I think that I am going to have to pull back a bit on my bicycling until after the CFA Level II exam in June. Yesterday, I did a great ride along the lakeshore but it ate up quite a bit of time. I’ve done well over a hundred kilometers this week and will probably do a short ride today.

According to one of the tips in that Bicycling Magazine book, LeMond says that you can achieve your full potential with as little as ten hours a week so that you can tend to other things in your life. Well, I can’t think of anything more important right now than the CFA exam. So, I expect to ride more on the weekdays when there are fewer people on the Martin Goodman Trail (less people, greater speed) and actually less on the weekends.

It’s all a matter of priorities.

Bookmark to:

Last couple of days, I’ve been toying with the idea of a fast tour to Montreal. I’ve been surprised over the past month at how much stronger I seem to be on the bike. Rides of 28 km or more with which I had to push on last year now seem like nothing. I’m regularly pushing distances of 40 km and more these days depending on my schedule.

My only tour to Montreal was with my ex in 2003 I think. I was not in the greatest of shape at that time and, consequently, didn’t perform well and this exacerbated an already rocky relationship.

This time around, I’m in much better shape and so am thinking of stripping everything down to the bare essentials in order to get the longest distances possible and/or shortest transit times.

Another reason for this trip, aside from a general feeling of restlessness, is that my Mother needs to have a new skylight installed on her roof and she wants someone to oversee the operation. This would entail at least a week’s stay in Montreal, I think.

The big factor is the cost involved. Currently unemployed so I would hate to further eat into my savings. Just trying to juggle the costs involved between a return train ticket versus bike tour and bus it on the way back. Should I look for a potential partner to offset the cost?

Don’t know if a partner can be any worse than with my ex. hehehe

Something to consider I guess.

Bookmark to:

I’ve always been fascinated by the tale of how ten thousand Greek mercenaries were stranded in the hostile Persian Empire and, then, got it together enough to march themselves out. Now, that’s a challenge!

This is the first book by Ford and it’s well-written. It uses the viewpoint of Themistogenes who is a close companion/confidant of Xenophones the ultimate leader of the expedition and traces their boyhood beginnings through to almost the end of their lives. This literary device works well enough but is a bit rough in some spots and you’re left wondering sometimes as to what they’re really thinking.

Admittedly, a few areas I did skim over such as their conversations so that may explain it. LOL!

I’m not too sure if I want to read any other books from Ford since the reviews on Amazon.com indicate that he uses the same literary device for subsequent books. We’ll see how desperate we are when it comes to choosing new titles.

Bookmark to:

It’s been a while since I last posted anything other than a book review but much has happened over the past week. Last Wednesday, we got the news that one of my uncles passed away. This set off a large chain reaction of what can be termed “funerary happenings”.

My uncle died on Wednesday and he lived in Scarborough along with his wife. Almost all of his immediate family are in Scarborough but the majority of his other relatives are in Montreal whereas I and most of my siblings are in Toronto.

So, we had to coordinate bringing in another uncle and aunt, my Father, a cousin and his wife. Luckily, my Mother is currently visiting with us in Toronto. The biggest source of confusion was how was everyone going to get to Toronto (or Scarborough) and where were they going to stay? They certainly could not stay with the widow and her family since they were pretty full up and had two other siblings and their husbands coming into town.

Since the out-of-towners aren’t rich, after much investigation over a couple of days, it was decided that they would all travel to Scarborough by bus. Ugh! I hate using the bus and would have much preferred that they travelled by train. As Via says, it’s a more humane way to travel or somesuch marketingspeak. I then booked hotel rooms for everyone concerned. I didn’t realize that there was such a thing as a “funeral” rate until the hotel asked what all of the rooms were for. The discount was a good 30% off so I was pretty impressed but the relatives still were a bit concerned about the price. I have to say it but Travelodge is definitely not the same as Hilton or the Royal York.

It soon became clear that I was also expected to drive everyone from the bus station (at Scarborough Town Center) to the hotel and, then, to the funeral home for visitation on Sunday. Much agonizing over the cost of a two-day rental for a full-sized vehicle for one who is currently unemployed.

Sunday was a real zoo of a day and it wasn’t because of the visitation either. A good friend of mine was in town for the day from Gettysburg, PA and we decided to meet up in the morning for brunch. Haven’t seen her in well over 6 years so it was great to see both her, her husband and their son. The latter was a lot better behaved than I had expected and it went well.

