Where’s the tent?
I was talking with my father the other night and we trying to figure out who has what camping gear. I have some of it in Ottawa and my father has the rest at my folk’s place. The topic of the tent came up. My father could only find the tent poles and not fly or the tent body. I scoured my place and couldn’t find the tent. This was odd. My father checked the garage again and discovered that he had done too good a job when putting away the gear from our last adventure. The tent was in a box labeled Christmas decorations. I’ll head over to a href=”http://www.mec.ca/”MEC /a at lunch hour to buy another a href=”http://www.thermarest.com/”thermarest /amattress and an awl but very slowly the chores are getting finished. The weather looks a little spotty with some rain to start off the time with hot sunny conditions for the remainder of the weekend.
The White Jacket
During my stay at Kemptville College on the weekend I took some time out to explore the campus and stumbled on something that brought by memories of my grade 5 exchange trip. At the time we were living in the city and the concept of farms and agriculture were foreign to me. To give the city kids a glimpse into life on the farm we would spend a week living with our exchange partner and working on their farm while going to school. In exchange they would spend a week living with us in the city. My mother had bought me some new clothes for the trip which included a white sports jacket. At the time I didn’t know that white is not a color that you should where around the farm. My exchange partner was Stephen Stringer from a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelburne,_Ontario”Shelburne, Ontario/a. One of the first things we did when I arrived was to take a tour of the farm using his tractor. We checked out the disc, plough, barn, the seeder, the wheat field, the corn field, the silo at which point it was time to refuel the tractor. I unhitched the nozzle of the diesel pump, which was slippery, and attempted to put in the tank but missed. The diesel fuel spilled down the front of my white jacket. What to do? Stephen didn’t want his parents to find out what happened. We tried to wash the diesel fuel out of the jacket but too no avail. The jacket still stank. His parents knew something was up but we just made excuses. What to do? We came up with the idea to bury it. On the weekend, we headed into the back forty and buried my jacket. As I write this I’m not sure if my mother ever found out about why I came home jacketless. So, when I was walking by the diesel tank and pump it reminded me of my ill-fated white jacket.
Minivacation
I’ve spent the last couple of days at my parent’s place which has a panoramic view of Lake Ontario. On a clear day, I can look out and see the Toronto skyline which includes the Skydome. The weekend started off with me driving my father to the airport as he had a business trip in the states. I was able to get in some geocaching, home maintenance and catching up with my parents, brother and nephew. I fixed my nephew’s mp3 player and usb drive which made him happy. I cut out the wooden frame of the four windows that my father and I will replace later this year. I bolted the aluminum storm windows on to act as temporary barriers until the vinyl insert windows arrive from the manufacturer. Today, I replaced the internal door lever on the screen door so that G couldn’t push his nose against the door and accidentally get out. I finished my second Barry Eisler novel with another four waiting for me to read back in Ottawa. It has been hot with temperatures averaging in the hight 80s. I’m looking forward to heading back to Ottawa tomorrow where it is a little cooler. Once in town, I have to start preparing for my next adventure, a long weekend of hiking over the upcoming holiday weekend.
Tonight’s workout…
Tonight’s workout was a challenging one from three perspectives. It was 4 x 1km interval repeats on 60 seconds. The conditions were challenging as it was cold, wet and very humid. When the conditions get this cold and humid I start to feel all my old running injuries which makes running the intervals hard. I have been sleep deprived for the past couple of nights which doesn’t bode well for running fast. My times were off a bit tonight but I soldiered through and finished the workout.br /br /On Friday morning, I will run in a 10 mile race and my father will run in the 5km. It is a family tradition that we do the Good Friday race. I think it will be the tenth year that we have done the race. There is one slight difference this year and that is, I will be doing the 10 mile race as I have always done the 5km. After the race we will do some span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_0″geocaching/span near the race site.br /br /Much of the weekend will be spent chain sawing in the back 40, span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_1″geocaching/span and visiting my extended family. G will be eager to go span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_2″geocaching/span and I’m looking forward to exploring some recently placed span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_3″geocaches/span.
