Answering common search queries

Like a lot of people, I use a stats service to see how people get to my site. Some people are looking on the wrong site. Since I'm a decent sort of chap, here's my attempt to redirect future searchers.

Where to go on a walk in Halifax: Go to the trails database at http://trails.gov.ns.ca. Also covers kayaking trails (in the sea, of course), snowmobile and biking (though I'd recommend using a mountain bike for most of the trails, or a hybrid if you're feeling brave).

where in nova scotia is cheese made: Beats me. Try the farmer's market. There's five listed on their web site alone.

mec low rider rack installation: Yes, person from mec.ca who visited this site trying to figure it out, it's a real pain that there's no instructions included, isn't it? Install it the same as it looks in the picture on the website, the only bits that aren't obvious is the plated side (with the three knobby bits towards the back) faces out, and the U bolts go through the rack, then through the small piece of plate, and then the two nuts go on after that.

weather tomorrow halifax NS: Environment Canada Weather. The Weather Network.

Proofide Canada: http://shop.cycletherapy.ca/ProductInfo~productid~SA1250.html. As good a place as any, I'd say. Any bikes shop that buys through Norco can now buy Brooks products through them, so your LBS may be able to buy it too.

flu in nova scotia, may, 2006: There was flu in Nova Scotia in May, my doctor told me so. The strep throat was what really sucked for me, though.

bike lane halifax: Few and far between. It's also legal to park in them so long as your vehicle isn't more than 4.5 metres into the road. Use the back roads instead, there's usually hardly any traffic in the side streets and it's faster anyway, since you normally only have to wait for a gap in traffic on arterial roads to cross, instead of hanging around at traffic lights.

steve bike halifax (and various permutations thereof): You're allowed to bookmark this site, you don't have to keep looking on Google for the URL (http://hfxbike.blogspot.com, by the way). I'm rather curious to know why people read my blog that way - feel free to post a comment!

Ride home for Wednesday, 31 May

Bit of a breezy ride home, seemed like one of those days where I was constantly riding into headwinds. The rest of the week is supposed to be wet and windy, which is going to suck for my after hours gig tomorrow night. Next week is Bike Week in Halifax - it looks like it's going to have a damp start on Sunday.

Distance logged: 14.787km
Time: 43:01
Average speed: 20.6km/hr
Max speed: 52.3 km/hr
Temperature: 18C, breezy
Cumulative distance: 3114.648km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.48
Monthly distance: 472.391km
Monthly cost per km: $0.48

Ride into work for Wednesday, 31 May

Took a slightly longer route into work as it was so nice out, but I didn't have quite enough time to take the long route due to the sprog deciding he wanted to play rather than get ready for school. Booked my vacation today, 3 weeks spread over the next 2 months so I'll be home when the sprog has his operations. With any luck, I'll be able to wangle a few days to ride up to Cape Breton to go drinking visit some friends, too.

Distance logged: 14.505km
Time: 36:55
Average speed: 23.6km/hr
Max speed: 61.1 km/hr
Temperature: 12C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 3099.861km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.48
Monthly distance: 457.604km
Monthly cost per km: $0.50

Ride home for Tuesday, 30 May

I seem to be picking up a bit more speed now - the weight I lost due to being sick is overtaking the effects of being sick. I can't recommend it as a weight loss measure, so I don't think I've found an easy way to make a million.

Distance logged: 14.449km
Time: 41:29
Average speed: 20.9km/hr
Max speed: 55.6 km/hr
Temperature: 20C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 3085.356km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.48
Monthly distance: 443.099km
Monthly cost per km: $0.52

Ride into work for Tuesday, 30 May

Rode into work without anything of any event happening, which I'm not complaining about at all.

Distance logged: 12.479km
Time: 33:16
Average speed: 22.5km/hr
Max speed: 57.7 km/hr
Temperature: 10C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 3070.907km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.48
Monthly distance: 428.650km
Monthly cost per km: $0.53

Ride home for Monday, 29 May

Left early as I was feeling iffy again - seems like my stomach's never going to settle again.

Distance logged: 13.718km
Time: 39:43
Average speed: 20.7km/hr
Max speed: 51.2 km/hr
Temperature: 23C, humid
Cumulative distance: 3058.428km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.49
Monthly distance: 416.171km
Monthly cost per km: $0.55

Ride into work for Monday, 29 May

My legs are finally starting to recover from last Thursday, it's no longer quite so painful to walk around. I'll probably do it all again this Thursday, maybe it won't be quite so bad next time round?

