. . . . Ricks Extra Long Summer . . . .: A year in numbers.

April 2nd update -
Ok, its now officially 1 (one) year since I got to Canada and as a special treat for myself, as well as because I woke up early and thought it was generally a good idea - I went for another run early today.
It ended up being my longest run to date and my first attempt at half marathon distance. I have sore toes and two midgets (small people, I mean no offense, for I too am of normal height, unlike these freaky giants you see everywhere) as I was saying - two midgets appear to be clinging onto my thighs and biting me in order to remain attached. At least that what it feels like!! As for the numbers - I ran the 13.1 miles in 1hr 56 minutes. Not bad I think.

The time split fluffy screen pic

A fluffier showing of the route thing

Anyway that was this morning and it now stands frozen in my memory of just under two hours that I will never get back. Just like the time you spend reading this blog now........ Sorry!!

Ok, back to normal programming......

Believe it or not, it is one year exactly on April 2^nd since I moved to Winnipeg. Although I haven’t had a job, I have been kept busy doing a lot of other stuff...so here for your perusiality, enjoymenticide and general interestingness is the year....in numbers.

I have been on 7 separate trips totalling 117days. This all includes 5,000km’s by train across Canada. I have had 7 rental cars in which I have driven nearly 20,000kms across 36 of the United States, meaning I have now visited 42 of the 50 states.

The first flight

I’ve taken 24 flights totalling over 15,000 kms and travelled through 15 different airports. My total distance travelled is a little over 50,000 kilometres.

In all these travels I have taken over 8000 photos and videos which take up more than 28Gigabytes of space.

Some of the snow

Back in Winnipeg I have spent nearly 200 hours learning to play the piano on two different keyboards – Little P and Big P. We have been to 1 wedding, 10 parties, over 20 quiz nights, seen more than 30 movies at the cinema and been to the theatre 6 times. At the latest party we won 1 television that is 46 inches corner to corner.

Big P

Little P

We have had 1 brilliant family Christmas with 1 game of boot hockey lasting 2 hours in minus 20 degrees.We have had lots of great family Sunday dinners, during which I normally spend a lot of time playing with 3 dogs. I also spent a long time playing wit the dogs on our 6 trips to the cabin, during which I drove 2 different boats, cleared 1 path, completed 1 jigsaw and Buffy built 1 dinosaur called Master.

A parking ticket!

A cleared path

With 3 dogs

Buffy building....

...Master, the dinosaur.

I have been out for nearly 130 runs totalling over 400 miles and am on my 2^nd pair of trainers. I have a lot more of that to come this year!

During those runs I have fallen on the ice 2 times, breaking 1 little finger, but that wasn’t the reason I had my 1 hospital visit where they took 2 X-rays and had three examinations that cost over $400 Canadian.

A nice day for.....

...a run.

We have been on one back country canoe trip, during which we canoed over 50 kms and capsized two times. One of these capsizes was over a huge (3 foot) waterfall during which I lost 1 shoe and broke 1 camera. On the way to and from the canoe trip Pats car broke down 2 times!

Continuing the car theme, we have attended 1 grand Prix race and I have personally had to pay 2 parking tickets even though I own 0 cars.

In summer the hottest day was 40 degrees Celsius and in the winter the coldest has been minus 47 degrees Celsius. That’s a swing of nearly 90 degrees from hot to cold!

More on the weather - have had over 157 days when there has been snow on the ground the total depth of which would be well over 150 centimetres. In that snow during the winter, we cut down 3 large Christmas trees and were accosted by 1 strange man who thought we were on his land.