Breehy got very excited when she realized I was feeling her tires, which were lovely, round and plump, perfect for struggling up and gliding down hills. And I thought the up hills would be tough, as I hadn't been riding for the past couple of weeks, so I thought I would do the short trip I had planned when I discovered the flat tire - just a few miles up, across, and over the road to a Park and a Community Garden. Best laid plans etc - you've heard that tune before, haven't you?
So of we go, On The Road Again, to King George and Whalley Boulevard - then the instructions from my Google Transit page said to turn on 140. However, I wasn't long on Whalley Blvd when I realized that I was pretty far away from 140, whether it was a street or an avenue, so I just assumed I wrote the directions down incorrectly (yes, I probably made a mistake, imagine that?) and decided to just go where my bike took me.
Whalley Blvd is a quiet ride, partly residential and partly commercial/retail. Nothing terrible exciting. I passed a Piercing place, and almost went in for a couple when I noticed the last bit of info on the sign. I know all about the 'almost painless' part. As in, when the 'surgeon?' who dug the lump out of my knee a long time ago held up a huge needle full of anaesthetic and said, "Now, this may sting a bit." Hah. I'm sure I levitated at least 6 inches above the table - trying to get away from that particular piece of hell.
When I reached the Big Downhill part that would probably take us by the river, I turned right onto Grosvenor (RATS! I just checked Google Transit map to check the spelling of that and saw the route I was supposed to take! Oh well .... ) just to ride along and see where I went.
Before I proceed - I want to explain why my pictures aren't as perfect as they should be, taken from a brand new camera, but unfortunately not from a brand new brain. It wasn't until I got home and downloaded them, that I realized the camera was in movie mode (from the previous night's experimentation.) So all my pictures are the result of pausing a crappy movie clip at a specific moment (the most focused moment), doing a Print Screen thingie, and cropping in the Paint program to remove the black movie edging. Some worked better than others. If there is a tint of too much blue in some of them it probably seeped in from the aura of naughty words that shrouded me.
However - how surprised I was to crest a hill and see the view below - the Port Mann Bridge, with the Patulla in the background. It was one of these How lucky am I to live in this beautiful city moments - the mountains in the background were so clear, and the view was a hundred times more extraordinary than you see here. I know some of you are saying, 'Well, why didn't she just put the video here?' Well, the reason I didn't is because the videos also captured the pavement, Breehy's basket, various fingers and a mumbling voice wondering why the shutter didn't snap. I didn't go downhill any closer than this - one day I will go closer to the Port Mann, but not today. This was my testing-my-tire day.
And I thought, if I lived in a smaller town, I would never find such a plethary of wonderful photo opportunities - but then I passed by this wonderful front yard -
- and realized the camera could find beauty no matter where it was.
This is when I heard what I thought was a domestic disturbance farther up the street. As I got closer, I saw a guy almost jumping in anger, waving his arms, and shouting the F word every five seconds, and a woman just standing there listening to him. Oh oh. As I neared them, I realized the gal was the mail person I had passed on my way to the view, and the guy was an upset resident - because he had a big dog on the loose, she wouldn't go on his property to deliver his mail, so he had to go to the post office on King George to pick it up. It was probably the most abusive rant I'd ever heard. They were on the opposite side of the street from me, and I rode to the corner and turned, rode for a few seconds, then turned back and called out to them, 'Excuse me! I'm lost, I have no idea how to get back ... Can you help me?' By that time, I had walked Breehy across the street, and had on my I'm really old and in the first stages of senility and am going to burst into tears momentarily look. I was actually so good I had tears in my eyes. However, it shut him up, and they both pointed the direction to King George. I asked the mail lady if she was going that way, and asked if I could walk with her a bit, and of course she said yes.
After we crossed the street, I said, 'Of course, you know I wasn't lost, right?' And she said she knew, and appreciated me getting her out of the situation. I personally thought she should have just walked away when he started harassing her, but what do I know?
Anyway, I hopped on Breehy and off we went - but a few minutes after, I heard a volley of F words and other various sounds once more - shoulder checked - and who should be pedalling towards me but our foul-mouthed, angry friend. 'Oh shit,' I thought and put the power to the pedal. There was a guy waiting for the walk sign at the next intersection, so I hoped to join him before this cycler caught up to me - however, he just passed along, calling out 'Just keep on going this way, you'll get to King George,' and I yelled out 'Thankyou, sir.' Sir. Hah.
And now you're thinking, is that it? Most stories have a moral, don't they? Well, yes they do. Hang in there.
When I reached King George, I decided to stick to the east side of the road, which meant no riding on the road as I would be going against the traffic, which is bad. So we stayed on the sidewalk, which meant walking Breehy, even though it was flat terrain. I was a bit naughty and rode a few meters, planning to hop onto the parking lot on the left, but since the block was so short, I just decided to stay on the sidewalk and dismounted. The building on the other side of the intersection with a huge POLICE sign on it also had a little bit of influence in that decision.
When we got on the other side of the crosswalk, there were three police people standing there. One was a gal, talking to a fellow about littering, and the other two were talking to my foul-mouthed acquaintance. Seems the Post Office was just a few feet past the Police Station. I just kept on walking, and was approached by two seedy-looking older guys - uh oh again. However, they just wanted to know if I got a ticket.
I said, 'No, why would I get a ticket?' Seems they had both got $170 tickets for .... get this .... riding their bikes on the sidewalk. So I told them I didn't ride my bike on the sidewalk. Ha. (I left out the last word.) But - our madly riding pal? He was riding his bike on the sidewalk before the policeman stopped him with his ticket pad. Here's the moral of the story - If you serve someone a bowl of crap for breakfast, expect to get a bowl of crap for lunch. (I couldn't find a suitable moral, so I had to make one up.)
I crossed the road at 104 Avenue, for a ride in that direction. I had walked past a huge tree there last fall, which had an Important Sign with its life story, and I thought I'd share that with you. However, when I got to the spot, the sign was gone - and there were lots of trees, two of which could have been the famous one. Too bad. So I kept on cycling - and found another terrific view of way down below me. Yes, this is a still from yet another video, with a poor job of cropping.
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