Wednesday, 31 August 2016

Patriotic Beer

           


            Although I knew that Friday was Canada Day, I’d forgotten that all the banks would be closed. In the early afternoon though, I went out to take out part of my rent from the bank machine and figured I’d be able to take the rest from another ATM later. It started raining on the way there and was really coming down on the return trip, but I only got a little damp.
            I was hoping it would rain more than it did, because I wanted to get some writing done, but the puddles dried up and I felt obligated to get some exercise. There seemed to be a lot of traffic downtown for a holiday, but I guess that’s where the celebrations were concentrated.
            For some reason, no matter how much traffic there is on St Clair, there is always a space for me to move into the left lane and to turn on Inglewood. I wonder if it’s a coincidence or if it’s a matter of how the traffic lights just west of there are timed.
            I went to McRae and Bayview, then rode along McRae, which snakes in various curves of north and east until it gets to Laird, just south of Eglinton.
            On my way home, Yonge and Dundas was packed with people.
            Near Queen and John, a smartly dressed woman in a fedora was shouting to herself without anger in the middle of the street.
            I stopped at the Bank of Montreal between Spadina and Bathurst to get the rest of the rent. For some reason though only some of the buttons on the touch screen machine would work, so I used the machine next to it. I discovered though that I’d surpassed the daily limit of the amount I could remove from any bank machine. I might have known about the limit but had forgotten since it had been so long since I’d tried.
            My upstairs neighbour knocked on my door that night. He said he’d just gotten back from his cousin’s wedding in Windsor. He gave me a jug of milk from the States and six cans of Budweiser all dolled up special for the fourth of July with slogans like E Pluribus Unum; land of the free; home of the brave and “liberty and justice for all” (tell that one to Donald Trump!)

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