Today is quite a rainy day, when I woke up at 6 AM, I’d already heard the rain pouring outside and I checked the forecast, it’s going to rain the whole day until 4 PM. I’m not sure if it will continue to rain after 4 PM, but I know that if it continues to rain until 7 PM I will have to cancel my tennis rally with my Indian friend and reschedule it for tomorrow or another day later this week. I’m excited about the tennis rally today because it has been a while since I hit the ball and I miss that feeling a lot. It is always a nice feeling to make a return successfully, especially when you return exactly to the spot you expect it to be like you are trying to make a perfect return all the time.
I’ve been thinking a lot about getting a new bike recently because my current road bike is quite old and its design can only fit road bike-size tires (I think). I might need to go to the bike shop to ask whether I could replace the current tires with the ones that can ride in the winter (the winter tires). I plan to do that on the weekend but it’s not a rush at all since there are up to three more months for the winter to start. I am always afraid that I’m not prepared enough for the winter, I think I shaped this mindset by playing Don’t Starve Together on Steam. The bike that I’m planning to replace should have at least 4 of the following categories: the price tag is under 1.5K (so probably it must be a used bike), it should be able to ride in the winter (so either fat bike tire or mountain bike tire), it has drop bar (it just that I’m curious on how it feel to ride a drop bar bike, also it looks cool and professional too), and finally it should be an e-bike (for saving me some breath when I feel tired and don’t want to spend too much effort on riding to the gym or mall). But of course, 2 thoughts come in and prevent me from looking for that kind of bike, first of all, the availability of the bike that meets all the above criteria. Usually, I can only see a gravel e-bike with MTB tires come with a price tag of over 2K, which is definitely above my budget. Secondly, I always feel like I want to save money, if my current bike can be converted to a winter bike, and if I feel like riding in winter is not too much of a hassle, then definitely I won’t need a new bike. There is a bike guru on YouTube who once advised: just wait until the winter comes and then you go out and experience it, if you see the challenge then you can start overcoming it (by spending money on a new bike or new equipment). Also, I think my current bike tires can be replaced with winter tires. The third reason that demotivated me from getting a new bike because of the possibility of getting stolen. You see, I observed hundreds of bikes around the city, and usually, people are riding a very casual bike, like most of them are usually under 300 dollars CAD. I don’t feel safe at all when getting a bike that is over 2K CAD and then that would cause huge attention when I park it outside of the gym or the mall, guess how many people are around, and thieves these days often steal things in bright daylight. I know it’s Canada, it must be a safe country, right? In fact, I did research on Reddit YouTube, and several Facebook groups (like the group that reported the lost bike in Ontario), and I see several cases in which expensive bikes are being stolen at a very very high rate. One final reason that the new bike might take some parking space. Right now my current bike is stored in the Laundry room, but it’s a 26-inch bike, if I get a 29-inch Gravel e-bike, then it will be a problem to store them there because it’s not going to have enough space, this can be fixed by using the Garage, but the Garage of my current house is being used as storage already, so there is no space there too. I might think about storing my bike in the Garden, but, having the bike stored outdoors might make it reduce in durability. So my current decision is still pending, I might look further for a good deal bike or, you know, if I get my contract extended at the end of the year then I will get a car certainly, I will look forward to starting a relationship here as well, as long as I see a chance of a permanent stay in Canada. So will let the fate be decided on at least Feb of 2025 then I will start raising the query with my client’s manager and my current company manager for my LMIA extension and future plan for my career.
To close this article. I would say that my life so far is going fine, I don’t talk much or gossip much with anyone as much as I used to when I was in Vietnam (although in Vietnam I was quite a quiet person too), it’s how I choose to be because I see that if you expose yourself often it might cause some problems, but of course, it’s nice to have a group of friends where you can hang out sometimes for foods, coffees and good random talks. I had that kind of group too but anything only lasts for a moment, you know, like I used to eat out with my roommates back when I was studying in the United States (12 years ago), sometimes we walked for 3 kilometers to Ihop for chicken tenders and waffles at 3 AM. LOL. But now we never talk again, I’m not sure why, but simply because we are not roommates anymore and are living a different life now. I mean that even your best friends, your life partners, and your parents will leave you someday, so I feel like it’s better for me to practice fulfilling myself alone rather than relying on someone else to be happy. Anyway, I’m back to work now, good to talk with you, thanks for reading, and see you next time.