Joe Tinoco

#3goodthings of my road trip, day 5 (Quebec -> Montebello)

• We had dinner at Parc Omega, where the restaurant overlooks the wildlife reserve. We ate by the lake, watching the sunset while a bear and three cubs had a nap nearby.
• We'll sleep in the park, in a cabin with enormous glass windows called "wolf lodge", for obvious reasons.
• When all the lights in the cabin were turned off, I saw something I haven't seen since my childhood: fireflies.

#3goodthings for today:

• I did not panic during my frigid 750m swim in Lake Ontario.
• Did my fastest 20km bike ride on the Gardiner, under the skydome and the tower.
• Ran a decent 5k to close out today's triathlon.

#3goodthings of my road trip, day 1 (Montreal)

• I still can't believe I woke up, got on my bike, and 15 minutes later I was doing laps on a Formula One circuit!
• Even the ride from downtown to the circuit was outstanding. You ride through the port with the city skyline to your left and the iconic Habitat 67 to your right.
• We got rained out of La Ronde, but I got the kids on the stroller and shook it and tilted it into a makeshift rollercoaster. They laughed their little bums out.

#3GoodThings of my road trip, day 2 (Montreal -> Quebec)

• So many older folks on ebikes around here - but I'm a bit disturbed by the folks without helmets. Wear your brain bucket, people.
• My wife recovered from her stomach flu. I was bracing for solo parenting, glad this took a turn for the best.
• A road trip tradition: my kid plays Cascada's "Everytime we touch" in the car and we all pump our fists up in the air for the chorus.

#3goodthings of my road trip, last day (Parc Omega, QC -> Greater Toronto, ON)

• I spent 7+ hours driving, and for the first two I had a huge traffic jam... of elk and deer circling the cars to be fed with carrots. The kids loved it.
• Later, Canada was losing the game, the restaurant we were in was gloomy... until my kid spontaneously decided to yell "GO CANADA!!" out of nowhere.
• It was fun, but we're all thrilled to be back home. The kid is so excited he's even helping mom make dinner!

I'm having a "fuck yeah #opensource" moment right now.

My bike computer's maps are incomplete and outdated. Luckily, they were generated with an open source library (Mapsforge).

There are several Github repos with scripts to convert up-to-date #OpenStreetMap data extracts into the proper format.

It's a ton of data - it took me the whole morning to download and convert just my province - but now I can see every little bike path in my neighbourhood.

https://github.com/fernandoglatz/igpsport-map-updater

I thought the amount of competing standards in tech was bad. Then I started digging into bike parts...

I'm shopping for a power meter. This is the selection dropdown for you to find your compatible crank arm... for ONE vendor.

I'm a bit baffled about how accurate and detailed the cycling information is on OpenStreetMaps, even in my car-centric suburb.

It shows all marked trails, all bike paths, if they're paved or not, which streets have bike paths (and their type). I have so much to explore now.

I found out Virginia Tech tests the safety of thousands of helmets and publishes the rankings online.

Great resource when purchasing a new one... and an endless source of frustration because all good options are expensive, don't have my size, don't have good colours, or don't ship to Canada...

https://www.helmet.beam.vt.edu/

I do care a lot about politics and all injustice in this world. However, I seldom post about it because:

- Hot takes don't change anything. Voting and local organizing does.
- It makes me feel momentarily good (because venting), often at the price of you feeling momentarily bad.
- It reinforces the illusion of "being informed by social media", which is how we got here in the first place.

I'll stick to talking about ambient music or whatever cool thing my kid did lately.

I rode my bike north, into and past the farmland, so much so that the roads turned to gravel.

Then I found asphalt again, but I was so far away from everything that the only other person on the road was another cyclist: a skinny, gray bearded man.

"That's me in the future", I thought.

My first charity bike ride is in about a month - I'm late for fundraising 😬

All donations go towards dementia research. My goal is CAD 200, but any amount is appreciated If you want to help out. And if you're in Canada, it's tax deductible 😉

Boosts appreciated.

https://support.baycrestfoundation.org/site/Donation2?df_id=1500&PROXY_ID=1088508&PROXY_TYPE=20&FR_ID=1180

Damn, I need to send a WhatsApp message, but I don't have my phone on me.

Good thing I have the convenience of WhatsApp in my smart watch, all I have to do is open it and...

The New Yorker is notorious for its cover art, but I gotta tell ya... the cover for this week's issue, with the Sam Altman exposé, is just brilliant.

Today we were all reminded of the importance of words. But let's not reminisce the bad, let's strengthen the good instead.

I really liked this podcast episode from CBC with a pick of six poems for World Poetry Day. I caught myself teary eyed while taking out the trash when the Rupi Kaur poem came up. And the episode happened to include *my* favourite (by Dorothy Parker, quickly read before her "main" poem), which made me extra happy.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/unesco-world-poetry-day-9.7138897

#3GoodThings of my road trip, day 0 (Toronto -> Montreal)

• What a brilliant idea to stop at Kingston for lunch. There was a World Cup event downtown, perfect for the kids.

• After eating we caught a show by a local band called The Astros. They sound like a pop version of Pavement (and that's a compliment).

• The new hitch and bike rack worked great. The feeling of "my bike is going to fall off on the 401" lasted only the first couple hours.

#3goodthings of my road trip, day 2 (Quebec City)

• Water park day with the kid. He's scared of everything new, but I managed to convince him to try some new slides, which he loved.
• I noticed the dads clutching a beer outside of the pool and I was glad I'm not one of them. I haven't had a drink in almost four years now.
• Squeezed in a good run early in the morning. I'm not on Instagram anymore, but you should see how aesthetic my GymRats check-ins have been lately...

#3goodthings of my road trip, day 3 (Quebec City)

• Happy Canada Day! The water park was ultra-busy, but I'm happy to report my parenting resilience was tougher.
• As I was melting down waiting to buy ice cream, someone went down the big water slide (pictured) screaming EXACTLY like in the old Woody Woodpecker cartoons.
• Driving back from breakfast we passed roughly one biker every kilometer, and several group rides. And tomorrow morning it's my turn.

#3goodthings of my road trip, day 4 (Quebec City)

• Last day of water parks. We squeezed in some adult fun with some time at the old city.
• I cycled 60km today, mostly on the Route Vert, a stunning bike path, built over old railway tracks, that goes straight into the old city centre. We did it the European way, with a stop for coffee and croissants.
• This vacation is going so well my kid had a good cry at bedtime because it's the last day at the hotel. "I wanna stay forever", he said.