Distance logged: 12.490km
Time: 32:10
Average speed: 23.3km/hr
Max speed: 65.4 km/hr
Temperature: 12C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 3044.710km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.49
Monthly distance: 402.453km
Monthly cost per km: $0.57

Ride for Saturday, 27 May

Rode downtown and dropped in at the office to check on a server that was having problems. Left my bike there, walked down to the pub, and met up with a bunch of friends and had a few drinks. Came back, headed home, and enjoyed a nice cool ride in the dark home.

Distance logged: 26.480km
Time: 81:57
Average speed: 19.4km/hr
Max speed: 53.5 km/hr
Temperature: 16C-13C, clear
Cumulative distance: 3032.220km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.49
Monthly distance: 389.963km
Monthly cost per km: $0.59

Ride home for Friday, 26 May

Distance logged: 14.425km
Time: 44:47
Average speed: 19.3km/hr
Max speed: 50.8 km/hr
Temperature: 15C, windy
Cumulative distance: 3005.740km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.49
Monthly distance: 363.483km
Monthly cost per km: $0.63

Ride into work for Friday, 26 May

My legs are still aching, I don't think I'm going to be doing very much. I dumped the photos I took yesterday in a temporary folder. I tried to go for contrast and difference, I think some efforts worked better than others. Any tips on improving composition and photo skills would be appreciated! I haven't cropped or equalised any of the images yet, I'm hoping I can coax some better quality images out of these...

Distance logged: 12.51km
Time: 37:24
Average speed: 20.1km/hr
Max speed: 59.1 km/hr
Temperature: 10C, breezy
Cumulative distance: 2991.315km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.5
Monthly distance: 349.058km
Monthly cost per km: $0.65

Ride home for Thursday, 25 May

Went to IdealBikes and took photos of several bikes. I took the bikes out to random sites around Halifax, which meant riding bikes that were pretty much universally several sizes too small. I got quite a bit of attention, specially when I was riding the girl's bikes! Riding the smaller bikes wore out my legs, though; I went round to a friend's place afterwards to try and rest my legs, I ended up leaving after midnight and taking a very slow ride home. The headwinds I hit didn't really help, either...

Distance logged: 17.591km
Time: 68:32
Average speed: 15.4km/hr
Max speed: 44 km/hr
Temperature: 16C-9C, breezy
Cumulative distance: 2978.805km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.5
Monthly distance: 336.548km
Monthly cost per km: $0.68

Ride into work for Thursday, 25 May

Went for a chiropractor's appointment this morning, which worked out the kinks from lying on my side due to strep throat and antibiotics. Took the short way into the office as I was starting to get a bit tired...

Distance logged: 32.852km
Time: 83:30
Average speed: 23.6km/hr
Max speed: 54.7 km/hr
Temperature: 10C-13C, sunny, breezy
Cumulative distance: 2961.214km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.5
Monthly distance: 318.957km
Monthly cost per km: $0.72

Ride home for Wednesday, 24 May

Picked up my bike from IdealBikes. The mechanic who tested my bike said he was wondering who the bike belonged to, as he could "only just reach the pedals, I've never seen a bike this big". Since he was smaller and lighter than me, he didn't catch the frame flexing enough that the lowest gear didn't quite work, and the tyre rubbed on the frame. After the rubbing started getting really bad, I pulled over and leaned my bike against a tree on the sidewalk and too a look.I fixed the tyre rubbing by loosening the axle nut on the drive side, pulling the wheel back a smidgen, and retightening the nut - a bit tricky with two hands, but I made it by using my forehead on the saddle to keep to bike still. I backed out the lower limit screw on the rear derailleur enough to get 1st gear working, and I was good to go.

Distance logged: 13.856km
Time: 40:08
Average speed: 20.7km/hr
Max speed: 46.6 km/hr
Temperature: 11C, cloudy, intermittent light drizzle
Cumulative distance: 2928.362km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.51
Monthly distance: 286.105km
Monthly cost per km: $0.8

Ride into work for Wednesday, 24 May

My order from Probikekit.com arrived, they had a bunch of winter gear on sale that I picked up, plus some other odds and ends that looked interesting (a bell with a built-in compass, a cheap wedge bag, a bandanna, handlebar extender).

