Platform 327

Looks like I sold the canoe already. And it’s to someone I know, so I might actually get to ride in it at least once.

The Internet giveth, and the Internet taketh away.

I know I’ve said, “Well, I’m an idiot,” before. Why mess with a good thing.

Well, I’m an idiot.

When I was a kid, I used to go canoeing all the time. In recent years, I’ve really been missing it. This summer, I’ve discovered that there are many places in and around the city where you can paddle around in calm, quiet waters where you can almost forget you’re in a big city. In fact Wendi and I are planning to take canoe lessons this summer. The only problem is that after the lessons, most places charge close to $50 an hour to rent a canoe. And prime spots like the Rouge or Humber rivers don’t have canoe rental places around at all.

While doing internet searches on urban canoeing, I came across several sites that talked about how good inflatable canoes and kayaks are these days, how well the materials stand up, blah, blah, blah. I did a little shopping around and found them to come in at between $500 and $2,200, most of them receiving stellar reviews. Long story short, I shopped around and ended up buying one of the $700 models for $375 (plus shipping) from the Ducks Unlimited charity auction site.

No, this isn’t quite where the “idiot” part comes in. After all, if I took that boat out more than 7 times in its lifetime, it would pay for itself, right?

Thing is, when I was researching boats, most of the ones that stated the weight of the craft were in the 25lb to 30lb range. No problem at all. It’d be easy to take that onto a subway or a train and head out to a quiet canoeing spot with a snack and my camera.

Okay, here’s where the “idiot” part comes in. Ready?

Assuming that the 25lb to 30lb range was fairly “standard”, I didn’t think to ask how much the particular canoe I ordered happened to weigh. If I did, I might have found out that the Ducks Unlimited boat was a model meant for fishing. I might have found out that this meant that the outer shell was covered in a material that was more heavy-duty than that of other inflatable boats, and that this added a significant amount of weight to my brand new canoe.

By the time I got the 50lb box home from the post office, my back, arms and old hernia scar were telling me that my dreams of leisurely evenings on the Humber River would not be fulfilled by this particular craft.

Oh, and did I mention I bought it from a charity auction? That means I can’t return it. On the flip side, though, because it was for charity I don’t mind spending the money so much. However, I can’t have the damn thing taking up space in my closet, nor do I relish the idea of a 50lb box to move out of here when the time comes, so I’ve posted it on Kijiji to try and sell it. Sucks, though. Not just for the money I’m going to lose on the deal and the hassle of going through all this crap, but the damn thing just looked like so much fun. Oh, well. I’ve contacted a few internet users with blogs dedicated to inflatable canoeing/kayaking, and they’ve given me some good recommendations. If I can sell the canoe, I’ll go around looking for a new boat.

One of these days I’ll learn to ask people before I buy something that makes me write the phrase, “Well, I’m an idiot.”

I’ve got a little project. I’m scanning and archiving my family’s vast collection of photo albums. This whole project started when something clicked after seeing several news reports about natural disasters where all the victims on camera said something to the effect of: “I’ve lost my memories. All my family pictures are gone.” Tornado, flood, fire, earthquake, whatever, there was always someone who lamented the destruction of family photos. It makes sense. A house can be rebuilt, there are lots of cars out there, and furniture and appliances can be purchased with no money down, no interest, and no payments until 2011, but you can’t go back in time to when you were six and retake that picture of you and your puppy going fishing by the creek.

And so I set upon my task. As well as keeping the photos on my computer, I’m also uploading them to Flickr because we all know how reliable Windows-based computers are. Most of the pictures will, of course, be only viewable by myself and my family, but a few will be designated for friends, and fewer still will be made available for public viewing. Given the amount of pictures I have to work with, however, “fewer still” will still amount to several hundred pictures.

Of course I’ll be posting some of my favourite publicly-viewable photos on this blog for my adoring fans. If you’ve got a Yahoo account and would like to see some of my friends-only albums, let me know and I’ll hook you up. In the meantime, you can see all my public photos on my Flickr page.

All right, enough preamble. Here is a photo from way back in the family archives.

It’s my dad with some friends at the then-called Malton Airport in front of a then-called Trans-Canada Air Lines plane. Dad’s not sure of the exact date, but he figures it’s 1954 or 1955. By the look of it and after a little bit of research, I’m fairly sure the event is the unveiling of Trans-Canada Air Lines’ first Lockheed L-749 Constellation. When I get some 8×10 photo paper and a nice frame, I’m going to print it out. I love the look of this picture.

Sometimes you just need a few hours to yourself, and it does just as much good as a week off. I know I had a week off, but during that week I was just trying too hard.

