Pregnant and Homeless

            It was cold again on Wednesday. Cloudy but not rainy. I say if it’s going to be cloudy it might as well rain.

            I finally finished my review of Shab-e She’r and was basically caught up on all the subsequent writing though I was a week behind in posting it. Because of that I felt more relaxed about taking a two hour bike ride that afternoon. It was just a little warmer than the day before and so I figured I could handle wearing shorts again but I still wore my long sleeved shirt unbuttoned.

            At Bathurst and Bloor there was a woman sitting cross-legged with her back to a wall. I assume she was there to panhandle but she was slowly shouting, “Rape … is not … legal! Rape … is not … legal! When … did rape … become fuckin … legal?”

            After crossing the Bloor Viaduct I was more out of breath from repeatedly saying "Passing! Thanks!” about ten times than I would have been from climbing a hill.

The sun came out as I was going up Victoria Park and I started getting quite warm with the shirt on.

I rode to Stamford Square, turned right and then turned right again where it goes south and loops around to Pharmacy. Next time I’ll take the north side of the square and then loop to Pharmacy. The streets north of St Clair are all at odd angles. I went south on Pharmacy and explored one short side street, then I stripped to my undershirt and continued on.

At Yonge and Bloor a woman was sitting on the street with a sign that said, “Pregnant and homeless. Hungry and broke.” I hope she’s in touch with Toronto Public Health’s Homeless At Risk Prenatal program.

When I got home I noticed that my back tire was a little soft and so I pumped it up.

Before bed I checked my back tire and it was completely flat. That meant I would have to go to Bike Pirates again on Thursday and find a solution to these rim-side punctures. Here I was, all caught up with my writing and looking forward to a couple of days when I would have time to work on some of my projects such as my book cover and editing videos of my songs, but I suddenly would have to spend three hours working on my bike instead.

I watched two episodes of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

In the first, Dobie, frustrated with years and years of rejection by girls, decides that the only way he can feel secure is to get married as soon as possible. He tells his parents, and his mother, knowing that if they say no Dobie will want to get married even more, uses reverse psychology and gives him her blessing. Since there is only one girl that he knows will say yes, he asks Zelda Gilroy to marry him. She agrees but doesn’t like the fact that Dobie wants to have a wedding right away because she wants him to court her. She decides to ask her father for his blessing and since she knows that he will say no, that will mean that Dobie will have to court her. Her father though conveys that he’s overjoyed about her engagement, but he is also trying to use reverse psychology on Zelda in hopes that she’ll give up on the idea of marrying Dobie. And so plans are made for the wedding. Meanwhile, once word gets around that Dobie is getting married, all the girls that previously rejected him are suddenly interested in him because he’s suddenly more like a man to them and very desirable. But Dobie wants his parents to tell him no, Zelda wants her parents to tell her no and both sets of parents each want their child to change their mind on their own. On the day of the wedding when the justice of the peace asks if anyone has a reason why they shouldn’t get married, only Maynard speaks up, which breaks the ice and causes both sets of parents and Dobie and Zelda to express their true feelings about the whole thing and the wedding is happily cancelled.

In the second, Dobie finds the ideal girl, one that is beautiful and doesn’t care about money. But when her 11-year-old sister starts dating a rich 13 year old, she becomes jealous and starts to want more of the finer things. So Dobie becomes a baby-sitting entrepreneur and makes a bunch of money but by the time he does Gwynyth has gone back to being against money and has started dating Maynard.