“Life is like riding a bicycle, in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving” Albert Einstein

 Unfortunately for me, I haven\’t followed Albert Einstein\’s advice.  I do not feel that my summer is very balanced. Not enough long rides for my liking.

What a miserable summer we are having, the weather goes from hot and humid to cool and wet overnight. Migraines are driving me crazy the ups and downs with the barometric pressure has been awful this summer. The first week in August bought us thunder storms and tornado warnings. Fortunately, the tornados did not materialize in Barrie, although two were reported to have touched down in Cottage Country north of Barrie.

The first week-end in August is a civic holiday and Kempenfest. Kempenfest is a large arts and crafts festival held along the waterfront in Barrie. Unfortunately, for the vendors it was a wet and cool weekend for them. We headed down on Sunday for a couple of hours. This year the event was much smaller than usual due to the waterfront reconstruction. Major works have been undertaken throughout the summer. I think it is going to be well worth the inconvenience once it is completed. They are creating a new cycle path which hopefully will avoid the conflict between cyclists and pedestrians along the waterfront.

I wanted a dedicated cycle lane on the road, but that didn’t get approved. The City Engineer stated that there wasn’t enough room but the wider cycle path along the waterfront will be better. He didn’t understand that not all cyclists want to go slowly along the waterfront, some cyclists are commuter cyclists and want to go faster than 20 kph. I hope the separation works.

 I am still trying to redesign the spare room. I will hopefully get it done before we need to set up the bikes for our winter training.

Tuesday August 7, my longest ride since South Korea 63.5 kms – Midhurst – Shanty Bay Loop. What a poor record again for this “summer season”. – no excuses other than the weather. Today’s ride was lovely – good temperature, windy of course and rather hilly (404 m elevation gain), but a nice ride.

Next Monday I hope we can get up and away earlier, put the bike on the car and head up to North Simcoe for a ride.

We didn’t get up to North Simcoe for a ride, Ralf is now working Monday to Friday. Ralf had been into work taking the buses out for drives to get used to a vehicle that doesn’t bend – like the tractor trailers. Of course, Ralf had been doing the pre-and post-trip reports. Being Ralf and very particular he found problems on every bus and wrote it up on the reports, whether it was a slight crack in the rear light to a rear view mirror that doesn’t stay in position.

On Friday August 11, 2017 the Company called Ralf and offered him a job to work in the “service” department before school starts. He will be checking the buses for problems and reporting them to the maintenance department so that all the buses will be in perfect order for the new school year. That will teach him to be so precise, now he has to work sooner than he thought he would.

Sunday August 13, 2017 another longer ride today (65.64 kms). The weather was warm but not too hot. We cycled out to Base Borden and had a lovely ride down memory lane. A lot has changed on the Base since we lived there. A lot of new buildings as it is one of the largest military training bases in Canada and they really needed to update the old buildings. I should bring my little camera with me so that I can take photos of our local routes.

Monday August 14, 2017 – Thirty-two years of married life – where has the time gone. There are many times when I glance at Ralf and I get an overwhelming feeling of love for him. He is so loving and caring, last week when it was raining he came to the greenhouse so that I didn’t have to cycle home in the rain. I woke up this morning after he had left for work and discovered a lovely card and Ferror Roches chocolates on the dining room table, at lunchtime he came home with a dozen red roses. Thirty-two years of a loving husband, how lucky am I? We went out for dinner to Taras restaurant, a really good Indian restaurant in Barrie.

Sunday August 20, 2017 another lovely ride today (72.47 kms). I really wanted to ride one of my favorite rides to Orillia and the Mariposa Market for lunch. However, the round trip from home is 95kms and I really do not want to have to cycle up the hill after 90 kms on the bike. I suggested we put the bikes on the car and start from Shanty Bay. A great decision, I really enjoyed the ride. We saw a lot of other cyclists out today enjoying the good weather. Ridge Road is a lovely route for cyclists, most of the car drivers give you plenty of room. There is also a rail trail that parallels the road, which allows for people with families to get out together on a safe route.

Partial Eclipse of the Sun – In Barrie we were able to witness a partial eclipse. I was watching the T.V. when they reported that if you looked at the shadows through the leaves of a tree you may be able to see the curves of the eclipse. I took a photo which shows the eclipse – so cool.