On the final day, rounding up to the nearest 50 k :)
31 Days Later.
550 km and $1062 Donated by so many kind and generous people.
Thank you.
The Great Cycle Challenge Canada has raised over $7 million in August 2024. Amazing.
Stay Well. And we'll see ya on the road!
Managed a 12 km ride. A tough ride due to the humidity.
Thank you to YOU, the followers of my ride. Thank you for reading the posts.
Thank you to those who supported me through this cause. Your kind and generous donations were the encouragement to get me on the bike on a regular basis and do the ride. Thank you :)
Today's trip was brought to you by: A test of the replaced front tube and, a trip to the post office. Officially only 3 days left of the cycle challenge!
If you watch one YouTube video of something, they will feed you endless other examples. I recently watched a video of a "spin" in an aircraft, something that I could only attempt to explain when I learned to do them, with pilots taking cameras into the cockpit, you can experience them from in the plane or view them from other aircraft.
When I first took flying lessons, initiating a spin and making a recovery was a required lesson as well as part of the practical flight test. Among the many memories of flying, the first time I was introduced to spins (and later spiral dives) is very memorable. When I signed up for flying lessons, I had no idea that doing spins was part of the training nor did I know anything about them.
When the day came for the first lesson on spins, we climbed to a high altitude over remote area and the instructor told me he was going to explain and demonstrate a spin. A very short and simple explanation is this: a spin happens when the aircraft "stalls" (inefficient airflow over the wings to maintain flight). At the stall, to induce a spin, you kick one rudder in. One wing stalls more than the other, causing the plane to start a corkscrew downward path. The most common time for an accidental spin to occur is while landing when the airspeed is low, more often resulting in a disaster. The main point of the lesson was understanding them to avoid them.
Back to the lesson. To recover from the spin, apply opposite rudder to stop the spin, push the nose forward and then pull out of the dive and return to level flight. The first example is an incipient spin, which was a quick entry and then recovery. Then, it would be a more extended spin of a couple rotations. Eventually, you move to power-on spins which provided a bit more violent entry.
YouTube now provides full visuals of those spins so you don't have to explain them. For your entertainment,
1. View from another plane of a Cessna 150 executing a spin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDiIO8SnRFM
2. A lesson in a very extended spin. Spin practice was usually a couple of rotations. This one is unusual because, as you can see, they lost 3200 feet in about 1/2 a minute. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVGtsK7vvnA (The camera shutter makes the prop appear as if it stopped, but its actually turning at idle).
My first introduction to these was pretty freaky. Eventually, after regular practice on your own, they become fun to do.
Yes. 7 km. Because, I got a front flat. I will tell you, it's much more difficult to ride a bike with a front flat than a back flat, even though you shouldn't ride with any flat. But it's almost easier than walking home. And besides, 7km? There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time. (Desmond Tutu said so)
I crossed the 500 k mark on today. Despite having a goal of 400 k, I had still hoped to get to 500 k. We'll see what we can accomplish over this next final week of the Great Cycle Challenge. Thank you to all who have contributed to the $945 raised!
Tomorrow, on invitation by Fynn and his co-creator, Brittany (both actors in this past April's production of "Snapshots."), I am heading to Toronto to hear their first public workshop read-through of their new musical. They have gathered together a small group of theatre people to hear their first draft of their creation, read and sung by select actors from the Toronto region.
Sharing your work with others requires a great deal of vulnerability, but is so incredibly necessary to moving a script/music forward and finding its greatest potential. It will be a great event and experience!
10 years ago, I gathered some actors around a table with food and drinks to do a reading of my full length version of the play, delilah. It was so beneficial to hear it out loud. I had an "aha/wow" moment at the end of Act 1 that I wondered whether it would work or not. One of the readers, who was reading it cold, made a verbal "aha" response, and I felt confident that an audience would too. I also discovered plenty of other areas that stumbled along or needed attention and was able to use the input/insight to tighten it up before it eventually was staged.
It never seems like a script is finished, but somewhere in the process, you eventually have to say, okay, it's time to stop making changes and put this thing on the stage and share it with an audience.
My big 3km ride two days ago was to the post office and back because it was just too blinking cold and windy. It is now officially my shortest ride of the month!
I read a brief article on Canadian playwright, Norm Foster this morning. He's still writing at age 75. Several years ago, I heard about a statistic about plays produced in Canada. It was designed to determine the percentage of male vs female writers' plays that were produced in Canada. The final statistic was, 1/3 male, 1/3 female and 1/3 Norm Foster plays. Foster's plays have a common pattern that obviously works well. I've always pictured him as the Canadian version of American playwright, Neil Simon. When we were in NFLD this summer, prior to the beginning of a stage play, a patron beside me told me how much he loved Norm Foster plays. His wife clearly felt differently. To his delight, I told him about a theatre in St. Catharines, ON dedicated to Norm Foster Plays (The Foster Festival). He was elated to hear this. She, not so much.
