One of those days

Tags

competing, cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, training, working out

A couple times in recent months I have written with enthusiasm about how my running has improved and how there are days when I feel almost like a real runner and move with less effort and blah blah blah.

Today was not one of those days.

Today was a day when I awoke in darkness and thought, hmmm, maybe I’m just going to stay here for another hour and not go to the gym. For the first time in a long, long time (excluding the Man Cold™ last month) I didn’t want to work out.

But I got up anyway. I swung my legs out and stumbled to the basement and pulled my gear out of the dryer (I had a work event last night and wasn’t home until late, and when I got home my entertainment was waiting for the wash to finish so I could put it in the dryer. And yes I have more than one pair of shorts and one t-shirt but why can’t you just listen and support me, okay?)

And I drove to the gym and there was a smaller crowd than Wednesday because Thursday is a hard, hard day at the gym and maybe my mind forgot that but my body remembered and wanted me to stay in bed. Note to self: listen to your body.

Just watch him

Tags

canada, canadian election, canadian politics, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general

I started writing this blog in December 2005, which coincidentally was during the federal election campaign that first brought Stephen Harper to 24 Sussex Drive.

That was a long time ago and after last night it would seem that a man who always seemed to be a master of political calculus made a final, serious miscalculation.

Even though buckets of ink have already been spilled and barrels more will be emptied in the days ahead writing his political obituary, I think it’s far too soon to evaluate his tenure. Part of the reason for that is that he was always a bit of a hard guy for the public to like and last night that caught up to him.

He ran a fiscally principled government in difficult economic times. He assembled a formidable front bench of cabinet ministers – like Flaherty, Baird, MacKay – and he kept a close watch on every major file and most of the minor ones.

He was criticized for not engaging directly with the provincial premiers, but politically that was astute frankly because the premiers would do nothing but ask for stuff that a) he probably couldn’t afford to give them and b) politically would be divisive and distracting.

Foreign policy and defence were steady but unremarkable even if Canada’s place on the world stage shrank. The record on the environment was lamentable. There were things like the Duffy/Wallin scandals and ham-fisted elimination of the long-form census and other small-ball irritants.

But overall, the Conservatives ran a decent government, albeit one far too distracted with politics and eliminating its enemies, who were often, frankly, doing the job for him.

To me, his terms seem utterly defined with crushing opponents – especially the Liberal party — and he almost succeeded and actually might have accomplished it if he had left office a year or so earlier.

But he didn’t, and the son of the man he loathed most as a young conservative moving up the ranks is the man who brought him down as a host of issues – C-51, ISIS, niqab debates (who even knew what a niqab was six months ago), the economy, subtle and not so subtle racist wedge issues, Duffy and more piled up into a formidable ball of hate.

A sporting life

Tags

AUS Hockey, baseball, blue jays, cycling, cycling in cold weather, dalhousie tigers, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, junior hockey, kids hockey

Too much on the calendar this weekend. A high-quality, first-world problem.

There’s a junior A game in Milton tonight that I would like to see, because it’s Milton vs. Cobourg and there will be several kids in the game I know, not the least of whom is Will the Thrill.

But.

The Dal Tigers are on the road this weekend, playing at UPEI and that game will be webcast. Through the miracle of Apple TV I can stream the webcast from my iphone to the Apple TV box and onto the big screen in the family room. While it’s not HNIC, it is to us, and it’s free.

UPEI also has the best and most entertaining play-by-play and colour commentators in the Atlantic university conference, and that coupled with my personal interest in the game makes it must-see TV. Sorry Will.

Then, there’s also a baseball game of note tonight – the Blue Jays open the ALCS in Kansas City tonight and that is also must-see TV. And the Leafs host Columbus in what will be perhaps the least-viewed Toronto hockey game of the season. Both teams stink and the Jays are in the ALCS? Good luck.

So, tonight I will be grateful for the invention of time zones. The 7p start for Dalhousie in Charlottetown is 6p here and the hockey game will be almost over when the Jays take to the field for a scheduled 8:07p start.

A baseball game that matters

Tags

baseball, blue jays, colds, cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general

Finally, baseball that matters happening in our postal code.