Today's muppet was Nova Scotia license plate CTU 109. I was at the traffic lights at the front, waiting for the red light to change, when a car came up and straddled the lane next to me. She then crept forward with her wheels pointing to the right, looking like she wanted to jackrabbit in front of me and turn right. The lights changed and she hesitated, so I went ahead, and then Miss Muppet accelerated hard (it sounded like a manual transmission as it didn't seem to get out of first gear) and swerved around me. The amusing thing is that at the next traffic light, I was in the left lane and spun past her in the right lane as she waited for the traffic to clear in front of her.

I took the Nishiki in to IdealBikes (hmmm, just noticed they exceeded their bandwidth allocation for the month, they must be busy!) and Roger promised to put a new cassette on for me today. He's going to try to put a 6 speed cassette on, which with any luck should give me a wider range of gears at the low end - some of the hills in Halifax are a touch difficult with the gears I had on there. I'm hoping the weather will stay clear for the ride home - the weather forecast was saying a mix of sun and cloud today, now it's changed back to 40% chance of rain...

Distance logged: 12.434km
Time: 33:05
Average speed: 22.1km/hr
Max speed: 55.2 km/hr
Temperature: 8C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2914.506km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.5
Monthly distance: 272.249km
Monthly cost per km: $0.73

Ride home for Tuesday, 23 May

Riding home uphill was painful after being off the bike for so long. As the forecast is rain tomorrow I'll be riding the mountain bike, if the weather turns out dry I'll probably ride the touring bike for the easier gears...

Distance logged: 14.455km
Time: 41:53
Average speed: 20.7km/hr
Max speed: 48 km/hr
Temperature: 16C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2902.072km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.47
Monthly distance: 259.815km
Monthly cost per km: $0.36

Ride into work for Tuesday, 23 May

Found out the hard way that the cog for 4th gear is worn, and the 5th gear feels a little bit iffy, too. My brakes were also squealing like crazy, which was handy when a muppet decided to be in the same lane as me driving parallel - banshee brakes made the muppet slow right down with a worried look on his face.

Distance logged: 12.511km
Time: 31:26
Average speed: 23.9km/hr
Max speed: 62.1 km/hr
Temperature: 9C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2887.617km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.47
Monthly distance: 245.360km
Monthly cost per km: $0.38

Maintenance day

Since today was a holiday, it was raining, and I'm still getting a few twinges from the aftereffects of the antibiotics, I decided to do a bit of work on the Nishiki. The freewheel was rather loud so I flushed it out with oil to see if that would quiet it down. It helped a bit, but it's still noisy, so I figure it must just be noisy as-is. The chain needed changing after 450km of wear (plus whatever the previous owner put on it) so I put on the only chain I had, a KMC 8 speed chain. I'd rather have a beefier 5 speed chain but they don't seem to be particularly available any more. I think it's going to be iffy finding a 6 speed cassette when the time comes for a new one, let alone a 5 speed - all I could find was a 6 speed at Nashbar, and the best I could find at the usual places in Canada was 8 speed...

I realigned the rear brakes while I was at it, and trued out a bump in the wheel. I think a truing stand and spoke tensiometer are going to be the next tools to pick up as I wasn't overly pleased at the truing - two of the spokes still felt a bit loose, even though the rim was fairly true...

Ride home for Wednesday, 17 May

Started getting stomach cramps on the way home, and it turned into a race to get home before, well, something untoward happened. I just managed to make it home in time, and spent the evening visiting the bathroom. I went to see the doctor today, and she said that it was either the flu, or more likely the antibiotics I was taking. She recommended I eat more live yoghurt (a big bowl after every meal) than I have been (a small bowl after supper), and also some cheese. So, for lunch, I had a loaf of fresh bread with gorgonzola cheese, blue cheese with cranberries, and Havarti with olive and oregano. I then had a big bowl of muesli with Activia. I think all this food should (a) replace the killed bacteria, and (b) replace the 6 lbs I lost last week with strep throat...

Distance logged: 12.531km
Time: 37:02
Average speed: 20.2km/hr
Max speed: 54.7 km/hr
Temperature: 17C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2875.106km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.47
Monthly distance: 232.849km
Monthly cost per km: $0.4

Ride into work for Wednesday, 17 May

It was a bit foggy/misty out after a thunderstorm last night. I changed the pedals on the Nishiki last night, the right pedal was feeling a bit crunchy - I think the bearings are starting to go. Didn't see very many people cycling into work today, go figure...

