Busy Saturday

Patti and I met this morning to exercise for the first time in about a month.   She was away on vacation the past two Saturdays and the one before that had an appointment.  Prior to that we rode our bikes on the trail, as my knee was too swollen from falling off my bike to run, but riding didn’t cause me too much pain.  I finally got back to running today after a six week break.  My physiotherapist suggested a few reps of 30 seconds running, followed by 30 seconds walking, but I hate starting slowly and building at the recommended 10-15% per week.  So, we decided on one minute running, one walking.  After 15 reps my knee had not started hurting or swelling, but I decided not to push my luck any further and we walked the rest of the way back to Second Cup for refreshment.

I had to leave by 10:15 to get home and pick up Trystan, Owen and Michael.  Trystan and Owen had skating lessons at 11 at Jim Archdekin.  This was the second week.  Last week I was very rushed because I mistakenly went to Terry Miller.  This week, although I knew I wouldn’t make the same mistake, I left myself more time.

Last winter, I volunteered to build and maintain a community ice rink in the park next to my house.  I had a blast and was out every day for a month for hours working on it and skating on it.  My neighbours helped out and it made for very social winter evenings until I fell on the rink and broke my wrist.  Even then, I took about three weeks off, and then started going out again in the evening to help with the scraping.  Phil, one of my neighbours who helped with the rink, was a former skating instructor for the city.  He gave Trystan and Owen some lessons, however, I thought it would be good to give them a session this fall to get their skills honed before we built the rink this winter.

If you are reading this and live in my neighbourhood start thinking about helping out when the weather gets cold.  It was great fun and the kids had a blast having a local outdoor rink.

After the skating lessons we headed to the Farmers’ Market for a quick bite to eat and to pick up a few things.  Trystan and I had souvlaki.  Owen had a frozen chai and pumpkin spice cookie from T by Daniel.  Daniel was giving out samples and is quite the character.  I highly recommend a visit to his shop.  Michael had something from the Pie Guyz.  We bought some pears, pork scratchings and perogies for dinner.

Then we rushed back north to Loafer’s Lake recreation centre so Trystan, and my nephew Jason, could take a swimming lesson.  It turned out it was too easy for them, so we withdrew them from the session.

For dinner I made a simple tomato sauce, with tomatoes and basil that Michael had grown in our garden, to accompany the perogies.  It was lovely.