Neighbourhood sights

Despite the fact that most of the time our neighbourhood is kind of quite, there are occasionally a few funny or noteworthy goings on (such as the car accident two blocks from us that made the news this morning or the flipped semi from a few days ago at a different nearby intersection).

Maybe these are a few of the less noteworthy features of our neighbourhood?

So I think I've figured out where the local pizza fanatic lives.

And then yesterday I saw this cool bike as I was walking home.

Isn't Ottawa life exciting life?

A Few Quick Notes 544

-Today, amazingly, has turned out to be quite nice so far. The skies are blue and the wind is relatively non-obtrusive. Though as we are hitting the middle of the day I suspect that temperatures may pick up and things may become a little less bearable.

-On Wednesday afternoon Jeannette and I attended the Grand Opening festivities of the new location of the Wolfville Farmers' Market. Both of us were a little surprised that this event was held on Wednesday instead of Saturday, the day that tends to be busier and have more vendors present. Anyway, while there were able to see local MP Scott Brison looking very handsome in a nice summer suit - he was definitely be best dressed guy in attendance. Jeannette and I probably should have taken the time to introduce ourselves but we decided against it, at least partly because he was always in the midst of talking to someone.

-Yesterday Jeannette and I played an enjoyable game of pick-up Ultimate. The only problem with the game was the humidity. We all found it hard to play well and run hard given the mugginess. Hopefully our game on Sunday afternoon won't be quite so muggy.

-As this week's weather has been generally quite nice Jeannette and I have taken a number of bike rides. Today we finally made our to the local dykes were we rode from Wolfville towards Port William.

While the ride was generally quite pleasant, we did eventually encounter something of a problem. It seems that the derailleur on Jeannette's folding bike is quite low to the ground and was managing to accumulate plenty of dried grass on a particular section of the dyke. At this point we decided to turn back.

Fortunately, we were able to ride several kilometers before we encountered this problem. And now that we know what to look out for it will be pretty clear in which conditions the folding bike is not a viable option.

-Yesterday for breakfast I made another batch of pumpkin bran muffins. This time I accidentally forgot the pumpkin pie spice. While the muffins were definitely fine without the spice I do think that it really does add something nice so I hope to remember it when I make this recipe in the future.

-This afternoon Jeannette and I are thinking of continuing our holiday celebrations by heading to the local zoo. Hopefully we might finally be able to hit the zoo up for feeding time - I presume that this is the best time to be there as it likely will mean the most active animals.

A Few Quick Notes 416

-Though the sun has now set, today has been and continues to be a beautiful day. According to Environment Canada we reached a high of 21, which is believable.

-It seems that I am now up to 3/18 with my Roll Up the Rim to Rim Wins. I am starting to think that I should have quit when I was ahead this year.

-Today I took advantage of the nice weather and went on a bike ride with a friend/neighbour. We rode from our apartment building deep in the South End, around the rotary to Herring Cove. According to this friend, who has made the trip before, the total distance is close to 30 km. Assuming this is true, and I have to reason to think it isn't, this is likely the longest bike ride I have ever taken. I hope that we will be able to go on similar trips as the summer progresses and that by the end of the Summer/Fall I won't be quite as slow as I was today.

-On Thursday I handed in my final major paper of the season. Though I still have two more pieces of written work to submit, and a final exam, handing in the final paper on Thursday was quite a relief.

-We are planning on a having a few people over for Easter dinner tomorrow. To the best of our knowledge we have everything that we need from the grocery store, if not we are going to be somewhat out of luck as most of the stores will be closed tomorrow.

-In preparation for tomorrow's dinner I baked some bread so that I would have stuffing material. Shortly we are going to start working on the Easter bread for tomorrow. If we become particularly ambitious we may even try to do some vegetable peeling before we call it a night.

-I think I will try to call it a night early tonight. I am hoping that the the fact that I didn't take a nap and that I did take a 30 km bike ride will mean that I will be able to go to sleep before 4:00 AM.

-Happy Easter

A Few Quick Notes 352

-I was going to say that today was pretty nice then I realized that I couldn't really remember if that was the case. Upon a little more reflection I might have to say that today was passable, but not great. For the better part of the day it was overcast, though not really wet. At some points I recall feeling hot and sweaty, but that may not have had anything to do with the weather.

