Aug 9 - one more day

Well, after today that is, not from the 9th, and it's really a few more days before I'll be riding again.

Yesterday was a quiet day. Sandy kept on feeding the washing machine -- towels, bedding -- I did my part with my little load of biking clothes. I passed the shop vac over some high traffic areas to pick up sand and obvious dirt. I took the ATC to the dump to get rid of the garbage. I had to walk my garbage in to the edge though because there were three vehicles parked with kids watching the bears.

Otherwise, not too much. We did hear from everyone regarding their trips. Stef and Aaron made good time on Saturday; David and Kim arrived in Edmonton with on-time flights; Jeffrey made it to Reading PA without any problems, taking the Ithaca route; Sheryl and Jimmy traveled via Highway 60 through Algonquin Park; Wayne and Mary -- oh, didn't hear from them, but then again they had the shortest trip.

There were a few forgotten things -- Aaron forgot his chamois butt'r, Jeffrey forgot a piece of one of Emma's toys -- stacking blocks; Mya forgot her chew stick ... now isn't that just like a dog !

I organized my three drop bags. I'll empty them today and double check everything. This morning I cleaned up my bike, making a few adjustments.

Stef corrected my blog from yesterday -- Lauren and Meagan collected a grand total of $8 at their marine zoo ! Wow !

I just got in from mowing the lawn and picking up some of the scattered toys. There are kayaks and a crib bed to go back to Bonnie that are still here. We have three large boxes of wine bottles and 7 beer cases to go to the LCBO ... ok, not all from the blitz of people, but mostly, especially on the beer front.

It rained yesterday morning and then cleared, bringing hot humid weather. I turned on the A/C and that helped. It seems to be undersized for this house though, because running it all night only dropped the temperature from 79F to 74F ... but then again I don't know if it ran all night. I did go around in the basement and close the furnace vents down there because the last time that I ran the A/C it did little for the upstairs. At least this time, with those vents closed, you could feel cold air at the registers.

The weather looks good for this weekend, but I'm expecting that to change at some point and likely hit us with a thunderstorm. That would be par for the course. Toronto got hit yesterday with a series of storms ... hopefully we'll be spared something like that. I did my thunderstorm bit a couple of weeks ago.

I will likely NOT have internet access, likely NOT bring my laptop, and will likely be blogless until Monday, after tomorrow morning. Almost a week without blogging ... perhaps I'll go into withdrawal. Perhaps the readers will go into withdrawal.

The Granite Anvil is promising updates on rider progress on its website. If there are any updates that will be better than the Shenandoah, which still says "Riders are off !". They promised updates / finalization within a week of the ride but there's not much incentive for that at this point.

The GA website is as follows: http://ontariograniteanvil1200.com/

I see that there is no "www" -- it seems to work with or without the www. Note that it's simply ontario granite anvil 1200 without any spaces -- that's not two l's that you're looking at, it's an 'l' followed by a '1'. (el and one). Good luck following the ride on the website -- I make no promises ... I'll be too busy pedaling. Since everything on these rides is done by volunteers, it depends on whether someone has the time, energy, inclination, data ... you get the idea.

That's about it. I have no big plans for today. Perhaps I'll move some wood down to the woodbox by the house -- Halle Brooks delivered wood the other day when everyone was here and it's piled up and calling to me. Before I can do anything with that messy pile I have to make space in the woodshed.

Sandy's having a snooze. We're both behind on sleep but more falls on her shoulders when we have a big gang here. She'll be going into Port Loring later today for a 3pm appointment with the massage therapist.

That's really it !