The 2017 'Nice Life-y Things' Post...

[tetsab]

...as per 2015 and 2016 iterations :

January

• 08th: Japanese Embassy shows silly, adorable film followed by OK film that was at least interesting for the culture shown. Walked down to College and Bathurst after to meet with S&M for pre-Spiders from Mars Bowie Showing.


• 18th: Highly unmemorable UofT careers webinar


• 24th: Toronto East Cyclists meeting


• 26th: Wacky Work Fundraiser (no coworkers sleeping over this go 'round but I was accidentally responsible for the band being Copper Lassie. Ha! Turns out you shouldn't show your Iron Maiden loving Executive Director a country Maiden cover band as a joke that they're the next band for the fundraiser... but it worked out great for me)


• 28th: Writing Beers


• 30th: Walked my butt down Yonge Street to an exhibit about the experiences of immigrants and refugees in a bike learning program. I have no idea why I didn't end up going somewhere afterwards for my birthday but there we are!

February

• 01st: Finally(!) remembered to participate in Hourly Comics Day


• 05th: Annual work retreat


• 18th: (Hilarious) "Valentine's" Madrigals from Hammerbaroque with Old University Tsar

March

• 04th: Family visit to Pickering


• 05th: Trip to awesome Scarborough Model Railroad club with 'Tsar and his Dad before they headed off to the TSO


• 10th: Scarborough Arts exhibit about the motels of Kingston Road I've spent half my life driving past


• 11th: Tsar's choir comes to Scarborough to perform Mozart's Requiem (which I attend with my Mum)


• 14th: Not very useful UofT webcast on small business financing


• 22nd: Actually interesting UofT talk in the reference library about workplace stress


• 25th: Flimsy excuse to read by candle light


• 28th: Toronto East Cyclists meeting 2

April

• 01st: Birthday pub for my Dad


• 03rd: 1st Bells on Danforth planning meeting of the year


• 07th: Skype catch-up with lovely former coworker


• 08th: Wander around my neighbourhood flyering for our local Ecoday and the Tree for Me program


• 09th: Drove my Mum to Hamilton for the Tsar choir Requiem 'home' performance


• 15th: Bonus NaDruWriNi


• 18th: Bells on Danforth planning 2


• 22nd: Local Ecoday -- collected my Tree for Me (a Serviceberry!)


• 23rd: Silent Film Day at the Fox (live piano accompaniment!)


• 25th: Not-for-profit tech meeting

May

• 01st: Bells planning 3


• 02nd: Toronto East Cyclists meeting 3


• 06th: Nifty Janes Walk on food in the 'hood


• 13th: Scarborough History Ride (marshalled with Tsar)


• 19th: Copper Lassie with a chunk of the Toronto crew and Tsar


• 20th: Sabs birthday with much the same


• 23rd: Not-for-profit tech meeting


• 25th: Sabs students art party


• 27th: Finally (after years of conflicts) made it to a Doors Open event: concerts at the R.C. Harris filtration plant and Evergreen Brickworks. Later meet up with the TO crew and Tsar for a Bowie tribute act at the Linsmore


• 28th: Off to Bon Echo with half the same group to participate in a group Walt Whitman reading


• 29th: First ever Bike to Work event (though I skipped the pancakes at City Hall to, well, bike to work) with Bells planning 4 in the evening


• 30th: Not-for-profit tech meeting 2


• 31st: Toronto East Cyclists 4

June

• 03rd: Toronto East Cyclists (TEC) safety ride (the point of most of the planning meetings, to date!)