Then, it was a rush downtown to pick up the rental vehicle. Pick up my Mother and siblings…drive out to Scarborough in the process of which I became a bit lost. Well, not exactly lost but rather I missed the turn-off for Kennedy Rd. because I was in the Express lanes on the 401 and could not get across three lanes of traffic without turning everyone’s hair white. I also really hate driving in unfamiliar areas when it’s raining since the car is bound to fog up and you can’t use the sun to navigate by.

Managed to get to the funeral home in pretty good time despite the slight detour and, then, it was off to pick up the out-of-towners at the bus depot. Never been to Scarborough Town Center so this was going to be fun. To my surprise, the actual drive to the shopping mall and finding them was pretty easy. And, all five of them, managed to stuff themselves into the Ford Taurus. Bless Budget Rent-a-Car for that!

Then, we proceeded to get really lost driving to the hotel. The Travellodge is off of a main street tucked into a business area and we kept driving past it one way or another. I think that we must have spent a good fifteen to twenty minutes zipping around the area before we finally stumbled onto it. It would not have been this difficult if the sun was out and, if I had had bothered to print out the directions. The latter was because it just did not seem that difficult to find the place! Grrr…

Got everyone to the funeral home in good order and with time to spare.

Uncle had very few friends in Toronto/Scarborough. He had basically followed his children from Montreal a few years back so almost everyone there was a relative. One of the first things to strike me was the fact that they had a chanting Buddhist priest present. No one in the family is Buddhist but the family was given a choice between a Buddhist priest or a Christian one. Maybe they were confused?

It was odd to see uncle lying there. I’m no stranger to death but I felt pretty detached from the whole thing. Maybe it was because I didn’t like him much. We have a bit of a history way back when. The biggest shock was seeing how poorly the makeup was applied! I had to look a couple of times between his face and that of his picture next to him. The picture was a LOT better than the pasty-gray mannequin in the coffin. Also, I thought that they could have done a lot better when it came to clothing him.

Made a series of notes to self…if I were to pop off:

1. Burial in Montreal.
2. No chanting priest but an Anglican choir would be nice.
3. Make sure to be buried in my best clothes.
4. Decide on post-visitation dinner menu.
5. Either assign seating or make sure to mix-and-match family and friends.
6. Assign gravediggers or funeral attendants to manually shovel the dirt.
7. My lying, deceitful ex - Lyne (or MsMittens) is not to be allowed to the visitation or funeral.

Took quite a few photos of everything. The main conversations took place in a backroom where my Mother seemed to hold court for a while. Lot of circulation going on but it was a quiet time.

After six pm, almost the entire gathering moved to the widow’s condo for more talking. This will probably be the only time that almost the entire paternal side of my family will ever get together. My uncle’s family had dinner reservations at a local restaurant so we soon headed there. I’ll be adding another note to self about arranging for the menu.

Dinner was so-so. For some reason, “special” menus don’t seem to have much “special” about them.

We all managed to make it home and in bed by around ten pm or so. I really hate driving a car full of people who are steaming up the windows on a rainy night.

Next day was a gorgeous day! My immediate family and I managed to get to the funeral home well ahead of even my uncle’s family! They decided to take a short walk around the neighbourhood while I proceeded to become lost once again in trying to find the hotel where my father/uncle/aunt/cousins had spent the night. Who’d have thought that there were two Esso stations so close to one another on Sheppard Avenue? I was supposed to turn at one and not at the other.

Also, got into a shouting match with a taxi driver who thought that I was stealing his fare. Grrrr…

Funeral was small…just a tad fewer people than the day before. Seating was a bit odd with my cousin from Montreal being seated on the other side of the room which is bound to, in the future, lead to ill-will. I’m sure that it was not intentional but, again, it will be brought up ad nauseum in the future. Another note to self!

Pallbearer duty was not difficult when it came to moving the coffin into the hearse. More on this later! The funeral procession proceeded to the cemetary with a detour to my deceased uncle’s condo to set up his picture there. My biggest concern was the fact that the fuel light in my car kept warning that I was down to fumes. I was very happy that we were going at a slow pace of around 20-30 km/hr and didn’t need to accelerate very much.

The cemetary is actually located further into the city of Toronto than I had expected. I thought that he was going to be buried in some windswept out-of-the-way grave that no one can visit unless they were willing to make a major trek out of it. In his case, it’s going to be a minor trek. It was also unexpected that there was still room in the cemetaries in the city. Of course, once the baby boomers start dying off it’s going to be a different story.

The cemetary was also a “mixed” cemetary with no separation of race or ethnicity unlike the one in Montreal. Not sure, though, if that is still the case in Mtl.

There was a bit of confusion about which way his head and tombstone would be facing. This was the point where the pallbearer duty became a bit interesting as we proceeded to swing and maneuver the coffin around the various gravesites and tombstones. One of the pallbearers actually threw out his back and had to be replaced!

