Saturday, 2 July 2016

Counting Canadians

           


            Vermin update: I haven’t had bedbugs since last November and I haven’t even seen a cockroach for a week. Actually, over the last two months I think I’ve seen maybe five roaches at the most. That dust that Orkin used must have had a much more delayed effect than the two weeks that I’d been told about. For the first month after the last dusting, the population didn’t seem to diminish very much at all, until gradually they became mostly limited to the bathroom. Of course, this is Parkdale, and they may return, but it’s certainly nice to be pest free for a while. It’s been years since I’ve been cockroach free.
            On Thursday, June 2nd, there was a loud banging from down on the street. I looked out my kitchen window and saw two cops downstairs, but I couldn’t tell from that angle if they they were pounding on our front door or the one next to it. I went into the living room to look down and saw that the police were indeed knocking on my building. I considered going down to let them in, but decided that there was no reason for me to help the cops out. I heard nothing going on in my building that seemed like it was any business of the police and besides, they looked like a couple of assholes, even for cops, so I didn’t let them in.
            I mentioned the attempted visit to my next apartment neighbour and he told me that the Ethiopian guy on the third floor, who apparently did nothing but party while he was here, is three weeks behind on the rent and that the landlord has already changed the lock on his door, and he thinks that’s why the cops were here. I never really spoke to the guy other than to say hello. My upstairs neighbour, David, who is his third floor neighbour, and who is also from Ethiopia, didn’t seem to like or trust the guy from the start when he moved in last fall.
            On my way out of the building for my bike ride, I noticed a couple of notices from the federal census for people in my building. It reminded them that they are required by law to fill out the census and that they will visit again soon. Since they make a point of saying, “It’s the law”, I looked it up to see if there’s actually a punishment for not doing it. According to an article on Global News, the government will bug and assist slackers until mid-summer, and after that there could be either a 500 dollar fine or three months in jail. I filled mine out within a couple of weeks of receiving my key number in the mail. One thing I noticed is the limited gender options and so I mentioned that in the space they left for comments.
            I rode out to the east side again and finished my explorations of all the streets south of O’Connor and west of Pape.
            On my way west along the Danforth, a young guy on a bike whizzed past me and went well on ahead. I was surprised to see him at the other end of the viaduct, still pedaling as hard as he could, but I passed him. I don’t know if I sped up or if I just have more stamina, but probably the latter.
            I got a good deal on a small chicken at Freshco. A whole chicken, cut up and grilled, is for some reason tastier than the individual parts that one might buy in a package.

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