The first World Series that I actually remember – and yes, I’m dating myself mercilessly – was the 1968 series between Detroit and St. Louis (which was ranked by The Sporting News as the 6^th greatest fall classic ever).

Denny McLain and Bob Gibson. Al Kaline and Lou Brock. Willie Horton and Orlando Cepeda. Interesting to note, given the debate in Toronto these days about pitchers and rest, that series MVP Mickey Lolich started game 7 (and won) on two days’ rest, just as McLain had done in Game 6. Both went on to have productive lives in spite of the short turnarounds.

The first World Series that really burned into my brain was the 1975 matchup between Cincinnati and Boston – ranked #3 overall by The Sporting News. As a kid I had become a fan of the Reds a couple years earlier when they lost in the Series to the A’s. Maybe it was the whole “Big Red Machine” thing. I don’t know. I just know it was the first time I saw drama on a baseball field and I was hooked. I can still recite the Reds lineup. Perez. Morgan. Conception. Rose. Bench. Foster. Geronimo. Griffey (the other guy’s dad.) It’s a wonder they ever lost a game.

We lived in Ottawa when Toronto won in 1992. We were in Edmonton when they won again in 1993 – and that win is sentimental because Pad was born a month before that victory and I (we) watched a lot of baseball that fall with him in my (her) arms screaming (him, not me (or us). But maybe both (or all), now that I think about it.)

(He is) Relentless

Tags

blue jays, colds, cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general

With the vestiges of the Great Autumn Man Cold ™ of 2015 finally winding down I went back to the gym on Saturday after missing three straight days.

Me and everyone else in town was there, or so it seemed.

The club did a special job of promoting the Saturday workout as a Thanksgiving “burn the bird” calorie buster. So while a normal Saturday turnout might be eight or 10 on a good day, there was likely two dozen in the class for 45 minutes of metabolic punishment and then 45 minutes of spin.

I was still a long way from 100 per cent so I didn’t push myself very hard, but I did get a decent workout in. I’d like to say it felt good but mostly I just kept hoping it would be over. Colds suck.

But the big turnout did make it fun – lots of young people who were home for the long weekend, lots of others who are Monday-to-Friday regulars but usually not around on Saturday.

My highlight was the weigh in before class. I hit a new low in both weight and body fat percentage.

Giving thanks, but not for Alvin

Tags

baseball, birthdays, blue jays, chipmunks, colds, cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, pest control

I came home from work Monday night and went through the usual routine.

After greeting Laura I dragged my gym bag to the basement to toss my sweaty stuff in the laundry. I flipped on the laundry room light and two beady, nervous eyes stared back. It’s not every day you see a chipmunk standing on your washing machine.

First reaction: This isn’t a good thing. A rodent by any other name is still a rodent. And this is a rodent.

The chipmunk was staring up at the small window. I was staring at the open washing machine wondering if there was some way I could knock the critter into the drum and close the top. Neither of us got what we were wishing for.

Alvin – let’s call him Alvin – jumped to the floor and disappeared into the labyrinth of basement that unfolds from easy access from the unfinished walls of the laundry room.

Ch-ch-changes

Tags

birthdays, blue jays, colds, cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, kids hockey, man cold, parenting

It’s a funny thing about family and kids. I can’t get enough of mine.

When the kids are born, as any parent will tell you, all they are is work for the first few months. They don’t do much other than scream, sleep, execute normal bodily functions and create gobs of laundry and lineups of people who “want to see the baby.”

But in short order, the actually start developing personalities, then they learn to sit up, crawl, signal when they are hungry, smile . . . and from that point on, it’s 24-7 fun. No, really.

There were multiple stages of watching our two boys growing up that I said to myself, geez, I wish I could freeze this moment in time forever because this has got to be the best. And that might have been dragging one of them around the rec room in a cardboard box while he giggled crazily, or skiing, or tobogganing, or snuggling on a sofa watching The Lion King for the 4215^th time on a cold snowy day.

Or it might have been a moment of victory or loss in a rink or on a field. Or it might have been a band concert or school grad or an assembly. Or it might have been Christmas morning or Halloween night or watching one of them with a group of friends, happy and confident and articulate and smart.

My point is, I have learned that every great stage in parenting was followed by one that was just as great, or even better.