Bike paths

 Last night I didn't get a good sleep as someone outside dumped tin cans at about 3:30am startling me awake and after I got back to sleep a holder in the bathroom fell down startling me awake again. But I got up with an alarm,

Google maps said it was a 30 minute bike ride but I have found their bike times don't match my bike times so I estimated 45 minutes and that was a much better estimate.

Much of the ride was on bike paths but there were some gaps where I had to ride on the road. The first section was on the oak st. garden bike path. Then I had to ride on John counter until a separate bike path appeared. The wabaan crossing also had a bike path which the last time I went over it (2 years ago) I was not clear if it was only pedestrian or mixed use but now it was clearly marked that it was both pedestrian and bike use. The ride was mostly downhill until the Wabaan crossing and then there was an uphill part to get to highway 15. On that uphill part another bike passed me and he seemed to know where he was going so I tried to watch him for as long as he was in sight. We had a short bit on highway 15 but then transitioned to the bike path that ran most of the way near highway 15. I thought it ended at one point and rode on the road but I was mistaken and I did get it right on the way back.

I stopped at No Frills on the way back for groceries and when I returned home my clothes were all damp from the exertion and after a bad night I was also pretty tired so I changed and took a nap which is why I am up so late today!

20km of bike riding tomorrow

 I have a vacation day tomorrow so that I can go to a medical appointment. It is 10km away so it will be a 20km bike ride round trip!

Today had lunch with Anne-Marie to catch up. Had a lot of things at work that had to get done so that I could take the vacation day tomorrow. Then interviews start on Friday.

outage

 We lost power during the storm yesterday. While brownies were cooking. I left them in the oven and they ended up cooking ok. While the laundry was running. The machine seemed to restart itself when the power was back. It was strange as the outage map said that a large swath was out but the street next to us had power but we did not. The internet did not come back after the power came back on. 

In the morning, I went to get the laundry and I unplugged the modem. When I went up to hand the laundry I plugged it back in and that seemed to fix it.

Smoking continues

 While yesterday looked very hazy and that seemed to keep the temperature down, today looks fine outside but smells terrible and there is an air quality spike. I guess the spikes depend on how the wind blows things. Hopefully will blow away soon!

Wildfire smoke

The evening degraded significantly from wildfire smoke. We had a board dinner so I walked home between 9-10pm. I could smell the smoke and see the haze as I walked. When I went out at midnight to put out the garbage it was much stronger and irritated me to cough after being out for a few minutes. You can see the spike here:

From:

https://www.airqualityontario.com/aqhi/today.php?sites=52023 

Human

 I discovered this song from about 20 years ago on a funny BBC show a few weeks ago and have been playing it frequently I have enjoyed it so much. I went to share it with James and only played a little bit before he was upset because it was from a FIFA world cup Ad that apparently he hates!

It was kind of funny how that all came together.

A have been watching the merlins hunting the robins in the morning and evening. So sad for the robins.

Port Hope turkey vulture festival

 

If I lived closer, I would go to this!

Red sky in morning

 Before I woke up for real this morning I looked out and the whole sky was red and it does look like there are storms on the horizon. So indoor work for today.

Yesterday was busy planning for the course load next week. Pork coconut curry for dinner.

Heat warning

 Today I was up at 6am and got ready for the day and hung laundry out. Today Queen's had a "extra" holiday and remained closed. It is open again tomorrow.

I biked out on the back roads to a brunch place-  6.4 km according to google maps- to meet with some friends who are missionaries in Prague and are back for 6 months to have their baby.

Then I biked to visit Patricia- another 2.1 km- we had a little visit . We took a little walk and stopped at the JYSK store that said it was closing so everything was 60% off. I got a set of 6 really nice tea towels for $10, am quite pleased with that find!

Then biked home- about 7km- so I thought I would be quite tired but I wasn't actually. I had to drink a lot of liquids when I returned though. Maybe that revived me!

Tornado warning

 There was a tornado warning with an incoming storm yesterday. There was lots of wind and rain but I think there was no tornado. There were some trees that went down. It probably delayed the road construction that they started on Monday. Apparently the Loblaws flooded. Kingston Transit paused service while the alert was on.

