Sep 15 - enjoying the weather

Amazing weather, upper 20's C / 80F made for a toasty ride.  No bugs makes this perfect.  Sandy was out as well, kayaking from here to the Smith's Bay point, to see what was happening there and then down to cottage 1, by ESS Narrows. 

At the point, construction is stalled awaiting a septic permit.  Gravel and stone are piled at the road turnaround; I hope that they get this done soon !  I haven't done a close-up yet; will take a run over with the 4-wheeler today, maybe. 

At cottage 1, it's now on new permanent footings; it had been jacked up off the old (I don't know the details, haven't looked at it closely myself).

Pre-ride, I did some work on the True North bike, partially assembling.  Perhaps I should take a run down to see Hugh, get his take on the front rack.  I'm sure that he'd have some good suggestions.  Sandy is going to be in Toronto on Monday/Tuesday so perhaps I'll do that.  I was also idly thinking about a run to Reading PA to pick up my shotguns, but perhaps that's not in the cards.

This good weather is supposed to last another two days before there's rain in the forecast.  I'm going to make a trip into Sudbury today for a haircut and some grocery shopping and then ride again tomorrow, if this all works out.

I'm still on the low carb diet and pretty much had my weight stabilized before the long bout with diarrhea and then the loss of Abby.  Both have taken their toll on me.  As of the end of the bike ride yesterday, I weighed less than Sandy.  However, I probably put on 3-4 pounds once I was re-hydrated.  I was talking to Bob Kassel at the Randonneurs Ontario AGM and he's noted the loss of muscle mass and the effect on his power.  I'm definitely slower ... never bonking, steady eddie, but slower.  I think that some of that is simply not enough power training; I've not been pushing as hard, somewhat content with the slower speed.  I'm lighter, so day-to-day movement takes less muscle and that then translates into less power on the bike.  To say that I need more exercise seems silly, but I do need the right type of exercise if I want to get back to the speed that I'd had before.  That will take focus.

The hummingbirds are still with us, although we really don't know if these are the ones that had been with us during the summer and just haven't left yet or some migrating through.  Usually what happens is that they are here one day and gone the next.  Perhaps the nice weather is keeping some migrating birds in place for a couple of days while they fill up with sugar.  I think that most of them are gone -- for instance, I don't see any out at the feeder by the pine tree right now and they'd usually be buzzing around from dawn onwards ... wait, I just saw one.  It's a vastly reduced number of birds, in any case.

The water is really low.  If we don't get a real rain dump I will have a heck of a time bringing my dock over to it's normal wintering place in the cove.  I suppose that I could dredge a channel, but that seems kind of silly.  I'd have to dig out a foot of sand.

Anyway ... onwards.