Archive for the ‘Older stuff’ Category
Last night, the Good was that Vicki and I went kayaking. I enjoy it so much - being closer to the water than in a canoe, it seems like you’re just flying along. Vicki was a little pissed at me because every time I tried to do a succession of 5 or 10 good technique paddle strokes, I’d end up 20-30 metres in front of her. Towards the end I think I figured out how to do good technique without pulling too hard, so I could paddle well but not too fast. I feel a good sort of pain afterwards - muscle tiredness, but no untoward joint pain that I can detect.
The Bad was that my TiVo recording of the Alpe d’Huez time trial cut out just as Lance Armstrong was about to catch Ivan Basso and Ullrich was still out on the course. Dammit - I wanted to see Lance’s climb on the upper parts.
The Ugly is that after a few hours of feeling that my glasses weren’t working out, I tried a few hours without them, and the net result was horrific eyestrain - not sure if the eyestrain came from the time I had with glasses or the time without them. I know that this morning my eyes are all gunked up, which seems to be happening because of the dryness I feel when wearing my glasses.
Posted by Paul Tomblin on July 22, 2004 at 10:30 GMT under Bike Racing, Kayaking, Older stuff.
3 Comments.
As if I didn’t have enough reasons already. One of the best things about having a TiVo is that I can record the live Tour de France stages and watch them when I get home, instead of the half-hour summaries that I sometimes got to see back in the years BT (Before TiVo).
Continue reading ‘Yet another reason to HATE Time Warner’ »
Posted by Paul Tomblin on July 6, 2004 at 14:46 GMT under Bike Racing, Geekery, Older stuff, Rant.
1 Comment.
Another great day in the Giro d’Italia.
Continue reading ‘Giro!’ »
Posted by Paul Tomblin on May 29, 2004 at 21:32 GMT under Bike Racing, Older stuff, Revelation.
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Cunego does it again in the Giro. I haven’t watched the TV coverage yet, but I’ve been following it on the live updates on the Cycling News web site, and it seems like a masterful ride once again.
Continue reading ‘CUNEGO!’ »
Posted by Paul Tomblin on May 28, 2004 at 12:23 GMT under Bike Racing, Older stuff, Revelation.
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Today’s stage in the Giro D’Italia was the best so far.
Continue reading ‘Now *that* is bike racing!’ »
Posted by Paul Tomblin on May 25, 2004 at 22:25 GMT under Bike Racing, Older stuff, Revelation.
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I’ve been enjoying watching the 87th Giro d’Italia, 2004 this year.
I’ve got a few thoughts about it, though.
Continue reading ‘Some thoughts on the Giro’ »
Posted by Paul Tomblin on May 20, 2004 at 10:52 GMT under Bike Racing, Older stuff, Revelation.
3 Comments.
I have to admit that I’m bike racing crazy. I used to watch just the Tour de France, but now I’ve got “Bicycle Racing” in the TiVo season passes and I’ve watched all the major races this year. I’m currently watching the Giro d’Italia, another major tour but not as major as “le Tour”. Many of the best riders and teams (including US Postal) give it a miss to prepare for “le Tour”, but the best sprinters are there.
Some random thoughts follow.
Continue reading ‘Legalize My Cannondale?’ »
Posted by Paul Tomblin on May 17, 2004 at 18:49 GMT under Bike Racing, Older stuff, Rant.
1 Comment.
One of my favourite ski races was the Kawartha Ski Tour. It wasn’t an official part of the race calendar, but it was the longest race available that weekend, the weekend before the Canadian Ski Marathon, so it looked to me to be a perfect tune-up for the CSM.
Continue reading ‘Kawartha Ski Tour’ »
Posted by Paul Tomblin on February 24, 2004 at 20:24 GMT under Cross Country Skiing, Older stuff, Reminiscence.
1 Comment.
Or rather, I had two dreams. Last night. Which isn’t all that unusual - what is unusual is that I remember them this morning. Usually when I wake up in the morning, I try and remember my dreams but I can feel them slip out of my grasp like trying to catch a fish with your bare hands. And as they’re slipping away completely, what spells the final doom is that Vicki tries to tell me what she dreamt about that night. I’m so incoherent in the morning that it’s a wonder I can find my way to the toilet some times.
Continue reading ‘I had a dream.’ »
Posted by Paul Tomblin on February 5, 2004 at 06:49 GMT under Cross Country Skiing, Geekery, Older stuff, Revelation.
1 Comment.
I forgot to mention a few things in my previous blog entry.
The first is that some years after finishing my canoe, I got the bug to build another one. This time without the mistakes, or at least with new and better mistakes. So I bought the Harrowsmith Press book Canoecraft.
One of the prime reasons I’d wanted to build a canoe in the first place was lusting after the canoes from Bear Mountain Canoebuilders, and this book was written by the owner of Bear Mountain, so I knew it would be good. And it is good. But the most important thing I discovered in that book was that Ted Moores, the guy who built those perfect canoes that I’d coveted for years and years, in describing every detail of his canoe shop, pointed out his “crying chair”. Yes, Mr. Perfection himself every now and then felt the need to sit down, cry about the mistake he’d just made, compose himself and figure out how to fix it. Suddenly I felt a lot better about my own tears.
I don’t know if it was in the version of the book when I used it, but the website for the book I used in the first place, David Hazen’s “Strippers Guide to Canoe Building” has a Builder’s Pep Talk online. The most important part, at least in my experience is:
Soon after that release I realized that not one of my customers ever saw those mistakes. They were usually too overwhelmed by the charisma of the boat and ignorant of what small details composed the multitude of “mistakes” that went into every boat.
Posted by Paul Tomblin on January 21, 2004 at 10:39 GMT under Canoeing, Older stuff, Reminiscence.
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Posted by Paul Tomblin on January 21, 2004 at 09:57 GMT under Canoeing, Older stuff, Reminiscence.
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It’s been bloody cold this week. Rochester is a lot damper in the winter than Southern Ontario, so it really cuts through you. But it reminds me of the winter of 1979-80.
Continue reading ‘Cold’ »
Posted by Paul Tomblin on January 16, 2004 at 20:11 GMT under Cross Country Skiing, Older stuff, Reminiscence.
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This is another in my series of reposts from my original journal on Slashdot over to this new blog. With hopefully a bit of editing. This one involves the age old question, “Is flying as good as skiing”. Ok, it’s not an age-old question, but it’s one a friend of mine asked when I was reminiscing about skiing and feeling bad about how I can’t do it any more.
Continue reading ‘Skiing Versus Flying’ »
Posted by Paul Tomblin on September 24, 2003 at 10:16 GMT under Cross Country Skiing, Flying, Older stuff, Reminiscence.
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Ok, since I’m going to use this blog instead of the Slashdot one, I thought I’d bring some Slashdot entries over here. Oh, and maybe fix them up a bit as I do it.
This one concerns the Canadian Ski Marathon, which I skied in several times in the 1977-1982 timeframe. Back then, the CSM was a huge event, with over 4,000 people participating. The course went from La Chute Quebec to Montebello Quebec one day, and the next day from Montebello to either Hull or Ottawa, depending the weather and the organization, for a total distance somewhere between 160 and 170 kilometers over two days.
Continue reading ‘CSM Memories’ »
Posted by Paul Tomblin on September 23, 2003 at 14:50 GMT under Cross Country Skiing, Older stuff, Reminiscence.
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