-What a weird night I had last night. After submitting my thesis to my committee and cracking into a few celebratory beers I got some unexpected (though it should have been expected) news. This, at about 4:00 AM, got me all hepped up and whatnot, completely removing any chance that I might be able to sleep in the next few hours.

I eventually decided that I would just stay up, go out to get a celebratory breakfast, and then head in to Dal to run an errand. Much to my surprise, I was actually able to do all of this, basically on the timeframe I set myself. I eventually made it back here and was ready to go to sleep at about 10:30 AM. I woke up at about 2:30 PM, feeling surprisingly refreshed.

Since then, much to my surprise, I have continued to feel rather alert and full. Actually, since about 6:00 AM I haven't had anything to eat, and I am not particularly hungry.

The more I think about it the more I think that I should probably just eat something.

-This evening, while running some errands, I was able to ride my bike. It was great to be out on the road, even though the trip was quite short. I wish I was a little more motivated to bike regularly.

-Today while at the grocery store I purchased for bags of discount corn chips for 99 cents a bag. As far as I can tell they appear to be completely fine. I wonder if they might be discontinuing the product. I guess I might try some tonight and determine whether they were worth my 99 cents.

-A few times in the past few days I have mentioned that I am trying to reduce my red meat consumption for kidney stone related reasons. Much to my surprise, this has been going remarkably well. Over the past week I have consumed almost no meat. Not surprisingly, my bean consumption (in various forms) has skyrocketed. Not only have I been having refried bean nachos, but I have been eating quite a bit of humus, and also some of my standard pressure-cooker bean dishes. I wonder if I will be able to keep this up once Neil and Rebecca return?

A Few Quick Notes 339

-Though today was as hot and humid as other recent days, for some reason it just didn't feel quite as bad. Maybe I am getting used to it? On second thought, I am pretty sure I was sweating rather profusely all day, which would suggest that I did in fact feel the heat and humidity.

-This evening, to test out my newly repaired bike, I went on a quick 5 km bike ride (though at the time I assumed that I must have gone at least 10 km). The ride was quite nice, and at times I found it hard to believe that I hadn't ridden a bike in almost a year. Assuming we have nice weather tomorrow I will probably try to take similar trip then, though I might mix up the route a little just for something to do.

-I wonder if the increase in buskers that I mentioned a few days has something to do with the Halifax International Busker Festival that is to start tomorrow and run until the 16th? While the website seems to mention a number of the associated acts I can't seem to find a performance schedule. I guess they want you to just head down and check things out for a few hours a time.

-I cooked some Jacob's Cattle beans for dinner tonight, though as Neil and Rebecca weren't here I am the only one that has had any of them yet. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.

-I guess I should try to get back to work, especially if I am thinking about attending a few of the Busker Festival performances.

More public shame/ing

So it seems that my last few attempts at publicly shaming the owner of the puppy who uses the green space across from my bedroom as a toilet have been unsuccessful. Again today I saw the woman and puppy out there, doing their thing. Even worse, I think I heard them out there while I was taking a nap this evening. Anyway, I imagine I will have to keep blogging about the subject until I either speak to them in person about the issue or I notice that they start cleaning up after the dog.

Just prior to the aforementioned nap I returned from my fourth trip to my local bike shop to pick up my bike. Turns out fourth time is a charm, I now have the bike back in my possession. Unfortunately, as they didn't have an appropriate seat-post in stock one of the more important repairs was not made. I guess now that the bike is functional I can ride it over to another bike shop to try to pick up a replacement seat-post.

I paid for the repairs with my bank card and as I was working my way through the transaction I encountered a tip screen. This surprised me as I don't recall ever tipping for bike repairs before, or seeing anyone else do it. After a few moments it became obvious to the employee that I was trying to work my way through the tip steps without leaving a tip. The employee then told me which buttons I had to press to get through without leaving a tip.

While I felt a little awkward as this was taking place, I don't feel all that bad about not leaving a tip. That it took me four trips to the store to get the bike is probably the biggest issue. A secondary issue is that the shop wasn't able to complete all of the necessary repairs, meaning that I will have to visit at least one more shop before everything is in proper working order. A tertiary issue is that I don't know who did the work so I wouldn't be tipping the mechanic but the shop in general, and I would be doing this before even testing the effectiveness of the repairs.