• 10th: Main & Danforth community festival


• 12th: Bells planning 5


• 13th: Ethiopian dinner with New University Friend


• 14th, 21st, 22nd: Dragging butt to the Bloor Viaduct for flyering for the Bells event at half 7


• 18th: Bells flyering at the Brickworks bike day and the a bike repair class in the evening at Velotique


• 19th: Joint Bells planning 6 and TEC meeting 5


• 24th: Bells on Danforth event (I stayed at the end point this year to do set-up and filming since the ride, being my exact commute to work, isn't exactly thrilling but Tsar rode it)


• 26th: Orientation for the Bike Host program (teach new immigrants and refugees how to bike in Toronto)


• 27th: Strange Brew at Yonge and Dundas


• 28th: TEC meeting 6


• 29th: Off to Pickering for Mum's birthday

July

• 04th: Bike Host find-your-newcomer event


• 05th: The Skydiggers in East Lynn Park


• 06th: Bike Host mentor training session


• 08th: Bike Host hand-out-the-bikes event


• 12th: Wayne's World at the Harbourfront Center


• 15th: Bike Parking audit. Later in the day went with Tsar to Warden Woods community festival


• 19th: Showing for the practicum student I supervised at work


• 22nd: Day hiking trip to Ganaraska with Tsar


• 23rd: Group ride to Morningside Park for the Bike Host picnic. Rode all the way home from Port Union waterfront park afterwards for my biggest solo ride yet


• 25th: TEC meeting 7


• 26th: Bells special grant meeting 1


• 27th: Cycle Toronto Scarborough District Advocacy Event (met a guy who bikes downtown daily from pretty much the border of Pickering)(!)


• 29th: Bike and hike to Balls Falls in Hamilton with Tsar (first ride outside of Toronto)


• 30th: Bike Host day trip: Hamilton escarpment ride (with Tsar)


• 31st: Bells grant meeting 2

August

• 01st: Bike Music Festival (rode the Don trail with that group then peeled off myself to go see Othello in the Guild Park)


• 03rd: ANSI ECM Standards Program meeting


• 05th: Shakespeare Day with Tsar: 2 'Gentlemen' of Verona at the St. Lawrence Market followed by a walk all the way along the waterfront and then up to High Park for 'King' Lear in the evening (tasty Indian Roti for dinner)


• 09th: Bike Host family fest followed by my leading a ride downtown to see the Bicycle Thieves at Regent Park


• 12th: Hike the Seaton Trail in Pickering with Tsar followed by dinner and axe throwing with old highschool friend


• 16th: The Signal live wrap event


• 18th: Annual trip to the CNE with my Mum in the morning followed by Ghostbusters in my local park in the evening


• 19th: TEC bike fest at the Wheels on the Danforth event (the 2nd reason for all the planning meetings) then off to Pickering for sister's birthday


• 20th: ParkBus from the Scarborough Town Centre to canoe the Rouge River (though it actually turned out to be just 'walk around the Rouge River' as the line up for canoes was insane; I vowed to get their early on my own steam for their Humber event next month)


• 25th: First foray into Bunz trading tea for tea


• 26th: Rode to 3 different stops (Dawes Road, Brickworks & Corktown Commons) for book readings and then back to Scarborough for Kingston Road Day


• 27th: Nifty history tour at the Main Squared festival. Very happy the guy who lead it (who very sweetly gave us juice and cookies at the end) will be honoured with a laneway named for him.


• 29th: Portable Stories presentation on the steps of the Gardiner Museum


• 30th: Concert in Stephenson Park


• 30st: Presented at not-for-profit tech meeting then attended a screening of Citizen Jane

September

• 02nd: Broadcast airing of the Signal event (bit surreal to hear something you attended)


• 03rd: Midsummer Night's Dream with Tsar in Withrow Park


• 06th: Fail attempt to do a Cycle Toronto infrastructure ride after my lock jammed and I couldn't find the group after getting it loose


• 09th: TEC ride to the Woodbine Bike Lanes opening celebration followed attending the Toronto Area Boardgaming Society fall event (thanks to hidashara who I ran into in the afternoon of the event)


• 10th: New longest solo ride ever (probably longest ride, period, actually), heading to a park by Old Mill station to canoe on the Humber River (there was a question of if they'd even let me go since I was alone but then I found another crazy solo person from Scarborough and so we paddled as a team) and then down to the waterfront for the bicycle musical festival finale and then home(!)


