Birthday in the Boonies

Another busy weekend. I had another triathlon to race in on Sunday morning up in Orillia. Saturday was also Chris' 13th birthday. He's been at summer camp for three weeks now, just across the lake from... Orillia. So Saturday I drove up at mid-day to visit Chris and spend the afternoon with him in Orillia. Our first stop was Couchiching Beach, to pick up my race package. It turned out we were too early so we strolled the water's edge where we saw an old "boat car" driving in and out of the lake. What a strange contraption! We had a classic burger, fries and shake lunch at French's hot dog stand, which has been operating on the beach since 1920.

Chris slept off his lunch while we drove out of town along the triathlon's bike course. When we got back into town and Chris had finished leafing through the Maxim magazine that was one of his 13th birthday presents we returned to the beach for my race kit. We ended up staying for a while to watch some of the Kids of Steel triathlon races, just like we did in Cobourg. I always get a kick out of them.

Heading back into the downtown we discovered that Orillia was in the grip of an enormous display of restored automobiles. Eight blocks were closed off and perhaps as many as 300 restored automobiles were lining the streets. There had clearly been a lot of love and attention paid to these vehicles. Almost all had been restored to mint condition, many had been customised. I've posted photos on my Flickr page if you're a car nut, Chris and I were just bemused pedestrians.

When the afternoon ended it was time for (groan) dinner. We joined ten of my triathlon club mates at Montana's Cookhouse. Most of us had the chicken penne for the pre-race protein and carbs, but Chris went with the ribs. At the end of the meal the staff, who had been alerted to Chris' birth date, brought out a big moose antler hat for Chris to wear while they sang. Too bad I left the camera in the car!

With that important humiliation out of the way it was time to return Chris to his camp and then find my motel. Race day started at 6:00 AM the following morning and I needed my sleep!

Race report tomorrow...

Listening to: Gyasi Went Home by Bedouin Soundclash from Sounding A Mosaic.

Full nest again

Chris came back from camp this afternoon and is snug in his bed upstairs right now. A big load of laundry is whirling around in the washing machine too. I resisted the urge to throw him in with it all... He'll go back to camp Sunday afternoon, right after my triathlon.

We had a chicken vindaloo dinner to celebrate with Sheryl (one of my sister-in-law's excellent prepared gourmet Indian sauces) and then took in the film of his choice (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby). Sheryl declined to join us... Let's just say that it's a "summer movie" and leave it at that. Ricky's kids got some choice lines and the supporting roles were nicely defined. Overall though, I think it was a bit mean about the "NASCAR culture." And that's coming from a Formula One fan! (Which apparently means I'm a self-important gay frenchman.)

Listening to: Sitting, Waiting, Wishing by Jack Johnson from In Between Dreams.

Oops.

I almost put my son on the wrong summer camp's bus! Holy cow. It was only after he'd said "there's the bus", we'd put his pack and paddle into the luggage compartment and he'd climbed in that I realised the staff were wearing the shirts of another camp...

I was uncertain if the bus departed at 11:00 or at 1:00 so we'd arrived for the earlier time, hoping to have time for a leisurely farewell brunch. The bus at the rendezvous point (the north-west corner of the Yorkdale Mall parking lot) at 11:00 was going to a hard-core canoing camp much further north.

So we had our chance to enjoy brunch together and buy a few last-minute extras after all. Note in the photo that there's yet another camp bus in the far background. Busy spot.

My really-bad, no-good, horrible weekend

What a weekend! Sheryl and I drove up to Parry Sound on Friday for my triathlon race on Saturday. In the course of Friday I;

1. Got a $30 parking ticket,
2. Got a flat tire while going on a test ride outside of Parry Sound and spent an hour and $60 fixing it,
3. Got the call from the head-hunter telling me I didn't get that promising job.

Saturday morning at our bed & breakfast I was briefly awakened by heavy rain at 5:00 AM. Not a promising start to this day either. When I woke at 7:00 it was back to sunny skies, but by the time the triathlon was to start it was raining again, torrentially, with lightning. In the end the race was postponed to the next day for those that could stay on (not me). As a consolation a 10K run was held an hour after the original triathlon start time. My time was a middling 47:20 (literally, as I was 19 out of 48) with a pace of 4:44 m/km. But my shoes were soggy and the trail, pretty as it was, had some serious puddles! The top three runners were a full minute faster per kilometer...

Sheryl was an excellent sport about it all, keeping me company under a beach shelter during the rain and waiting in the car for me to finish the run and recover. As we drove back into Toronto the skies opened up again. Not a problem in a nice cozy car! We did enjoy Parry Sound on Friday night though, so the trip wasn't a complete write-off.

Now I'm home and getting Chris packed for a month at camp. Sheryl and I engraved his name on his new canoe paddle before she left for her place and he has now arrived from his mother's. He leaves Sunday morning at 11:00 AM. It's going to be a bit lonely without him around...

Listening to: Hourglass by Squeeze from The Best Of Squeeze.

Whoosh!

Chris has come and gone in a flash. He's been with his mother for two weeks, and now his two weeks "with" me start but he'll be at camp almost all that time.

He came back from his mother's yesterday afternoon, and we spend the rest of that day shopping for summer camp. Today he left for camp, but not before we had lunch at The Pickle Barrel to celebrate being together again, after which he insisted on buying ice creams for us both at Baskin Robbins (they ended up being fruit smoothies).

The pickup point was in the Yorkdale Mall parking lot, and appropriately for camp there was a steady rain the whole time. I hope the weather improves, because this year he'll be going on an overnight canoe trip. Last year Chris was nervous about camp, this time he's looking forward to it. He is leaving with four pre-addressed and pre-stamped envelopes, and I'm just about to write him a first letter that he'll get on Tuesday.

Listening to: Down Under by Men At Work from The Best of Men At Work: Contraband. (I'm putting together a massive AustraliaPublish Postn play list for Sheryl's "Aussie" barbecue next weekend.)