Distance logged: 12.481km
Time: 32:06
Average speed: 23.3km/hr
Max speed: 58.6 km/hr
Temperature: 8C, foggy, breezy
Cumulative distance: 2862.575km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.47
Monthly distance: 220.318km
Monthly cost per km: $0.43

Ride home for Tuesday, 16 May

The "possibility of scattered showers in the late afternoon" became "rainshowers" before I left. I found out the hard way that I'd left my rain pants at home in my panniers, so I just had kneewarmers to protect me from the rain. Fortunately it wasn't too cold, so it wasn't as painful as it might have been. The steel rims on the Nishiki really aren't suited to wet weather; I had to brake hard and early, and when a car decided to pull out in front of me I had to supplement with the Flintstone brakes. I think tomorrow I'll be taking the mountain bike in...

Distance logged: 15.235km
Time: 44:13
Average speed: 20.7km/hr
Max speed: 45.1 km/hr
Temperature: 13C, raining
Cumulative distance: 2850.094km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.47
Monthly distance: 207.837km
Monthly cost per km: $0.45

Ride into work for Tuesday, 16 May

A foggy, damp ride in. I decided to take the Nishiki out as I hadn't ridden it in a while. The dampness made the wheels squeal like crazy, which seemed to shock drivers who wanted to drive in parallel with me for some reason. Squeezing harder on the brakes stopped the squeal, so it turned into a handy little trick to keep cars away...

Distance logged: 12.516km
Time: 31:36
Average speed: 23.8km/hr
Max speed: 59.1 km/hr
Temperature: 8C, foggy
Cumulative distance: 2834.859km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.48
Monthly distance: 192.602km
Monthly cost per km: $0.49

Ride home for Monday, 15 May

Left work early as the air in the building was making me feel iffy again. Took a shorter route home, about 20 minutes into the ride I started feeling better, although still not 100%.

Distance logged: 13.098km
Time: 40:0
Average speed: 19.6km/hr
Max speed: 53.3 km/hr
Temperature: 23C, sunny, breezy
Cumulative distance: 2822.343km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.48
Monthly distance: 180.086km
Monthly cost per km: $0.52

Ride into work for Monday, 15 May

Saw a lot more cyclists this morning, the downside of this is that the muppet cyclists out there seem to have pissed off drivers more than usual; I was buzzed closely by several cars this morning. I think I'll have to look into a flash flag to hang off my rack - it's amazing how unwilling drivers are to scratch their own vehicle, but they're quite happily to drive dangerously close to another...

Distance logged: 12.727km
Time: 31:33
Average speed: 24.2km/hr
Max speed: 56.9 km/hr
Temperature: 11C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2809.245km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.48
Monthly distance: 166.988km
Monthly cost per km: $0.56

Ride for Sunday, 14 May

Took the sprog out for a ride in the trailer so the wife could have some peace and quiet for Mother's Day. After about half an hour, however, he decided he was hungry, so we headed back for lunch. After that, he decided he wanted to go for a walk instead of back in the trailer. At least I got out in the first decent weather for a while...

Distance logged: 6.059km
Time: 21:14
Average speed: 17.1km/hr
Max speed: 51.3 km/hr
Temperature: 16C, breezy
Cumulative distance: 2796.518km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.48
Monthly distance: 154.261km
Monthly cost per km: $0.61

Ride for Saturday, 13 May

Went out to get a Mother's Day card, and some new gardening gloves. I ended up going to Walmart, since it was the only store at Bayer's Lake with a bike rack outside. I picked up some more wool socks while I was there, since mine are starting to wear through. Next, I went to Home Depot (two bike racks, although for some reason there was a woman with a hot dog stand in front of them who looked bemused to see someone actually using the bike rack). I picked up some flower seeds for the front garden, and when I got home I took the sprog outside and we planted seeds - or more accurately, I planted the seeds while the sprog "helped" by tearing up clover and scattering it around on the lawn.

After all that activity after doing essentially nothing but sleep all week... I feel like it's time for a nap.

Distance logged: 8.175km
Time: 22:36
Average speed: 21.7km/hr
Max speed: 55.8 km/hr
Temperature: 13C-15C, breezy
Cumulative distance: 2790.459km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.48
Monthly distance: 148.202km
Monthly cost per km: $0.63

No more riding this week

The doctor diagnosed me as having a bad case of strep throat, so I have to take penicillin and be confined to bed rest for the rest of the week. Just as well, as the weather looks pretty damp for the rest of the week. Hopefully I should be better by the weekend - just in time for the sun to return!

Ride home for Monday, 08 May

Left work early as I'm coming down with something. Glad I had my touring bike with me for the lower gears, I needed them. Going to the doctor to find out if it's just the flu, or if it's tonsillitis (as my tonsils are massively swollen). What fun.

Distance logged: 13.582km
Time: 42:01
Average speed: 19.4km/hr
Max speed: 51.2 km/hr
Temperature: 15C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2782.284km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.48
Monthly distance: 140.027km
Monthly cost per km: $0.54

Ride into work for Monday, 08 May

Distance logged: 12.705km
Time: 34:54
Average speed: 21.8km/hr
Max speed: 52.5 km/hr
Temperature: 5C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2768.702km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.48
Monthly distance: 126.445km
Monthly cost per km: $0.6

Maintenance day

Cleaned up the sprogette's new bike; mostly some surface rust on the wheels, and I cleaned the chain and pumped up the tyres. Other than that, it was good to go, so next week she'll be able to get out on it - Monday's supposed to be nice weather.

Cleaned the mountain bike after riding it in the crappy weather on Thursday and then again yesterday. The chain is getting near the end of its life, next time I clean it I'll put a new one on.

Cleaned the road bike, all it really needed doing was a chain cleaning. I figured out an interesting new way to get more of the gunk out of it; wash in a chain cleaner as normal (first wash hot clean water, second wash chain cleaner, then two washes of hot clean water), dry it off, then spray the chain slowly with WD40 while holding the chain underneath with a rag to catch overspray. Once the whole chain has been coated with WD40, run it through the WD40-soaked rag. Then (and this is the interesting bit) rinse the chain out with hot clean water again. There were huge quantities of gunk stuck to the magnet in the chain cleaner, as well as gunked up WD40 stuck to the sides of the chain cleaner. It took 5 washes before the amount of gunk coming out started to subside, and I gave up after another 5 washes. I assume the clean water was forcing the WD40 out of the chain, which was in turn transporting all the really fine gunk that the chain cleaning fluid couldn't get out.

Ride for Friday, 05 May

Took the sprog out in the bike trailer to go for icecream after supper - or, to be precise, more icecream, since I had icecream for dessert anyway. After sharing a small tub of cherry vanilla icecream at the farmer's market, we set off to find the fog rolling in and a fairly precipitous temperature drop, so we headed home and I dropped off the sprog and took the bike trailer off. I then headed down to the liquor store to pick up a bottle of wine, a bottle of port and a 6 pack of Cadian Ale; after riding so much this week I felt the need to do some carbo-loading, and there's nothing like alcohol for that...

Distance logged: 7.906km
Time: 28:46
Average speed: 16.5km/hr
Max speed: 57.1 km/hr
Temperature: 17C-12C, sunny becoming foggy
Cumulative distance: 2755.997km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.48
Monthly distance: 113.740km
Monthly cost per km: $0.67

Ride for Friday, 05 May

Went into work today to pick up my temporary cellphone; great ride in with clear weather and a warm temperature.

Went to get the sprogette's new bike last night and, as promised, it was a free exchange. Quite a deal, she handed in a 5 speed CCM Canadian Tyre clunker and got a fairly light twelve speed back - she was very happy with the deal!

Distance logged: 31.067km
Time: 81:11
Average speed: 23km/hr
Max speed: 55.9 km/hr
Temperature: 11C-13C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2748.091km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.48
Monthly distance: 105.834km
Monthly cost per km: $0.71

Ride for Thursday, 04 May

Went to Bedford for a Dr's appointment. Found on the way back that some car drivers really don't like being overtaken by a bike, even if they've got no way of moving their car in any case.

Stopped off at IdealBikes to see if there was a microadjust seat post in the pile that would fit the Nishiki, since the clamp is now a mangled pile of metal and the seatpost is most charitably described as "damaged". Roger went digging through for the best part of 20 minutes but couldn't find anything, so he picked out a seatpost from the Norco catalogue that he reckoned should do the trick, and it should be in on Monday. I noticed a girl's bike going for $50 on my way out, and I asked one of the other mechanics about it. He said if the sprogette's bike was in good condition that they'd probably be happy to swap it for me, and if not I'd at least get some tradein out of it. We're going to go down after supper to take a look, the sprogette should hopefully have a new bike that fits her after this!

