electrical in the house, specifically the dish washer power was not connected to the electrical panel.

Besides skating to work I have not had a skate in ages. I last biked over a week ago and I am very tired from running around getting all the things I need to put my life back together. The next time I move it will be in a wooden box.

Alright correction, since typing the above in the Black Berry I have gone for a wonderful 59.2km bike ride from my home at Woodbine and Queen I got as far as the Palais Royale before running into Richard A. (No blog or page to my knowledge.) I let Richard draft off me back to Ontario Place and then to the light house where I continued on to Mississauga, before turning around and heading home - making sure to wave to Richard on the way back. I did not fall once, even when my back wheel jammed in the sewer grate at Queens Quay and Spadina, although that was a close one. I maxed out at 46km/h, while racing the cars on Queens Quay. I felt like asking if they enjoyed paying $1.20/L but then the realization that they are encased in 2 tons of steel whereas I have about 8kg of carbon and aluminum kept me pretty quiet.

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?