Eighty-Year Old Virgin?

            On Friday I sent a combination of my Monday account of visiting Tom Phillips in the hospital and my Tuesday impressions of his life after finding out that he died to K.J. Mullins, my editor at newz4u.ca as a tribute to Tom. A while later I got a call from her telling me she’d have to edit something from the piece because part of it might offend Tom’s family. I thought for sure that she was about to tell me that the part she wanted to leave out was where I said that Tom’s family had been fighting over his money for the last few years of his life, but she was talking about my comment that I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d died a virgin. I’d never heard of that being something that might offend a family but I told her it was okay to leave it out. She ended up leaving it in anyway.

            Later that day I finally got caught up on my journal.

            In the late afternoon I took a bike ride. On the Bloor bike lane there was a woman ahead of me with green hair. She was leaning forward and really pumping those pedals hard to stay ahead, but I passed her. At the Yonge Street light she came up behind me and chastised me for not looking back before moving in front of her. She said that I had been too close and she’d almost crashed into me. At the next light I turned to ask her, “If you knew that I was passing you on your left, wouldn’t you be prepared for me to move in front of you?” She again said that I’d been too close. When I thought about it, I recalled that I had been out to her left for a considerable amount of time and had most likely kept up my passing speed for that whole time. So if when I came back to the right she almost crashed into me that would mean that she actually accelerated while I was passing her. She’s right then that I should always look back just in case the person behind me does something stupid like speeding up while I’m going by.

            I rode as far as Woodbine. On the way back I got passed by two Foodora cyclists in a row. The first one was on a folding bike. I hadn’t realized they made folding bikes that fast.

            I stopped at Freshco on my way home. I bought grapes, a mini watermelon, bananas, strawberries, blackberries, a whole chicken, yogourt (they have a new, limited edition flavour called “summer melon”), spoon size shredded wheat and paper towels.

            I watched an Alfred Hitchcock Hour teleplay about a ruthless married couple, Joe and Lisa that are in business together but declare war on each other at the end of their marriage.  Lisa has hired a private detective to gather evidence against Joe that will help her take over their real estate business. Joe threatens to foreclose on the land that belongs to Lisa’s boyfriend, Bobby unless he kills her. Bobby kills her but just a couple of minutes later Lisa’s detective assassinates Joe.