Year End 2012-Life starts@50

Hello All,

   Another year ..Seems like I was just at it typing this newsletter out a few weeks ago!

Luckily again, we are all in good shape, exhausted to say the least, why, but why I wonder, do we push our limits that far? I guess it is the peer pressure, the peer pressure of living in North America.

Those of you who still live on the island I used to love so much, I envy you, island life.. this is my wish when and if I retire. No snow to worry about, no winter tires, did we meet the deadline to install them? Have we secured all the garden equipment, for winter, did I winterize the small engines? The bikes, need to winterrize them too, Is the car ready, or the 3 cars in my case, winter tires, battery load, winter wipers, snow brush, winter carpets, windshield washer, boots, gloves, the coats? Where did we store them? The pickets, I need to install them so that the stupid snow remover does not eat chunks out of my lawn. And the firewood for winter? I need to brush those freaking chimneys too, Let me go see if there are any fallen trees in the back yard I can recoup. What a life!!! I guess we picked our own battle.



So yes, island life, I am starting to feel the attraction, don’t be surprised if you hear that I have moved to a remote Gilligan island in the near future.

This year, apparently was ½ a century since I saw daylight, ½ a century, midlife for some,still just a number for me, but somehow my body dictates me to slow down, signs, signs that the warranty is over at 50, signs that injuries does not heal as fast as when I was 35. But will this stop me?  NOOOO. Will this slow me down?  NOOOO.  July 7th, the day started with Rambo and Ti-Rouge taking me for a ride at Limerick forest, an Enduro Trail ride on my 300cc KTM bike. For those who are not familiar with the terminology, Enduro is like a motocross bike but more specifically built for loooooong off road ride on very uneven terrain, sand, mud, rock, roots, slippery rocks, fallen logs, waterholes and such, everything to make it hard for a normal human being to ride upon, thus the word Enduro, Yes I like it hard, easy is not my cup of tea. And we were supposed to be back home by 3.30pm because there was apparently a surprise party waiting for me… For an old Monkey like me, surprise is nowhere to be found in my vocabulary, but I acted surprised. And we somehow made it around 4.30pm, pulled up on my street to see tons of cars lined up, there’s never cars on my street unless there’s a party I said and that many cars usually means Chinese or Italians involved.

It was however  lots of fun seeing all the family around in the garden party, the food was plenty, so was the gifts, a new kite surf board from the relatives and nephews  and nieces, a new Ipad to save an edit all my Gopro pictures and videos, a Steve Jobs biography that I have yet to recoup from Ti- Rouge, a brand new Garmin GPS, thanks to Marie's curiosity while I was shuffling around Londero's catalogue, so I can find my way in the woods during my hunting trips, goodies, all goodies thanks to my dear halves who organized everything without me suspecting anything… you think? Thanks to the familiy and friends present, I hated the picture session , I hate all picture sessions, but the rest was pleasant. Thanks to my sister for the Banner... her boss wanted pictures of my bikes to make his pick..pfffttt...



300xcw&530exc

Oh and the gift of the century, a new 530exc dual sport bike, ok used, so I can legally ride on the road when I pass my final road exams, I repeat, legally, once more for those who know me, I cheated a few times riding on the roads, what’s life without spice?  But the good news is that I am now entitled to ride any bike I want on any roads since last September. So 50 I am and going downhill apparently, but I am not depressed nor do I feel “old” as some would, I see it as a challenge to keep up with things that many younger fellows would not dare to do or remotely think of doing…mind over body!

To top it off this year, Rambo and I decided to go for the famous Calaboogie trail ride, unprepared we were to do a 5-6 hour off road Enduro ride in the Ontario wilderness and Rambo had to purchase a bike that would fit this kind of terrain since his XR 650 a.k.a big red pig is way too heavy to climb mountains and such. His arms got twisted into acquiring a smaller CRF 250 Honda that is fit for the job. The Calaboogie ride was INSANE  to say the least, I will not go into details but let me just point out a few highlights, it rained all day and all night the day before and the trail has already been beaten up by the riders who did the Saturday ride. So us being complete, I mean complete novice, we figured to let the 150 or so experts startoff ahead of us, we don’t want to hold them up… Big, Big mistake, the trails were more beaten up, ruts and mud everywhere, there are places we went through that would be very hard to do on foot! Up and down the mountain, fabulous scenery and wilderness. We were hoping to get back to camp by noon for lunch, but it never happened. We got lost in the woods and I did not bring my GPS!! Almost ran out of gas, but thanks to a fellow rider we met on the way, he gave me a liter of spare he happened to carry in his packsack. So first lesson learned, BRING THE GPS!, second lesson, carry extra gas!