• 12th: TEC meeting 8


• 14th: Danforth avenue planning meeting


• 15th: Growing food locally event at the Ashbridges Estate and then up to the East York Civic Centre for the opening of My City, My Six


• 16th: East Lynn Arts Fair, Guinea Pig Picnic and start of the Pollinator Parade with Tsar then off to an animation event (projected on the side of a building at Danforth and Linsmore)


• 17th: Off to Guelph for E. Bday


• 23rd: Bike ride from a talk about the Dish with One Spoon treaty, to the Aquarium and then back through the Don trail past the exciting new gargoyles with Tsar


• 26th: Farmland of the east history talk with the East York Historical Society


• 27th: Billy Bragg at the Horseshoe with a good chunk of the TO crew


• 30th: Victorian Toronto history ride, followed by cookbook swap in Withrow Park and attending Rush tribute on my lonesome in the evening (assumed everyone who might be able to go would say Fuck No to Rush tributes other than maybe mr_sharkey who'd likely have said Fuck No to a late night in the east end). ;) Had originally planned to do Nuit Blanche afterwards but felt like I had a cold coming on and so opted to skip that for the first time in aaaages.

October

• 05th: Goth pub night (thanks to the bored guy who just moved here from the UK and can't get work yet) ;)


• 08th: Biked to Feeding the 5000 thanksgiving event and then up to see a historical colouring book sites of Toronto exhibit at the Todmorden Mills (have spent my life driving past it on the DVP but this was my 1st time visiting it!) with Tsar


• 10th: Bittersweet Symphony with one of my Bike Host immigrants at Choir!Choir!Choir!


• 11th: Ridiculous non-meeting with my local Councillor (as she kept on her non-meeting trend)


• 16th: BiA meeting to present the results of the earlier bike parking audit


• 17th: Participatory budget meeting to vote for local projects as a Neighbourhood Improvement Area


• 18th: Not-for-profit tech meeting


• 19th: Goth shoe presentation at the Bata Shoe Museum


• 21st: Bunz plant pick-up (saving 2 avocado trees for a small bag of chips... somewhere between this and the tea I also got a rocking chair for a can of dry shampoo, which was *great*!)


• 22nd: Foraging for food in the Humber River valley workshop with Old Highschool Friend (had nice effect of then getting an edible plants book for Christmas from her)


• 26th: Under the Skin of a City: Exhibiting Toronto presentation at the City Archives (got totally lost biking there in the winding streets and wound up in my old neighbourhood at St. Clair West station on the way o_O)


• 28th: Bike Host closing celebration (learned to play Stand By Me on a ukulele) and then went with Tsar to Halloween party at New University Friend's place


• 30th: UofT City Design course (8 weeks free online to interested alumni) wrap event

November

• 01st: Local Pumpkin Parade followed by rushing home for the Sidewalk Labs (rather useless as it turns out) webcast


• 04th: Vegan Pizza Metal Bar for Tsar's birthday (missing actual NaDruWriNi for the first time in aaaages)


• 08th: Weird local meeting about the Woodbine Bike Lanes (half folks for them, half against)


• 09th: Leonard Cohen anniversary event at the Toronto Reference Library (funny stories and songs from folks who knew him)


• 14th: Super cool animated films about Toronto LGBTQ history


• 16th: Biking in all conditions workshop (was considering giving some winter riding a small shot this year but then...)


• 23rd: ...Hit by a car

Events I wound up particularly frustrated to miss due to being hit by a car

• 24th: Local Christmas tree lighting (not normally my thing at all but I'm friendly with the local BiA guy and knew he'd appreciate my presence)


• 26th: Diamanda Galás plus TO crew pre-beers. I'd thankfully been procrastinating on getting tickets for this 'cause I was worried if it would overwrite my last experience of her but knowing there were tix still available ('cause FB taunted me with them the night of the accident) there is no question I would have ended up going if this didn't happen


• 29th: Library and archives drop-in night at the AGO. Had also planned to pick up some new Docs this night while down there (if I'd had boots on -- as I do 99% of the time -- during the accident I at least wouldn't have wound up with the cut at my ankle bone, and who knows about the extent of the sprain, but they broke a couple of weeks earlier & I prefer to go to the store and try what they have on rather than order online).


