Apr 27 - 305 to go ...

and then I'll have 1000 posts. If I were a typical political pundit that could take place over a few days with all their entries, but some time early next year I'll hit the 1,000 mark ... perhaps.

That is, of course, if I keep posting roughly once per day -- never mind make-up posts like this one, since I already covered most of what happened yesterday.

I did ride around all the roads. I am thankful that we don't live off Smith's Bay Road. It is painful getting as far as Smith's Bay Landing ! I think that it was about 8km to the landing and it seemed like 50. After the landing the road is in much better shape, but before that ... ouch. It really needs work. Of course that comes out of our tax dollars.

Smith's Bay Road has roughly as many kilometers as the rest of the roads put together. As such, and since it's in rough shape, it takes more than it's share of our tax dollars, as managed by the Roads Board. That is how taxes work though, redistribution to the needy ...

The rest of the roads are in reasonable shape. With winter heaves settled down and a routine run of the grader, they'll be much better than they are now.

... whoops ... the power just went out for about 2 seconds. It went out for an hour yesterday. I got back from the tour-de-roads and Sandy said "can you hear that thing beeping at me?" -- to which of course I replied -- "do you know that the power is out?" -- which she hadn't noticed. It was still light out and she was on the computer which continues to run for a while on its UPS.

Anyway, back to the roads. A grader pass makes quite a difference. There are a few culverts that need work. The two roads in best shape are Lost Channel Road and Stumpy Bay Road -- they've both been "stone chipped" -- which is a process of laying down tar and then gravel, as opposed to paving which has everything already melted together for laying down. The grader does not have to do them, of course, but there are still a couple of spots that need repair. Stone chipping is expensive -- I'm not sure how much per km but will find that out ... and then ongoing maintenance is less ... for a while.

Our "internal meeting" of the Roads Board starts at 9:30 followed by the meeting with the Ministry at 10:30. This should be interesting.

We had pork loin for dinner last night with potatoes and green beans. I overdid the loin in that it wasn't pink anymore, but it was still good.

Whoops -- the power went out again for a couple of seconds -- we'll see how long it is before I'm heading up to the woodshed to start the generator !

Anyway ... enough for now. If I do have to head for the generator it's cold out (40F) and raining. Great. It looks like much the same weather for Saturday too, when I might ride a 200k Brevet in Simcoe. It starts in Alliston, winding around Barrie and then back to Alliston. It's relatively flat, but for me at least the rain takes the fun out of it. Having said that, I'd better get used to it ...