Happy Canada Day!

I’m drinking coffee, knitting a little (very little) on a sock, and watching a storm roll in. The sky is grey, the wind is blowing, and there’s a warning that severe storms are approaching the GTA.  (That’s the Greater Toronto Area.) It’s also incredibly hot. It’s only 8am and it’s already 32 degrees outside with the humidex, and it’s only going to get hotter.  All of this would just be interesting if I wasn’t sitting here knitting a sock and drinking coffee with my riding shoes on, because I’m about to leave on the second 100km ride of my back-to-backs.

Back-to-backs are a training requirement of the rally. Sometime before this Sunday, everyone has to do two 100m rides, on two consecutive days.  This seems reasonable to me, considering that the rally itself is six 100km consecutive rides, and proving you can do two seems totally legitimate – or it least it did until Jen and I realized that due to responsibilities related to being grownups, yesterday and today are the only days that we can do them – and do them we must, regardless of the weather.  (It is taking every shred of maturity I have not to fake appendicitis right now.)  We got it done yesterday, despite a flat, and the fact that it was so hot out that it was like riding through Satan’s armpit for five hours.  If I cop out today then yesterday was for nothing, and by wool, yesterday cannot be for nothing.  It was just too hard not to count.

So, Canada Day on the road it is, and you’ll have to wait for a missive about my lovely country this year, although if you like, you can go back and read what I’ve said in the past.  I swear they’re fun.  2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012. 2013.

Wish me luck.

83 thoughts on “Happy Canada Day!

  1. Happy Canada Day, Steph and everyone. I’m just west of the GTA and it’s raining but it doesn’t look like it will turn into much on the radar. Stay hydrated!

  2. Happy Canada Day! Thank you for being such a caring person and taking time out of your life to help others. It’s one of the reasons that I love reading your blog. Well, that and the fact that you admit that you visit the Frog Pond. Hope that your ride goes well and that you have a cold drink waiting at the end!

  3. You (& Jen)-& the others-but especially you & Jen because of your multiple responsibilities are amazing. Ignore the naysayers about your social commentaries the more we say-the more people have to listen.

  4. Good luck and happy Canada Day! I hope you get a (well-deserved) (Canadian) beer to celebrate at the end of the ride.

  5. Pingback: Happy Canada Day! | Yarn Buyer

  6. I have often thought of how ironic it is that I am sitting with a hot cup of tea and knitting a wool sock in the middle of the summer. I guess that just proves how fun knitting is, and drinking tea (or coffee). Good luck on the ride.

  7. Happy Canada Day Stephanie, sometimes it sucks being a responsible adult, may there be cold beers at the end of the ride

  8. Happy Canada Day! I hear that she’s 147 years old. Just a spring chicken.

    Good luck on your ride. I hope the weather holds out. We (in Northern Illinois) had some freaky weather last night: wind, rain, amazing lightning and rumbling thunder. But today it’s lovely.

  9. A moment of bare honesty here….we are the same age, and I can only wish that I was as responsible/committed as you are. I admire your strength of character, and you’ve given me something to look up to.

  10. Happy Canada Day! I sympathize with your weather – we have the opposite in temperatures but we’ve been getting the rain all ‘summer’. Currently 12’/53′ with a WIND CHILL of 9’/48′. Going down to 45′ tonight (sorry, too lazy to convert). As long as the garden vegetables and flowers can take it, so can I! I’ll make it a point to get a Canadian beer tonight on my home to knit. Have a great day, Canada!

  11. Happy Canada Day! And Good Luck on your ride.

    Although Canada doesn’t have an official bird, the dollar coin is nicknamed the “loonie” and for the portrait of a loon on it. Perhaps the loon could be your inspiration. I read that although loons have some difficulty getting started, once airborne, they have incredible stamina. So, get started, and fly like a loon.

  12. Happy Canada day:) In reading.g your post last year about your healthcare system, I felt like crying. We in the U.S. really need to take a lesson from you. It occurs to me that you have a healthier populace with fewer catastrophic illnesses when they can take care of the lesser illnesses BEFORE they become a catastrophe (and btw end up costing everyone a lot more anyway as healthcare costs rise to cover the costs for those who couldn’t pay). $high….

  13. Just checked the humidex for TO on the Environment Cda site and it said 37C, but at least you’re not under a severe storm watch like we are Kingston. So, maybe your ride is going to be OK after all. How apt that the directions are for me click on the umbrella!

  14. Happy Canada Day Steph! And good luck on your back-to-back ride today. I love training for something meaningful. It will feel so good when it’s done! Think how much you will be able to eat later cuz of the calories you burned off. That’s the best part of training. 🙂

  15. May the wind be at your back (and help with the heat). It is crazy stupid hot and humid out there!! Happy Canada Day!

  16. Happy Canada Day! Hope your ride happens before bad weather – and that weather doesn’t spoil your celebrations. You live in a lovely country!

  17. I’m a long time Canadian expat in London and every year I look forward to your Canada Day posts! I was (mildly) disappointed there wasn’t one (although totally understanding!) but was cheered up by reading the previous years. No matter how long I’m gone – Canada remains my home.

    Happy Canada Day!!!!

