is a pretty long time ago. November 24, 1918 so make that 95 years plus a day (or however many more have passed between my writing this and your reading it). That's how long my mother has been exploring this world though, and I'm amazed at how well she's doing.
I think this is the first time we've ever celebrated her birthday before
the day, it was only the day before though so we could have more people
join in on the festivities for a Saturday dinner rather than on Sunday.
And while many of her friends have passed on it was still a good
turnout with 15 people at the table. A mix of family and friends.
So here's a gallery of photos from my camera and Conrad's...
Flowers, family and friends
Tracy, Conrad, Kayla, Andrea and the rest of the table
Claire and Marie
Long time friends, getting together for a special occasion
Of course my mom made her own cake to bring to her party!
And it was delicious
Andrea, Steff, Tracy, Kayla and Marie
And just for the fun of it, here's a photo from the party to celebrate mom's 90th... I put up a gallery on Picasa back in 2008, here's the link.
While I didn't get to cover much of the cycling season this year I feel like it did end on a high note and I'll take as a positive sign for the season to come.
On top of my own distractions there was also the late-season doping revelations that took some of the fun out of it. I'm not surprised, just disappointed that yet more Canadians are being shown to be dopers. Still... I'm optimistic about the future of the sport, keep an eye on the next issue of Pedal magazine where I expect to have an article published about it reflecting my opinions and those of others in the cycling scene here.
But back to the topic at hand... CX.
I made it to most of the local races, missed a couple because of conflicts or the fact that the camper is now in hibernation for the winter but I was at the majority of them. For the most part the weather was too good. Hardwood presented me with the opportunity to get dramatic photos while the Baseball Cross delivered some good deep and sloppy mud shots as usual.
Last year around this time I was formulating plans to get to Louisville for the Worlds. No such luck this year, I have wrapped up my season and will start it up again in the spring. Which means I'll spend the next month or 2 sorting out my calendar to see what events I'll be covering. I'm hoping to be much more active in 2014.
I'll let my images speak for themselves though... first up is a video of images taken on the GoPro I've been using as a trail-side extra. I like the ability to use my iPhone as a monitor and remote to trigger it, there are some problems with the app/iOS7/4S combination I have though as it drains the battery way too fast. I actually think it's not that the battery is drained but that something is making iOS7 think it is. Either way it means I have to use it selectively. So here's my selection... hope you like the tune too!
I'll follow that up with a small gallery of select photos from the events, many of which have been posted to FB. The larger galleries are on my KrakerPhoto.com website, as usual. Hope you like them...
A group of almost 20 people showed up in Erin at Jouko and Robin's place, greeted by freshly baked cookies and espresso shots before the 11AM start. Almost all were prepared for the ride and had brought CX bikes. The three exceptions were Ian (road bike) plus Andrea and me (MTB steeds). Ian's choice was better.
Before agreeing to do the ride I made it known that I would be the slow guy and it only took one hill for me to realize how out of shape I was. By the second hill I got a push to try to stay in contact and before the 3rd hill I decided to do my own ride. That was the right choice.
I still rode for almost 2 1/2 hours, my legs were spent by the end of it, and I was very pleased to have accomplished what I did. I even took a detour and did some double track that was pretty and technical. I got back a little before the shorter ride group, had time to get changed and not much more. And we all got treated to a feast!
Lots of great food, from lots of the people on the ride or their partners at home. And everyone had a tale to tell about their day, it was a perfect day for an end of season ride. Not the "HTFU" epic it could have been but there have been enough of those this year already. I'd call it a perfect autumn ride.
And here are a few photos from the day. I'm glad I took some pics early, I spent most of the ride on my own (happily doing whatever I wanted at whatever pace I felt like doing it at).
A ride this past weekend led me to finding this, hadn't really thought about it until seeing it but it's an interesting sort of documentary.
I decided to bring my Garmin along so I could find my way on roads that I'd never been on before. And it was a fun ride (thanks again Robin and Jouko!). It was about 2 1/2 hours of riding and it was a good test of my neck. I felt more comfortable than when Andrea and I were in Vermont, a little more flexible too. Progress, but still lots of room for improvement.
So... this morning I uploaded the ride to Garmin Connect along with all of the other rides it had stored on it. The most recent one before this weekend was from April 7th 2013 (I didn't bring the Garmin to Vermont which is the only other time I've ridden since April). Here's the map from that day...
A day in the life of...
The start is at the Turkeypen trail head parking lot, the end is at the motel where we finally settled in for the night. In between it shows:
a few hours of riding, along the various trails we rode that day. It was an out-and-back route.
then some slower walking, making my way back to the parking lot.
a quick drive to the hospital in Brevard, where they put me in a temporary neck brace and did the CT scan.
then while I was whisked to the Asheville hospital in an ambulance, Andrea drove Babe to the campground and then on to Asheville (that's around 8 hours into this day that started around 11AM).
Then the drive back to the campground. A short drive from the hospital to a drug store for pain killers, then back to the campground. But instead of spending the night in Babe we got a motel room at the corner where the BiLo is. That would make it around 13 hours later. That night wasn't very restful.
Obviously, with all of the things happening no-one thought about the Garmin or turning it off.
Seeing this certainly brought back a lot of memories. Some are in the blog entry I linked to above, some I hadn't included. This kind of tells the story that I skipped over between my crash and the drive back to Toronto, in a way I wouldn't have thought of. The very definition of a life-altering moment, captured via a GPS.
