Bird on a Stoplight

         
            On the Saturday morning of July 30^th, a starling was drinking rainwater from the top of the traffic light outside my window.
            From the sensation in my mouth, I concluded that morning that a road crew had been working on it over night. My teeth felt like a grinder had rolled back and forth over them. On top of that my mouth was swampy and I still couldn’t brush until the afternoon.

            It was a relief to finally be able to rinse and brush, which I did before heading for my bike ride.

            Riding north on Broadview, I noticed some non-garbage had been left out on the curb, so I stopped to have a look.

            There were a lot of President’s Choice cloth shopping bags, as well as a few other cloth bags from other stores and also a large thermal bag for carrying cold or hot food, so I took most of those.

            There were lots of dishes and mugs and a small teapot with a matching cup, but I didn’t need any of that. I took a large, oven-safe plate.

            The only food item was an unopened box of Harvest Crunch. Maybe they threw it out because of nut allergies or because it was past it’s best before date. The expiry date was March 2015, but that’s not much different than the dates on the cereal I get from the food bank, so I took it.

            I continued my exploration of the industrial side of Leaside. I rode east on Commercial and then back west on Wicksteed.

            I decided to take my dentist’s advice and to not eat hot food or drink hot drinks for 48 hours after my surgery. So when I had my coffee I let it cool down to room temperature.