Saturday's ride was in the Aurora area... York Durham Line to the East, Aurora/St John's Sideroad to the North. Sunday's was in the Oak Ridges Morraine area... Keele to the West 17th Sideroad (which becomes Aurora) to the North.
Last summer I rode with a group to your neck of the woods (Pickering, Whitby, Oshawa) a few times. Lots of nice quiet places to ride the bike there. Unfortunately, those places are now under threat with the proposed building of the new international airport in Pickering. When and if they build that airport, all the wooded areas, farmland will be bulldozed and replaced by concrete... not a pretty sight in the fall.
Hulu and Netflix keep me from getting too far away from the ads, the gecko, go meat, and all of that. I'm really glad I don't get the political campaign ads that we pay for (to Rupert) with those contributions. I forgot how intense the campaign ads can get. I sometimes turn on the radio. Then I quickly turn it off. I guess the cable is trying to get more money since Fox wants a bigger slice. I think it's a step in the right direction, Cyclo.
Yes, I found myself watching less and less shows on TV (the only series I followed last year on a weekly basis was Lost). This coupled with having to save money because I need to help the kid go through university plus having to work as a full-time salaried employee (contracts have become more difficult to find partly because of the downturn, outsourcing, cloud computing, HST imposition on services here in Ontario, all of the above) meant giving up cable was a no brainer. It kind of felt weird though as I have taken cable TV access for granted for the last decade or so. The greedy cable company kept jacking up prices that when I canceled I was paying around 100 bucks a month for the entire thing... including HD access.
I haven't gotten to it yet but I intend to setup a cheap HTPC with an ATSC tuner so I can get TV Show over the air (OTA), some even in HD.
Next thing I am thinking of cutting is the landline.
Just for TV including HD, 160 bucks including internet with a measly 60 GB per month usage cap. It's a rip off. I am considering switching providers... almost the same price though but at least double the cap. There is only one main cable provider here in Ontario which is Rogers... it is basically a monopoly which is why they can charge exorbitant prices. They now increased the charges if you go over the cap since Netflix is now offering streaming videos up here.
There are smaller DSL and Cable providers though but they use the monopolist's (Rogers for cable and Bell Canada for DSL) infrastructure so they are at the mercy of both. I will most likely switch to one of the smaller ones as they still offer higher cap room.
I agree with TV being crap... ever since those reality shows took off everything started going downhill... just my opinion of course.
During the cold season I try to eat as much fruits (grapes, oranges, strawberries) and veggies (broccoli, mushrooms, spinach) as I can... I also gargle a half cup of warm water with a teaspoon of salt every night before I sleep. This appears to ward off colds or if I do catch them it never develops into a full blown fever and will last (the sore throat) only 1 to 2 days.
One thing I learned through the years is how to listen to my body. If I feel itchiness in my throat, that is a sure sign I need more rest/sleep and a few days respite from cycling.
Cyclo, have you tried acanac.ca? DSL, 24.95/month, unlimited download.
I can't use it because my phone line is crap. I tried Bell and Look for my DSL, put I am too far from the Telco office, so I get a lot of drops and unrealiable service. I have Rogers now, and although I don't like the price, it is a stable, fast connection.
Comments
Last summer I rode with a group to your neck of the woods (Pickering, Whitby, Oshawa) a few times. Lots of nice quiet places to ride the bike there. Unfortunately, those places are now under threat with the proposed building of the new international airport in Pickering. When and if they build that airport, all the wooded areas, farmland will be bulldozed and replaced by concrete... not a pretty sight in the fall.
The fall is my favorite time of the year.
I should move to maybe Kentucky? Tenn? Year round 70's would be ideal.
I haven't gotten to it yet but I intend to setup a cheap HTPC with an ATSC tuner so I can get TV Show over the air (OTA), some even in HD.
Next thing I am thinking of cutting is the landline.
There are smaller DSL and Cable providers though but they use the monopolist's (Rogers for cable and Bell Canada for DSL) infrastructure so they are at the mercy of both. I will most likely switch to one of the smaller ones as they still offer higher cap room.
I agree with TV being crap... ever since those reality shows took off everything started going downhill... just my opinion of course.
One thing I learned through the years is how to listen to my body. If I feel itchiness in my throat, that is a sure sign I need more rest/sleep and a few days respite from cycling.
I can't use it because my phone line is crap. I tried Bell and Look for my DSL, put I am too far from the Telco office, so I get a lot of drops and unrealiable service. I have Rogers now, and although I don't like the price, it is a stable, fast connection.