Female Flash

            Monday was a very hot day for May. I took some pictures on the deck of myself in my new shorts and also snapped some of my amethyst rock. I uploaded all the images from my camera to my computer but I wasn’t able to go through and edit them all before I took a siesta. When I got up it was time to get ready for my bike ride.

            I drank a tall glass and a smaller one of water before leaving but it wasn’t enough for the over heated ride.

            There were more cyclists than usual from Yonge Street to Broadview. It felt like there was a continuous line of riders that I had to pass along the Bloor Viaduct, calling out “Passing! Thanks!” over and over again. After Broadview there was hardly any competition though.

            I stopped to pee at the Firkin at Woodbine and then continued on. Ahead of me was a little blonde woman, perhaps in her twenties, riding like a dynamo. I passed her and went on to Victoria Park. On the way north I was stopped at a light and just when it changed, who shot passed me but that same woman. I passed her again just after Dawes Road but when I slowed down to edge onto St Clair she didn’t slow down and she got ahead of me again. I wondered if it was just a coincidence that we were both on Danforth, Victoria Park and St Clair or if she’d just decided to follow me and beat me. I could probably have caught up with the female Flash again but I’d only planned on riding three blocks east of Victoria Park and down Westbourne so I could get home and post my blog, and so that’s what I did.

            I didn’t feel the need to stop and use the washroom at Starbucks this time.

            At Yonge and Wellesley, in front of the Starbucks there was a young panhandler who was obviously mentally ill. He was panhandling by angrily demanding dollars from people. A taller, homeless looking man with a beard stopped and perhaps wanted to beg there too but the younger man started shouting and threatening to punch him in the face.

            A section of Yonge about half a block long was blocked off by the cops, so I had to walk a bit. One policeman was taking photos of a motorcycle that looked slightly damaged from behind.

            Yonge Street is all broken up in stretches of concrete where the road meets the sidewalk, so I have to be very careful to keep my bike wheels from slipping into a crevice.

            When I got home I posted my blog entry about Saturday and then started writing about Sunday.

            I watched two episodes of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

            In the first story Thalia concludes that Dobie will never amount to anything in their town because the only outstanding character trait that he has is that he is loveable. She decides that the only way he will ever become successful is if he surrounds himself with rich people who will be influenced by his loveable nature. She suggests that Dobie go to a renowned private school full of rich kids but he refuses to go away and be separated from Thalia. She goes to the grocery store and makes a pitch to Dobie’s father convincing him that Dobie will wind up in the poor house without the help of rich friends. Desperate, Dobie gets Thalia to make a deal that if he gets 100% on the next day’s math quiz she’ll agree that Dobie has proven he can accomplish something on his own and so she won’t ask him to go away to private school. Dobie goes to the house of his lovely math teacher, Mrs Adams for help to prepare for the quiz. It just happens to be that her and her husband are looking for a baby sitter so they can go to the movies (Their kid is played by a five year old Ron Howard who only has one line: “I hate school!”). When Dobie shows up at the door Mr Adams convinces Dobie to babysit. Dobie accidentally finds the math quiz and studies for it, but the next day, after getting 100% he confesses that he cheated. Days later, on his way to leave for private school, Maynard shows up with a suitcase, explaining that his parents are letting him become Dobie’s roommate. Dobie’s father cancels the whole thing because he knows Maynard will kill Dobie’s chances of making rich friends.

            Mrs Adams was played by Jean Byron who was Patty’s mother on The Patty Duke Show.

            In the second story Thalia dumps Dobie because he does not have a dominant personality. The idea presented here is that every woman wants to be dominated. Dobie is taken in by a conman who writes books telling people that they can become dominant by channelling the magnetic force of the Earth. A couple of coincidences happen that make Dobie think that he is using the power that Professor Dobkin has told him about. He convinces Dobie to let him use his father’s grocery store as a lecture hall to sell his book. Dobie helps him and believes in it so sincerely that he makes an impassioned pitch to the audience that sells the books. The professor, on seeing that all it took was sincerity rather than chicanery, is inspired by Dobie and confesses to him that his own system is all a scam.