Today the food basics opened at 10am to close at 6pm but the no frills opened at 8am so I headed to that one as I was ready earlier. In all the travels I took yesterday and today I didn't see any areas of damage from the storm so it may have been more localized.

I had ordered a chef's plate to arrive today but I didn't actually think it would arrive as it was a holiday. Normally they reschedule holidays but they didn't today, which I thought was odd and I didn't actually believe it would arrive. When I logged in to check the tracking it told me that I wouldn't be charged for this week but it also said that the box was shipped but there was no tracking. But then it did arrive! The box was super bashed up but everything seemed to be intact. We'll see how things actually are when I go to make the meals. When I went back to the chef's plate page the message about not being charged was gone and it said that the box was delivered.

I have been waiting for things to dry out so that I can mow the lawn and trim some bushes.

I had success in the Black River Mango lemonade and Metro is now out so I picked up some tart cherry lemonade as an experiment. It is ok but not as good as mango lemonade.

road works

 In addition to Princess St. being closed, starting tomorrow Johnson St. will also be closed- so 2 major arteries to downtown. My plan for tomorrow is to bike in very early in the morning to avoid the closure.

Yesterday I worked on sorting out the 2026 Rustle Receipts and today I sent off the June cheque requisitions. We need to file the government documents for charitable status by Tuesday, just waiting on some forms from the bookkeeper.

Today was the last day of children's church for the summer (the tots will still go downstairs just not the bigger kids) so they had a special day with pizza and sundaes. I was helping support to make sure everyone was safe.

After I walked home, it appeared that I had a sunburn on my face despite using sunscreen. I put aloe vera cream on it and it all cleared up quickly. Then I made some bacon for lunch and it was a particular spitty batch so I got some oil burns which I again put the aloe vera on and it cleared up the sting pretty quickly. Highly recommend for burns!

Then I had a nap because the sleep the night before was not good. But this probably throws my whole sleep schedule off and I have to get up early tomorrow so I'll try to prep everything while I am still awake tonight.

outside can be loud

 Last Sunday I was up at 4am and there was a strong smell of skunk but I couldn't see one outside. I assumed it sprayed something but at 7am there was no smell so was it just passing by or did the smell dissipate. 

Last night around 4am there were some neighbours having a loud discussion outside. Why 4am?

The other night it was a thunderstorm.

Hopefully, tonight is quieter!

Improvements

 

The chicken went better today. I used the broiler pan (but wasn't broiling). James liked it much better but the piece of chicken was thicker so one end was done before the other. I may cut the next one in half.

I biked down to campus for morning meetings and then ran exams until 10pm so a long day!

My laundry managed to dry outside despite the overcast conditions.

Much rain

 This morning I went to Loblaws before the rain came and I ate some stick bread while the rain poured down. It was raining but not pouring when I walked to Rustle. We had a lot of children today so I helped downstairs. There was quite a bit of chaos but everyone on the most part had a good time.

When I walked home it wasn't really raining, just a little bit of spitting but it seems to have been raining for many hours now.

When I got home I made a naan bread with cooked yellow pepper and leftover ground beef from James' tacos last night.

For James' dinner he had a recipe he brought home from N.B. which was boneless skinless chicken breast with montreal chicken seasoning. It was a bit of an experiment for me to cook it as I didn't know what I was replicating. So I put a bit of olive oil on and sprinkled a good amount of seasoning. I cooked it in the oven on a plain baking tray with some baking paper. It was ok but James said there was too much "water"- like when I took it off the tray there was still some liquid at the bottom so next time I'm going to try to cook it on the grill tray so that and liquid drops down to the tray below and see how that goes.

cleaning day

Today was a very productive day. I am impressed how many things I got checked off my list.  I was up at 5am. It was overcast at times but I got the laundry dried and the back lawn mowed. I cleaned up the front hall, washed the floor in the kitchen hall and both bathrooms. I completed the ironing and dishes. 

James had always only liked chicken from the slow cooker but he came back from New Brunswick liking a different kind of chicken. He brought Montreal chicken spice. So will need to change my habits.

I made the old kind of chicken and Pork spring roll bowls for dinner.