My Battle of the Bicycle

You know the story. You want beer. To buy beer you need money, and unless you're willing to beg, borrow, or steal to get money, it means that you need to work a job. You need to get to that job via some sort of commute. In the spring, summer, and fall months, I try to use my bike as much as possible to get to work. Now, for those of you not familiar with Winnipeg, the street system was designed by someone who must have drank a lot of beer at work. It continues to be maintained and designed by people who may indeed also drink a lot of beer at work. The city used to have a branch called, Traffic Control, I remember, I saw the signs. Trying to control traffic is like herding cats. They must have realized this and dropped the name but haven't dropped the philosophy and engineering designs behind this philosophy. Traffic needs to flow, like beer down the throat, not be controlled. Keeping this in mind, there are other factors at work with Winnipeg traffic. You have a short construction season that tries to counteract the damage done to the streets in our harsh climate. I used to work construction for the City of Winnipeg on the main panel gang. We finished jobs in advance of deadlines and under budget and we drank a lot of beer, although none at work, this isn't Germany people! Ah Deutschland...but I digress. Nowadays, I see some pretty sad work going on and jobs that I know shouldn't take that long are taking forever to do. Then there's the Winnipeg driver. Oi. You can accelerate through a turn people since the g forces generated are not enough to throw you out of the intended path of the vehicle. They really should also pay attention to driving since they really aren't capable enough to be smoking, drinking coffee, putting on makeup, talking on the phone, and driving all at the same time. If you can't tap your head with one hand while you're rubbing circles on your tummie with the other, you really should just concentrate on driving.

So, you can gather where I'm going with this in that me on my bicycle has a lot on his plate to get to work to earn the money so that I can drink the beer. But I really want to drink the beer so I really have to get to work and that means riding my bicycle to get there. With this image of a frosty beverage at the end of my ride I head out putting my life on the line. I go out there with the attitude that everyone is out to kill me with their car. Cougar behind the wheel of the sports car? She wants to mount my head next to the nut sacks of husbands 1 and 2. Guy driving the Hummer? He's already taken out two squirrels, a rabbit and now he's looking for some human quarry. Teenager behind the wheel of a car they have never put a dime into not even gas? Dude, check out the guy on the bike, he's like a magnet for my bumper, wicked!

Now, you're right, there are a ton of terrible cyclists out there. Saw one knob the other day with no helmet, listening to his IPod and texting using no hands to steer. I'm like you. I'm thinking knob on a bicycle, that's 50 points. I don't blame you. But I wear a helmet, use a light, have a bell, pay attention, and am very considerate of the vehicular traffic by using the sidewalk when common sense tells me to do so. Common sense keeps me alive and gets me the money, which in turn buys me the beer. But let me tell you, it's a battle to get the beer by using the bicycle since I almost got hit twice yesterday. The battle rages on.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 13th Wedding Anniversary and we've come a long way babe. I remember when I first suggested that we move in together and "live in sin" and you said no. Not a half hour later you were on the phone saying that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all. From the Larsen Huus to Barrington Manor, we've had a good time, well I have anyways and that's all that matters because this is my blog damn it. We've got two great kids, a cat named Boots and a dog named Shasta and a Papa that lives in the basement and I don't think I'd have it any other way. I'm forever thankful that we met and that you were willing to share your life with me even after I proposed to you in a card (thought it was a good idea, but really it needed work). Your patience, kindness, and thoughtfulness is so very much appreciated my dear, I love you lots.

And the way you show your love to me kicks ass! Check out my first real topnotch soccer ball that my lovely wife gave me for an anniversary gift! This was on top of the Montreal Canadiens swim trunks she bought me a week ago (I'll spare you a picture of me in them).

That's right for all you keeping score at home, that is the official (and I do mean official) game ball of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa baby! Apparently, my daughter thinks that I won't use the ball because she knows how I lock good things away just to look at them instead of play with them. "What's the point of a comic collection Daddy if you don't read them?". I can't wait to put a couple past my boy with my new ball and to play soccer with the family with it. At least I think I'll play with it, I did catch myself looking at display cases online.

Going kid-less for a week

Today marked the third year in a row where my Dad and sister have taken our kids for a week-long trip to cottage country. For the last two years they've gone to Jessica Lake Lodge but this year they went to Rushing River. I got the safe arrival call a couple of hours ago and it sounds like the kids have settled in and are already enjoying themselves having declared this new place better than the old place. The kids were looking forward to the trip for a long time and Tobey and I will have some time for just the two of us so be listening for sirens in St. Vital. We'll miss them and I'm sure that they'll miss us, well, their mother anyways. One added bonus this year is that they'll be spending time with children's entertainer Al Simmons whose wife is a friend of my sister. I went tobogganing with Al this past winter and had a lot of fun. I don't know if I was maybe more excited about the prospect of spending time with Al than the kids were.


It also happens to be our wedding anniversary on Monday and we need to make final preparations for our family road trip coming up. This will be like a little holiday before the big holiday in a way but it's always very strange when they're gone. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder and I've realized over the last three years that this is indeed true. 

First post to the Q! Spot

I always figured that my life is too mundane to be posting a blog about it and nothing has changed. This observation is not stopping me from starting a blog though. As my wife has frequently told me, "You're not happy unless your bothering somebody", I realized that by doing a blog, I could bother a lot more people than just through one on one contact on the street or in the line at Tim Hortons or Superstore.

We were out celebrating my wife's uncle's 50th Birthday the other night and lo and behold the bar served up bottles of that perennial domestic favorite of mine, Standard Lager. This is a Winnipeg beer for sure and what has always bothered me about Budweiser beer, that is aside from the fact that it's a lawnmower beer (for my tastes), is that it's label is very similar to Standard's:

I'll need to do some research to find out who brewed first. You'd think that I would have done that. I guess I was just too busy drinking the beer.

Another great beer development in Winnipeg is the fact that the MLCC has finally decided to bring in Bitburger Pils. Over the past decade they've brought in many poor Pilsners from the Czech Republic or Poland, with all due respect to the Czechs and the Poles, that I've tried that just don't cut it with my taste buds. I've had to go out east to Kenora, Ontario or south to Grand Forks or Fargo, North Dakota to satisfy my "Bitte ein Bit" lifestyle. In case you're not familiar with this tall boy:

  

I'm looking forward to our upcoming trip to Minneapolis and the Wisconsin Dells for many reasons. The getting away from the job and the city, the quality time spent with my wife and kids (don't laugh Tobey), the sights, the sounds and of course the beer. I've researched quite a bit and I've sent out feelers to the two beer stores that I'll be visiting. I need to make the best use of my time so that I'm not taking away from quality family time and so that I bring away some quality beer. I'll keep you posted.