Ryan James O'Sullivan

I listed as part of my winter avoid-cabin-fever goals I wanted to do a bit more geocaching and I actually did better than I thought.  I got out on 5 different days finding 8 different caches.  Not bad since I had taken a long post knee injury break from caching (according to my caching stats program I went 1274 days because of my knee injury – man that injury fucked up all things physical in my life).

This summer I’ve decided as part of my desire to get more active I’m going to pursue a very ambitious caching goal.  In the months of July and August I want to DOUBLE the number of caches under my belt.  I ended June sitting at 36 so I’m hoping to hit 72 by the end of summer.  Ambitious you say?  Nay nay.  This weekend I got things started off and clocked 7 caches.  That ties the month to date with March 2004 when I first started caching.

My geocaching goals for the summer:

• Find 36 caches
• Place 2 caches (one up north and one here in the city)
• Launch 1 travel bug
• Design my own geocoin for placing in caches

I’ll post back as I progress… Looking forward to it!

For my complete caching stats check out my geocaching.com profile page.

On Friday afternoon I arrived at work and had a strong urge to A) find a way to watch the England Game (I will not weep, I will not weep, I will not weep) B) Get out of the city ASAP.  The only problem was I was at my office with a full work day ahead of me.  So I decided noon was high time to get the hell out.  Confirmed it with the Boss and I was outtie.

We hit the road super quick and managed to get up north before the England game was too far in (20 minutes in if I remember right).  My Grandparents and my sister Amanda were already up there and we got right down to having a blast.  The Saturday forecast was calling for rain (of the thunderstorm variety) so we decided that Friday should be beach day.  We spent a few hours down there and had a blast.  Paige isn’t big on the water (we are working on it) but I managed to get quite a bit of swimming in since Tammy wanted nothing to do with a cold lake (silly Arizonian).

For dinner we BBQ’d some Sliders which were surprisingly fantastic and had some french fries (which I thought were terrible, but everyone else insisted they are fine… so clearly they are crazy…).  Parents arrived up, we went to sleep.  Profit.

Saturday did not bring the rain that was threatened (until later, but we’ll get there) and we ended up having another great day at the beach.  This time my dad, my sister Jess and my sister’s boyfriend joined in on the beach fun.  I even laid out and tanned for a bit and needless to say I’m pulling off the Irish-Red-tan quite well right now… Last season I think I made it down to the beach 2 times all season and here I was pulling that off in one weekend, it was awesome.

After we finished at the beach we decided to head to the Kawartha Dairy to grab some shakes and ice cream.

It was then time for dinner… after dinner Jessica and I decided we would go ATVing.  The plan was to take a fairly short ride out to the main highway and come back.  We got about 75% of the way there and we arrived at a small intersection and Jess asked “what’s that way”.  Of course this type of question between siblings can only lead to crazy exploration and down the street we went towards Murphy’s Corners and Ridge Road.

We arrived at the Ridge Road church and I pulled over knowing that there was a geocache I had failed to find there last year.  We spent some time looking (and I knew where it was this time having asked someone…) and we came away empty handed.  Just as we were giving up the hunt for the cache thunder started to roar in the distance.  Looked up at the sky and holy crap it was black to the south-west.  ”Let’s get out of here dude…”.

We made it almost back home and ran across a deer.  We stopped to watch him eat grass and check us out.  Then it came.  BOOM.  HAIL.  ”Shit Jess, book it, book it”.  The deer was off in to the trees and we were doing the speed limit busting our asses to get home.  Hail and rain falling hard.

We quickly outran the storm (yes that is actually possible) and made it home unscathed.

Sunday we had father’s day pancake breakfast and we were on our way home.  Father’s day dinner was our usual trip to Swiss Chalet.

The above is around 600 words to say this:  This weekend fucking rocked.  I haven’t had that much fun or felt so fulfilled up north in a real.long.time.

I know what you are thinking – after two months of neglecting this blog I have the nerve to open with a bitch fest about the weather?  Stick with me…

The summer has come and gone and in many ways it feels like it was in reality a series of false starts.  Yes there is the obvious weather let down with this summer (by and large if you like warm weather and you live in the north east region of North America you are a little disappointed with what we got this year) but the whole thing just felt “off” outside of that.

For me since time immemorial summer has looked like this – Monday to Friday go to work.  Friday evening get in the car drive up north.  Saturday to Sunday family heavy days often fully planned with shit.to.do. up north.  Sunday afternoon get in the car drive home.  Do laundry.  Bat clean up on the Tivo.  Go to bed.  This year I just wasn’t feelin’ it.  I love going up north and I love spending time with my parents and grandparents but this year it just felt like I was going through the motions.

Mid summer I posted about the weekend we spent in the city and it is probably my favorite memory of this summer.  That was one of the few times I can recall in recent years where I’ve really controlled the agenda for a summer weekend and did something different.  The end result was a great weekend that Tammy, Paige and I really enjoyed together.

So for me, this summer was about hitting some sort of summer-rock-bottom.  I look back and I cannot recall much at all.  Really only my ATV trip (which was another highlight) and that weekend in the city really stick out… the rest is a bit of a haze.  There are many reasons for it I imagine; I’ve been insanely busy at work and I’ve been working hard to focus on Paige and Tammy outside of office hours – I haven’t had much left in the tank after that.

All I know is next year it is time to mix it up a bit.  There is a possibility we’ll be having a baby late spring/early summer (we are planning for it) so that might mix it up on its own but it is time for Tammy and I to start planning our own activities and not spending so much time up north.

