Aug 2 - calm ... no

Things to do ...

I needed to get out on the bike; after all, it had been a week.  I had too many things on the agenda to do a regular ride though, so I planned to take the suggested route south to Covey Hill Road and then to the top of the hill and back.  The distance sounded right for what I wanted to do.

Interesting.  The elevation here is under 300 feet; the elevation at the top of Covey Hill, closer to 1300 feet.  4.5 kms to the turn; another 15 to the top of the hill.  There was a little rolling but it was mostly uphill with some "false flat" areas where you'd swear that it was flat but the Garmin was showing 3-4%.  The last little kicker on Covey Hill Road hit 15%.

As I rode back there were several groups of cyclists heading towards me.  Apparently they do a loop up   the hill and around.  I was doing an out-and-back.  If I'd had more time and checked the map, I could have plotted a loop.  39k, 1.5 hours, my legs still felt like they hadn't stretched out but no surprise since I've been basically sitting since the 400k last weekend.

After some lunch, I headed towards Plattsburgh.  Before doing so, I emptied the car of stuff that might cause angst at the border, like the two cases of beer and a couple of bags of Walmart purchases from Reading (underwear and socks).  I didn't want to re-import them.

In Mooers, I turned west to check out the Mass time for later that afternoon.  I found the church in Mooers Forks, St. Ann's, which listed its time as the next a.m. and a 4pm at St. Joseph's.  Where is St. Joseph's ?  I checked at the convenience store across the road and a patron told me that it was back in Mooers ... hah.

I found the church in that little town which listed the Mass time as 5:30 ... dang ... which was it ?  There was a telephone number on the sign, so I called that as I stood there and then heard the phone ringing in the car ... double dang ... bluetooth has a longer range than I expected !  Rushing  back to the car, I talked to the fellow on the phone, probably the parish priest, who said that the sign was wrong.  Ok.  4pm it is.

Back in the car, I headed to Plattsburgh, taking route 22 rather than back to I87 along 11.  It's a pretty route taking the diagonal from Mooers to Plattsburgh.  

I found the Jiffy Lube and got the oil change done.  Naturally they had to use my filter; didn't have one in stock.  That took about 1/2 hour, all told.  From there I headed to Walmart to look for a bathing suit for Zoe that had built-in flotation.  She didn't want to wear the arm floaties so she wasn't able to go into Sheryl's pool.  There was much noise around that, obviously, because Emma was in there with Sheryl.

Sheryl taught Emma how to dive and she did well !  Sandy took some videos but couldn't stay out long because Zoe wanted to run around too close to the pool.

Well, Wal-mart was out of these since it's now moved in to back-to-school stock.  The assistant manager that I talked to (yes, unlike a male, I asked for help), said that perhaps K-Mart or Target(-Mart).  It looked like I was going to visit all the Mart's.    Off to K-Mart, what a contrast to Wal-Mart.  The former was hugely busy, crowded, overstocked; the latter was almost empty -- people and goods.  It was sad to see.  I always liked K-Mart.  It's hard to imagine that the store will stay open for long and that the chain will survive.  Even Wal-mart is being challenged by the convenience of internet shopping and they have more momentum.

Back to the bathing suit -- K-Mart was also out of stock but I called Sandy and we decided to get a sort-of life preserver that's actually a swimming aid.  I didn't have to go to the third Mart after all !

By this time I figured that I'd be back in Hemmingford just in time to turn around again and cross the border to Mooers for Mass.  Mooers and Hemmingford are only 6 miles apart, equidistant from the border.  It only takes a few minutes to cross the border on this small farm road so it's no big deal.  Plattsburgh is 20 miles south of Mooers.

Anyhoo, I stopped at a Starbucks and had a Cap, killing a little time and getting a caffeine injection, then went to Mass, arriving just in time.  That accomplished, I headed back to Hemmingford.  At the border, I told my story to the lady -- crossed the border yesterday, errands today in Plattsburgh -- answered the question "what are you bringing across" with "two boxes of raisin bran and a child's life preserver".  She must not have heard me correctly, language problem ? (she was French) because she asked me total value ... $18 ... "that's all?" ... yup ... handed my passport back and send me onwards.

She was kind-of not with it.  When I was talking to her, I told here that the car before me was still waiting at the barrier that she hadn't lifted.  Whoops and she lifted the barrier.  Sure enough, I waited at the barrier while she cleared the car behind me.  Duh.

Zoe had been good, happy in the morning but was apparently "beastly" (Sandy's  word) after her nap; couldn't be satisfied.  At home, Emma can be the loud one, although the pitch is lower than when she was smaller.  On the road, Zoe takes over and whether it's a screech of delight or whatever, the frequency can hurt the ears if you're not used to it.  Jim decided to take a break at some point and went out.  Smart man !  When I got back I took over amusing Zoe and somewhere a switch flipped and she mostly forgot why she was being fussy.  A little dinner in her and she was an angel, but still an angel on the move !  Sheryl did ham and scalloped potatoes (my favorite !) so we ate well.  Emma and Zoe had Mac-n-cheese, both doing justice to that.

Wayne and Mary arrived at 9pm, as predicted.  They moved to Iron Bridge Ontario a month or so ago, which is about an hour east of Sault Ste Marie.  They had a 12 hour, give or take, drive.  I stayed up a little while with them but then hit the sack.  Sandy was in bed before I was asleep, so I guess no one stayed up long.

Today ... off the the party, which is just over two hours away.  Somehow Zoe will have to take a nap, could be a long day for her but at least she'll have room to run around.

Onward !