surprise!

Well, we got him good.

Yesterday's surprise party went off without a hitch! It was such a joy to celebrate Tim's 40th with so many of you. Thank you to those of you who were able to join us, and an extra big thank you to those who helped pull it off. I could not have done it without you, especially not after camping all weekend.

Our friends Aaron and Michelle drove up from Hamilton with Aaron's bike, so that he could take Tim out on his last ride on his two-decade old tri bike (one of the early prototypes when the sport was just starting). Of course, Tim didn't know this was his last ride on the ol' stede, but didn't seem to suspect a thing when Michelle and I were snapping pictures of them heading out together. (But then, nor did he suspect anything over the last month when he walked in on phone conversations about the party, had people slipping me money while standing beside him, and had me asking strange questions here and there about bike seats and bike shoes and and what colour frame he would dream of having if we ever bought him a new bike...)

As soon as Tim and Aaron left at 3:00 (at last!), I called in the troops. My parents and sister were on standby with a van full of cake and BBQ meat and on the other side of town, and my neighbours were ready to set up two huge tents and extra BBQs in the backyard. We transformed the backyard in about an hour -- many hands really do make light work!

After dinner was served (thank you, BBQers and choppers and servers!) and some of the guests couldn't take the suspense any longer (that bike was like a wedding ring burning a hole in our pockets!) we finally gave Tim the Cervelo he's dreamed of for years. He couldn't believe everyone knew about this but him. (And I could hardly believe people were as generous as they'd been so that together we could make this dream happen!)

Rather than telling you about it, here's a 6 minute video of Tim receiving the bike and his words to follow, before the crowd made him get on it and ride up and down the street for us all. Warning: this video takes some audience participation! I forgot to tell the friend I gave my camera to that you can't rotate a video, so you'll have to turn your head for the first minute. I also forgot to give her my tripod. Sorry if you get a little dizzy. Turn up the volume -- it's a little hard to hear at times. Enjoy!