Spring is always an interesting time for me but this year is a little different.  I usually love the winter but I didn’t appreciate it so much this year so more than usual I am glad to see snow melting and the ugly salt tainted brown of winter giving way to the green of spring.

This year the season of regrowth/rebirth has a bit of a bonus – I am now 11 months out from my knee surgery and more and more every day I am starting to feel more mobile and able to do things I want to do.  Already this spring I’ve been able to play more with Paige and I’ve been grateful my recovery has reached the point where that is possible.

One of the overriding reasons for having the surgery in the first place was to be able to physically keep up with Paige.  When my recovery didn’t go as well as planned both Tammy and I were frustrated that it meant I was essentially limited in how I was able to interact with the baby.

The lucky thing for me is that before the baby was walking I was able to sit on the ground and play with her.  Really the biggest burden of my surgery was on Tammy – I couldn’t carry heavy objects (including the baby), I couldn’t do much other than sit around with the baby and my mobility was limited to the point where it was frustrating for both us.

So just in time for the baby getting to the point where she is getting physically demanding I feel alive & well and ready to tackle the challenges the nicer weather will bring.

Usually in the spring I am busy with helping get the Don Victoria Softball league ready to go for the spring season.  This year I am only providing marginal help as the league’s web master.  I’ve elected to focus more on Paige and getting back in to shape this spring.  There is a great new energized executive working on the league this year and it is in good hands.

I’m hoping over the next few weeks with my knee feeling better I’ll be able to throw on my glove and toss the ball around a bit.  At this point I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to play baseball on any higher level again but I’d love to be able to just have a game of catch with my dad or sisters.  I have a feeling my constricted hamstring is going to plague me for a long time to come, so I might have to stick with throwing the ball – I doubt I’ll be much of a runner any time soon.

I’m looking forward to the cottage season – we are just over a month away!  I’m also heading to Algonquin Park for a pre-season camping weekend in three weeks as well, that should be great.

So that’s where I’m at.  Feeling better, feeling energized and looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish outside the house over the next few months.  I feel like I’ve been super couped up for the last 11 months and I’m ready to break out!

I had a nice surprise this week when we headed up north for the first weekend of the cottage season – we got community wifi and cell phone service!!!

The question is – is this a good thing? My father is a little edgy about my younger sister playing with her phone all the time and I must admit the temptation to come in and fire up the intertubes is very odd. Obviously I am someone who has a very connected life so for me its a huge win BUT does it take away from the “up north” feel of Coe Hill?  I’m not sure just yet!

I’ve found this weekend I’ve been able to resist temptation but who knows. My will power will be put to the test this summer for sure

This is going to work out great however during my surgery recovery I’ll be able to come up here and recover in peace while being able to stay online and keep up with my work load. Throughout the summer it also means I’ll be able to work on various projects that I currently have on the go – projects in the summer for me are brutal because when you don’t have any weekend time it becomes very hard.

So is the internet and cell phone service in Coe Hill a good thing? It looks like, but I’m going to have to throw in a healthy dose of moderation

This post is a little late but I had a busy back-to-work week… my apologies on the delay.

For most people who go out of town on the weekends in North America the labour day weekend is seen as a bit of depressing weekend. Despite the weekend being a long weekend its met with regret as it marks the beginning of a very quick end to the cottage season.

The weather is quickly cooling down (night times are often dropping near frost levels now) and its quite easy to tell that fall is just around the corner.

I find it hard to complain that the season is essentially over after having such a killer summer. This was our second season with the ATVs and put on probably around 1500 kilometers taking in all kinds of trails. My dad and I have now traveled all of the major trails within the Eastern Ontario Trail Alliance trail system and we had a blast doing it this year.

Outside of ATVing we had a blast hanging out around the fire and spending time together with the family.

Last year you will remember my father and I went out for a week long ATV trip at the end of September. To deal with some work scheduling issues this year my Dad and I planned on going earlier and we decided to use the week following the labour day long weekend as our go date this year.

This year we spent three solid days on our ATVs. We were worried that we would not be able to cover the 500 kilometers we were planning on riding with just four days for the ride. We were also worried we would be fatigued beyond usefulness by the last days. Well we headed out of Coe Hill on Tuesday morning and headed east to Ompah (~150 Kilometers). Wednesday we headed north out of Ompah towards Barysvale. From Barysvale we headed south along the K&P trail to Sharbot Lake. From Sharbot Lake it was 2 hours west to Tweed under cloudy skies. We decided to stay at the Tweed Motel like we did last year and that brought Wednesday to a close (~300 kilometers). We got up on Thursday morning and headed west and then north along the 212 trail in to Madoc where we stopped for some breakfast. From Madoc it was a few hours north back home to Coe Hill bringing Thursday’s riding time to around 80 kilometers.

Some of the highlights of the trip: Seeing the $700,000 worth of fence around the dam in Barysvale (put up resulting from a tragic incident at the Barrett Chute Dam (read more), finally reaching the extreme east of the EOTA trail system, seeing the beautiful county maintained camp sites in North Frontenac, the trails north of Ompah which in many instances were just breath taking, getting a true appreciation for the men who in many cases gave their lives to build the Ontario rail system (which now makes up most of the trail networks in the province) and just coming closer to terms with the fact that I live in the most beautiful province in the most beautiful country in the entire world.

I will have pictures, etc to follow… It’s sad to see summer go but I have so much to look forward to with Paige coming this winter it is easy to move forward…