Distance logged: 44.160km
Time: 110:03
Average speed: 24km/hr
Max speed: 55.4 km/hr
Temperature: 8C-12C, cloudy, intermittent drizzle
Cumulative distance: 2717.024km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.49
Monthly distance: 74.767km
Monthly cost per km: $1.01

Ride for Monday, 01 May

Rode into work and back as I had to do some billing, and also go and get a present for Mother's Day. An uneventful ride, until on the way back I found I had a black Ford F150 truck hanging right behind me going down Summit street off Oxford. I took a right onto Connolly Street, and the truck zoomed past me, then squealed to a stop 40 meters up the street. I figured it was just some kid feeling inadequate about the size of his penis until I passed the truck and saw the older guy driving it lean out of his window and shout something I can only render as "blarp!"; it may have been something intelligible but I couldn't tell what it was. I smiled and nodded at him and continued on, and heard him squeal off behind me again. Coming up to the stop sign at Connolly and Almon I could hear him revving his engine as if he was thinking about overtaking me, but he left it way too late, so I stopped and continued on through. He kept hanging on my tail, so I decided to have some fun with him while leading him to an area that would definitely not be devoid of witnesses; I went left onto London, fast enough that he slid his truck making the corner, then down to the stop at Connaught. I think he was planning on cutting me off there, but I timed it so I rode straight into the flow of traffic, into a nice big gap.

Continuing down Connaught, I got up to 50km/hr or so and he pulled level with me on my left. He started shouting at me through his window, but I couldn't hear him so I just said "I can't hear you, what?" and continuing watching where I was going. He zoomed ahead and cut in front of me, which worked perfectly as I wanted to be over one lane; this placed him half a car length ahead of me and unable to pull any silly maneouvres. He then wound down his window, leaned out of his window and we had (to the best of my recollection) the following conversation:

Muppet of the Month: "Do you want to spit on me now?"
Me, rendered bereft of witty responses by such a bizarre chatup line: "Huh?"
MotM: "Now I'm here, do you want to spit on me when I'm right in front of you?"
Me: "Er, what are you talking about?"
MotM: "You spat on my truck!"
Me: "Well, maybe you shouldn't have been so close behind me?"
MotM: "I wasn't behind you, I was in front of you passing you!" (I think that's what he said, he started getting a bit garbled)
Me: "Dude, I haven't seen you before, what are you talking about?"
MotM: "Next time I see you I'm going to run you off the fucking road!"
Me: "Perhaps I should inform the police, license plate DGA 345, black Ford truck?"

Muppet then drove into the gas station next to the road and motioned me to follow him. After such a threat, I couldn't help wondering what he was on about.

Me: "So, after threatening to assault me with a deadly weapon, would you mind telling me what your problem is?"
MotM: "What? I didn't threaten to assault you! You assaulted me by spitting on me!"
Me: "Buddy, I don't know what you're talking about, but you just threatened to run me off the road when you next saw me, which is a threat of assault with a deadly weapon. And, I see you're wearing a Halifax Fire Department jacket, Shannon. Is this something your boss would like to know about?"
MotM: "Huh? What's your name, huh? Too scared to tell me?"
Me: "No, it's Steve. How about I get my camera out and I can record you threatening me?"
MotM: "Oh, got a camera, have you? Where can you carry a camera on that thing?"
Me: "Well, see this great big backpack on my back? It's in there along with a whole pile of other stuff. Now, shall I call the police, or are we done here?"
MotM: "Yeah, just you wait till I tell my boss about this, eh?"
Me: "Er, right. You go have a nice life."

Not wanting to waste any more of my life on this waste of space, I sped off and left Shannon raising his blood pressure. I will, however, be looking out for license plate DGA 345 driven by Shannon of the Halifax Fire Department. It's enough to make me go back and look into the plans for the HERF gun again...

Distance logged: 30.607km
Time: 81:35
Average speed: 22.5km/hr
Max speed: 56.1 km/hr
Temperature: 10C-13C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 2672.864km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.5
Monthly distance: 30.607km
Monthly cost per km: $2.47