It’s crazy how time seems to simultaneously fly by without a moments notice and pass by more slowly than frozen molasses.  I’ve been spending the summer working through it day by day, not really planning too far in advance.  And I haven’t been doing this to keep me guessing as to what’s happening next.  Its mostly because I haven’t had a lot to plan, things have been very routine.  What I’ve found about living a routine lifestyle is that the next irregular happening, event or date can’t come soon enough.  Anything outside of the norm is a bonus, something to look forward to and get excited about.  But by the time whatever-it-was has come and gone it seems like it’s a mile behind you and a world apart.  What used to be excitement and anticipation becomes a constant reminder of how lame living a routine is.  So don’t live in a routine, its so boring.  If you don’t have a choice but to live in a tight schedule make sure you make time to do something different – for the sake of your sanity.

Needless to say I’m starting to get that feeling when you know something is about to end.  Whether it be a year of school, a trip, a vacation, … summer, eventually everyone gets it.  You start to look back and just ask yourself ‘how the heck is it already over?’ – yeah, how the heck have I already gotten through six weeks of camp?  Especially when in the present I’ve been slogging through it day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, if you will, just to finish each week. … I suppose that makes it sound kind of bad.  But it really hasn’t, I just need to let off a bit of steam.  If anything it’s been an enormous learning opportunity and I’ve become much more patient and good at offering dry encouragement and even giving the occasional life talk.  I’m not sure how much of my life talks sunk in with the 8 year olds, I sure convinced myself though!

Anyways, the last few weeks of summer camp have pushed my sanity to the limits.  Well that’s what Ray and Ben are saying at least.  I think the sandcastle making incident might have set their judgment.  It was quite impressive though, if I do say so myself.  In just under an hour and a third I managed to construct over 200 sandcastles with a mere bucket!

what exquisite structures

Other than that it was a rather uneventful week of camp.  Well, we did partake in one of the best (IMO) afternoon activities so far this summer; raspberry eating.  Yep, we took all the kids out to a section of trail where the berry bushes grow thick and luscious not far from the path and let them loose.  Best spent afternoon session so far, for sure. … Did I mention that the week before the last I finally got dragged into riding Radical?  Did I mention that it was by and 8 year old?  haha kids are crazy. It wasn’t thaaat bad though, we both survived.

I don’t know if I mentioned this already, but I had plans to get a commuter style road bike for school this fall (because I won’t be bussing in on the regular schedule very often, or driving because cars are for people with real jobs).  When I mentioned this to my parents I was hoping that they would give me some leads on people to talk to about getting a used one or somewhere to buy a decent one.
For those of you who want to know, if you ever ask my dad for advice or a small bit of help on something, you’ll never get it.  What you do get is an all out do-it-all-for-you and take-it-to-the-next-level action.  So I went into this wanting to know what he knew about places to buy a used bike, and what I got out of it was three weeks of painstaking bike part searching, modifying, prepping, painting and assembling.  Not exactly what I had planned.  But it all worked out quite well and I think the suffering was worth it.

sickest ride

So I didn’t get it as early as I’d hoped, it required a lot more work than I expected, had far fewer gears than I thought it would, but it was a heck of a lot cheaper, a way better colour and way more hipster-esque than I ever imagined (the hipster single-speed bike will be complete when I get panniers, a basket and a messenger bag – I’m working on it).  All in all, I’m pretty pumped to have this bike ready.  Riding a single speed isn’t as much of a bother as I thought it might be, it’s actually a lot of fun.  Thanks Dad for your over the top efforts at everything!

And that pretty much brings things up to today.  Training is good.  Did some great striding intervals on Sunday, went for a nice ride with my parents Saturday and have some good stuff lined up for this coming week.  When I say ‘this coming week’ , what I really mean is tomorrow.  I’ll figure out what’s going on as it comes.  I do have a few long range plans, and believe me, they can’t come soon enough.

All right.
Blog, check.
Vitals, check.
Sanity, … check.
Everything else is optional. Well, almost everything.

Jackson Out.