On the way back this morning, I was passing by Ontario Place again and was pretty happy to see that the sandwich boards were still down. Unfortunately, the happy feeling went away when all of a sudden, I heard this loud poof sound and felt my rear wheel becoming wobbly. I quickly slowed to a stop and proceeded to quickly unload gear and flip the bike over preparatory to replacing the tube.

Man, it’s a good thing I decided to pack an extra inner tube! I can’t recall the last time I had a flat tire on the road. It must have been quite a while since, when I took out my Mini-DoubleShot pump, it literally fell to pieces! All the years of riding and no usage had shaken it enough that it unscrewed itself to pieces. Luckily, pumps are simple creatures and I put it back together in a few seconds.

The act of changing out the tube and replacing it didn’t take long but there’s something about a crippled (and presumably helpless) cyclist that seems to make them easier to approach. I chatted with a couple of people who stopped for directions or to see what was going.

I pumped the new inner tube with enough air to get me home and, now, I’m going to see about that huge gash in the old tube. Since there is a corresponding gash in the tire, I’m tempted to buy a new tire. Maybe one of those Schwalbe ones?

Bookmark to:

While biking along Ontario Place this morning, I noticed a series of sandwich boards advertising a condo development. There were about six of these boards; two on the sidewalk and four in the park itself. It seemed a bit “commercial” to have all of these boards in a public greenspace where everyone is supposed to enjoy themselves. What’s the point of having a greenspace when it’s “polluted” with signage?

I got a bit angry and proceeded to knock each one down and I took out the sidewalk ones too for good measure!

Bookmark to:

A very interesting book that lists America’s involvement with invading, occupying, deposing and installing governments to suit its needs of the moment. It certainly gives lie to the statement that democracies never go to war with one another!

I do wish that those gung-ho Americans who were so pro-Bush before and during the invasion of Iraq had had a chance to read this book because it would give them pause as to what they were actually doing and whether or not they were being lead by the same arguments that justified earlier actions. In many cases, there were eerie parallels between what had happened in the past and what was happening today.

Good read overall!

Bookmark to:

A very disappointing book with little to recommend it beyond a good title.

Bookmark to:

I should have written this up yesterday but I was really beat. I’m still pretty beat!

I normally do a long-distance ride on Saturdays but it rained pretty much all day this past Saturday. Sunday looked good with only a 30% chance of rain. (You may all be correct in your suspicions as to where this is headed.) So, I took off once again and it was a great day for a ride. I pushed quickly enough that, at one point, I even considered making a strong push for Niagara Falls and attaining my goal at least a month early!

But, just past Jordan, I stopped at a gas station and asked this lady (in a Mercedes convertible) where was I? She mentioned that I was near a place called Morningstar Mill which I had actually been thinking about. Almost a decade back, I had embarked on a bike tour with the University of Toronto’s Outdoors Club in the area and had visited an old mill. So, I decided to take a detour to see if this was the same one. She did warn me about about a steep drop in the road and, then, a steep climb. Uh oh. I hate it when things like that happen!

Well, it did! I actually broke the speed limit going to the mill and back while on the downhills. It was so steep that I didn’t dare glance down but one time!

The mill looked about what I had remembered with some major restoration work done in the past decade but I also recalled the Niagara Escarpment looming up behind the mill so I wasn’t too sure. I asked the mill volunteer onsite and he suggested that I might be thinking about the one at Ball’s Falls nearby. But, now, that I just checked it online (thank you, Internet!), I can see that Morningstar is the mill I was thinking of. That Escarpment is somewhere, though! hehehe

Actually, the Escarpment is always there, looming darkly menacingly off to my right as I head southeast and, to my left, as I head back home. One day, I’ll come back to finish it off.

So, after the mill, I headed back and noticed almost immediately a huge, dark, bank of ugly clouds to my front. Uh oh. I did manage to stop and pick up a quart basket of cherries to bring home, though. They were the last of the season and I had to go to three fruit stands to get them!

Heading back, it finally started to rain near Hamilton. The stuff started to come down in buckets and hard enough to sting! I could barely see at times and had to stop at various spots, one of which was in a puddle almost 3 inches deep. At my last stop, I met another cyclist who invited me back to her place in Burlington to warm up and wait out the rain. Her name’s Elisabeth and we chatted for a bit as the sun finally came out and I headed back to Toronto.

Along the way, an American touring cyclist caught up with me. I had noticed him in a Burlington parking lot but wasn’t sure what he was doing since he was talking to a couple of people there. We chatted a bit and I found out that he was traveling along the Northern Tier route down to Maine(?) and, then, back home to North Carolina. He was supposed to meet up with friends in Mississauga but his route sounded a bit suspicious. A bit after Southdown Ave., I suggested that he call them up and figure out how to get to their place. Good thing too! His intended route would have had him backtracking several kilometers out of his way. Always glad to help out!

