Feb 2 - almost there ...

Almost finished ... the cold, that is.  We both finally slept through.  Sandy may have coughed but didn't wake me up.  I still have a little residual heavy mucus (pardon) but that's pretty typical.  So ... for me it took a week from onset to clear; for Sandy, the better part of two weeks.  The ill effects of this bug are still hanging around in Reading.  Nasty nasty.

Today we go for our travel shots. 

Sandy saw Jessica at the gym yesterday; that was tough.  I got back to exercising as well.  I was originally thinking of going biking but there was a line of rain heading towards us that did hit just as I went to hang my cycling clothes on the line. 

I'm still pursuing a couple of people for their final payment for the Sunshine 1200k.  It's really annoying.  For one of them I'm tempted to simply send her a refund and tell her that I've given up her slot ... but that wouldn't really be true.  Grr.

I took Abby for a walk; she was delighted, trotting along.  She's in and out all day long here.

We had chicken breasts for dinner; quite a staple for us now.  Sandy buys the organic ones on the bone.  They're quite good.

I've been researching riding routes in Northern Ontario for a 600k ride from Barrie, up through Parry Sound, East on 522 and back south to Barrie.  I wasn't getting definitive answers from the OPP detachment in Powassan so I decided to get in contact with David's friend Chris, who is an OPP officer in Sarnia.  Chris wasn't sure either but pointed me to the section of the Highway Traffic Act.  In an appendix it specifically named the section of Highway 11 as being bicycle-restricted.

That raised the entire of issue of the province being bicycle friendly.  They do have a strategy but it's clearly geared towards "bike to work", not "bike from Victoria to St. John's".  With Highway 11 not being accessible from North Bay to Gravenhurst and 69 on the way to being 4-laned and renamed Highway 400, that leaves two routes for Trans Canada riders -- south from Espanola to Manitoulin Island and the ferry, or Highway 17 from North Bay to Mattawa to Ottawa.  

We're probably going to send some comments into Eleanor McMahon, who is apparently responsible for this.  She's the MPP for Burlington.  Personally I'm going to have a problem getting out for a reasonable ride once they 4-lane the part of 69 close to us.  That's a few years off, but underway. 

I submitted my letter to the body responsible for the Provincial Land Tax review.  I'd sent a draft to Joe Whitmell quite some time ago and then left this to the last minute.  Joe got back to me yesterday and said that he'd already sent his letter in and forwarded a copy.  Surprise surprise, most of it was my letter word for word.  The surprise was that he hadn't copied me since they were my words ... not that I'd copyrighted them or anything ... but I guess that it was my own fault because I hadn't followed through with an update to my draft as I'd promised.  Ok, anyway, that's done ... for all the difference that it will make :).

Hmm ... this is getting fairly political !

David accused me of being political when I "shared" a photo on Facebook of Bill Murray with the groundhog from Groundhog Day because the commentary in the post was a criticism of Ted Cruz, US Senator who denies Climate Change ... but hey, I just love that movie !  In fact, as I was channel flipping, it was on, of course, and we watched the second half.  I love that movie !  Other people were trying to be political, insightful with that FB post; I was being quite shallow. 

Speaking of digging in your oar -- hmm doing a lot of that lately ? -- someone posted a picture on FB of a cyclist wearing a sweater with reflectivity, commenting that the advert was a little off because it didn't have the model wearing a helmet.  Rather than just comment on FB, I sent them an email (we retirees have time for this) asking about it.  I actually got a response from the company that helmets weren't required in California.  Well, nor is reflective gear but if you want to do an advert with a safety theme, show a helmet !  That was my counter response ... ha.  Let's see what they say now.

Ok, enough ... I don't want to turn into a troll !

Onward !