The Brown Knowser

DW always wanted a lap cat, one that would climb up on her and keep her company. And we had never had one before Finn. But where one cat will go, others will follow. Happy Friday!

Last year, I rode this route many times. This year, it seemed like I wouldn't even complete it once. It started off with DW and me looking for and finding the Osgoode Link Pathway, a disused railway line that has been turned into a recreational path and runs from Leitrim Road, near the Hyland Golf Club, all the way down to Buckles Street, in the south end of Osgoode. We rode out to Manotick and then followed Mitch Owens Road to Bakker's General Store, and then hooked a right, onto Manotick Station Road, and caught up with the pathway a few hundred metres down. The fine gravel path is a fairly straight line, heading south. Once we reached Osgoode Main Street, we'd follow it to Nixon Drive and then head back north, up to Snake Island Road, Roger Stevens Drive, and then Rideau Valley Drive, back to Manotick and then home. It was a 50-km route that DW considered her long ride. It became my medium-length route. But as I wanted to branch out and take longer rides, I'd sk...

I'm not known by the hats I wear. In fact, I don't really have a lot of hats that regularly don my head. Photo by Scott Oakley. I've worn my share of baseball caps, which are sensible over the summer for keeping the bright light off your face. I'd never wear it backwards—personally, I find it kind of looks dumb and defeats its purpose—except when I am shooting photography and the bill gets in the way as I bring the camera to my face. One of my favourite ball caps is my CBC Ottawa cap, which I won by answering some trivia questions about CBC Radio during Westfest, in Westboro. I like travelling with it because the CBC logo is about as recognizable as the Canadian maple leaf (the hat also says 'Ottawa' on the back). And, when I wear it while taking pictures, some folks assume that I'm covering a story for the news outlet and tend to cut me some slack, especially at music festivals (no need for a media pass). Sorry, it has just worked out that way. I didn...

We've been meaning to do this for several years. When we moved into our house, in 2000, we ordered beautiful oak furniture for our bedroom. The drawers were made of cedar, which apparently keeps the moths away (so far, so good). The small, family-owned company that made the furniture, by hand, was located near Montebello, Québec, and I remember how it took two very muscular young men a lot of effort to get the dressers up our stairs and into our bedroom. In our original layout, we didn't like how one of us had very little room from the edge of the bed to a wall, so after a couple of months, DW and I rearranged the furniture so that we both had lots of room on either side of the bed. And yeah, that furniture was a bitch to move. The only problem with the rearrangement was that one of the dressers, which also has a small door that hides shelves, didn't quite fit in one corner, so we had to place it on an angle in order for us not to bump into it. It's been in that sp...

Typically, when I use my smartphone to take a photo, I go with the automatic mode on the camera. I just point and shoot. No muss, no fuss. I can fix things up, later, in post production. But every once and a while, I like to override some of the automatic settings and take more control of the camera to see what it can really do. After all, the camera on my Samsung S10 is pretty damned good, sometimes rivalling the quality of my Nikon D-SLR cameras. In some instances, it even surpasses them. This year, I've used my smartphone to capture photos much more often than I have with my D-SLRs. Mostly, it's out of convenience; many times, it's out of laziness, not wanting to carry a bunch of gear with me when I can slip my phone into my back pocket. When DW and I were in Mexico, last February, I left my bigger cameras at home, opting to use only my smartphone or my 360-degree cameras . But when we head to Portugal, in September, I'm bringing both D-SLR bodies and at least t...

Photo: Google One of the things that I miss about being a kid in the summer is the Dickie-Dee person. I remember hearing the bells ringing from their handle bars long before you saw the person on the three-wheeled, freezer-forward cycle coming. My friends and I would drop what we were doing and rush to our homes, begging our mothers to give us some coins so that we could get our favourite cool treats. For me, I loved the Orange Creamsicles. I haven't had one in decades but I'll never forget the taste: a juicy orange popsicle shell with creamy vanilla ice cream inside. Last year, when Farm Boy , our local grocery store, came out with its own line of sparkling water, I tried the orange-vanilla flavour and it brought back memories of my childhood summer treat. Of course, without any sugar, this is not a sweet beverage but it does quench my thirst and is my favourite flavoured sparkling drink. When I learned that a Southern Ontario brewery came out with a creamsicle-flavoured ale, ...

With only 60 days before DW and I head to Portugal , there are things that we still need to do in preparation for our trip. Sure, we've booked our flights, our accommodation, some tours, and we've fleshed out our itinerary, but there is some other planning that still needs to happen. For example, we've learned what sizes of carry-on suitcase are required for various flights. Honestly, it kills me that every airline has it's own size limitation, and each time we fly, the size gets smaller and smaller. ( When I flew to South Korea, in 2019 , I was allowed one roller suitcase no taller than 21"—mine is 20"—and a secondary bag that was smaller—had to fit under the seat in front of me: I used a 20-litre backpack.) For this flight, the roller suitcase must be no taller than 20" (DW's is 21") and the secondary bag must be no more than 17" tall, which negates my Swiss Army backpack. I had to buy a new backpack that fit the personal-item dimensions...

For years in the 'before times,' I used to invite people to join me for photo walks and other photography opportunities. Rarely, am I the one who is invited to a photo meetup. A couple of weeks ago, I was invited by the Ottawa Instagram group, IgersOttawa , to participate in a rare photo opportunity, and I'm glad I went. Through IgersOttawa's organization and an offer through Interzip Rogers , about a dozen photographers were allowed to take the zipline across the Ottawa River from Chaudière Island to Gatineau and photograph it. The opportunity was rare because photography is not allowed on the zipline—all personal effects are stored in the office where you sign the waiver and collect your harness and other gear. We had to sign an agreement that said if we dropped any of our gear while crossing the river, it was an unfortunate mishap that was our fault and our fault alone. Too bad, so sad. I took my Insta360 One R camera and a selfie stick that I could tether around ...