No play or writer can be liked by everyone. Subjectivity is an interesting thing. Even a "professional opinion" can never be void of subjectivity.
I wrote my 10-minute play, delilah., in 2010.
In March , 2011, from 400 entries, delilah. was one of 14 plays selected by Rising Sun Performance Company in NYC for a public reading that took place in March.
In April, we staged the script locally at the London One Act Festival. At the end, the hired adjudicator gave her feedback which wasn't exactly enthusiastic. She actually said, in front of the whole audience, that she "didn't even like it when she first read it." Interestingly enough, the audience gets a chance to vote separately, and delilah. won the "People's Choice" award.
In June, the play was produced at the InspiraTO Festival, Canada's largest 10-minute play festival, winning a People's Choice performance.
In July, as a result of their public reading, the Rising Sun Performance Company in NYC selected 7 from the 14 plays to be performed. delilah. was one of the 7.
In August, it was produced by Boxfest Detroit, in January 2012, by Acme Theatre in Maryland, and in May 2012, by Blue Slipper in Montana.
By June 2012, I had written it to a 60-minute play and staged it at the London Fringe Festival, receiving a 4/5* review by the London Free Press. The following year, we staged a 2-act full length play version locally with very positive feedback.
The 10-minute version has since been published by a prominent publisher with plenty of productions since. Shows-to-go-ya that even a "professional adjudicator" has her own subjective opinions. :)
PHOTO: Rising Sun Performance production of delilah. with actress Tedra Millan (left), who later went on to appear in Noel Coward's, Present Laughter on Broadway in 2017, earning 3 Tony Award nominations, where Kevin Klein won Best Actor.
The 30km cold wind today encouraged me to stay close to home.
In my days of flying years ago, wind had an interesting affect on one trip. Everyone in my direct family "risked" their life to fly with me at least once. At the time, I always felt very confident as the pilot, but realized later that maybe some of my riders might not have always felt the same. Well, kudos to everyone for being so trusting (or naive).
My mom flew with me once. She must have been incredibly brave and trustworthy, because her first and only flight with me was a full trip from Hamilton airport to Mount Holly Airport in New Jersey (now South Jersey Regional Airport) with a stop in Niagara Falls International to clear customs. Dad rode right seat and mom in the back. Total combined flight time there was just under 3 hours. While we were there, I took my dad and uncle on a night sightseeing flight over Atlantic City which was about a half hour flight away.
After our 2-night visit, we departed Mount Holly Airport in the morning. Making it as far north as the small town of Delevan, NY, we started to run into flurries. I contacted Buffalo Air Traffic Control for clearance through their zone, but they declined due to snow white out conditions. I had to turn around and come up with a new plan.
I looked for a local airport to land at, and Olean, NY was the closest. I had never been to Olean and never even heard of it, but it became an unexpected destination. We landed and had to find a hotel to stay in the town, 15 km away. Pre-internet, a payphone at this little airport was our only mode of communication. A taxi ride got us to a hotel for the night. The next morning, the skies were clear but the wind was very strong. The wind was at a full crosswind to the direction of the runway. We loaded in and lifted off just in time before the wind had pushed us off the side of the runway. I was definitely exceeding the maximum crosswind. That was a bit of a hairy moment. We made it back to Hamilton and the total return flying time including the diversion was 4 hours 15 minutes. One of many trips to remember.
I have passed the 400 km goal and am continuing on!
The first ride was abandoned when it started to rain.
On my second longer ride, I attempted to cover as many roads in Mount Brydges as possible. I stayed within 2k from home. The town is small, but has a ton of asphalt.
A quick history of Mount Brydges:
The pioneer settlement first took shape in 1829 and grew with the coming of the Great Western Railway in 1853. Named Mount Brydges, in honour of surveyor Colonel Roswell Mount and G.W.R. general manager Charles J. Brydges, the community became a major shipping point for local farms.
Someone has written a long historical account of the changes that have taken place over the last couple of centuries. Locals of any town aren't fond of change, but it's part of natural growth. Some fought Tim Horton's coming to town, but it came anyways ... and there's no shortage of locals filling the drive through every day. The present local battle is McDonald's' proposal to build a restaurant in town (which is quite surprising). The proposed location isn't the best, but I'm guessing it will eventually happen, students will get jobs, and the locals will fill the drive through and the seats inside.
And life goes on in the village of 2600 residents (that has grown by 500 in the past 5 years).