Anyway, I didn't tip and I feel that I made the right call. I don't even know if I would be particularly inclined to tip had the experience been everything I might have hoped it would be.

A Few Quick Notes 338

-I guess today was a pretty nice day, if a little humid. Strangely, I really don't remember to many of the meteorological features that I must have experienced today.

-Neil and I had another Ultimate game on Sunday. Given that neither team had enough players at the beginning of the game, I don't know whether we won by default, won by points, or lost by default, or lost by points. Anyway, I guess I could check the HURL website if I really wanted to find out how the score was reported.

For the most part the game was pretty good. Unfortunately, the other team had at least one, and maybe two, rather intense players who made things a little less fun. One of the guys on the other team wasn't particularly careful with his body and managed to hit both Neil and I (Neil's lip is still bruised) and run into another player on our team. The most impressive part of all of this was that he wanted to call a foul on me, apparently for hitting his post-throw hand with my upper-chest.

-The other big Ultimate related news is that while I was putting my cleats on before Sunday's game one of the plastic components broke. While I was able to finish the game with few problems, I will obviously need to find a way to secure for next game.



Now that I look at the design I can see that having the eyelets in this piece of plastic is a horrible design decision because if it goes the entire cleat becomes non-functional. I now feel lucky that I have managed to get 4.5 seasons out of this pair of cleats.

-A few days ago, either Friday or Saturday, I dropped my bike off at a local bike shop. I was asked by when I wanted the bike ready and indicated that I was willing to go with whatever was most convenient for them. I was then told that I should stop by on Monday to pick the bike up. On Monday, which happened to also be Natal day, I made my way to the shop by walking through a largely closed and empty downtown. Not surprisingly, the shop wasn't open on Monday.

When I went back to the shop today I learned that not only was my bike not ready, but that they hadn't even started yet. Apparently they are a little behind because they weren't open on Monday. Anyway, I am hoping that it will be ready by tomorrow, though I am not a little more skeptical of this shop's proposed timeframes.

-A few days ago I mentioned that a young woman (and occasionally a young man) is allowing her puppy to defecate in the grassy area across from my desk. The woman then, typically, departs without cleaning up the puppy's droppings. At first I thought public shaming on Montifax had been working as yesterday I saw a bag in action. Unfortunately, today I noticed that the woman and dog were back without even a bag in sight. I guess thinking that a largely obscure blog could have such power was a bit presumptuous on my part, but it would have been pretty cool if that was why someone started to clean up after their dog.

I guess if I wanted to get particularly aggressive about public shaming I could start photographing or videotaping the incidents and then posting them here for all to see.

-For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the bike shop, these past fews I have been downtown and then decided to walk home along the waterfront. I have noticed that compared to earlier in the summer there are really quite a lot of buskers. Today was a particularly busy day for street performers. While I am normally pretty supportive of such things, a number of these performers really should give it a rest. One guy in particular, a piper, was not only massacring Amazing Grace, but also drowning out performers in one block radius.

-On a related note, the piping on the waterfront really gets to me as it fall into the faux-Scottish thing that is going on here in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia should emphasize its own culture and be proud of it and stop the second rate imitation of Scotland's culture.

-I finally harvested a few vegetables from my balcony container garden. I used all nine pea pods and three beans in a stir-fry that I made for dinner tonight. While I will give the pea pods a pass, I was rather disappointed with the beans. Presumably I should be able to conduct similar harvests in coming weeks.



-I should also note that the tomatoes are continuing to grow. The one that is the largest is now almost as large as a small grape, or something in that vicinity.



-A few days ago I re-potted most of my tobacco plants, meaning that I now have only one or two plants per pot, instead of the 15-20 that I had in the paper pots. Interestingly, the plants in the only paper pot that I have not re-potted are now the largest. Though, as you can below, this doesn't mean that they are particularly large yet.



At this rate I don't think my plants will be particularly large by the end of the summer.

A Few Quick Notes 337

-Well we had some rain today, though as of yet we have not had the thundershowers that were also forecast. At the moment things seem to have calmed down, but as the skies haven't cleared I am not particularly convinced that we have seen all of today's inclement weather.

-A few days ago I finally got around to cleaning one of our living room shelving units. The reason for the cleaning was that it had been housing many of the spider mite infested plants, and presumably also housed a number of spider mite eggs. I am hoping that now that the that the entire thing has been cleaned the spider mite remnants have been removed and it will be safe for me to re-introduce plants to that part of the living room. That I dealt with this cleaning job is important as our summer growing season will soon be winding down and I will need to find space for a number of my balcony garden plants indoors. I also hope that this once and for all ends our spider mite saga.

-A few days ago my bike finally arrived from Newfoundland. Unfortunately the rear wheels or brake seem to have been thrown out of alignment sometime between me last seeing the bike and the time that I received it a few days ago. As of yet I haven't been able to diagnose the problem myself so I think that I will likely bring it to a bike shop in the very near future, maybe tomorrow. I am really looking forward to actually having a functional bike in the very near future.

-As of a few days ago I noticed that a blonde woman, presumably from the neighbouring apartment building, is using the green space across from my window as a toilet area for her puppy. While I am not really a fan such things under the best of circumstances, particularly as the area being used is quite visible from where I sit at my desk, it seems that the the woman has decided not to clean up after her dog, making the whole thing much worse.

Today, to make matters worse, I saw a man with the same dog exhibit the same behaviour pattern. This is all the more frustrating as I have not only seen children play in this area, but I have also seen others do renovation related work in the same area. Given the seeming universal human aversion to stepping in dog crap I am quite surprised that this continues to exist. If I was a little more of an outgoing person I might mention this to these people the next time I see it happen, but as that is not really who I am I will probably just continue to let it frustrate me and maybe occasionally blog about it.

-We are in the midst of a fruit fly population explosion. In the past few days things have really taken off. I think that yesterday there must have been hundreds of the things in the kitchen. It seems that, not surprisingly, the compost is an ideal breading ground for them. It would be nice if we could find a way to either control or eliminate them.

A Few Quick Notes 202

-After a brief interlude comprised of rain and fog we seem to be back to more palatable weather. Actually, what is particularly nice about the weather presently is that it is sunny without being oppressively hot or humid. Unfortunately, this is not forecast to carry over to the weekend.

-While walking the house-sitting dog today I was again shocked. Somehow the dog managed to defecate three times during a half-hour walk. Fortunately I had enough bags to clean up each time, though at the end I was really started to run low.

-On a related note, it seems that the world food shortage is affecting the availability of dog food as well. The type of dog food that the dog normally consumes is out of stock and may not be available for another three months. I am really not sure how long the 5 pound bag of food that I purchased yesterday will last, or what I will do if it runs out before I have finished with my house-sitting duties.

-For the first time in at least a year I will be hosting trivia at Bitters. While I have been meaning to do this for some period of time only when I found a potential co-host and didn't have a Ultimate game on a Thursday was I able to actually make plans to do it. Hopefully our questions will be well received.

-It seems that the replacement nut and bolt that I purchased for my bike may not actually be doing as good a job as I had hoped they would. My seat seems to wiggle up and down while I ride. Each time I ride I hope that my seat doesn't fall off at some point during my trip.

Though I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, I am pretty sure that I will need to buy a new seat and seat post.

-Last night I attended my friend Darryl's bachelor party. While we didn't have any strippers and the drinking was kept to a responsible level we did manage to keep the discussions in the gutter. For the few hours that I was there I able to laugh at and recount stories on a range of blue topics.

The only downside of the party, at least from my perspective, was that I wasn't able to have any beer because I had to drive home.

A Few Quick Notes 201

-Though it was rainy an overcast much of yesterday, today thing seem to be back on track. The skies are clear and blue, and the temperatures seem to be acceptable, though maybe a little high.

-Michael Watson managed to hold on to his chip lead and win the Bellagio Cup IV for $1.67 million. There are a few pictures circulating of Watson posing with a large stack of bills (presumably $1.67 million) his WPT bracelet, and the winning hand.

-Yesterday I attended a 'pool party' in the CBS area. Because of the rain and overcast skies the pool component of the event was just rained out. Instead we stayed inside. Eventually the Wii performance games were brought out.

While it was somewhat impressive to see these games, I don't quite think that I have been made a Wii convert yet, or a karaoke game convert.

-It seems that the dog was a little under the weather yesterday. At one point mid-afternoon it puked on the living room rug, and was thinking about doing it a second time when I herded it outside. In the following hours it seemed to be a little under the weather. By about midnight I had the sense that it was back to normal. This has also been my feeling today, it seems that the puking, or what caused the puking, did not have a long term effect.

-My bike seat is a little lose. If I don't want to lose my newly acquired nut and bolt I will have to tighten things up in the very near future. Actually this is a simple project that I should really try to take care of this afternoon.

A Few Quick Notes 199

-Rain has been threatening all day, but aside from a few drops and some mist it has not followed through. The up side has been slightly cooler temperatures (though not cool enough for me to arrive at work not dripping sweat).

-My beans are continuing to do well. It seems that many of the newer plants are showing well formed leaves. Actually, they are doing so well that I will likely have to thin or transplant some of the plants. Transplanting would be the best option as it would allow the space to be more completely used.

-My team played a good ultimate game yesterday. Not only did we win, but we played a team that was enjoyable to play. On top of this, the close score meant that both teams had to keep trying until the end of the game.

We have another game on Thursday. Hopefully this one will go well.

-Yesterday I was able to buy a bolt to attach my bike seat to my seat post. So for it seems to be working nicely, though I think I should tighten thing sup a little just to make sure that nothing moves while I ride.

-While running several errands in the last few days I have noticed that there are an inadequate number of bike racks in town. This is particularly surprising in the downtown area as I would think that with the parking problems as they are we would want to encourage people to ride their bikes instead of driving.

A Few Quick Notes 198

-Starting yesterday temperatures dropped by a few degrees, something that was a rather pleasant surprise. A more pleasant surprise today is that even though the sun is out and the skies are clear the temperature is still quite reasonable. Today is one of the nicest days that we have had this summer.

-The beans I planted last weekend are really starting to do quite well. Manny more plants are visible now than were visible yesterday morning. Actually, a surprisingly large number of plants first showed themselves between yesterday morning and yesterday afternoon.

Amazingly, the new plants, particularly the green and yellow beans, are almost as large as the few plants that actually sprouted from the first batch. The scarlet runner beans, while not particularly large, are a bit bigger than the new plants, though I am not sure that this lead will be maintained for a long time.

-Today I was able to harvest a second batch of rhubarb. Again I will use this to make rhubarb crumble, the only rhubarb dish that I eat, for desert.

In a few days I hope to be able to pick some of the black currants that are growing in the back yard. I think that two smaller bushes that my mother started a number of years ago will finally produce currants this year (though not as many as they will produce in years to come).

-As I have been riding my bike between my permanent residence and the house at which I am house-sitting I have already noticed an increase in my endurance and speed. Hopefully the trend will continue in this direction. Maybe if things go particularly well I will be able to transfer such gains with me when I move to Halifax (though this would mean that I would need to buy a bike once I arrive).

-While riding my bike this morning my left foot slipped off of the pedal. The pedal then scrapped along my shin. While this didn't draw much blood there are a number of rather remarkable bumps and I presume that in a few days I will have some colourful bruises. I have taken this slippage as a sign that I needed to change the pedals on my bike to slip-resistant studded pedals (a change I have already made). While I have been contemplating this change for a number of days it seems that only injury was enough motivation to actually get me to make the change.

A little later on the in the ride as I was riding on Elizabeth Avenue approaching Churchill Square I felt my seat go. Something snapped and the seat bucked up and hit me in the groin. Fortunately I was able to maintain control of the bike and catch the seat with my thighs.

Once I was able to stop I found that the bolt that had been holding the seat to the seat post snapped. While I was in a fair bit of discomfort for a few minutes I am glad that the equipment failure didn't cause a crash and that I was able to keep the seat. Hopefully I will be able to get a replacement bolt on Monday.

-While walking my house-sitting dog today I just about blew chunks. Reaching down with a bag on my hand to retrieve its droppings was just about more than I could handle. Fortunately I was able to hold it together and complete the necessary but unpleasant task.

-Despite my best intentions and greatest efforts I just wasn't able to sleep in this morning. Life seemed to be conspiring against my desire to sleep. I guess this was good as it allowed me to take care of a few errands that would otherwise have remained undone for the next several days.

A Few Quick Notes 140

-Today has been another cool, clear day. As there hasn’t been all that much wind the cool temperatures have not been all that problematic.

-At about 1:00 AM last night about 10 police cars, with their lights flashing, congregated on the corner of Milton and Parc. Neither Nithum nor I could figure out what was going on.

It seems that the cars raced to the location with their sirens blaring and lights flashing, only to stop at the aforementioned location. Once there, cars were able to pass without interruption on Parc, and weave through from Milton to Parc.

For about 15 minutes the police cars just seemed to sit near the corner, lights flashing. Then the police cars, without a reason being obvious, left as quickly as they arrived.

-Yesterday morning I baked two loaves of bread for breakfast. Though I have now done this on a multiple of occasions, I hope that I soon learn that bread really takes to long to prepare to be considered a appropriate thing to make for breakfast.

-Today, for no apparent reason, I baked some raspberry almond bars. Maybe later this evening I will try to sample this batch.

-Several days ago I moved my bike from street level to our balcony. A few days after that I moved my bike from our balcony to our living room. For the past number of days it has been sitting below our living room window, not particularly doing much of anything.

As the bike has been doing much these days, except taking up space, and as we don’t have a Christmas tree, nor as we likely to obtain one, I requested Nithum’s permission to decorate the bike in a seasonal fashion. Nithum OKed the idea and I have since started to adorn the bike with paper snowflakes, Christmas lights, and our lone commercially produced ornament.

-Today I read that there are 82 000 000 people in Germany and 79 000 000 cell phones. I also learned that Austria, Belgium, and China are Germany’s three largest trading partners.

-It seems that in the past few years I have started to combine foods in a frying based almost solely on availability. For instance, tonight for dinner I took out the frying pan threw in red onions, garlic, mashed potatoes, couscous, celery, and wiener schnitzel. Though I was satisfied with the result I can’t imagine that I will ever encounter it again (except the portion that was leftover and that I will eat either tonight or tomorrow).

A Few Quick Notes 119

-The weather continues to be incredible in Montreal. We are experiencing what must be unseasonably high temperatures with clear skies and little wind. For the most part, if I could request a particular type of weather it would be like this.

-Yesterday marked the beginning of another two-day stretch of work. Fortunately, because of an Oktoberfest themed night, I was able to wear shorts to work (though it also meant that I got to wear knee-high wool socks). Actually, for the following two Thursdays I will also be able to wear shorts to work.

-No serious mouse action in recent days, though all of the traps seem to have been sprung (presumably because of furniture re-arrangement). Hopefully we haven’t missed any of the vermin because of this weakening of defenses.

-Last weekend I attended an antiquarian book fair in Montreal. Amazingly, there wasn’t really anything that I was all that interested in buying. I guess I feel that my 2003 edition of Sherlock Holmes will satisfy my needs just as much or more than the $3500 first edition.

-In the past few days I have finally started to ride my bike again, and it has been great. I am not sure why I continually forget how much I enjoy riding my bike.

-Yesterday I sent a package to a friend in St. John’s. Unfortunately, the shipping cost was about twice as much as what I had originally paid for the item that was being shipped. Now that I know how much it costs to ship parcels I will have to be more careful about such things in the future.

A Sunday Afternoon Not Spent In The Park

This afternoon I had to head out on bike because I needed to buy a father’s day gift. While I had figured out what I wanted to buy some number of weeks ago the opportunity to actually make the purchase had never arisen. As today was father’s day it seemed like today was the day so I went for it.

Prior to my departure I was worried that the might not be open because today was a Sunday. Fortunately the store was in fact open and I was able to make the purchase that I desired which happened to be a CD of harp music. While in the store I noticed that they had a CD of accordion music that I had been thinking about buying. As both CDs were on sale for $2 less than the normal price I went for it and made the double purchase. As both CDs were made by local artists and sold by a locally owned store I was even more encouraged to make the purchase.

Upon completing the transaction I realized that I had taken care of my errands rather quickly and that I wasn’t ready to make the ride up the hill yet. I decided that I would head to a coffee shop and pick up a coffee before heading down to Harbourside Park where I would then drink the coffee.

Shortly after self-consciously ordering a soy latte I noticed that things were proceeding a little differently than normal. The first abnormal occurrence was that the worker poured something from a strange carton in to a mug and placed it in the microwave. After confirming my order she then proceeded to open a new carton of soymilk and begin the steaming process. Once partially steamed she but the soymilk in the microwave with the original liquid. Once the heating process was complete she poured the first liquid into a Styrofoam cup and quickly followed that up by pouring the microwaved soymilk on top. Though this seemed a bit strange I was accepting of her actions and chose not to question what had just transpired.