For the first time, I didn't think I'd meet a challenge. Spoiler alert: challenge met. At the start of the month, I had joined a cycling challenge through my Garmin watch and its Connect app. I join these challenges almost every month during cycling season, knowing that I can complete it. June made these challenges difficult—to cycle a certain distance in a period of time, like 400 kilometres over the course of the month, or 100 kms in a week, or 40K over a weekend—because the weather was bad (either rain or gusting winds). I completed all of my June challenges and confidently joined the July challenges the same way, taking on all three of the aforementioned distance challenges. The challenge to complete 100 kms in a week ended last Saturday, and I came close to not meeting it. All because of my bike. Last Thursday, as I mentioned on Monday, the crank arm that was supposed to be repaired came loose during the first ride that I took after collecting it from the bike shop. I ...

It is rare that I see a new beer released, through social media, order that beer, and have it delivered to my door the very next day. It's even more rare to try that beer on the day that it arrives at my home and write a review of it. I think that this is the first time where both rare events have happened. One of my favourite Ottawa breweries posted a photo on Twitter and it immediately grabbed my attention. The photo showed a glass of hefeweizen, one of my favourite styles for the summer. It was the latest offering in a special series of brews and I knew I had to try it. I immediately placed my order, along with a Kölsch that was also new. It's summer and these styles are perfect on a hot day. The very next day, just after lunchtime, the beer showed up on my doorstep. I placed them in the refrigerator, got back to work, and cracked my first can open at dinnertime. That was yesterday. Let's take a look at this new brew. Hefeweizen : 174 Taproom Series Release 58 (4.7% ABV...

It's all that DW and I have been able to think about for the past few months: travel. I'm not talking about the kind of trips that we've made since the pandemic, once travel was permitted. We flew to Cuba—one of the safest countries in the world when it came to vaccinations and safe distancing, with masks. We also flew to the Mayan Riviera of Mexico, where we also made sure to mask up. There was little to no planning for those trips. We simply boarded our flights, gained transportation to our resorts, and relaxed. Eat, swim, eat, drink, lounge, eat, drink, sleep. And repeat. I've talked about these vacations in past posts and I've recently mentioned that DW and I have been planning our next vacation. We've researched, we've booked, we've made lists, and we've bought required supplies. And now I feel as though I can share those plans with you. We're heading to Portugal for just over two weeks in September. To be honest, Portugal was never re...

In the first six months of 2022, I only missed publishing a blog post once. The reason was beyond my control: the derecho that cut through Ottawa and knocked out power was to blame for that missed post. In the first full week of July, I missed two blog posts in a row. The first, because I was sick and didn't have the energy, much less the brain power, to write something meaningful; the next day, I just didn't have anything to say. I have more to say now. Coming off of a nasty throat infection that lasted almost a week, I feel somewhat renewed. I went for more than three days without eating solid food, relying on fruit smoothies and protein shakes, and my body felt a bit of a toxic purge. No junk food, no fats, and no booze. A bit of a clean slate. Needless to say that while I was sick, I didn't feel like riding my bicycle. On Canada Day, I had started a new virtual challenge through the Appalachian Trail, starting in Georgia, just north of Atlanta. The 3,167.6-kilometre tr...

I don't often have games on my smartphone and when I do, I rarely have more than two at a time and I tend to change them up from time to time. I don't go for the combat games that involve story lines, as I find they take a long time to play and can easily distract me for hours. And, believe me, in these times, when I find myself mostly confined to the home for work and daily life, I can be easily distracted. I like to go for games where my brain has to be engaged. Off and on over the years, I've downloaded Sudoku on my phone and set it up for the expert level. It can take me between five and 10 minutes to play and I feel a sense of accomplishment when I place the final number in the last vacant square. I'd play a couple of rounds while killing time and then take a break. When I've found that I've become bored with Sudoku, I've uninstalled it, tried another game, and have later re-installed it. But I've recently uninstalled Sudoku for the last time becaus...

It's the fastest virtual challenge I've ever taken. At the beginning of this year, as I was still finishing my virtual Route 66 trek of The Conqueror Virtual Challenges , I signed up for three more that I thought would take me to the end of 2022. In February, I started the Great Wall challenge , which wrapped up just over a week ago. Because that challenge took so long, I thought it would be good to do a shorter route, afterward. The Cabot Trail route, on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island, at 300 kilometres, seemed like a good way to go. Plus, having driven that route in the 90s with DW, it was familiar territory. I gave myself two weeks to complete the challenge, thinking that I could easily complete 21 kms each day, allowing for a decent ride every other day and then a short ride or long walk on alternating days. I finished the challenge in one week. It went so fast that I hardly had time to take this beautiful route in. I did stop, one evening, at Cape Breton Highlands N...

One of the things that bothered me the most about the extreme-right occupiers in Ottawa, last February, is how they spread their misinformation, disinformation, and hatred under the banner of being proud Canadians. That's not pride. It's not even being Canadian. From the moment they set their disruptive convoy in progress, waving our maple leaf—often, upside-down—it made me feel bad at seeing the symbol of our country used in such a disrespectful way, waving side-by-side with American flags, Confederate flags, and Nazi flags. That's not pride: that's a disgrace. (Note: waving the American flag in of itself is not disgraceful but it showed that the so-called issue with these protesters was akin to what happened on January 6, 2021, in Washington DC. I'm sure many decent Americans cringe to see their flag used in such a disrespectful, misguided way.) I am a proud Canadian. I like to see our flag fly high. I think our country can be a shining beacon, where people a...