I got my bike readjusted last week, and today I took it out to the Toronto Islands. Unlike last time, the weather was perfect. I went exploring by myself this time, following some of the side streets and back trails on the Islands that I had never been on before, discovering quiet corners, fabled beaches, and some new views of the city skyline. Very relaxing, definitely worth the $6.50 for the ferry ride. I highly recommend the trip.

Well, today is the last official day of my vacation. I finally managed to get some cycling in. Picked up my bike from the shop this afternoon, fresh from its tune-up. Also got higher handlebars installed so that riding is no longer a pain in the back and… other regions.

The weather wasn’t looking too hot, so I figured I would just take a quick spin with the bike and see how it felt. Then I decided that since the weather seemed to be holding out, I’d take a jaunt down the southern end of the Don Valley Trail. The clouds broke, and I found myself cycling along the waterfront and past the Toronto Nautical Festival. I actually set foot on the Bluenose II: A Part of our Canadian Heritage. Go, me!

Before my cycling trip, I made another visit to the driving range. Seems I haven’t retained much from my first lesson. But hey, Rome, as they say, wasn’t built in a day. Well, you know, unless you play Age of Empires or something.

Seems they can’t even get rebellion right.

Another update from my week off. Feeling a bit better today, but the lungs are still full of goo. I still kept my promise to myself that I would spend time outside every day. Today I spent the whole afternoon in High Park. I thought I was going for a quiet stroll, but it turned out that every kid in the school district had the same idea. The noise was insane. But I did manage to find some peace along a few of the park’s nature trails, and the Grenadier Restaurant was relatively quiet when I was there for lunch. And I was just finishing up at the zoo before hordes of noisy kids showed up. Always nice to dodge a bullet.

Tomorrow I take my bike in to get tuned up in the morning, and there’s a little golf planned for the evening. I get to put into practice what I learned at the range.

Just got back from my first golf lesson at the Beach Fairway driving range. After only one lesson, I am a much improved golfer. Considering how much I sucked before the lesson, that’s not saying a hell of a lot, granted. But we’ll see how it translates on the course this Thursday.

So far, though, it was the only thing I’ve done on my list of things to do on my week off. The cough is hanging on, and the weather has been crap. Getting some cleaning done around the house, but that’s hardly a “vacation.” Blah. Hopefully the lungs will clear and I can get some other activities in before my time off ends. If I’m not up for any long bike rides, maybe I’ll just hit the range again. It’s still early in the summer; plenty of time to squeeze bike rides, hikes and canoe trips in on the weekends.

Oh, there was one other piece of news from the weekend. Wendi and her dragon boat team, the Sheridan Aces, won a silver medal at the Mississauga Dragon Boat Festival. That now makes 2 bronze and 2 silver. Next year, it’s gold all the way!

… like hundreds of naked people on bikes riding past your apartment.

I gotta move.

This update was actually supposed to be about all the neat stuff I did this week. Instead, I’m sick again. 2 weeks after getting off a gout attack and a 3-week flu, I’m sick again. I hate this year.

I did manage to get a little bit of fun in before being struck down again. Last Friday, I took my first long bike ride of the season: from work at Yonge and Bloor down to the waterfront, over to High Park and back home. It was a great ride, but I learned that if I’m going to take long bike rides during rush hour, it might be a good idea to get a filter mask. I had a really bad taste in my mouth when I got home.

The weekend was spent with Wendi in Oakville, walking through the ritzy downtown section.

On Monday, I took a ride with James around the Toronto Islands. That was also fun, made more so by the fact that we got caught in a major downpour. We got soaked to the bone, but luckily it was a warm day with warm rain. It was cool standing on the pier and watching the lightning hit the lake. And after the rain, the lake was covered in mist, giving the Toronto skyline a somewhat-less-ugly quality.

Tuesday found me at the Beach Fairway driving range. I knocked a couple of baskets down the range, and signed up for golf lessons that start this coming Tuesday. Should be fun… if I’m not still sick.

Wednesday is when everything started going to hell. By Thursday I was so sick that I got sent home by my boss, and today ain’t much better. That killed a golf game and another planned bike ride. It’s really frustrating.

What’s even more frustrating is the fact that I’ve got a week of vacation time coming up. Once again, just before vacation, I get sick. Last time I had vacation days booked and had things planned, I had a gout outbreak. Guess that’s what I get for planning to enjoy myself.

On the plus side, I am the 319,081,782nd richest person in the world, according to the Global Rich List. Not bad out of 6.7 billion.