My iPhone and Apple Watch are set to go off each morning at eight o’clock. The alarm is a pleasing sound, quite different from the normal awakening noise, more a buoyant seaside musical piece. I like almost anything to do with the sea. Anyway…the alarm did not get to do its song this morning. I instructed Siri to “cancel sleep alarm”. Which it dutifully did. The reason? I was awake and out of bed around 6:30 am. I drew back the drapes sufficiently to enable me to check the condition of the pavement on the driveway surrounding the apartment building. It was slightly damp but there was no snow. I returned to bed but didn’t last more than a moment before regaining my zeal for an early morning bicycle ride. The forecast was for snow late in the morning. One mustn’t miss the opportunity to cycle in the winter when occasion permits as it did today. Besides not having cycled yesterday I was in need of penance and rehabilitation.
Currently our average time to cycle 5 km is no more than 35 minutes. This morning our Total Time was 0:44:24 for a Distance of 5.53 km at an Avg. Speed 7.4 km/h. We were slightly delayed this morning by having stopped along the way to chat with a friend and former client who was performing his own constitutional, complete with stick. I have yet to succumb to the use of a stick when perambulating (I wouldn’t use the word “walk” to denote the bent structure of my endeavour). I have no less than six sticks, one of which was “inherited” from the late L. C. Audette, QC OC. The new ones (including one with a pseudo-silver dog’s head handle from Sherbrooke St W in Montréal, the other made of solid oak capped at the top with a brass knob and laced at the bottom with a brass ring from Robert Probert in Carleton Place) all require adjustment for the correct length. Not being a carpenter I haven’t yet commissioned a professional to trim the bottoms. One day.
When we returned from our cycle I resolved to travel immediately to Stittsville, there to perform the customary fuelling and car wash before heading to Renfrew County to complete the circle of my daily drive. On the way I listened not to CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS, BBC or NPR, rather to CBC Ottawa. There was a gripping interview with Karly Church. I was so impressed by her delivery that upon returning home I located a contact for her on LinkedIn and sent her a commendation.
Karly Church is a human trafficking survivor who works in collaboration with the Durham Regional Police Service Human Trafficking Unit, going with them on operations to help council and support people trapped in the sex trade.
There was also an interview with a lexicographer who curiously devotes her work to identification of fake words. She explained that the custom has developed among those who compile dictionaries to include fabricated words. The original intention for doing so arose as a copyright device to locate others who might surreptitiously import the work for their own gain. If the new dictionary included the illegitimate words, they were effectively caught in the act! The custom was also used by another lexicographer who recognized that his lifetime celebrity depended upon such fabrication rather than his authorship being searched when people looked up a word in a dictionary.
Driving before ten o’clock in the morning during the week is not a healthy thing. Almost everyone is in a hurry to get somewhere. And there are more transport trucks than I care to mention. It all makes for a frantic expedition compared to what I am accustomed mid-afternoon. Nonetheless I fulfilled my ambition. My records indicate I collected this car February 9th which means I’ve had it almost exactly 2 weeks during which I have recorded 2,111 km or about 1,000 km/wk which is consistent with my average of just over 4,000 km/mo, exactly where I was with the last one.
The reward for my matutinal exercise and associated endeavours was the breakfast nonpareil; viz., sliced Granny Smith apple, ripened cheese on a crisp baguette bagel and strong, black coffee.