Shedding layers.

Yikes. It’s been almost three weeks since my last post.

I’ve been busy shedding layers. Now that it’s warm enough to forego arm/leg warmers, toe covers, basically everything in the above photo, cycling is all I want to do.

So, I will recap the last three weeks in digestible chunks.

Alex’s Departy:

June 23-

That pile of clothes in the picture? I brought all that for the day Yann and I headed up (and across the water) to Salt Spring Island. Not only that, but I also had to reinstall my rear rack to carry all these extra duds. Victorians refer to June as Junuary for a reason. While there are warm days here and there, it’s still mostly unpredictable.

I hadn’t ridden with Yann since Chris’ visit last year. Yann insisted on keeping it a chill ride and wanted a conservative time window to arrive at the Swartz Bay ferry terminal fifteen minutes before the ferry leaves for Salt Spring Island. We met at the Switch Bridge at 9am.

Yann opted to take his commuter and wear jeans for the ride. JEANS. Then he proceeded to go way faster than what I’d describe as a “chill pace”, thus bringing us to the ferry terminal at 10:10am. I’d worked up a bit of sweat and was happy to have packed a fleece jacket. The rest of my warm gear stayed in the pannier.

The purpose of our trip was to say goodbye to Alex before he moves back to Québec. One of the last times the three of us hung out together was to bid Alex farewell before he moved to Salt Spring Island. The original send-off involved mini golf and a solar-powered cow.

This time, though, because Alex’s Salt Spring landlord isn’t as eccentric as his old Victoria landlord, all he could offer was a little floating dock on St. Mary Lake to laze on. The last time I was at Alex’s place, he wasn’t even there–I’d come to look after this distinguished guy:

Mr. Woo made my last visit memorable by leaving me a dead vole the day after my arrival. He also made this visit unforgettable by making some weird noises that caught Yann and Alex’s attention. The next thing we knew, Mr. Woo was creeping towards Alex’s cowhide rug–as per Cat Law–as he spewed a mixture of his lunch and fur. Alex’s eyes widened in panic, and he sprang into action, pulling Mr. Woo back in time to spare the rug from even the tiniest fleck of cat puke.

Then, Alex asked us if we were hungry! As the three of us have long been desensitized by the sight of cat vomit, our appetite remained intact. Yann and I were happy to have the fuel for our ride back to Fulford Harbour. Before we left, I got the boys to pose for a photo.

Alex also had Yann and me pose for a photo, which he took using a disposable camera. Apparently, that’s still a thing!

When Yann and I moved to Victoria in 2019 and started working at the MEC bike shop, of all the mechanics, Alex was by far the most welcoming, even going as far as to learn the ASL manual alphabet and some signs to communicate with me. I felt his absence when he left the shop to move to Salt Spring Island.

Now, will I ever see Alex again? Never say never!

Adventure 3F:

June 28-

3F stands for Fun, Friends, and Food. Many call it the Three Ferry ride for a reason that is unsurprising. Alexa, a two-time 3F Rider, proposed the ride for the 21st, the day of the summer solstice. Yet, the weather forecast scared us into bumping the ride to the following Saturday.

I had an extra week to download the route, check the ferry times, and pack accordingly. I’m pleased to write that I didn’t overdo it with the additional layers. As for the two other tasks? I put absolutely no thought into them. When Alexa told me she and Daniel would pick me up at 7am, I was ready to roll out.

Our boat didn’t leave until 11am! What were we going to do for two hours? Snack on JJ’s famous donuts (you’ve heard of JJ’s donuts, right?) in front of Jojo’s nipple hat.

The hat was the most appealing item in the pop-up emporium, which consisted of macramé and airbrushed Shiva beach cover-ups, and it wasn’t even for sale!

I brought a pannier again, but with half the amount of warm clothing I’d brought along on the previous Salt Spring trip. Had the nipple hat been for sale, I’d have had the room to mash it into my pannier.

We made a coffee and lunch stop in Ganges village, then another at Country Grocer for a caffeinated non-coffee beverage for myself, and so that I could get one last look at Alex, who happened to be grocery shopping!

Alexa, Daniel and I also reached the Vesuvius Bay ferry terminal way before the next scheduled sailing. Alexa apologized, as if she were somehow solely responsible for checking the ferry timetable. For the next hour or so, we begrudgingly tolerated the pleasant weather and lovely view.

The second ferry transported us back to the main island, to the small town of Crofton, where we spotted this strangely hostile sign on the docks.

From there, we rode south to Mill Bay to complete our ferry trifecta. As we were already back on the Big Island, the purpose of this boat was to cut through the Saanich Inlet.

For this third boat, we arrived at the terminal close to the sailing time, except that the ferry was delayed by 25 minutes. After 25 agonizing minutes waiting under blue skies, we hobbled onto the boat with jelly legs.

Initially, the 3F ride was my only commitment that day, except that Yann had recruited me as a cat sitter at the last minute when the original cat sitter bailed. I didn’t get to upload my ride until around 10pm. The ride itself took just over 5 hours. With all the downtime and the pause before my upload in which Enforié and I watched YouTube together, this was a 14-hour outing.

