The Young Jack

           

            On Tuesday, July 12th I managed to figure out how to get the bike cam secured properly on my handlebar, so I turned it on before heading out on my bike ride.

            It was a hot, bright day.

            I passed a couple around Ossington that had obviously locked their keys in their car, because the man was trying the old hooked wire trick through the crack in the window to try to unlock it.

            I rode to Eglinton and Bayview and then headed east, exploring the streets that run south to Parklea on my way. Once I got to Laird, that was the end of my tour of the Leaside neighbourhood from Bayview to Laird and from Moore to Eglinton.

            I went down Laird and stopped at The Local to use the washroom. I checked the bike cam and saw that it had timed out somewhere along the way. Nick had said that it had a 45-minute charge, so I assumed it had gone off while I was still on Eglinton. The Local is a great place for a non-customer to use the toilet because one doesn’t even have to enter the bar or ask for permission. The stairs to the loo is just inside the entrance.

            I went back to St Clair and Yonge. The homeless woman was sitting on her backpack on the south west corner this time. She’s gotten very dark from being out in the sun all the time. I think she might be Tibetan.

            I stopped at Freshco on my way home because I needed coffee. As I turned off Queen onto Gladstone, there were two cop cars parked just outside the supermarket driveway and there was a husky bearded man in handcuffs standing beside the lone drivers of each vehicle. Haven’t these people heard of car pooling?

            As I was locking my bike I overheard one of the Fuzz say to the guy in handcuffs, “You’ve only got $1.75 in your pocket but you claim you just didn’t feel like waiting in line.”

            I bought some fruit, a loaf of cinnamon-raisin bread, some yogourt, some frozen French-fries, some skim milk for cereal and some 3.25% milk for coffee.

            The cops were gone with their catch when I left.

            When I got home, I immediately uploaded the video footage I’d shot. It took about half an hour. There were eight files in total, and four of them were ones that Nick Cushing had shot of female roller derby people rolling and derbying but, strangely, not wearing derby hats. My footage was interesting, though I think that I had the camera tilted too far to the left and a little forward. The wide-angle lens picked up everything in my view though. The microphone picked up the mechanical sounds of my bike to a deafening degree. It was fun to see the shadow of my arms and shoulders moving as I pumped along. The video though only lasted a little over fifteen minutes, timing out just as I was passing Honest Ed’s, just before Bathurst.

            After dinner, I started to make coffee, and was looking forward to it after a few days without. I was glad that I’d stopped at Freshco to buy some. I dumped from my cup the tea I’d had with my meal in order to make ready for the coffee that I was about to make. Suddenly it occurred to me that I’d totally forgotten to buy coffee while I was at the supermarket. I felt stupid for having thrown out the ginger peach black tea that I’d made, so then I had to make some more.

            That night I watched the 22^nd episode of the third season of Hawaiian Eye and got a pleasant surprise when I saw Jack Nicholson playing the small part of the angry and drunk son in law of a widow acquitted of murdering his father. He was so young that I almost didn’t recognize him, but his voice gave him away. His performance was outstanding.