I captured this photo (actually, several photos that are sort of stitched together) of this brilliant and double rainbow over Toronto harbour after having made my way down to Sugar Beach from the World Pride festivities. It was one of the brightest ones I had seen in a long time. It followed several heavy, but short, downpours just moments prior that turned the water from a serene mirror to crashing waves, and ripped tree branches off.
I saw a couple of guys ice fishing on Bronte Creek. (One of them was camera shy.) I’d never walked on the ice over a body of water before, so I thought I would say hi to them. They assured me that the ice was safe, given that the very cold winter created two feet thick ice (strong enough for a car to drive on).
I ended up walking along the harbour from the boat launch ramp to the Lakeshore Road bridge.
Along the way I found that there was a rink. It looks like a really cool place to play hockey.
One ice fisher thought it might be a fun idea to take a photo of me ice fishing, even though I was somewhat underdressed with my bare hands and running shoes.
This morning, when I was in the kitchen making breakfast, I heard something that sounded a lot like the eavestrough falling apart. I looked out the kitchen’s side window and saw a squirrel crawling up and down its screen. It traveled around the house checking out almost all of them. I took out my phone and waited for it to climb again. Sure enough, that squirrel did not disappoint. That’s when I took this photo. I have no idea why it acted crazy, but it finally settled down and left.
By Union Station I sat down and yawned.
Having reduced my coffee intake, I’m still trying to reduce it even more. I’ve reached a plateau whereby I take an afternoon coffee almost everyday. I’ve decided to try a different approach to break this. I’m now leaving it up to chance — literally. I let my smartphone’s calculator choose a random number. An even number means I can have a coffee. An odd one means I must wait until the morning for a coffee. This approach is just recent, so I can’t say whether it is successful yet.
I allow one cup in the morning no matter what. My afternoon intake was three days on, one day off. That’s a 75% chance that I’ll have an afternoon brew. Now factor in the random number approach (theoretically a 50% cut). It’s been reduced to about 40% chance (2 days of coffee every five days). This may stem my afternoon coffee to just occasional because the want will be tamed.
I’m hopeful this works.
Sure, this bike has it’s problems, but I’m confident a little elbow grease and knowledge could make a weekend project out of it.
Sure, the gears have minor rust and several zebra mussels, but what neglected bike doesn’t?
The seat post also has its problems. But the seat still looks good enough for use with a quick wipe. Half-way there?
OK, I admit that the sprockets do need some sanding, zebra mussel removal and the installation of spokes. But once that’s done, you only need to straighten out the warped rim. Easy! Then you have a beautifully restored bike with a great story.
Two weeks have passed since I committed to reducing my coffee intake. The result is that I have, for the most part, been successful.
I no longer brew a full pot of coffee in the morning. Instead, I brew just enough for one of my café-au-lait mugs.
That’s the good news. The difficulty is that every other day, I brew a second cup in the afternoon. However, this is not entirely bad news. I have become so accustomed to making just enough for one cup, that it would feel weird to brew any more.
Thinking back, I probably reduced my intake of coffee by one third. It’s progress that I can live with because I can feel my cravings for coffee going away. By training myself to have just one cup in the morning and one cup in the afternoon every other day, I’m slowly kicking my addiction.