2 cats 1 girl:

June 27-July 2:

I had a brief reunion with the cats when Yann and I returned to town from our day on Salt Spring Island. Up until that point, it had been almost two years since I last saw either of them. I was expecting Bubble to flee as soon as Yann opened the door to his place. Although Bubble started trotting towards his hiding corner, he paused, looked at me, and flopped on the floor to do some happy squirming: his way of saying hello. Enfoiré was thrilled to see me; his tail was vibrating.

Of course, when Yann asked me a few days later to look after the hairy kids, I had to say yes. I secured two panniers onto my rear rack to transport snacks and activities for my feline care gig. I’d forgotten how captivated Enfoiré was by my crafting endeavours.

He contributed by getting fur all over the aida fabric I worked with. I did not mind being slowed down by his loving gazing, nor his adorable batting at the thread.

Canada Day:

July 1:

My favourite thing about Canada Day is getting paid to not work. I questioned whether I wanted to incorporate my colleagues on my paid day off. The outing was advertised as a casual ride around town with several stops along the way. I was promised snacks throughout the ride and pizza at the end.

I wasn’t counting on seeing half of my coworkers with their shirts off. I kept all my clothes on and even brought along a windbreaker in case I got chilly in the 30-degree weather. As soon as I put on my windbreaker as a joke, it clung to my sweaty skin. Junuary was so last month.

The ride itself was unremarkable: I didn’t bother recording/uploading it to Strava. However, once we were back at the shop, I was happy to help myself to a few slices of hot pizza. A big bottle of vodka got passed around–I abstained. Then, Burger sat next to me and offered me a joint. I immediately caved in to the mildest of peer pressure. I nearly greened out on this magnificent day of red and white, and tan bodies (except for mine, which is technicolour over sheet-white skin). Someone joked about getting a kiddie pool for our tailgate party.

Jeff made this a reality within 15 minutes. For the rest of the evening, colleagues in various states of inebriation took turns making human broth in that kiddie pool. I didn’t lend that smooth Laura flavour to the broth and instead headed home an hour later to stand in my backyard for half an hour snacking on the raspberry bushes.

Lining Up at the Bank is so Last Century:

July 3:

I’ve had a Registered Disability Savings Plan for over ten years. I hadn’t made a contribution apart from when I first opened the account, as I never found myself with a surplus of money that I could put away for my future. (Also, what future?) I entertained the thought of making a contribution for the first time at the end of 2024. Still, I didn’t see a way to transfer the money from one account into my RDSP, thus losing out on about 10k of “free money” from the government.

The question I asked the teller was: “I would like to make a contribution to my RDSP: is this possible to do online?”

After an hour, I was still standing before the counter, staring at what was now a cold, empty chair. The teller to whom I’d made my inquiry was elsewhere. Another teller approached me and asked me to take a seat on one of the armchairs in front of the lineup, which didn’t exist until I entered the building. The first few people in the lineup glared at me as I took my place in one of the armchairs. If only they knew that I’d asked just the one question.

15 minutes into starting off into empty space, re-experiencing the boredom I had to endure as a kid whenever Mom dragged me along to the bank, the teller summoned me back to the counter where he had a stack of forms for me to read and sign.

An hour and thirty minutes later, plus nine days, and I still have not made a new contribution to my RDSP because, no, it is not something that can be done online. The ‘D’ in RDSP stands for Disability. You’d think the process would be more accessible. Haha!

So, I need to return on Friday for an hour-long meeting to contribute to the future I probably don’t even have.

Observing How I Do Not Possess the Fitness of a 20-year-old Dude.

July 6:

Cole and I had been talking about challenging each other on one of Victoria’s bigger climbs, Neild Road. While Cole is definitely faster than I, especially on the short climbs, I wondered whether I had a chance of beating him on the longer ones, especially hills he’s never done before.

But because I’d proposed doing the Observatory Road climb to Daniel the day before, I invited Cole to challenge me up the shorter, less extreme route up to the Centre of the Universe. On the day of the ride, the number of challengers grew to five before dropping to four when Daniel got held back at work. Burger wasn’t scheduled to work that day, but when he dropped by, he was thrilled to do an impromptu climb even though he was wearing sandals. Burger’s fortitude aided Rory in overcoming his ambivalence, and he, too, came along despite not being equipped with the best bike or gear for a climbing challenge. Ritchie was an easier recruit, as he could grab his road bike from across the street, where he lives, in time for the ride.

We maintained a leisurely pace until we reached the start of the observatory climb. I kept up with Cole on the climb for about 20 seconds before he dropped me. For those first few seconds, I thought I could draft behind him until I looked down at my power numbers. 350 watts?! At that point, I eased off and watched in pain as Cole cruised ahead and around the first bend. As I rounded this bend, he was back in my view but didn’t seem to be running out of gas.

It wasn’t even close. Cole crushed me on that climb, beating me by 21 seconds. One second for every year I am older than he!

Despite losing by a fantastic margin, my time (6 minutes and 25 seconds) was good enough to sneak into the 10th spot on the women’s leaderboard on Strava. Not bad for someone born in the last century.

… and that concludes my recap of the last three weeks. Today is another sunny day that demands detaching my butt from the couch.