I finally staggered in at around 7:22 pm after doing 245.36 kms in 14 hours. Sooooo tired it was not funny. But, it was a great trip with some highlights being:

• Potentially solved a mill mystery. Finally got to say that!
• Met a couple of really nice people.
• Bag Balm does work!
• Got my bike washed of all its dust.
• Cherries came back in perfect condition and are soooo ripely sweet!

Yep, all in all, a pretty good trip.

Bookmark to:

Wow! Back online finally! On the 19th, Bell Canada decided to implement my new dry loop service by entirely cutting off my voice and Internet service. Yep! Absolutely nothing!

I was reduced to using my Telus prepaid cellphone in order to find out what was going on. What Bell was supposed to have done was to simply cut off the voice channel on my line and leave the Internet (or DSL) channel alone. Instead, they sent a technician over who had no clue what he was supposed to be doing since he said he didn’t have to do anything.

Subsequent calls to Bell elicited the response that I should have the Sympatico DSL service back up on the 20th. That did NOT happen. In fact, I called Bell time and again, to the tune of seven phone calls in total before finally talking to someone who seemed to know what they were doing. This was on Friday morning and they said that they needed about 24 hours before a ticket for activating my DSL line could be implemented. Normally, it’s 3 business days. Since this was Friday, I would not have Internet service until sometime Monday!

Needless to say, I was not happy. I don’t know what’s going on with Bell. The Sympatico DSL service is excellent but their people simply do not have a clue as to what they’re doing! They’re friendly, in the main, but getting the correct response is really hit-and-miss.

The only saving grace was that Vonage was able to have all incoming calls routed over to my cellphone so we didn’t miss anything but it made for some very short conversations.
Right now, the Vonage experience is working pretty well and we are enjoying the new wireless phone system that I had to pick up.

Bookmark to:

Finally finished off this little branch of the Star Wars universe. Not bad…a tad simplistic.

Bookmark to:

Driven by the need to economize and seeing great reviews on Vonage’s service on the ehMac forum I decided to do the switch. On Friday, I called up Vonage to subscribe and my biggest worry at that time was that I would not be able to have Vonage service through all three of the phone jacks that I currently have. Well, at least not according to their website. The rep swore up and down that I could do it with just one adapter and no monkeying around. That sold me on it.

On Monday, I received the welcome package (fast service!) and realized that what the rep had said might not be true. So, I called up Vonage and they said that that was incorrect. I would have to monkey around with something called the demarc point (which I won’t do since I am in an 12-unit apartment building) or I could go and purchase an expandable wireless phone system. I said forget it, I’m not paying more money just to use Vonage’s service so please cancel and take back your equipment. The rep turned around and asked what would it take for me to continue with the Vonage experience? I said I wasn’t too impressed with being lied to and he said that he’d be willing to ante up a credit for me to purchase a wireless phone system.

Fine, I immediately looked one up on Staples’s website which was a two-handset system for about C$80. He then offered me four months of service to make up for that. Wow! That’s very generous (or desperate) of them. I said let me think about it.

So, the next day (Tuesday), I went out and purchased a two-handset wireless phone system for a hundred bucks before taxes. Called up Vonage again to say that I would take their 4-month credit offer. The rep said that the notation was for 3 months. Obviously, I wasn’t too happy about that and again threatened to cancel. Again, I was sent over to “account management” where they agreed to four months’ credit. I was angry enough to ask them if they ever kept their stories straight?

I then had to call Bell Canada in order to request a dry loop line so I would only have Internet service but not phone service. Once I said that I was switching over to Vonage, they connected me to someone named Andre Chandar in the (I guess) “household retainment queue”. We talked for a bit about transferring to Vonage and he brought up a relatively frightening point about not retaining my present number if I were to try to switch back to Bell at a later date.

I said I would think it over and, this morning, decided that I had spent enough time hemming and hawing over this and just do it. So, I called Bell up again and made the rounds of the various departments before finally getting the request in for a dry loop line. I even went over to the household retainment queue but no Andre today.

The dry loop line should be implemented by July 20th. I called Vonage to inform them of this and they had this confusing spiel of how, until the dry loop line was implemented, my incoming calls would be through my Bell phone line and my outcomings calls (if I wanted) should be done through Vonage, especially if they were long-distance ones.

I may set up the Vonage equipment later on and see what happens. All I can say is that this has been a very frustrating and confusing experience. Both Bell and Vonage are trying to gain/retain customers and I think that the one who can train their people to be the most helpful is going to win. Nothing, of course, will ovecome a close-to-one-hundred-percent price difference but there’s always that possibility!

Bookmark to:

A bit unnecessary since I’ve already done century rides and a bit too “talkative”. It is an excellent book, though, for those who are considering doing a century and need some handholding.

Bookmark to:

Not a bad intro book to bicycling. I’m afraid by now that most of this stuff is familiar ground to me so this doesn’t light my fire so to speak. Still, I would recommend this to most beginners.

Bookmark to: