Monday, 2 September 2019

The Great Plains Haven't Been the Same Since They Killed Off All the Bicycles


            On Sunday my hip bothered me a lot more than usual. The discomfort persisted long after I’d finished my yoga.
I posted my translation of “J'suis snob" by Boris Vian on Facebook. The next of his songs I'll translate will be "Complainte du progrès".
            I worked out the chords for the first two verses of  “Banana Boat" by Serge Gainsbourg. Verses three and four and verses five and six will have the same chords and so it's just a matter of placing them.
            I called Tom about welding my bike and he told me to call him back at 18:30 to arrange to bring my bike over that night to his house.
            I went through my files and found all of my Ontario Works cheque stubs so far for 2019 because I need to upload them for my Noah Meltz grant application so I can pay for my university courses this year. The Meltz grant application usually shows up online in the middle of August but this time it didn't appear until the end.
            It rained quite a bit all day and so I was dreading riding on the wet streets later to Tom’s place because I’d planned on ghostriding my Raleigh while riding the backup bike, which would be awkward at night.
            I did some exercises.
            I called Tom but he didn’t answer and so I left a message. He called me back right away. He suggested that I bring the bike by that night, leave it with him and then pick it up the next night. Alternatively he said I could just wait until Monday night, bring the bike over and wait until he’d welded it. Finally he suggested that he’d bring his welding equipment to Bike Pirates and I could bring my bike there for him to weld after they close at 21:00. His last suggestion was obviously the best since I only live five doors down the street from Bike Pirates.
            I got caught up on my journal.
            I heated the other half of the pizza that I’d made on Saturday and had it with a beer while watching Wagon Train.
            This story is about a legendary trapper and frontiersman named Gabe Carswell. He has lived for the last thirty years with the Arapaho under the name Elk Killer and has a half Arapaho son named Little Elk who is now a young man. The Arapaho are on the warpath but Gabe knows that if they fight the white man it will be the end of them. He wants to get his son out of there before he counts coup for the first time and gets a taste for war. He takes Little Elk to the wagon train but many of the travellers are downright racist. Little Elk does not feel welcome and wants to go back to his people. He steals Flint's new Henry repeating rifle and heads back to the Arapaho. Gabe goes after him and Flint comes along because he wants to try to talk Chief Yellow Bear out of going to war. The chief says his people are hungry, that the wagon trains have killed all the buffalo and so they will stop the wagon trains. Flint asks Yellow Bear for two days to find buffalo for the Arapaho. He knows it’s impossible because there really are no buffalo remaining in that area but he is trying to buy some time to save the wagon train. Flint, Gabe, Little Elk and three braves go hunting. That night at the campsite Flint and Gabe want Little Elk to sneak away with them to the wagon train but Little Elk refuses to leave and so Gabe stays as well. The next day Flint finds Little Elk lying unconscious and he goes to help him but it’s a trap. Little Elk clubs him, ties him spread eagle to stakes with wet rawhide that will shrink as it dries, steals his gun, horse and belt and goes back to the Arapaho camp. When Gabe sees Flint’s horse and gun he realizes Little Elk has doe something to him. Gabe finds and rescues Flint. Flint says he heard thunder while he was lying there but Gabe says there’s not a cloud in the sky. They listen to the ground and realize that the “thunder” is the sound of a buffalo herd that must have been driven south by a prairie fire. Just as the Arapaho are on their way to attack the wagon train Flint rides between and tells Yellow Bear about the buffalo and they ride off to hunt instead of make war. Little Elk is about to shoot Flint in the back when Gabe shoots and kills his son.

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