Snot Rocket

            I got started on my bike ride a little later than usual on Friday September 9^th because I wanted to drink a couple of glasses of water before leaving and while I was drinking them I started watching a video which took a long time to play because of my slow connection. It was a boring video anyway.

            On Bloor Street near Dovercourt a guy leaned out from the sidewalk to the street, closed one nostril and blew a snot rocket as I passed.

            Near Ossington there was a young hippyish sort of man in an electric wheelchair with a full sized marijuana flag hanging from the aerial at the back. He also had a very wordy protest sign on display, which also related to the marijuana laws. Sometimes one sees people with signs like that hanging around in front of Queens Park or city hall. They really should condense their message into a short, memorable slogan, because nobody wants to read an essay that’s written on a protest sign.

            I rode to Broadview and Danforth, then north. Along Broadview I detected the pungent chemical smell of someone somewhere getting a perm. I went to Mortimer, across to Coxwell, up to Cosburn, east to Fairside, south to Holbourne and then east to Glebemount. One of the houses on Glebemount had thrown out a bunch of stuff, so I spent some time looking through. While I was doing so, a car needed to get into the driveway where I’d stupidly left my bike. I’m usually more conscientious of things like that. I moved my bike and continued looking. There were mostly CDs, but I don’t need any of those. I took a little handmade notepad made out of Japanese paper and a container of kitty litter that still had about 2.5 kilos left inside.

            There was a guy ahead of me on the Bloor viaduct riding a little trick bike. He had on a baseball cap and shorts and tattoos all over his legs and he was driving like a maniac. At one point he stopped and when I passed him I was surprised to see that the guy was middle aged.

            I wanted to pick up some pens and notebooks for my classes that would begin next week, so I rode to Dundas and University to take $40 from the bank machine, and then I rode down to Staples, only to find that they were closed. I’d thought for sure that they’d be open till 21:00, especially on a Friday, but it turns out they close every weekday at 19:00.

            Driving along Queen, I decided to check out Shoppers Drug Mart for school supplies. That was a waste of time, since all they have are sharpies, cheap pens and those crappy little paper-covered Hilroy notebooks.

            I stopped at Freshco on the way home to get some essentials, like toilet paper, deodorant, coffee, fruit, raisin bread, old cheddar and ground beef.

            I was really surprised that it was almost 21:00 when I got home. I had cooked some lentils earlier that day, with the intention of adding some vegetables to make a soup or stew, but there was no time if I didn’t want to eat too late, so I just added some vegetable broth, salt, spices and Worcester sauce and while waiting for that to heat up I ate some crackers and cheese.

            I watched the Mr. Science skit from the Ernie Kovaks show in which Mr. Science has a little boy named Johnny help him with experiments. Mr. Science: Are you ready for some experiments, Johnny?” Johnny: “You burned me last time!”

            On an episode from the fourth season of I Love Lucy, Lucy gets a part in a Hollywood picture. She has to play a Ziegfeld Follies type showgirl walking down a staircase, but the headdress she has to wear is so heavy that she keeps falling over.