March 28 Update

Nadia and the boys are here this week and we're having a blast. Her boys are great . . . well . . . . as great as kids can be anyway!!

Truthfully, they are so well behaved it's unbelievable! They are a pleasure to have around. We've done the Wednesday market and the Tonala visit. We watched glass bowls being blown yesterday and picked up tons of Pewter stuff while we were there. The boys are having a great time in the pool.

It's springtime here as it is back in the 'old country'. I think we talked about the purple Jacaranda trees the other day. I took some pictures (for a change) of them and the strangest looking pink feather like flowers I've ever seen. I haven't found out what they're called yet.

Here's the pictures of them.

I weighed Lucky today. She's up to 28.5 pounds already. I don't know if that's a lot for a 4 month old German Sheppard or not. We're just all happy as hell she's doing so well.

Most of the other folks who spend the winter on the ranch are leaving next week. It'll be a mixed blessing being here alone. It should be interesting.

Nadia is doing the next update.

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Getting Used to Life In Ajijic

It's been a few days since I've written. I guess we're getting used to life here on the ranch in Ajjic. We seem to be getting up at around 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning. I'm starting to get a bit of exercise in first thing. I managed to get my ass into a gym bike yesterday for a half hour and went out for a half hour run this morning. Running is really tough here. They call the roads "cobblestone". I think it's more like 1700th century earthquake! Huge stones, smoothed off on the top, with massive spaces between them. It's going to be really easy to twist an ankle!

I managed to find pieces of reasonable level sidewalks along with bits of road where the cement curb turned back into the road for a foot or so in width. When I got out to the town square, there we're paving stones laid along the tire tracks in the road. They were fairly safe to run on. I ran at a 6:30 pace this morning. It was a far cry from the 5:45 - 5:50 that I was running at back at home, but, I guess it's OK for somewhat starting over again!

I got on the scale today and found that my weight was only up about 8 pounds from since I left home. After 5 weeks in the car eating . . . . whatever, I think that's OK. I'm starting to run 30 minutes for 30 days starting on Monday. I'm guessing that will get me going again and knock a few of those extra pounds off.

We went to a "Bull Fight" yesterday. Apparently, "Bull Fight" translates to from Spanish to English to mean "Rodeo". I've never been to a rodeo before. I guess you have to be into that for it to appear interesting!

Today we managed to get cell phones. It took about 6 hours, but, luckily for us, the store is right at the top of our street, less than 5 minutes away. I've put the phone number on the contact page.

Here's some pictures of our place and the grounds.

Another beautiful morning!

Ping Test 4

Sunday Sept 20 Weekly Update

I'm beginning to see what people mean when they say they retired, but they are busier than ever! What a week this has been. Great, but busy!

Tuesday is turning out to be "Aurora" day. Up to check on mail, put stuff into storage, look for other stuff already in storage that we need, pick up mail, visit with folks. This week we added in 'Tattoo Day' at Fatcats!

Bryan had gone ahead and got his tat a couple of weeks earlier, but Willem and I got ours together, under the watchful eye of most of our tri and training buddies before heading over to Jersey Joe's for a few drinks. I was shocked to see so many of the gang there. Simon had sent out a note to the gang I found out later. A bunch of the gang drove up from the city as well. What a great surprise and a fun night. (Tattoo Night pictures)

On Wednesday morning I drove to St Catharines to see Jordan and to drop off Puppy at her new home with Mike Chiliak.

Mike does all of the photography for Multi Sport Canada. Lynne and I met Mike when we were race announcing at Wasaga Beach on the 16th & 17th (last weekend)

Mike has two dogs just like puppy. Rocky and Moose. He sent us this picture a couple of days later.

Rocky, Moose and Pupy Puppy

I'm not sure that Puppy looks totally comfortable yet, but I know she will be. Mike and his wife Rose and the kids are going to give Puppy a GREAT home!

Wednesday afternoon Thursday and Friday I worked on the Broadway Kitchen and Bath web site. I hope to re-launch that early next week.

We met with Kevin and Joan on Thursday night and listened to their adventures driving to Costa Rica. It's looking like it's going to be very expensive to ship the car, so it's looking like we're going to drive all the way though!

Saturday I had great time race announcing at Lakeside II. I had a few friends racing in the morning. My pal Allen celebrated his 60th birthday by racing. He got his first podium finish coming in 3rd. We figure that if he didn't fall off the bike he would have 1. Maybe got a first and 2. might not of broken his arm. We're not sure about that arm yet. We'll know tomorrow.

In the afternoon I had a blast announcing the 'Kids of Steel" races in the afternoon. It was just way too much fun watching the 3 - 5 year olds racing. They start out in about 3' of water. They work their way in through about 15 meters of water, head out for a 200 meter bike and then back for a 50 meter run. i had the best time cheering these kids on yelling "You are a Tri athlete" as they crossed the line.

Saturday night, my sailing buddy Paul had a good-bye party for Lynne and I. There were sailing friends, Canac friends and Aurora friends there. We had a super time and finally left about 2:30 - 3:00 in the morning. We hadn't seen that side of 3:00am in years!

The final countdown is on.

Sept 14 Update

Monday Sept 14 Weekly Update

I can't believe how quickly time passes here as we prepare for our trip. We sold the house a few weeks ago and are living in an apartment at Yonge and St Clair. Lynne loves it here. Me, not sos much.

Lynne is meeting tons of folks for lunch or dinner and shopping around the neighborhood. I've got some web work to do so I seem to either be at this little desk working, or driving back up to York Region for one reason or another, cursing traffic all the way there and back!

I suffered a little culture shock when we first moved in here. I guess after 20+ years in our house in Aurora, I got pretty used to everyone around and pretty much said "Hi" to everyone waling down the street. People aren't like that here in 'rental hell'. I thought at first that they were unfriendly, but soon realize that they are just scared. No one looks you in the eye on the sidewalk, but the look to either side of you, or down at the ground. A friendly "Hello" or "Good Morning" scares the crap out of them.

It's been a lot of years since Lynne or I have lived in an apartment. We forgot about how nosy people are and overly protective of their simple rented positions.

This little apartment is on the ground floor of an old 3 story walkup brown stone building on a beautiful tree lined street. There is even a kitchen door that leads out past the back of another apartment in front of us, and into a beautiful garden. It's great to be able to come in and out without having to go through the hallways with loud doors crashing closed automatically behind us.

Word came from the landlord last week that the front neighbor was 'traumatized' by someone who lived here before us who used that door and, would we stop using it right away. We were also told that Puppy whines a bit when were both out, (which happens very rarely) and we need to get rid of the dog immediately.

After calming down a bit I took a lesson from my son and smiled, agreed and then went on and did whatever I wanted.

Another women in the building the other morning came out and told me to NOT put the plastic doggy poop bag in the garbage cans outside against the fence, but to keep them in our apartment until garbage day.

Yup - Loving downtown living? Not so much for me!

Lynne and I did have a fun time this weekend though being the race announcers at the HSBC races in Wasaga Beach though. We're off to do it again at Lakeside next Saturday. Sorry we missed everyone at the Musk 70.3 this weekend though. Almost everyone I trained with, and my kids, were there. They all did great and from what I'm hearing so far, the course didn't get any easier this year!