Oct 27 - all in a day

How much can you do in a day ? Let's see if I can remember all the places that I went / things that I did yesterday:

-- leave home at 6:30 a.m.
-- Alex's to pick up crossbow, have coffee, brief visit
-- Subway for lunch
-- 11:30 Dentist for checkup
-- Rona for screws to repair crossbow / mount red-dot sight
-- Canadian Tire for oil, windshield wipers, misc
-- Home Depot to check out ducting options for dehumidifier
-- pharmacy for dentist-recommended oral-b fluoride mouthwash (no luck)
-- Sobeys for veggies
-- 3:00 periodontist for teeth cleaning
-- shoppers drug mart, found mouthwash
-- Food Basics for more veggies
-- Costco for flatbread (no luck)
-- talked to George Cederholm to see how their dog is doing
-- talked to sister Arlene to catch up
-- home at 8:30 p.m.

If this sounds like your typical day then you should move to Loring ! I'm quite capable of dealing with, but don't enjoy this kind of make-busy BS, but if you live in any "big city" you spend much of your time hopping around. Anyway, if was a successful day, if you want to put a label on it.

Traffic was heavy most of the day although not so heavy that I didn't use the 401 on the way into the city. On the way back, leaving from Erin Mills Parkway I was worried about what I might hit. I got onto the 403 and it was clear until I got close to the 401. I could see that the 410 was stopped ... groan, that was my best bet to get onto the 407; the overhead sign said that the 401 had a lane blocked after Dixon Road. I took a chance on the 401 and as I approached the airport I could see that it was stopped ahead -- hopped onto the 427 northbound and only slowed down once before getting onto the 407. Whew ... but it was solid, got onto the 400 and it too was solid up to Barrie but I only slowed down below 100kph once. After Barrie of course the 400 and then 69 were light.

If you've never traveled in Ontario you might think from the foregoing that most highways in Ontario are numbered starting with "4" -- not so. The 400 series are the multi-lane divided, limited access, generally 100kph speed limit highways. The QEW -- Queen Elizabeth Way -- falls into this same category, running between Toronto and Niagara/Buffalo. Toronto has a few expressways that have names -- the Gardiner Expressway, the Don Valley Parkway, the Allen Expressway -- being the most notable. It seems that two-digit highways -- 11, 17, 69 are main highways with sections divided & limited access. 500 series highways are secondary roads that interestingly enough allow you to drive 4-wheelers on them. So our local road -- 522 -- falls into that category. If this paragraph is a repeat of something that I've written before, I apologize.

Way back when, before Pierre Trudeau converted the country to metric, some of those limited access highways had 70mph speed limits. With the conversion to metric and the coincident oil shortage, when the U.S. changed all of its speed limits to 55mph, Canada changed those highways to 100kph -- 62mph equivalent. They have never been increased. Traffic generally moves at a pace slightly under 20kph faster than the speed limit on the highways although 13-14kph over the limit is a safer zone from a speeding ticked standpoint. That is where I park my cruise control. Recently, at least in Ontario, there is a new rule posted on the signs on the highways that 50+kph over the speed limit results in vehicle seizure and $10,000 fine -- that certainly gives one pause ! There used to be lines of cars traveling the 400 between Barrie and Toronto moving at 160kph -- roughly 100mph -- I have not noticed those anymore.

I heard from Arlene that Ira has started a blog. She's going to send me the link but has not yet. I'll chase her on that one. Also heard that the football season is over for Daniel and that she pulled Keri out of Cheer a little early since football was over. Daniels team actually won a game (that had been in doubt for a while) and the coach took them out for pizza. That's great.

So ... what for today? It's cold out (-4C) but likely to be sunny or partly cloudy. I am going to go fishing this morning and hopefully this evening. I'll see what I can do with Alex's crossbow later and also go into town to pickup my deer license. With the crossbow repaired I will do some target practice. Alex loaded up some 30-30 shells for me so I may try a couple of those as well and see if the red-dot sight on the 30-30 is on target. One of these years I'll buy a proper scope for that gun. It will be a very different day than yesterday !

Onward ...