It took three more days of sorting and boxing, but the basement is almost empty now. This video was recorded Tuesday, Jan 12th, 2010. On Monday we took 455kg of stuff to the dump, and last night we took 475kg more. There’s some other crap remaining around the house, but for the most part, it’s coming along swimmingly.

After an initial clean on the messy basement on Friday, Jan 8th, 2010, I recorded a quick video for Molly to show her my progress. As you can see, at this point, there was a LOT to do.

Tonight while cleaning out the basement of the house I grew up in, it occured to me that most kids these days wouldn’t recognize the media formats of old that I was coming across.

I will fully admit it: I didn’t ride my bike as much as I should have this past year, but in my defense, I’ve been extremely busy with all the extra duties that have been thrust upon me since my Father passed away. Unfortunately, the lack of extra physical activity has taken it’s toll… and I am no longer as light as I used to be.

That’s where the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine comes into play. On the recommendation of Simon, I sought out this wonderful device, and purchased it for winter use. Sure, I could go to more spinning classes (read: go back to spinning classes), but I find that I’d rather do more physical activity at home, listening to the music that I like, and not have to spend $20 per class, and also ride the TTC home afterwards being all sweaty and looking wiped out.

One thing though: my bike has off-road tires. They’ve come in handy over the few years I’ve had this bike, as I’ve never had to worry about sticking to the road when riding on the unbeaten path would be faster, yet the treads make a HELL of a racket on the Road Machine, so I decided to switch to the Tioga City Slicker tires I bought last April and never got around to putting them on.

And that is where the fun began.

In the entire time I’ve ever owned a bike, I’ve never had to change a tire. I count myself as lucky in this regard, yet it left me completely clueless as to what I had to do should I ever need to replace a flat tire. No idea where to start. I should have been able to figure it out, but didn’t feel up to some trial and error, and thankfully I had my Macbook nearby and found a video showing how to do it. Ahhhh, the power of the internet.

So, with all that out of the way, and the new City Slicker tire on the rear, and now connected to the Road Machine, I now have yet another exercise device in out apartment. Which I can ignore and procrastinate using. Money well spent.

These past few weeks have been spent sorting through my Granny’s apartment and getting rid of the old stuff we know she wouldn’t want, keeping the family stuff for future generations, and putting other things she needs into a pile to take over to her new home. Without my Mom’s extensive help, Molly and I certainly would NOT have finished in time for the end of the month… which is tomorrow. Mom, a thousand “thank you”s!!!

One of the items we found was a fake fur coat that resembles mink. I don’t think I seen my Granny wear this more than twice in the last 15 years, so it is obviously something she doesn’t need anymore, and we were going to give it to one of Molly’s friends. I opted to put it on and model it, and quickly realised that I looked almost like a pimp. The only hat we had on hand was my Father’s leather hat he got years back, so the resulting image is a mix of hilarious and disturbing. Check it out:

Yeah man, that's the shiznit.

I took it off pretty quickly afterwards because I was roasting in that thing… and also because I didn’t really think it suited me. I mean, come on… it TOTALLY doesn’t go with that hat.