A Medley of Extemporanea And No, I'm Not Marie of Romania, but thanks for asking

Early spring and milestones

Everyone knows it has been an early spring. I will not dwell. One thing that it has enabled me to do, however, is hit some milestones pretty quickly.

Last year, I started biking to work on April 14th; by the 1st of June, I had managed a total of 313.24 km (yes, I keep track). This year, I passed that mark last week on the 14th, and I should be over the 500km mark by the weekend.

I’ve also crossed the 2000km mark on my year old trip computer ( a while ago, actually) and the 100 hour mark. That last one kind of surprises me, as it feels like I’ve been on the bike more than that.

I will try to double both this year

A faint memory

Ever have one of those memories that tug at the very edge of your consciousness, poking you a little, but without being about to remember exactly what it is? I’ve had one of those solved this week.  I remember reading a comic book where the bad guy was called “The Googol”.  I had remembered it briefly when Google opened shop, but I couldn’t remember the reference.  It came back to me the other day, so I searched and searched on-line, convinced that it was a Tintin story.  It wasn’t.  It was this.

Glad I cleared it up.  Irritatingly, I should have just used Wikipedia, as there’s a reference to it in on the Googol page.

Bus driver relieved of duties after allegedly punching cyclist

One of the problems with the early spring, I guess.  Silly season has started early too.

Bus driver relieved of duties after allegedly punching cyclist.

First long ride

I did my first long bike ride of the season. It was not too ambitious, but it was good because it highlighted areas that I have to improve on over the course of the summer.

I cycled from my house to Penny’s Fudge Factory in Fitzroy Harbour.  It was 76 km in total and I completed it in 3 hours and 45 minutes “running time”.  This included actually stopping in at Penny’s, and several breaks I took along the way.

Areas of improvement:

• Ensure that I have a phone with me (I left mine on the bench as I was packing my satchel).
• Ensure that I know where I’m going (I took a wrong turn and added 6 km to my trip).
• Ensure that I apply my sunscreen properly (I missed three spots, and they are extremely tender now).
• Ensure that I don’t lollygag at home when I have a 4 hour ride ahead of me (I was out in the middle of the day, hence the massive sunburn and slight sunstroke I felt at the end of it).
• Ensure that I know if the place I’m heading to is open (I reached Penny’s only to find a “We open May 1st” sign out front. Happily, Penny (I assume) was selling fudge bunnies for Easter).

That’s it.  I also wish I had my camera with me.  When the family goes away this summer, I might pick myself up a cheap one, so I don’t miss out on some nice shots that I could have taken.