Bike Flashers

           

            On Tuesday I got a call from Nick Cushing during my siesta in the afternoon. He was doing some audio recording at Cad Gold Junior’s place and would call me when he finished up there. I finished sleeping and got up to go out and buy some batteries. My red bike flasher had fallen off on my way home from the Tranzac early that morning. Fortunately I have a few lying around from when I used to just buy a new flasher every time the batteries died. Agostino sold them for five dollars with the batteries already in them, even though the two batteries they require come out to nine dollars.

            Since attaching the flasher took me past 17:00, I didn’t bother doing my knee exercises, but rather just went for my bike ride early. I rode east to Broadview. I passed a cyclist decked out from head to toe in yellow night visibility gear and to the back of his bike were attached a series of lights which alternated as they flashed very brightly. From a distance it looked like his bicycle was setting off fireworks. I went north on Broadview and continued on O’Connor to the next left, which was Beachwood Drive Crescent. Halfway around that, was Beachwood Drive, which I took and descended down a steep hill at the bottom of which was a tunnel that went under the Don Valley Expressway, so I went through and took a small road that eventually led to the Lower Don Valley Bike Trail, where I didn’t want to go. I stopped for a few minutes to take off my leather gloves and my hoody because I knew it was going to be hot climbing back up Beachwood Drive. I dug down to the easiest gears I could find on my bike and climbed the hill. It wasn’t that hard on my legs but I was panting pretty hard anyway, even after getting to the top. On my way back down Broadview, I met the guy with the light show on the back of his bike, heading north, slow but steady. I rode back to Yonge Street and down to Queen. I had no meat at home, so I stopped and bought some chicken at Freshco. I bought some bananas to sweeten my yogourt, but they were green, so after I got home I went out to the local market and got some discounted ungassed bananas. Even after they’ve turned almost black they are still fine inside.

            Nick never did call me back.