Ceremony was nice and dignified but, then, the family asked everyone to stay as they proceeded to lower the coffin into the ground. Actually, into a separate sarcophagus which was news to me. I wonder why they did that? What felt undignified was when the cemetary workers proceeded to bring in a backhoe to finish the burial process. Another note to self. It just felt…I don’t know…”mechanical” is one word that comes to mind.

The rest of the day was pretty mundane with lunch, departing relatives, and errand-running.

Bookmark to:

As some of you may know, bicycling is an important part of my life (who’d have guessed that from this blog’s title?!) so it’s important to try to learn a little bit about it. Ok, well, I guess I’m lazy about learning more about it since I’ve only been riding since…I was 8 or 9 and have quite a fair distance beneath my wheels.

That’s why it’s important for me to at least refresh my knowledge about the activity once in a while and to give myself that extra oomph to push a bit harder. This book pretty well does that. I’ve taken tons of notes out of it pertaining to nutrition and I’ve begun a training journal of sorts.

In the past, nutrition and training was pretty well ad-hoc. I ate well but did not eat with an eye geared specifically towards cycling and while I did train I did not pay much attention to distance, times or speed. Safe to say, now I am!

The book is not an end-all be-all book about bicycling but it’s an excellent starting point to more indepth learning and a great refresher for those of us who have become complacent.

Bookmark to:

Oh oh…beginning of the week and I’m looking over the Wall Street Journal’s Book Reviews’ column. Some of you (or none) may wonder at how I pick the titles that I read. Well, there is the Globe and Mail’s book section on Saturday, the WSJ’s book reviews, and the Toronto Public Library’s online catalogue which helpfully lists new titles monthly.

For fiction, I’ve found myself gravitating towards sci-fi (space opera anyone?), medieval mysteries and the rare techno-thriller. For non-fiction, there’s a huge gamut ranging from history, military history, computer books, self-help, nature, business, etc.

Let’s check out the WSJ’s book reviews for the last couple of weeks to see what catches my eye and which title(s) will go in for library requests. Hrmmm..”To Dare and Conquer”, a book about the history of spec-ops. Interesting but nothing particularly new to me since I’m already familiar with events such as Alexander’s capture of a mountaintop fortress, Cortes’ conquest of Mexico, German assault on Eben Emael and the rescue of Mussolini by German paratroops.

“The Sex Life of Food” looked interesting but I’d rather know how to get it and prepare it than read about other people eating it. The same sort of philosophy permeates my life in a way…I’m not a watcher but a doer.

“The Accidental President of Brazil” is the story of the end of the royal government of Brazil. For some reason, South America has never much interested me beyond the Amazon basin and its fragile environment. Next!

This is becoming a bit disappointng…I’ve gone through about a dozen reviews and nothing leaps out at me.

Oh wait…here’s a potential candidate, “Osman’s Dream” about the history of the Ottoman Empire from its rise to its fall. Hrmm…tempting but I read an Ottoman Empire history only last year. Do I need another?

“The Box” is the story of the lowly shipping container…you know, the ones that you see piled high on top of ships, zipping in front of you at railway crossings atop of trains, or on your local TV news channel when they find dead bodies/contraband. That sort of begs the question of whether or not dead bodies should be defined as contraband or not. Hrmm..time to put this one to the test…will I learn something that’s useful? No.

It’s a bit of a bogus test since a lot of the books that I read don’t really teach me much…such as the history of the Ottoman Empire..and Empire that fell in 1922. Ok…better test…will it interest me? Probably not unless the writer is exceptionally good at keeping you interested in a steel container.

Jackpot! Just as I was about to give up and sit down to do some real work I came across the review for “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”. This is about food and the path that it takes to our tables. Given how important food is to me and the limited funds that I have to splurge on it I think that it’s important for me to gain a better understanding of where it all comes from. I just hope that it’s more illuminating than what I’ve already read or seen on TV.

Potentially, there may be a review on this in about two months. Yes, I know that it’s a long time but I’m currently reading The Business of Memory, A Better War, Getting Things Done, Bicycling Magazine’s 1,000 All-Time Best Tips and there’s probably another one lying around somewhere.

Bookmark to:

Second in the series of “A Medieval Oxford Mystery” and it’s improved upon the first book. That’s not to say that book elicited much interest or sympathy from me. Character development seems to have moved ahead but only in the case of the main character and not very far I must say. In most books of this type there are usually some recurring supporting characters such as a sidekick. Not so in the world of Oxford academia, it seems!

