Utilitaire-12 task #5: Bike to dinner = Friar & Firkin pre-skating & improv.
Having used the wayback machine to blog about the first four Utilitaire-12 tasks, I'm back in the present day. You can read about the previous challenges here: #1, #2, #3, & #4. While you're at it, you can read about my Birthday Nonad, which sounds kinda rude but really wasn't.
All the cool kids have their birthdays in February, and Friday was no exception. I had two birthdays to celebrate in Toronto alone. T was having a skating party and D was in the Black Swan improv semi-finals. I planned to meet M for dinner before the skating and we settled on the Friar & Firkin at Queen W and John.
I've been getting sick rather a lot this winter. Thursday night I nearly fainted carrying my bike up the stairs and fell into bed right after feeding both Lucy and myself. I woke the next day feeling marginally better; had it been a regular school day I would have gone in, but it was a PD day so I called in sick and spent most of the day alternately snoozing and dosing myself with Neo Citran. By afternoon I well enough to go on with my plans for the evening. I had lost too many weekends to sickness and by golly I wasn't going to lose another one -- and a long weekend at that!
Of course, as soon as I left for dinner, I felt a tickle in my throat which grew into a full-fledged frog* by the end of the evening and complete sickness by today.
Biking along Queen Street West is always a bit of a crap shoot. You are dodging taxis and jaywalkers while being stuck in the no-man's land between the parked cars and streetcar tracks. Generally I don't mind it too much. That night I got stuck behind a cyclist who was moving slower than my usual pace and wobbling all over the place to boot, but the solid wall of traffic next to me wouldn't allow me to do the awkward track-crossing ritual required to pass him. Usually this drives me nuts. Instead, I managed to relax and slow down and go with the flow. M had texted me that his streetcar was running late, so there was no rush. I eventually found room to pass him at a light and was on my merry way.
I parked my bike on Queen since both rings and several poles on John were already full and went inside to wait and play pub trivia in my mind. Outside, I saw several of my students (who had that deer-in-the-headlights look teens get when they see teachers outside their natural habitat. I saved the awkward moment by nodding and then ignoring them.) M arrived about ten minutes later and we had a lovely chat and dinner of burgers. I always seem to eat burgers with M. It was very tasty.
M went off to the Black Swan for the improv show. I was going over later, but first I biked to Nathan Phillips Square for T's skating party.
Where I saw another couple of students. I was starting to think I was being followed. If any showed up near the Black Swan later, I'd be really worried.
Never mind. Skating. I don't do it nearly enough, despite the fact that I live not a ten-minute walk from a great outdoor rink. My average seems to be once a year. Which means I'm not very good. I can skate smoothly enough, and I can do cross-overs, and I know how to spin, sort of, and skate backwards very slowly, but my stopping technique leaves something to be desired. It's actually an applied physics problem: here is the speed I am going, there is where I want to be when I stop, when should I stop pushing and start gliding to allow friction to do its thing? Show all your thinking for full marks.
For all that, I really like skating. After a few turns round the rink my shins stopped hurting and I got my balance back and I felt much more comfortable. I even remembered to bend my knees when I started wobbling. I resolved, as always, to skate more often this winter and wished, not for the first time, that we had something like the Rideau Canal (which I have skated the length of and back. No, really!)
After an hour and a half, it was past time for me to head off to the Black Swan for D's improv/birthday do. On the way to Broadview and Danforth, I found myself climbing Bay Street yet again. I thought to avoid most of the climb by taking Carleton to Jarvis to Wellesley to Sherborne, (seeing yet another student in the big picture window of the Wellesley Community Centre, but I didn't think that counted toward the conspiracy), but it turns out that Sherborne is also uphill. It's not that steep a climb, but I was really feeling it, due no doubt to both the skating and the fact that I'm just run down lately.
Biking across the Prince Edward Viaduct was not as intimidating as it used to be since they've widened the lane and put in a double line. Crossing the lane near the DVP entrance is always a bit hairy, especially at night, but I think I gave enough warning and room that the car behind me barely had to slow down.
The improv was great fun. D was on two teams in the quarter finals and there was much merriment and ribald comedy. Both of his teams won their round, we sang Happy Birthday in several keys, and I had a smile on my face the whole time. I would have stayed to carouse into the wee hours, but by midnight, I was starting to fall asleep from all the activity that evening, plus my throat was hurting like the devil. I prepared to leave, and that's when Life started imitating Art.
Earlier in the evening, one of the teams had asked for "Something you would lose" as a starting point for their skit. "Gloves" was the offer, and darn it if my right-hand, cashmere-lined leather glove didn't take them up on it. I spent a good ten minutes searching, using my bike light for illumination (try that with a dynamo light!), to no avail. It had gone.** Fortunately I had brought a pair of mitts for skating. They are warmer for skating, but not warm enough for biking because they don't block the wind. I was worried my poor little fingers would freeze off.
My worries, as usual, were unfounded. There seemed to be very little wind on the way home. Which was mostly downhill. I felt none of the struggle that I had felt coming to the east side. The ride home was very pleasant, even though I fretted over the loss of my poor little glove. Even the bike dots at Dewson & Dovercourt*** did their stuff.
Mileage: From home to Queen & John (dinner utilitaire) = 3.8 km/2.4 miles. From there to Nathan Philips Square, then to Broadview & Danforth, then back home = an additional 14.6 km = 9.1 miles.
*Can frogs be fledged, full or otherwise? Or does that only apply to winged beasts? Now that's gonna bother me all day.
