Ness’ Outpost

We all went to Grant and Chantal’s for her big 3-Oh! early surprise birthday party. After a great night of Indian food, blender alchemy, cup cakes and board games Adriana and myself woke up just after the crack of dawn to go fishing.

On the ride up to Guelph we found a live bait vending machine at a gas station (yes, I know… vending machine at a Pioneer) but they were not stocked any more since it is a little out of season now. It was too late to find a bait shop in Guelph so we were stuck with artificial tubes. After finishing our coffees with lazy fishing — cast, catch the bottom and let your bait float on a secondary line just off the bottom, wait, repeat — we decided that more active means of catching fish should be sought out. So we went back to Grants place, I dug for some worms in the garden and we tried that again in the river behind Grants.

The Jack (aka Northern Pike) showed up below the spillway in the river, it was my 3rd or 4th cast and I had him on. A beauty of a fish he made 3 or 4 good runs before tiring and calmly coming into the shallows. We had a hard time landing him as my net with a 1′ diameter and about a 1′6″ rubber netting basket was far too small. I suggested the scoop onto shore method that didn’t work out so well so I started to manhandle the fish on the line and pull him up over the 1′ break wall we were standing on. A quick bite of the line — I didn’t tie on a leader, and now I’m kicking myself for it — and the Jack was off with my lure! A short distance release.

Ah well, Adriana and myself had a good look at him struggling to get him onto shore he was easily just under two feet long and a beauty of a fish. If you catch him, and a 1 ounce blue and silver little cleo is stuck in his lip let me know. I’d like my lure back, it’s caught a few fish.

Last night my hockey skate blade was loose and I couldn’t tighten it. There are 3 bolts on each of my Mission skates which I bought in the late ’90s.

I played on them last night since there are 2 other bolts still holding the blade in the plastic holder but when I walk “heel to toe” on the rubber mats the steel noticeably moves around instead of just creaking.

Before my game today I took them into a hockey shop near the rink. These guys specialize in hockey. There were a pair of Graf’s on the wall for $750. The younger guy in the shop started talking about drilling out the bolt since it is was just spinning and wouldn’t tighten any more. The problem being that they can’t get any hardware for the skates since they are at least 7 years old.

The shop couldn’t help me so I played on them again. I don’t think they affected me on the ice, but on the bench they sounded bad and I was a little concerned about going over the boards and cracking the steel blade when I landed. I’ve done that before and had them replaced just a year ago now it seems.

On the way to pick up Laurens car at the rental place we stopped off at the Hockey Experts store on Burhamthorpe near Mavis. The guys there took it in, started breaking them down and checking things out. Then they discovered the plastic holder was eaten into by tightening the bolts over and over again. Using a copper rivet and a nylon washer they were able to tighten the bolt down.

It doesn’t quite use a stick of gum, a scuba mask and a lighter, but hopefully it holds out until Christmas time. There should be a new pair of Mission skates on sale with my name on them.

The guys at Hockey Experts were amazing and didn’t charge me a thing for their time and a few pieces of hardware. A great experience even though the floor staff is young the guys behind the counter at the repair shop knew their skates. I’d suggest you visit for your repair and replace needs.

Good ol’ Bobby Tables. A good giggle from XKCD.

Lauren and I went to the Toronto FC game vs. New York Red Bulls at BMO field. It’s at the Exhibition grounds which is right by the lake. There was some interesting weather patterns moving through the area and we were submerged inside a cloud for most of the game. The good news is even though everything was moist there wasn’t any problems seeing the pitch. There isn’t a seat more than 60 to 80 rows back at the field and I don’t think there actually is a bad seat in the house.

I took this neat shot of the field, CN tower and light stand at the game. The fog rolling in off the lake gives it a much softer look.

We had a scotch egg which is a hard boiled egg surrounded with sausage meat, battered and deep fried. Yup, it was as good as it sounded.