The crime and its subsequent resolution is interesting enough and has a good twist. Not sure if I will continue to read on with the rest of the series as I already have more than enough on my plate.

Bookmark to:

Yesterday evening, I had one of those revelatory moments that hits and everything falls into place. I’m currently reading through Bicycling Magazine’s 1,000 All-Time Best Tips by Ben Hewitt and was in the Training tips’ section. Tip #40 says to watch out for overtraining, with the warning signals being aching legs, elevated resting heart rate, weight loss, poor sleep patterns, irritable disposition, an I-don’t-care attitude, a lingering cold, and general lifelessness. There are other symptons that you can find on the Web but those just jumped out at me.

Why am I writing this? Well, my ex purchased a new touring bike last June and resolved to lose weight and get in shape. They embarked on an aggressive program of riding and weight-training. Their riding included not only an initial tour of 600km but also 3-4 days out of the week commuting to their job (about 48km a day) and, each weekend day for four months, they were doing over 100 km with no recovery rides from what I can see. Timewise, they were spending anywhere from 15-18 hours a week riding not including the weight training. This also violated another tip in the book where it says that if you have a full-time job or was studying to commit only 10-12 hours a week for bicycling and reserve the rest of the time to other priorities. In any case, my ex managed to ride about 5000km in two months (June and July) and, for all of 2005, racked up about 9000km. That’s very impressive mileage.

But, they started to exhibit some of the above signs: the weight loss was so drastic that I was a bit concerned and mentioned it a couple of times; couldn’t sleep soundly at all and was getting about 5-6 hours a night and started to take naps which they had never done before; and was simply too tired to do anything else. This tiredness was so pervasive that, in August or September, they went to see a doctor and had blood tests done. Doc said to take it easy but that advice was evidently ignored. The I-don’t-care attitude kicked in and they bailed in late September.

Our relationship was pretty weak due to a lot of factors but we kept saying that we were going to try and work things through so it was a bit of a surprise when they called to say that they were going to take the job with VMWare in Burlington. I guess that’s what they thought “communications” meant although with the amount of time they spend online I would have thought an email would have been more appropriate! LOL!

I’m not going to blame overtraining for what happened but I now suspect that it was a factor. I swear, with my ex, anything that they did seemed to have an unintended consequence. Most people work to lose weight in order to help the relationship not torpedo it.

So, if you want to keep your relationship going, watch out for overtraining…ergo, if you want to get rid of your significant other…point them to their bike.

Bookmark to:

Port Credit! That was a bit of a surprise on Sunday afternoon when I somehow rode into Port Credit without really realizing how close I was to it. I had intended to ride to at least the Lakeview Generating Station in Mississauga but it was such a nice day that I decided to go just a bit further. I must have pushed a bit harder than I realized and next thing I know there was the sign welcoming me into the village/town.

The weather has been pretty cooperative most weekends so I’ve been able to do some moderate rides out to the Humber River, the generating station and, I guess, the village of Port Credit. Normally, Port Credit is the outer limit of where I ride since it’s a good 52 km from here to there. This season, I am able to build up on last year’s rides and I expect to be able to push even further this year. All dependent on how my studying and job hunt goes of course.

The “ouch” from above comes from the fact that my unintentional pushing resulted in a slight twinge of protest from my right kneecap on that day which has resulted in a full-blown gimpy knee/leg so I’ve been hobbling about for the last couple of days. No riding until Friday or the weekend at the earliest. *sigh*

Bookmark to:

Yes, that’s right..Steve Martin! I found out about this book because a movie based on it was just recently released. I’m always torn between reading the book or watching the movie. Do you want to devote several hours/days reading the book or do you want to spend only a few hours and simply watch the movie?

In certain cases, such as this one, you’re probably much better off reading the book because it’s much more difficult to get into the heads/emotions of the characters. Unless Claire Danes is an actress with the ability to project her thoughts, I’d say you will get more out of reading the book.

I didn’t rightly know what to expect. Would this be a “deep” book or would it follow a Harlequin Romance formula? Would it have a happy ending although that’s pretty much a relative term. Without revealing too much, this was not what I had expected. It’s a bit formulaic in one sense where a wealthy older gentleman (although, that can be only used very loosely here) hooks up with a younger, somewhat ditzy singleton. It’s different in that the characters do not necessarily engender much sympathy on the part of the reader or am I being unduly harsh? Read it and find out!?? hehehe

Off on a tangent, Steve Martin does live in LA and is very active in the art scene there. This shows through his detailed descriptions and his characterizations of the people. You can almost always tell when someone has first-hand experience of what they write and, at times, I kept thinking Martin was in the story somewhere.

Bookmark to: