F 1 D 0 -- 02 05 15 at 20 30

Rainbows.

If you want to see more rainbows, then
you have to spend more time in the rain,
hoping for sun to come out.

I've seen a few rainbows in the last week.

Today I got one, about an hour ago.

So, perhaps I'll start at the beginning.

I've been a potato all day.

I got up early, and took Ann to the
university for an all-day Chairman's
Retreat Meeting. But they are not called
chairman, they are called "chairs".

So I was back home by 9am, and still very
ready for bed. I didn't really start until
almost 11am.

I forget exactly what transpired. But I
got to see Cider House Rules, or parts of
it, once again. I saw a few bits of Law
and Order. And some Murder She Wrote, with
guest star Patrick McGoohan as a pompous 
lawyer. 

I found my way downstairs to do email, and
waste more time on Age of Empires, the demo
version. I don't seem to tire of that.

I made some coffee up, and thought about what
might be handy for dinner time, so I started
ten potatoes, quartered them, and boiled them.

Lori Fox Rossi, the photographer came over with
the prints from Ann's last session. The two difficult
paintings indeed resisted getting their pictures
taken properly. We asked them not to make faces
but they persisted. Offered them treats, said
nice things. Still they insisted. They kept 
reflecting.

But the others were well behaved, and sat still
during the pictures. 

When Lori came in, the first thing she noticed
was the Korg Trinity keyboard. She had a song
running around in her head. She played it for
me, and it sounded so very much like Swanee
River. "Close," she says. 

Visit http://www.tbaytel.net/artist/

Did you know that Swanee River is the National,
no State song for Florida? Thank Steven Foster.

I prefer Hard Times Come Again No More.



That was a favourite at our song circle thing.
We'd meet on friday nights at someone's home
and sing loud and hard. Maybe 40 of us, crammed
into a small place. It was amazing.

Oops, I've taken a tangent again.

Ann was hoping to meet with Lori, see the
pictures and thank her (pay her) for her work.
But the weather was nice, and she wanted to
walk home instead of getting a ride. So she
walked. 

I was starting to feel the need to be active
myself, so when she came it, we changed roles.
I got myself geared up for a long bike ride
to West Fort William. 

Oh, the reason was very sound, of course. I
wanted to go to the Bulk Zone store, and get
cat food for Shadow. And they are open until
7pm. There is a store about six blocks from
here, at Memorial near High Street. But alas,
no cat food in that one.

As nice as the weather was, for some reason
it got dark as I started getting serious about
bicycling. I was waffling a bit, actually.

"Drive? Cycle? Drive? Cycle?..." going through
my mind during this. As it got darker and threatened
rain, Drive seemed to be more sensible. 

So of course I took the bike.

As soon as I started along Crown St to High St,
it got a little wet. Just a little. I decided I
didn't want to get cold, so along High Street I
pedalled hard. It is all downhill, so pedalling
in the highest gear makes it so I can keep up 
with traffic.

I made a right along Memorial Avenue. Most of the
cyclists in this town use the sidewalk, and I
don't blame them. These are not Toronto Drivers,
but they do rate way up there in how they appreciate
us cyclists.  

I stopped using the sidewalk a few weeks ago, or more.

Everything was fine, I guess, until I got to a laneway
protected by both a fence and a hedge. 

I was going toward the lake on John Street, and 
out of nowhere a car is plummeting toward me.

I have a system for emergency stops. It really hurts
my testicles, but I lift the bike and point my ass-end
toward the emergency. I get one or two turns of the 
pedal, but I'm just not well enough balanced to do a
U-turn like that and survive, so I end up falling
off the bike, balls into the frame, but survive the
crash that didn't happen. Then there is a long moment
where the driver and their seeing eye dog fail to
notice anything. Then they see me. "Oh my god are
you alright. You go first! Go! Go!" But no, I'm shy
about you in this car. And your seeing eye dog too.

I've always liked how I'm supposed to get the nerve
to walk back in front of someone who has just tried
to hurt me by finding me transparent.

Anyway, I did go.

But since that incident, I avoid riding on sidewalks.
I'm just not visible enough for the many lanes and
driveways along the trip.

So this time around, I'm on Memorial Avenue, going
southbound. This is a very wide street. It has two
wide lanes in each direction with a wide left turn
centre lane. That is the good news.

All of this space encourages vehicles to go fast 
around a slow bike. 

Lucky for me it is starting to rain, and rush
hour has brought more traffic than even Memorial
can handle.

As my bike and I proceed south, eventually we cross
the train tracks and the Neebing McKellar Floodway.
Uh, that's the river. Sorta.

Now I'm on May Street. With a change in town comes
a change in name. Also the character of the journey
changes. As I left Port Arthur and neared the river, 
there were suburban things, like the big cinema complex.
Now all of a sudden, we have a very wide roadway
with small older homes and business buildings from a
few years ago. It may only be across the river, but
the personality is all different. Welcome to Fort William.

This is an older town, and it so it looks different.

Urban decay exists in both towns. In Port Arthur, 
I see buildings getting knocked down and becoming
parking lots. In Fort William, the building remains
vacant, and eventually someone will write on it, or
break a window. 

I go there frequently to see the 
trains. Oh, we have trains here too!
But in Fort William, the warehouses
have their back to the tracks, and 
this wonderful old town feeling 
surrounds me.

Did I tell you that Fort William has a subway?
Well, it does. It has a pedestrian walkway which
runs under the tracks. Pedestrians seem to rarely
use it. There are signs on either side of it saying
bicycles are forbidden there. Of course, we are 
the ones who use it primarily.

When you surface, the first thing seen is a Boys
and Girls club, white with blue icons.

And so now we are on the East Side. The Bad
Side of the Tracks. And to be sure, there are
a few things to suggest that may be true. There
are perhaps 10 homes in this 500 home community
with broken down cars in their front yard. And
there are a couple with garbage and furniture
intermixed, all protected by a dog.

But for the most part, the East Side is marked
by big homes, big streets, families, children 
playing and bike riding. There are these big
churches visible. And a foreign legion community
hall. And more.

It is a nice place where property prices are low.

Oh, I've digressed once again.

So I'm riding along May Street. That gets all
urban, and has a few chinese food places, and
eventually, we get to The End. Arthur Street.

On that corner is a Robin's Donuts, one of many.
May Street ends a block later, and here we are
at Syndicate. 

I'm not sure if Syndicate is a Street or a Road.
I just realized something. My daughter, Cindy,
spells her name this way: Syndi. I should write
to her, and call her Syndicate, and just see her
reaction, good or bad. Even if she threw something
at me, it would be worth it.

Ok, I've done my homework. www.mapquest.com says
that it is an Avenue. That it is an Avenue North,
and an Avenue South.

Syndicate is a lonely lumpy road. It runs
next to the tracks, of course, but doesn't
have too much in the way of your view. It
has Cronos Cafe, and a few homes, but is
not very remarkable.

There is a nice building for sale there. I'm
not sure how to get to it. It is on the other
side of the tracks, and I don't see streets
which go there. I'll check it out. Perhaps
something goes over the tracks somehow. The
building is four or five storeys, and has that
wonderful train station or train hotel look to
it. What is drawing me close to these old brick
buildings this way? Is it a love for the good
old days I didn't experience? I hear they weren't
that good, even when they were not exactly old yet.

The river turns, so the trains turn, and the road
ends. So now I find myself on Francis Street.

This is a residential street. It looks very calm,
very suburban, very tame. This is another street
where children can be seen playing in the street.
You hear, "Hey Kid! Kid! Yeah, you! What's your
name? I'm Tommy. Can you come out later?"

I followed this street of homes until Ford Street.

I took this only a few blocks until Frederica, the
main street of West Fort.

After I spent enough time and money buying cat
food, I took the same route back home. But now
the rain was more serious. 

When I got to the Robin's Donuts mentioned above,
the sun came out. It was still raining hard, but
there was also a lot of sunshine.

Rainbow Time.

I must have spent half an hour just getting
wet, watching the rainbow. The south end
stopped in Rosslyn, and the north end went
into the lake somewhere. I guess that is all
just conjecture, as rainbows move when you
approach them. But still, that is where 
the ends seemed to be. If there were pots
of gold, I'd find them.

Eventually I got home. It was 815pm, and still
bright out.

That's all I know.