Upon leaving the store with my drink in hand I took my first sip. My initial reaction was that the beverage tasted nothing like I had expected it to taste. Noticeably absent was even a hint of coffee flavour. I also noticed that the beverage that I had been served was very sweet. Thinking that my first impression must have been wrong I decided to try again. Unfortunately, my second impression was even worse than the first. I was now certain that the beverage contained nothing even approximating coffee but it certainly did contain a pretty large amount of a very sweet substance.

While holding the beverage as I continued to walk in the general direction of the park I tried to figure out my next move. My first thought was to ditch that coffee and try again at another establishment. Upon checking the contents of my pockets I realized that I didn’t have enough money for that plan to work. I quickly decided that I would just ditch the coffee in the next available trash can and head west on Water Street. Once I finally came to a garbage can I was able to put the plan into action.

Once back on the bike riding along Water Street I noticed that there were a fair number of people out and about. What I found particularly strange was that I did not recognize any of them, something that is pretty uncommon in a town this small. Eventually I noticed that the upcoming block appeared to have been closed off and that there were flashing lights. As I didn’t really have much to do I thought that I would go and check it out and maybe take a picture. As I approached the scene I remembered that I had heard that morning that the downtown Big Bite had burned down. The street closure and flashing lights were obviously the remnants of this fire.

Once across the street from the building I could see that the building was quite damaged, particularly the pizza parlour. Several individuals, whom I suspect were investigators, were inside the wreckage poking around. I quickly noticed that I was not the only photographer. It seems that the photographer for the local daily newspaper had arrived on the scene just moments before I had. After we both took a picture or two from approximately the same location he walked forward to get a close look.

As the photographer was walking towards the investigators a woman approached the scene. It soon became clear that this woman lived in the apartments above Big Bite and had not yet heard about the fire. As far as this woman knew she had lost everything. It was a pretty strange feeling to be standing there gawking as she found out that her life had just hit a serious rough patch. Shortly after her appearance one of the police officers on the scene talked to her and was leading her towards the site.

I really wasn’t sure what to do after leaving the scene of the fire. The easy thing to do was to turn around and head back where I came from, so I did. Soon I was at the other end of the harbour. Heading to the Battery seemed like a viable option as I still wasn’t in the mood to head home. After a few minutes of guess work and backtracking I eventually made it to my final destination, the street just before the trail that head up Signal Hill. Upon reaching my destination I turned around and started on my return journey.

Instead of riding through downtown I decided to cut behind the telephone building. After briefly stopping in the Anglican Cemetery to take a few photographs I was back on my way and cruising along Empire Avenue. Soon enough I was back. After the bike was returned to the basement I immediately went to the kitchen and had a pint glass full of water.

A Few Quick Notes 44

-Another overcast and rainy day in St. John’s. Though the evening’s raindrops were not that large they did seem to be effective, soaking me on a short trip. It seems that any snow that we did have will be gone in the very near future.

-Montreal is scheduled to be nice and warm, 11 c, by the time I get back. I am not really sure what to make of this warm weather. It seems that this may be even warmer than what I experienced in England. I may have to bring my bike down again.

-Several days ago I was finally able to have some penetrating oil purchased on my behalf. This product in conjunction with a proper wrench should help me remove my peggle once I return.

-Just moments ago I read a newspaper article by a professor of mine that indicated that Newfoundland and Quebec poorest funded public library systems, at least as of 2005 or so. Having lived in both provinces I don’t find this surprising, and it is even less surprising when learned that a small Saskatchewan town of 500 has a public library with more than one employee (I know that I should be providing a full citation but I don’t have the energy at this juncture, if anyone wants I can get them the details).

-Neil arrived back in Halifax today. It seems that he has not had the time to make a post alerting his faithful readers of this fact.

-Someone in my house seems to have misplaced my copy of Saddam’s obit. This is rather unfortunate, I had been hoping to read it as well as examine the associated pictures.

-My pigeon video keeps getting viewers for some reason. Each day I find that it has one or two new views. While it isn’t quite at the top of the YouTube charts it is clearly my most popular video with over 40 views.

-Hopefully the Christmas hiatus will be coming to an end with my return to Montreal. It is my hope to create some kind of quarterly report, though I might find that I won’t have the time for such frivolous pursuits once the term starts.