**UPDATE: Huzzah! They found the glove! I will pick it up after work tomorrow. Much is right again with the world.
***They were not working properly outside of rush hour, and there was much emailing between me and my councillor's aide. I could write about it, but this post is long enough and even I have my limits.
All the cool kids have their birthdays in February, and Friday was no exception. I had two birthdays to celebrate in Toronto alone. T was having a skating party and D was in the Black Swan improv semi-finals. I planned to meet M for dinner before the skating and we settled on the Friar & Firkin at Queen W and John.
I've been getting sick rather a lot this winter. Thursday night I nearly fainted carrying my bike up the stairs and fell into bed right after feeding both Lucy and myself. I woke the next day feeling marginally better; had it been a regular school day I would have gone in, but it was a PD day so I called in sick and spent most of the day alternately snoozing and dosing myself with Neo Citran. By afternoon I well enough to go on with my plans for the evening. I had lost too many weekends to sickness and by golly I wasn't going to lose another one -- and a long weekend at that!
Of course, as soon as I left for dinner, I felt a tickle in my throat which grew into a full-fledged frog* by the end of the evening and complete sickness by today.
Biking along Queen Street West is always a bit of a crap shoot. You are dodging taxis and jaywalkers while being stuck in the no-man's land between the parked cars and streetcar tracks. Generally I don't mind it too much. That night I got stuck behind a cyclist who was moving slower than my usual pace and wobbling all over the place to boot, but the solid wall of traffic next to me wouldn't allow me to do the awkward track-crossing ritual required to pass him. Usually this drives me nuts. Instead, I managed to relax and slow down and go with the flow. M had texted me that his streetcar was running late, so there was no rush. I eventually found room to pass him at a light and was on my merry way.
I parked my bike on Queen since both rings and several poles on John were already full and went inside to wait and play pub trivia in my mind. Outside, I saw several of my students (who had that deer-in-the-headlights look teens get when they see teachers outside their natural habitat. I saved the awkward moment by nodding and then ignoring them.) M arrived about ten minutes later and we had a lovely chat and dinner of burgers. I always seem to eat burgers with M. It was very tasty.
M went off to the Black Swan for the improv show. I was going over later, but first I biked to Nathan Phillips Square for T's skating party.
Never mind. Skating. I don't do it nearly enough, despite the fact that I live not a ten-minute walk from a great outdoor rink. My average seems to be once a year. Which means I'm not very good. I can skate smoothly enough, and I can do cross-overs, and I know how to spin, sort of, and skate backwards very slowly, but my stopping technique leaves something to be desired. It's actually an applied physics problem: here is the speed I am going, there is where I want to be when I stop, when should I stop pushing and start gliding to allow friction to do its thing? Show all your thinking for full marks.
For all that, I really like skating. After a few turns round the rink my shins stopped hurting and I got my balance back and I felt much more comfortable. I even remembered to bend my knees when I started wobbling. I resolved, as always, to skate more often this winter and wished, not for the first time, that we had something like the Rideau Canal (which I have skated the length of and back. No, really!)
After an hour and a half, it was past time for me to head off to the Black Swan for D's improv/birthday do. On the way to Broadview and Danforth, I found myself climbing Bay Street yet again. I thought to avoid most of the climb by taking Carleton to Jarvis to Wellesley to Sherborne, (seeing yet another student in the big picture window of the Wellesley Community Centre, but I didn't think that counted toward the conspiracy), but it turns out that Sherborne is also uphill. It's not that steep a climb, but I was really feeling it, due no doubt to both the skating and the fact that I'm just run down lately.
Biking across the Prince Edward Viaduct was not as intimidating as it used to be since they've widened the lane and put in a double line. Crossing the lane near the DVP entrance is always a bit hairy, especially at night, but I think I gave enough warning and room that the car behind me barely had to slow down.
The improv was great fun. D was on two teams in the quarter finals and there was much merriment and ribald comedy. Both of his teams won their round, we sang Happy Birthday in several keys, and I had a smile on my face the whole time. I would have stayed to carouse into the wee hours, but by midnight, I was starting to fall asleep from all the activity that evening, plus my throat was hurting like the devil. I prepared to leave, and that's when Life started imitating Art.
Earlier in the evening, one of the teams had asked for "Something you would lose" as a starting point for their skit. "Gloves" was the offer, and darn it if my right-hand, cashmere-lined leather glove didn't take them up on it. I spent a good ten minutes searching, using my bike light for illumination (try that with a dynamo light!), to no avail. It had gone.** Fortunately I had brought a pair of mitts for skating. They are warmer for skating, but not warm enough for biking because they don't block the wind. I was worried my poor little fingers would freeze off.
My worries, as usual, were unfounded. There seemed to be very little wind on the way home. Which was mostly downhill. I felt none of the struggle that I had felt coming to the east side. The ride home was very pleasant, even though I fretted over the loss of my poor little glove. Even the bike dots at Dewson & Dovercourt*** did their stuff.
Mileage: From home to Queen & John (dinner utilitaire) = 3.8 km/2.4 miles. From there to Nathan Philips Square, then to Broadview & Danforth, then back home = an additional 14.6 km = 9.1 miles.
*Can frogs be fledged, full or otherwise? Or does that only apply to winged beasts? Now that's gonna bother me all day.
**UPDATE: Huzzah! They found the glove! I will pick it up after work tomorrow. Much is right again with the world.
***They were not working properly outside of rush hour, and there was much emailing between me and my councillor's aide. I could write about it, but this post is long enough and even I have my limits.
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