Monday evening

Open-water swimming was cancelled because of water pollution. We went out to dinner instead. And from dinner, we ordered a few books. Modern technology is great!

Pride Day(s) in Toronto

Yesterday was the culmination of Gay Pride Week and Pride Weekend in Toronto. They culminate in the “dyke parade” on Saturday and the Gay Pride parade on Sunday. Part of Church Street is closed for a street fair and there’s a Pride & Remembrance run. Some of our friends are among the elite, sponsored runners who take part.

And the Canadian Armed Forces came to the Gay Pride parade in Toronto last Sunday. I think you spell that R-E-C-R-U-I-T-M-E-N-T.

Day for night again

I got home this morning at 02:00, then stayed up reading science blogs, so I got to sleep about 04:00. LotStreetWiz woke me up at 10:30 with coffee, but that didn’t take and I fell asleep again until 18:30. Now I’m ready to be up all night, which is not good preparation for being at work and going open-water swimming again. I’ll see what I can do about getting tired and going to sleep in time for another four hours or so before six.

Meanwhile, he has a conference call at 07:00.

more funny cat pictures

Barn dance in Guelph

Yesterday, for a treat, I took Andie to Guelph for a barn dance. At 17:30, I got ready and picked up my son, then drove to Hamilton and picked up Andie from her mother, and then we went on to Guelph. We found the church, which was a fine old limestone structure, paid our fees, and went in.

The evening started with barn dances, then a contra dance, then reels, and a couple of waltzes. It was a lot of fun but hot. The band was Relative Harmony and the caller was Judy Greenhill. Rick, who is in the band, and Judy have moved from Toronto to Guelph.

Relative Harmony plays a wide variety of folk music. For contra dances, it has a Celtic flavour.

Relative Harmony is an acoustic trio comprised of Rick Avery (voice, keyboards and guitar); Judy Greenhill (voice), our son Jonathan Avery (violin and percussion); and on occasion, our daughter Katie Avery (violin). We perform a wide variety of British and North American folk music.

At the end of the evening, I retraced the route to Hamilton and then Toronto.

Second open-water swim

For the first time this year, the water was clean enough and warm enough yesterday for a lesson in open-water swimming with Coach Kelvin. There were four of us: LotStreetWiz, Anthony, Lynda, and me. All the others are much better swimmers and were able to do things like “go swim around that buoy and back” in a reasonable amount of time. All of us had to wear bright-coloured bathing caps to make us easy to see. Our coach is a lifeguard, and he brings another lifeguard to watch from the dock and keep track of us all.

It was a bit of a struggle getting into my wetsuit and when it was on, no matter how much I tried to let in a little lubricating water, the suit remained tight and constricting. A wetsuit is neoprene foam; it’s supposed to let you get wet, but keep the same layer of water next to you so that your body heat doesn’t get carried away. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. It dragged on my arms. And I wasn’t used to swimming with little foam shoes on. They are very useful for wading into the rocky water, but next time I think I’ll leave them on the dock of the lifeguards’ hut once I’m in.

We start between the tree and the lifeguards’ hut in this picture. We swam back and forth over a 500-yard course marked by buoys.

Anyway, I swam a little but quickly became out of breath. I felt like I couldn’t get a proper breath in the suit. Then I would breathe too hard and feel like I was hyperventilating. If I stopped to rest, I got seasick in the buoyant suit.

swimming at Cherry Beach, Toronto

However, my practice last week at swimming evenly and ending each stroke at the same place helped me to stay on course. I did get around the buoy once. Then I went half-way and back. Then I swam out to where the others were gathered. When I got tired of freestyle, I used the breast stroke or back crawl and I got where I was going, eventually. I probably swam only about 350 yards. But at least I was out there.

open-water swim at Cherry Beach, Toronto

The water was cool but not too cold, so I got used to it immediately. This part of Lake Ontario is sheltered, by the Leslie Street Spit and Toronto Island, from the cold current that swirls counterclockwise around the lake. The water is fairly shallow, as well, and it warms up in summer. I think perhaps next time I’ll start without the wetsuit on and just swim in a bathing suit.

I also found a link for Cherry Beach water quality.

At Cherry Beach, updates based on daily testing are posted on two signs, one by the east parking lot and another by the lifeguard station. If you want to check before going, you can call the Toronto Beach Water Quality hotline at 416-392-7161 to hear a recording with status of all Toronto beaches.

Pictures of Cherry Beach in Toronto:

• a lovely picture of Cherry Beach. During the summer, the dock is longer, so there must be a section that’s pulled in for the winter to avoid damage from ice.
• another nice picuture
• a beautiful and artistic image from a few years ago
• the one with the tree

Cats without collars

First Cloud got rid of his collar. “We’ve got a spare blue collar, we’d better put it on him,” we said. Then Fog gave his red collar the slip. The collars are breakaway so that if they get caught on anything, they snap open. That’s fine except that I think the cats try to get out of them. They also bite each other’s collars. So now we have two almost-identical grey cats running around naked.

New office

I’ve started my new office. It seems as if the work will be an interesting challenge, and the team and management support is great!

Bike shirt from Etsy

Etsy is an online store dedicated to hand-made merchandise. One of their offerings is the “old bike” shirt.

Blue, blue, blue

see more Obama pictures

New contract

Enough piecework! Tomorrow I’m starting a short, but full-time contract.