On Wednesday I heard the megaphonic mating call of a protest
march and looked outside to see that there were 40 or 50 seniors marching
against elder abuse. It was a very slow march and one of the old ladies had to
stop to fetch her blue sunhat after it blew into Queen Street. “Elder abuse” is
an awkward couple of words to wrap a chant around. “Stop elder abuse!” and
“Elder abuse has got to go!” just didn’t have good rings to them but “There’s
no excuse for elder abuse!” was quite good and so they should have just stuck
to that one. There were a small group of teenage girls marching in the middle
of the line and one of them was the one with the megaphone. It would be ironic
if the girls beat all the seniors in order to motivate them to march for the
cause.
That afternoon I decided that my
knee was in good enough shape to continue my explorations by bicycle of the
east end of town. I had to look into my journal from last September though
while checking a map so I could figure out where I’d left off. I’d thought that
I’d ended my long rides last summer around Donlands and Danforth, but I’d
actually gone all the way to Glebemount (halfway between Coxwell and Woodbine)
and had finished my final trip at the end of the first week of September after
weaving around the ritzy new streets just north of where Glebemount ends at
O’Connor.
I rode out to Glebemount and then
north to explore the alley going east past Woodmount to Woodbine. The graffiti
was interesting enough that I made a mental note to return to the lane to take
some pictures before going home. I went back to Glebemount, then north to cover
a six-block grid that ended at Glebeholme and Woodbine. Then I rolled down
Woodbine and went back to the alley. In addition to what looked like mostly
student graffiti, what also brightened up the alley was a little garden of
hanging and potted plants outside of the back of an apartment. A depressed
looking middle-aged woman and a slim but tough looking shaved headed man were
sitting outside. I asked the woman if I could take a picture of her garden. She
looked up from where she was bent over in her chair and indifferently said, “Go
ahead”. I spent about fifteen minutes taking photos and then headed home.
I noticed that the art deco Bus
Terminal Restaurant has reopened at Coxwell and Danforth.
There was a lot less bike traffic
going west until I got to Yonge Street. On the westbound Bloor bike lane there
was a woman driving fairly aggressively. I wanted to get past her but she was
in the middle of the land. I called out, “Passing on your left!” but she just
looked sideways without edging to the right. I calmly added, “But you’ll have
to move over for me to do that.” She still didn’t really move much but a space
opened up between the barriers and I got ahead. I thanked her anyway.
I went south on Ossington to
College and then across the Dovercourt, south to Queen and then home. Including
the photography, my ride had taken two hours and I felt pretty good.
I went over to the liquor store
to buy a can of Creemore.
That evening I was
having trouble connecting to the internet, but then discovered that it was only
websites that I couldn’t reach. I could go on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube
(actually I could only go to the You Tube site but couldn’t play videos. I
could see the frames of the videos though by running the curser along the
timeline), Google Translate but not to any websites. I could do Google search
or go to Google news but I couldn’t connect to any of the links. I turned on my
laptop but had the same problem so I assume the problem is with the server of
the Coffee Time below my apartment. I doubt if they are blocking me
specifically though I guess it’s possible, so it’s probably a glitch.
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