Roxane Berard

            I don’t know what it is about Fridays at rush hour that causes car people to drive more erratically than any other day. Taxis pull in front of you more often and cars stop in the middle of traffic to pick people up or drop people off. It’s just generally a mess.

            There was a Dixieland band playing by The Big Carrot.

            I didn’t wear my watch this time. Sometimes I bring it along to time how far I can get in 55.5 minutes, but since where I was going would take more than that amount of time I didn't bother. For many years I didn't wear a watch because I really don’t like any kind of jewellery, but I needed one to time myself for modelling. Now that I carry a smart phone I don’t need a watch as much and so I’m getting back to enjoying having a naked wrist again.

            When I got to Woodbine I stopped to pee at the Firkin but when I went to lock my bike I couldn’t find my chain. I felt pretty stupid because lately I’ve been very careful about making sure my chain is always in my backpack. I figured that I must have left it on the kitchen table again. I asked the owner of the Firkin if I could put my bike inside for a couple of minutes and he said I could put it in the foyer, and even moved a couple of things out of the way to make room, so that was nice.

            Whenever I get my back brakes adjusted by Bob at Bike Pirates they are off balance and the inside pad is too close to the rim. No matter how much I try to rebalance them they just drift to one side again and so I have to guy into Bike Pirates again to get someone else’s help.

            I had to pee again on my way up Pharmacy and so I stopped at Fas Gas.

            I rode up to Eglinton, went east and then travelled south on Lebovic to Comstock, back to Pharmacy and made my way home. I kind of felt like urinating again as I got close to Starbucks but without a lock I couldn’t stop and besides it seemed ridiculous to pee three times in one trip, so I continued on.

            When I got home I couldn’t find my lock anywhere and almost panicked until I realized that I’d had my chain with me the whole time. It was in the side pocket, which is not a place where I’d normally put it. It's one level of stupid to forget something, but it's a deeper level to not forget something but to forget that you didn’t forget it.

            I made chicken gravy, boiled a potato and heated up a chicken breast. I ate dinner while watching two episodes of Dobie Gillis.

            The first was a Christmas story. Maynard’s parents go away for Christmas and ask the Gillises to take care of Maynard. The Gillis family are surprised to discover that 21 year old Maynard G. Krebs still believes in Santa Clause and so they set about try to shock him into reality by having Herbert dress up as Santa and come to Maynard on Christmas Eve, and then to reveal himself as fake at the high point of Maynard’s excitement. But when Santa arrives and asks Maynard what he wants for Christmas he lists all of the things that the Gillises want for Christmas and says that he doesn’t want anything for himself. After that Herbert doesn’t have the heart to shatter Maynard’s illusions but Maynard tells him he knew it was Herbert all along. Herbert goes out and gets everyone the things they wanted for Christmas that he’d planned on cheaping out on, including a washer and a dryer for Winnie, but in order to pay for it all he turns their home into a coin laundry.

            In the second story, Dobie’s cousin Duncan falls for an Italian opera singer and she for him, even though he’s 16. He jealous manager threatens to kill Duncan but Rosa thinks that it would be great publicity if he did. When she thinks he has killed Duncan she runs to her manager's arms.

            Rosa was played by Roxane Berard, whom the Internet Movie database claims was born in Canada while Wikipedia says she had her naissance in Belgium. She became the Audrey Hepburn of television because the two actors looked so much alike.