Since the food bank line-up is on the south side of Queen and therefore in the shade during the time that I’m there, it wasn’t until I was on my way home on Saturday that I started feeling just how hot the day was getting.
After I put my food
away I headed back out to buy fruit at No Frills. Once again avoided anything
from the United States and so I had to pass on the cherries. The red grapes
from Mexico were not as firm as I would have liked them to be and almost twice
as expensive as they’ve been lately but I got three bags anyway. I bought
bananas; cinnamon-raisin bread; a pack of little Swiss rolls; a package of
sliced hot Genoa salami; a container of zero fat yogourt and a small whole
chicken.
When I got home I
went back out to get a couple of cans of Creemore at the liquor store.
I did some writing
for a while but the heat made me feel tired so at around 13:30 I took a siesta.
I got up after an hour and fifteen minutes but I still couldn’t function so I
went back to bed for fifteen more.
Quite often when it
gets this hot I can’t eat at lunchtime. My stomach just isn’t up to it. I drank
two glasses of the clearer kind of apple juice from concentrate that I’d gotten
from the food bank. I took a shower to cool off and then did some writing for a
while, until it was time for my bike ride.
I drank almost two
tall glasses of water before leaving. Even though I peed just before heading
out I slightly felt like urinating almost as soon as I was underway but I held
on even though the urge gradually increased on my way east. I guess because of
the heat and the weekend there were fewer cyclists on the road to try to catch
up with, I was almost ten minutes slower than the day before. The breeze was in
my face though on the way to Scarborough and provided some relief. I stopped to
use the washroom at Woodbine and then continued on to Byng. I explored a normal
sized two-block area from Danforth to Denton and from Byng to Leyton. At that
point Danforth Rd starts going northeast from Danforth Avenue and to the next
block is a triangle. I finished my outward ride where Danforth Rd meets McDonald.
This is a pretty run down area and it looks quite poor. I stopped to take a
picture from across a grassy pit between Danforth Rd and the back of some
buildings on Warden Avenue that reflect the wasteland of this part of
Scarborough.
On the way back I
stopped to use the washroom at Starbucks. A young woman ahead of me who seemed
like she might be from Japan was struggling with the entry code for the
washroom because she didn’t know which key represented “pound”. I showed her
and she appreciated it. I used the other washroom.
I went down Yonge
and took Queen Street home. I learned that night that about an hour after I’d
gone through the neighbourhood of Queen and Peter, someone was shot and killed
there. I’m glad I missed it.
That night I was
able to eat. I made two sunny-side up eggs with toast and had it with a beer
while watching Dobie Gillis.
The first story
begins with a poetry class and a line from Robert Browning: “A man's reach
should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" Dobie takes this line to
heart and begins to try to win a snooty rich girl named Poppy Jordan but Zelda
warns him that if he pursues Poppy she will not take him back. He tries for
Poppy and she shoots him down and so Zelda is good to her word. Dobie
challenges Mr Pomfritt for steering him wrong and also calls him a hypocrite
for being in a dead end teacher’s job and not following his own dreams. Mr
Pomfritt says that he did reach for his dreams and learned his limitations. He
explained that the line from Browning applies to the young because they have
yet to learn their limitations. He encourages Dobie to keep trying to achieve
what he dreams of but instead of going after Poppy he tries to win Zelda back
and does so.
The second episode
is a Christmas story. Maynard is the treasurer for his class and has just gone
to the bank to bring them back the money for the Christmas dance. He stops
though to get his shoes shined by a little Latino boy and realizes he has no
money to pay him so he gives him all of the class money, which is over $100.
Dobie convinces his father to hire Maynard so he can earn the money to pay the
class back but he ends up giving free groceries to the same little boy. He then
gets work as a department store Santa but ends up giving the children whatever
they ask for from the store merchandize. The Latin boy’s Mexican family are all
musicians and end up becoming the entertainment for the dance and everyone has
a great time.
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