The Friday Five and Questions (and a bit of an update)
Yesterday was frustrating but eventually things got worked out. The company that was supposed to deliver that custom-decorated cookies we had ordered for Saturday said they never started the order because I had never paid the invoice they had never sent. I was so spitting mad I couldn’t even bring myself to look for another place that could do a rush order. Fortunately, one of the guys found a place. They will just be chocolate or chocolate chip instead of having the Bike Ottawa logo in icing, but at least we have something.
We have also been struggling with new buttons to give away. I got the button maker but had no idea how to modify the templates to make them suitable for the 40th anniversary of Bike Ottawa. Eventually Florence was able to do a few simple adjustments to the existing PDF and I got that sent off to Staples last night. Hopefully the order won’t take long to print and I can spend my afternoon making buttons. Update: the order is ready.
In cycling news, I wrote a blog post about just how shitty it is here, even on a 12 km ride: https://bikeottawa.ca/2024/08/08/a-very-informal-cycling-audit-tldr-its-bad-out-there/. Last night we went for a nice ride through parts of Gatineau and stopped for ice cream I had never been to before. It threatened rain so the Cleverhood gang got ready, but it was fine. The heavy rain didn’t hit until today. It has been a good day to do nothing (so far).
Questions
1. What Do You Gain From Pursuing Something You Do Really, Really Badly? The thing I want?
2. What Would You Be Willing to Wait in a Really Long Line For? Not very much at all. My answer would change if I were starving and had no access to food elsewhere.
3. Do You Wish You Could Return to Moments From Your Past? Nope. I’m content to look back fondly at my memories, and keep going forward.
4. What Pranks, Jokes, Hoaxes or Tricks Have You Ever Fallen For or Perpetrated? I can’t think of any off-hand, though I know I got punked once or twice by my kids.
5. What Are Your Personal Superstitions? I don’t really have any. I’m pretty rational about stuff like that.
6. Do You Spend Enough Time With Other People? No. Most days I spend enough time to satisfy me, but I know it isn’t enough to get everything done effectively, and I occasionally miss time with friends.
7. How Well Do You Know Your Neighbors? Reasonably well? I know a few quite well and have watched their kids grow. Others I know by name and have occasionally shared a drink with them. A few I know mostly by sight because they have dogs or kids.
8. How Much Time Do You Spend in Nature? Not enough. But that also depends on how you define nature. Does my back yard count? How about riding my bike outdoors in the city?
9. What Are Your Favorite TV Shows? Anything in the Star Trek franchise.
The Friday Five
1. Are you and your birth family close? Fairly close. I see my parents about weekly. I don’t see my sister as often. We do try not to visit my parents at the same time, just to spread out the time they have company.
2. How far away do you live from your various family members? The furthest is my son, who lives in Toronto. That’s about 5 hours by car or train. My parents would be the next. They are just under 25 km away, so I can usually get there in half an hour by car. Then it’s either my sister or my daughter. My sister lives about 6 km away. I rarely visit her at home, but I often pass by her place when doing things in her area by bike. She lives on the edge of some interesting communities. Honestly, I have no idea exactly where my daughter lives at the moment. She has moved in with her boyfriend and I think she said it was near the local Francophone community college, so maybe 5 km?
3. When was the last time you visited with relatives? I saw my parents several times last week. My daughter came for dinner on Monday and stopped by for a short visit yesterday
4. Do your relatives travel to visit you? My kids do. My parents are done driving outside their immediate area, so usually someone collects them for holiday celebrations at my house.
5. How do you stay in touch with family: phone calls, email, snail mail, texts, other?
Yes. With parents it’s either phone calls, Skype or email. Son likes phone calls/FB chats but sometimes we do texts, messenger or email (depends on context and whether we need a written record, eg for travel details). Daughter is mostly text or messenger.
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