• 30th: Last goth pub night of the year in the nerd bar


• 02nd: Winter return of the board game event. A bit silly, but this one stung the most at the time just because I'd been waiting for it the longest and couldn't imagine the circumstances under which I wouldn't go.


• 05th: Toronto East Cyclists annual winter pub night at the nifty looking local pub (they were looking into getting me a drive but I knew it'd be a bad idea with the foot in the state it was then)


• 23rd: Dracula's Daughter - Nightmare Before Christmas event

December

• 08th, 13th, 15th, 20th, 22nd, 28th, 29th: Physiotherapy-fest


• 13th: Kindly picked up and dropped off by another attendee for the 1st 2018 Bells planning meeting since we got(!) the community grant


• 14th: Kindly provided the expense of cab so I could go to the office holiday party


• 25th: Kindly picked up by my Dad for pretty standard family Christmas in Pickering


• 26th: (Back on the Banned List next year) Boxing Day event. Kindly loaned my Mum's car so I could easily return for New Year's Eve dinner the following week (since helpfully my driving foot is fine!)

[1] I had intended to write A Detailed Thing about this well before now. In my naïveté I thought I'd have all the details well before now to write The Detailed Thing but I don't (key missing things are the police report and how insurance will deal with it). Sum up for now is that I bashed my left elbow and wound up with a stitch and a grade 2 sprain (6-8 weeks recovery on average, of which I am still recovering having hit week 8 yesterday) in my left foot.

Comments

[greylock]

Hit by car? :(

(Axel got hit by a car around the same time, didn't he?)

[tetsab]

Hit by car? :(

Yup. She did not leave enough space when passing. May need to become person number 3 doing this.

(Axel got hit by a car around the same time, didn't he?)

A couple of months before (couldn't resist looking it up: July 23rd. Seems the 23rd is a bad day for getting knocked into the street ;P) but he doesn't know what happened.

He certainly could have been hit by a car but all he remembers is being on bike, then being loaded into an ambulance and his bike went missing after so can't even check it for evidence of what might have happened.

[greylock]

We have recently instituted similar passing legislation here.
It's, frankly, not something I am in favour of, since the roads were not designed to allow it.

At least you're OK.

[tetsab]

Well if it's anything like here it's nothing but window dressing anyway.

Relatively OK, I'm pretty disturbed I'm now going on 9 weeks with my foot still messed up even with all the physio but there has at least been obvious progress (i.e. last week it started only sporadically hurting instead of hurting every step and this week it feels more tight than painful).

[nicklausse]

Memories of biking Toronto end to end with kids in the trailer and feeling safe most of the time. :/ So so glad it wasn't worse. I enjoy your optimism posts so far! Also, w00t nerd bars. xxoxoo

[tetsab]

Will have to try for the nerd bar sometime this year instead. :)

And, yeah, last year I stopped biking in November, not because it was getting too cold but because I started feeling like cars were getting closer (best guess is they get more lazy about giving space the fewer bikes there are?).

This year I had the same vibe but thought I'd try to go a bit longer and so about 10 days before the accident bought a hi-vis vest to see if that would help and was hit wearing it!

[mr_sharkey]

Steph mentioned - all of that sucks! Enjoy healing - happy to offer hints how to speed it up as I seem to be doing a lot of it lately!

.:

[tetsab]

Yes! Absolutely interested in healing hints since I've now gone over the average recovery time even with the physio, icing and elevation.

I'm clearly closer to better (noted in a comment above I got down to sporadic rather than constant pain last week and even that is improved this week). Main issue now is stiffness in the achilles tendon and in whatever is around the ankle bone on the inside (I was hit in the ankle bone on the outside but seems like the force travelled through to the other side).

