Two weeks

In exactly two weeks I'll be sitting on the plane going back to Finland. Well technically speaking I hope I'll be sitting in the plane, but I guess I gotta stick to the old English convention of using prepositions as illogically as possible. Anyway, I can't belive I only have less than 14 days left.

I've been really active as of late, and therefore my nerd credibility is on the decline, something which Jon never forgets to remind me of. First I was in Hudson with Murray, Heather and Bradley, getting bombarded with all kinds of outdoors activity for two days. Then I tried to regain some of my nerd credibility by spending the Saturday playing boardgames with Dan, Andrew and Jon, but unfortunately my efforts were in vain as the next day I was out again with Murray, Heather, Bradley, Don and Pat, biking along the Lachine canal to the old port and doing all kinds of non-geeky stuff that people who aren't nerds tend to do. Like eating ice cream.

And today I went biking with Don and Pat again. Oh boy, I need to do some heavy geekage back in Finland to reclaim my former glory. Note to self: start by using expressions like oh boy. Anyway, we picked up some bagels from a place in Marche de l'ouest or something similar(ish), drove up to Parc Cap-Saint-Jacques or whatever in Pierrefond or something or another. Please, never make me spell French stuff, please I beg you.

There we ate some bagels with way too much cream cheese, just like you are supposed to, gulped down some ice tea and I even had my very first granola bar! Or so I thought anyway. I was really excited, yay, another one of these famous things I had only heard about but never tried myself, and then it basically turns out to be a muesli bar! Why use such a fancy name for a muesli bar you weird North-Americans you. My initial dissapointment of it being a glorified muesli bar quickly faded away as I tasted it though, mainly because it tasted like someone had crashed a sugar truck into it.

Then we biked around the park for a couple of hours. We happened upon an organic farm in the park, stopping there for a good half an hour or so. It was a neat little place with all kinds of scary animals, cows, goats, chickens, bees, horses, spiders, geese, ostriches and this:



I mean isn't that just adorable? The cat was just chillin' in (or on?!) the wheelbarrow.

Eventually we found a beach where I proceeded to swim and Don and Pat proceeded to freeze their asses off, Don in particular. I had to try and coax him into dipping himself in the water for like 30 minutes. Honestly, I don't get it! The water was almost as warm as the place I'll be going to for writing all the blasphemous stuff I have. I could have spent years in the water, that's how warm it was. Added bonus: now when they ask us about the Mighty Ottawa River in the Friday night quiz we always go to, I can say 'oh yeah, that's right, that's the river I've swum in' and feel superior.

Anyway, bike back to car, drive back to Don and Pat's place, drive to Costco, look like :O when entering Costco, spend way too much money at Costco, laugh at the absurdity of Costco, spend more money at Costco, exit Costco, drive back to Marche de l'ouest or OK close enough, go to Dunn's for some smoked meat goodness, bike back home along the hydro servitude before the storm gets here and the rai---oh crap too late, here comes the rain, oh the lightning too, oh &%!£ I think that lightning just struck right th---oh %$"! again, and again, oh crap, faster, ride faster &%/€@$!", yikes, not again, wow that was close, holy cow I'm soaked and wet and CRACK uh that was wayyy too close CRACKLEIdon'twannadiepleaseletmejustBOOOOOMgethomesafelypleasepleasepleaseBOOMBOOMohgod, ohgod, ohgod, I don't care how unlikely it is to be struck by lightning CRACKLE wowneverseenquadruplelightningbeforeBOOMohOKI'drathernotseeitagainplease, CRACKLE, almost home, almost home, BOOOM CRACKLE CRACKLE my shoes are like swimming pools BOOOOM soooo close, soooooooooo close CRACKLE, there it is, whew I can't believe I made it!

So I'm standing there in front of the garage door, panting, soaking wet, almost having peed my pants in sheer terror when Chick, with a smug glee on his face, comes out the front door and starts to snap pictures of me with his camera, laughing at my miserable existence like the good friend that he is. Thanks, Chick, appreciated!

Eventually he goes to get me a towel (grudgingly of course!) and after drying myself and pouring the water out of my wallet, camera and sunscreen can, among other things, I grab a can of Dr Pepper and we talk about all kinds of stuff until midnight. Well, 'we' meaning mostly just 'Chick'. I know Jon finds this just utterly perplexing, but for some reason I really enjoy these little 5-hour chats.