Purposeful Cycling - By The Numbers

This time of year we eat a tonne of corn on the cob, and our local grower is so close to home that I got the idea to bike ride to corn! I put on a corn carrying backpack, made sure I had my wallet, and set off to get us some farmer corn.

Distance traveled on bike to get corn: 4.5 KM (each way)

Number of corn purchased: 6 (we can't eat a full dozen before it goes off)

Cost of 6 corn: $3

Weight of backpack full of corn (as measured on a mostly inaccurate bathroom scale): 8 lbs

Amount of transit time it took on my bike: 40 minutes

Amount of time it would take in the car: 8 minutes

Number of KM not put on car: 9 KM

Number of degrees it was outside: 27°C

Number of degrees it felt like carrying corn on my back: a million°C

Number of corn eaten by me: 2

Musical Bears

Fact #46 about our kitten: she has two names that she goes by equally, Gary and The Bear.

Fact #72 about our kitten: Everything in our house belongs to her. It is something we accept in order to experience the joy of being in her presence on a daily basis.

Having said that, I give you: Musical Bears!

This might look like my Wii drum kit, but it is actually a cat pillow!!

This might look like John's guitar case, but it is actually Gary's office.

DIY Out of My Comfort Zone

I stopped at a red light and heard the person in the car next to me say "Excuse me".  Because I live in a constant state of partial anxiety my first thought was: "Oh great, what did I do?"  I looked over and it was an older man who said: "I just wanted to let you know your left brake light is out".  I thanked him for letting me know and my next thought was: "Oh great, how much does that cost to fix?"

I was on my way to my parents place and in conversation with my dad he told me replacing the brake light was an "easy fix".  He went so far as to say, "The longest part is going to Canadian Tire to get a new bulb".  Now it almost hurts me to put this in writing, but my dad was right.  The second longest part was figuring out how the brake light assembly came apart, but once we got at it, we quickly removed the burnt out bulb.  Conveniently, the bulb number (or bulb type?) is written right in the plastic beside where the bulb goes. It is also imprinted right on the bulb, so picking up a new bulb was easy as pie.  It turns out replacing a brake light is really just replacing a light bulb.  Like dad said, it's an easy fix.

The brake light assembly is accessed through the trunk of the car. 

We removed the paneling/covering and three screws.  I initially thought the wires and the metal panel dislodged into the trunk so we could access the bulbs that way.  After a few failed attempts to get it to do that, John realized the brake light itself detached away from the vehicle.

The brake lights!  Inside out!

 Light bulb goes here!

Burnt out bulb!

Two bulbs at Canadian Tire were $4.99.  I only needed one so this repair was pretty cheap!!

Bulb replaced! I hit the brake to ensure it worked! It worked! 
We did it!

As it should be!!

It Was a Pretty Popular Movie

I am always in the market for new notebooks, as I am quite obsessed with them and often have ten or more on the go. When purchasing notebooks, I flip through them to see and feel what the pages are like.  That is how I found this awesome leave behind by another shopper at Dollarama the other night:

Neat looking notebook:

Awesome leave behind:

 

People in Midland are funny!

Always On A Timmy's Run

I have been going to Tim Horton's almost daily over the past few months, which is more times then I was there over the entirety of last year.  There are some valid reasons for my dramatic increase of Tim Horton's consumption.

Reason One: I make my own schedule right now and when I'm in charge, there is always time to stop for coffee.  When I was working, the day started at 8:00am sharp, and when one leaves the house at 7:48am for a 15 minute commute - there is no room for a drive through visit!  (I know the math doesn't make sense, but I was hardly ever late for work).

Reason Two: my mother underwent hip replacement surgery at the end of May, so I have been back and forth to Barrie every few days to spend time with her, clean up her apartment, and help her in her recovery.  As per reason number one, I make my own schedule for this, so I often stop at Tim Horton's on the way.  I stopped drinking coffee in January, but running the roads, the stress of being one day here and the next day gone*, sweating the small stuff (my dad's car battery died while I was driving, I ripped a tile out of the wall of their bathroom, as well as a few other choice things), and not getting enough sleep (or sometimes too much) has found me frequenting the drive through line.  Like the countless others before me, I've turned to a stimulant to help me cope with the stress of my life. 

Reason Three: I didn't admit to myself that I started drinking coffee again ("it's just a treat!"), so going to Tim's was my only option as I hadn't set up my coffee maker at home.

Thankfully for my finances, John and I plugged in our coffee maker last week, so I am a regular coffee drinker again.  When I gave it up in January I was drinking 2-3 cups a day, but so far I am sticking to only one cup (not 8 oz, a real cup!). If I feel like a second cup, I go for a tea, and so far that is working for me.  Even though I make coffee at home now, I'm already thinking about the Timmy run I will be making on my way to Barrie this Saturday.  One day at a time...



*Yep that is a Tom Cochrane lyric**

**Not Rascal Flatts (well, yes them too, but I was quoting Tom Cochrane).