Wednesday morning when I got up it
was extremely humid. My body was slick during yoga and my hair felt like I’d
dipped it in a pool of warm water.
The
clothes that I'd put out on the deck on Tuesday but hadn't taken in before the
rain came finally dried out.
I
took a bike ride in the late afternoon, worried from the time I started that my
left back brake pad was going to drift and start rubbing against the rim. At
the Brock and Dundas stop light I had time to get off and check if it was still
okay and so far so good. Everything continued fine until I was on the Danforth
and then I started to feel a slight drag. I kept on going though because I was
still passing people and I figured I’d be able to make it to Woodbine where I
would stop and adjust the brakes before using the washroom at the Firkin. I got
as far as just before Coxwell before the resistance started slowing me down too
much and I pulled over. It turned out that my brakes were still fine but my
back wheel had drifted to the left and it was rubbing against the frame. I
turned my bike upside down and took out my tools, but the left locknut was too
far in on the axel to reach with my socket wrench. I looked around for
someplace that might have a wrench and I saw Cyclepath was half a block east,
so walked my bike over there to ask if someone could loosen the nut for me. The
person behind the counter said they weren’t doing any more repairs that day. I
told her it would take five seconds. She offered to lend me a wrench so I could
do it myself. The only reason I hadn’t asked for that in the first place was
because bike shops tend to not let customers use their tools. I loosened the
nut and took my bike outside and found an open space on the sidewalk to turn my
bike upside down again. I pulled my wheel into the dropouts, balanced and
tightened it and continued on. After a minute and a half though I felt my wheel
wobbling and stopped again. I turned my bike back upside down and loosened the
nuts again. While I was trying to re-secure the wheel the right lock nut looked
like it was on crooked. I started unscrewing it and saw that it was actually my
axel that was crooked because it had apparently snapped. I balanced the wheel
and tightened the nuts so I could walk the bike to the Coxwell subway station.
I changed a ten to get fare and was about to go in when the guy behind the
window told me that I couldn’t take my bike on the trains until after
19:00. A couple of months ago the
streetcar driver told me I couldn’t get on until after 18:00. It’s odd that
they have two different times.
I
walked west and figured I’d make it to the Starbucks west of Donlands so I
could use the washroom and get the grease off my hands before I went onto the
subway. I had to go into the Linnsmore tavern to pee instead. They had watered
down liquid soap and no paper towels but I managed to get a lot of the black
off of my hands and wrists.
I
kept walking and Danforth started to get crowded just before Pape. The throng
of people got thicker and thicker as I approached ground zero of Sunday night’s
shooting. There were two areas before Logan with lots of floral tributes
surrounded by messages written on the sidewalk multi-coloured chalk such as
“Choose Love, Gun Control and Mental Health Awareness” and “Hate cannot drive
out hate”. I’m not used to travelling by sidewalk on the Danforth but I assume
that this mass of people came out to see the memorials or to add to them. It
was especially difficult to get through while walking a bicycle but I made
progress. There were still a lot of cops around, probably mostly to deal with
traffic at this stage.
By
the time I got to Chester it was 19:00, so I went into the subway and took the
train to St George, transferred to the southbound train, got off at Queen and
just as I carried my bike up to the street I saw a crowded streetcar leave the
stop. Fortunately though there was a short and nearly empty Roncesvalles car
right behind it.
I
got home probably half an hour later than I would have if I’d completed my bike
ride. Once my bike was hung up I went out to buy a can of Creemore. I did some
writing for a while and had the beer with some beans and toast while watching
two episodes of Dobie Gillis.
In
the first story the Osborn’s discover that they’ve lost $30 million and are now
poor. Chatsworth comes up with a scheme to raise money by setting up a charity
for an anonymous family and putting Maynard in charge of collecting the money
in a wishing well on campus. The Gillises become suspicious when they realize
that Chatsworth is carting the donations away in an armoured car every night.
They go to Osborn Manor to confront Chatsworth and Mrs. Osborn confesses that
they are now poor. Dobie’s father says he’s out $16 that he donated and Mrs.
Osborn offers herself and Chatsworth to become the Gillises maid and butler
until the $16 is paid off. But it ends up costing the Gillises $ thousands to
employ them because they keep bringing in expensive food and appliances and
chefs and charging it to Herbert. After two days Herbert tells the Osborns that
their debt is paid. They declare how much they appreciate the Gillises kindness
and then suddenly they receive word that their rubber plantation in Brazil has
just had a bonanza and they are rich again. Herbert reminds them what they just
said about appreciation but Mrs. Osborn says they only talk to trades people on
Thursdays.
The
second story featured a robot designed to be a pop music expert that could tell
if any song will be a hit and to suggest what could be changed to make a song a
hit. This episode also sees the return of Dobie’s cousin Virgil, who is a
little bit less of a cad this time as he doesn’t lie and cheat to steal any
girlfriends. Virgil goes to sell himself as a songwriter to the music publisher
that owns the robot. And the robot tells him his song is a flop but explains
how to fix it. Maynard though accidentally turns the robot off but has his
finger inside the machine when he turns it back on and becomes electrocuted
which somehow transfers not only the robot’s consciousness into Maynard but he
now seems to be made of metal under his skin and only lives on motor oil.
Anyway, the Maynard robot causes Virgil to be a big success with the help of
Herbert Gillis and a campus DJ named Sally O'Malley (also known as Tin Pan
Sally), none of who seem concerned about the fact that they are taking
advantage of Maynard’s misfortune. When the Maynard robot makes a suggestion to
speed up a song to an absurd degree, Herbert smashes a record over his head and
he changes back to Maynard.
The
pop music robot was played by Robby the Robot from the 1956 film The Forbidden
Planet. After that film the robot became a pop icon of the 50s and early 60s
much like Max Headroom did for the 80s. Sally was played by Alva Celauro.
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