Seems I could have used the epsom salts last month when it looked like I had a yellow and purple sock on but that is also fully cleared.

[mr_sharkey]

Those are very au courant colours, but ouch! But healing ..

Epsom salts I use constantly when I’m sore / healing - the bruise thing was new learning. And a hot Epsom salt bath goes with the other thing - heat. I had read, not too long ago, that icing wasn’t the thing to help heal and heat was - the E.bath provides a lot of that. I also keep a selection of linaments about the house, as they tend to lose effectiveness if used for several days in a row - Tiger Balm, A535, Bengay, Absorbine Jr., Po Sum On, Arnica gel, and Voltaren are in the medicine cabinet at the moment.

For healing the extremities, elevation is very good. When I ripped an ankle apart, U of T’s sports medicine clinic put me in a pressurized water boot that would fill with water, squeeze the unoxygenated blood out of my foot, then relax and let fresh blood in. Not the kind of tool you’d have around the house, but lying on your back and elevating your foot against the wall should be pretty close. The trick would be to alternate - elevate, lie on your side with your foot on the floor, elevate, repeat. They did it on a 1 minute cycle for about 20 minutes.

What you may be able to do, depending on how much you want to spend, is get a red / infrared LED treatment device. There’s actually real research showing that they work to speed up healing. I use this ‘Light Relief’ emitter - these are used, and quite cheap:

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/light-relief

New they’re rather expensive and I expect people bought these, used them, healed, and are looking to get some cash back. Since they’re non-invasive a quick wipe with rubbing alcohol should render them quite serviceable.

That’s all I can think of for now - I’ll add more as I think of more. Here are some links for further reading:

Near IR treatment: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4870908/

Thermotherapy: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/fitness/forget-the-postworkout-ice-bath-study-suggests-hot-water-instead/article28817345/

[tetsab]

Sorry this has taken so long to respond to but I only got to a place where I could start putting things into practice this week! :)

Picked up some epsom salts last week and finally got to try them this weekend after my foot was feeling achy from trying my first real bout of housework. Foot stayed achy in the bath but was back to not-achy the next day so at least good enough there! I'll keep at them.

I suspect the ice recommendation was for the swelling over the healing. This balance between the swelling and the open wound has been a tough one to navigate, especially since the 1st 3 weeks I was to keep it as dry as possible. Today I finally got the recommendation to start alternating my foot in hot and cold water at a 4:1 time ratio so I just did my first bout of that.

Mostly what I've been doing is elevation (usually up on a duvet or straight forward at an absolute minimum), icing, using a compression sock if my foot is going to be down and static for any length of time, and a suite of exercises.

Haven't tried your elevate trick yet but it combines some of those elements I've been working with to more of an extreme.

Right now physio is twice a week: 30 mins passive session once then 30 mins active session the next time. Passive is mostly all about the ultrasound and electrotherapy so I'll probably just let them keep at that rather than pick up my own tools since I'm (finally) getting much closer to better.

I have no liniments currently -- they are a total mystery to me. At one point a coworker recommended topical ibuprofen but it kept slipping my mind every time I was near a drug store and now I don't really need it as I'm more frequently stiff than sore at this point.

[mr_sharkey]

If you need dry cold, the re-usable hot/cold packs at the pharmacy will do the trick - they're a kind of gelatin inside a plastic bag, and they retain their flexibility at cold temperatures.

M.

[mr_sharkey]

Liniments - the hot kind - open up blood vessels and bring a warming sensation, usually due to chemicals (think rubbing chili peppers on your skin). The thing to remember is that they're all mildly effective, and all will cease being effective after a while as your body catches on and says - hey, you tricked me into thinking this felt hot but it really isn't! Like how habitual hot-food eaters get accustomed to it. I solve that problem by having at least three different liniments that I can rotate between - typical ingredients include spearmint, menthol, capsaicin, cinnamon oil, etc.

M.