5 hours later, we were back at base camp, exhausted, out of water, out of gas, muscles like jello, all joints in pain and a Tendonitis that I am still trying to heal and that was 4 months ago. But I made it!  5 hours off road ride on terrain you cannot even imagine! And  I promised myself to do it again next year.  Among the incidents, well, never thought I would see a CRF 250 hanging on a tree, or a seat coming off because some engineer forgot to tighten the screw, or a 65 year old doing the ride, he had a hard time walking the bike for crying out loud! Then I realized, this is probably me 15 years from now! Why give up something you love.

As for the loved ones, what can I say, Caroline has finished Cegep, finally got a hold of Maths, she is off till next September until she starts university, that means she will work the whole summer, being in such close proximity with Mum, she will surely be enduring her mother’s fits on days and more specifically on HOT summer days . You noticed I mentioned HOT days, since there are more and more such events in my spouse’s world, what they call that again “Men-on-pause?”  Is that why she gets impatient when she sees me take a pause? So it happens that the Locomotive overheats on days and stranger beware, stay away from any overheating locomotive since she can run you down in a heartbeat! Endless hours of work, to resume my Locomotive’s life, the Café takes a lot from our life, but as the saying goes, if the wife’s happy, everyone’s happy. No seriously, this is all blessing to us, if we had to do it all over again, we would definitely do it… but in a different way..now that we know better.

So things are going well in the world of Café Campagne, Caroline  started running her own business last summer, the Ice cream store was under her tutorship, supported by Mum (employees and orders), Dad(technical support). We still eat left overs almost every day, but hey why should I complain, this is all food to me. Speaking about food, my freezer s full of venision, as you can probably notice, bow hunting for moose was again successful this year, 1100 pound moose, so stop by anytime for a nice moose steak.

I believe this message will be incomplete without some news about our dear four legged son, he is getting older too, but still in top shape and smart as usual, always plays some tricks to us when he is not happy. The latest trick was the electronic fence, as you have learned , he is confined within our yard by an electronic fence, he wears a collar that warns him with an ultrasonic beep that he is too close to his limits, then he gets zapped by an electric discharge if he persists to stay in the area after 5 seconds.

During the  summer time, his Popo sends him out numerous times during the day, wanders out for hours since he enjoys being outside the house  and comes back home when he is hungry or needs some treat, will scratch heavily at the door to announce his return. One day, Popo said that he never came back home within his usual time limits, had to yell his name but he never showed up. He finally came back home after a few hours with his lower feet tainted with black mud, black mud? Where the heck did he get that? The only place I know there is black mud is in the small stream across the street in the neighbor’s yard. So how did he get there? He did not dare to cross the fence did he? Unless the battery on his collar is depleted, so first thing I did was to check his collar thinking that the battery is probably run down, so I installed a new battery,let him out and kept an eye on him at a distance to watch his moves. So I saw that smart dog walking along the fence area, while reducing the distance that separates him to the invisible fence, an inch at a time, he stops and listens, nothing happens, he takes a few more steps towards the fence, stopped again and repeated this whole scenario until he was across the fence and on the street!!

Bugger! What happened to the zapper? So I yelled at him and he came back walking slowly, his back curved up, tail between his legs…. He knew he was doing something wrong, came to my feet and laid down on his back, four legs up, like saying OK I surrender, my fault, slap me if you want but pity me, I am innocent !!

So what happened to the collar? Why didn’t he get zapped? I took it out to do some testing, brought it along the fence….no beeps. Crap it does not work! Must be defective, so I swapped the collar for a spare one and it worked. So somehow he discovered that and has been testing this system continually until he found a weakness and escaped. Then it came to us why he also vanished a few times during the summer and came back home later than usual!

To all, keep healthy, keep rocking, give yourself a kick in the behind and do that one thing you always talked/dreamed about and never dared to do. Stop saying that you are too old for such and such things, instead say that you will do it but at your own rhythm, you will be surprised what you can achieve, mind over body..remember?

My goal for the upcomig year, an Enduro competition which I intended to register for last spring but decided not to since I was not prepared, but next year, next year I can apprently run in the master's category!! Or senior's ...in layment's terms :(

Happy holidays, be daring and safe!

 The Wan’s from the boonies.