    • Oh P – you say what I wish I had thought of!! LOL. Happy Canada Day, Steph from San Francisco, where we just had a HUGE Pride Parade and celebration. I’ll miss this when I move to Salt Lake City…..don’t ask…sigh

  18. Best of luck! We rode through a big soaking rain once. We simply denied that the black cloud would rain, and it didn’t until the middle of our ride. The first bit is awful. After that you’re wet, and you really can’t get wetter. Our shoes sloshed. Rain ran down our backs and into our shorts, soaking the short padding which squelched. And now it is a Badge of Cycling, and we get to tell the story to anyone who will listen or is trapped and can’t get away. You’ll do great! Have fun!

  19. Happy Canada Day! I have seen far less of your great country than I’d like to (being such close neighbors and all), but what I have seen has been amazing (Lake Superior Circle Tour and several camping trips along the northern edge of that lake), and the people I have met are simply wonderful. (And you have fireworks on my birthday, which is just a bonus. 😉

    Ride well!

    • How lovely! And you share a birthday with my oldest son who was born on Canada’s 125th Birthday. I stood in the window at the hospital the evening after he was born and watched the magnificent fireworks at The Forks in Winnipeg. I was so happy and grateful for my son, and so thrilled to be Canadian. It was a special, special moment. So happy birthday – come to Canada for July 1st and you can always have fireworks on your birthday too!

  20. Happy Canada Day, I thank God every day that you folks live next door to us. The world is a tough place these days. It’s good to have good neighbors.

  21. Happy Canada Day! Found an awesome comic about Canada on Tumblr today, which I tried to send you – not sure it went. But good luck on the ride (hope you’re done or nearly so by now!) and hope it either rained to break the humidity, or didn’t so you didn’t get wet, whichever is better.

    My son is of the opinion that they should hold the bike rally in the wintertime. More “Canadian” that way, and he thinks you’d get more pledges. I thought about riding bikes and camping in Canadian winter, even in southern Ontario, and just had to shake my head.

    • For winter, there is the Iditarod race, albeit far away from Toronto. We may be hardy, but we’re not stupid. 🙂

  22. Happy Canada Day!

    Satan’s armpit??? I love that phrase. So appropriate for the recent weather. I am in Pennsylvania, and it’s 82ºF/29ºC here in the early afternoon.

    At the end of this ride, you certainly deserve a brew . . . or two. Good luck!

  23. Happy Canada Day and I hope that today’s ride goes well. I thoroughly enjoyed reading through the years of Canada Day posts! All excellent reminders of why I’m proud to be a Canadian! Thanks so much for listing all of the things that we often take for granted.

  24. Wow, you are a rockstar! I can’t get enough focus or determination to get a 100 km bike ride! I am training for a much smaller one than you are. (Only 144.84 km/90 miles total, it’s for a youth group fundraiser) Great job, and good luck! Hope the weather decides to take a detour!

    Sock knitters for the win… I’m knitting on one as well, while catching up on your blog. (:

    Oh, and BE SAFE.

  25. The classical radio station I listen to has been playing Canadian music, off and on, all day in Canada’s honor. And I had been thinking that you were enjoying a holiday. Now, not so much…

    Be safe…no ride is worth getting pelted by hail or struck by lightening (says she who is used to race thunderstorms home from the beach…5 miles from the house! It was fun until I got caught in one.).

  26. Today, my husband is at work at the Rideau Canal, one of Canada’s newest World Heritage Sites. The fact that we have such a glorious and diverse parks system is what makes me proud to be Canadian. I will have the air conditioning cranked up for when he gets home. Wishing you all a great Canada Day!

  27. Happy Canada Day! I love your posts about my country’s fabulous neighbor to the north- I always get excited around June waiting for what I will learn about this year. Enjoy your ride, and stay safe in the nasty weather!

  28. Happy Canada Day! I always appreciate how you can show your love for your country with grace and articulation without bashing anyone else. Thank you for sharing the joy with us outsiders.

  29. Pingback: Canada Day | Curation Club

      • What’s the melting point of the average Canadian? This Englander is wilting in an office that’s probably only 25C (22 degrees outside where I am).

  30. Happy Canada Day! My Dad’s family came through Nova Scotia & lived in PEI before they came to the States. A beautiful area! Now I’m in Bellingham WA, & we are very lucky to have Canadians as neighbors.
    Hope you have a safe ride, & celebrate with a Canadian beer afterwards.

  31. Happy Canada Day from Orinda, CA, U.S. I honor your commitment and perseverance under the less than ideal circumstances. I think we all look forward to hearing about it!

  32. Happy Canada Day!! (And happy knitting, happy riding, and most certainly happy coffee.)
    ((You may or may not think it’s amusing that near-daily since your decaf post, either my husband or I say, “That’s the reason for the divorce.”)

  33. Happy Canada Day – the more I hear about it, the more I want to visit. Not getting political, though the temptation is great this week, but I do envy your security in/appreciation of your health care system.
    I read the Jalna books many years ago and loved them; need to read them again from a more adult viewpoint.
    Can’t wait to hear an update on the ride, the weather, the beverage(s)…

  34. Happy Canada Day to you and yours!!
    Long may she be!
    I’m from Michigan and love everything Canadian.
    Hope you & the team do well on your 600km ride. I’m pulling for you all.

  35. When you wrote this, you were on the way to getting the hellacious storms we had here in Chicagoland Monday night — complete with three touchdowns of minor tornadoes and several flooded streets and expressway underpasses. Hope the GTA fares/has fared better.

    Hope Joe had a nice, cold glass of wine, beer or screech waiting when you got back from your ride. Happy What’s-Left-of-Canada-Day!

  36. Happy Canada Day! 🙂 You guys just had to get your holiday in before ours???? lol
    Hope the ride went well, by now you should be home and showered?

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