Bike Post Earrings

            On Wednesday morning during song practice I saw a sparrow outside my window playing cat and mouse with a piece of fluff as it danced in the wind. The small bird dropped suddenly two meters, weaved from side to side and then flew up again until it finally caught the little floater in its beak.

            Almost every weekday morning at around 7:15 I see Duonne walk up Dunn avenue and cross Queen to get his coffee at the donut shop beneath me before catching the westbound streetcar for work. Usually he looks up at my window and we nod and smile at one another while I continue playing. But since last month when I’d told him at Bike Pirates that I would be playing at the Smiling Buddha on June 3^rd, he’d only written it down on a small piece of paper, so on Wednesday when I saw him coming I poked my head out my window and called his name. I was surprised and impressed when the first thing he said was, “June 3^rd!” Then he named something that sort of rhymed with “Buddha” but started with an “M”. I corrected him but he assured me that he still had it written down.

            All through practice that morning both my ears were plugged with wax. I thought that I could handle it until after I’d finished playing and I did finish all the songs, and then started rehearsal for my spot on Saturday. I got through two ten minute sets before I couldn’t stand the muffling anymore, so I boiled my rubber ear syringe and flushed my sound shells out. Suddenly my two highest strings were sounding tinny. I guess they might need to be changed.

            I had to go out to the bank to get my rent and phone money. Since I have to pay the landlord $598 a month I have to break up the last hundred into four $20 bills, one $10, a $5, two toonies and a loonie, but the teller gave me three $5s and so I made her change it. Considering how much time it took and that she asked me then to write down exactly what I wanted, I should have just gone with what she’d originally given me.

            So many bike post-rings have just the locks hanging from them and sometimes there are two or three that make them look like ears with multiple piercings.