Another driving day.

Not that that’s any big deal or anything,  but at the last minute this morning,  Travelling Companion asked if I wouldn’t mind driving her to work,  and then picking her up at 5:00.   Seems she wants to cart a few things out of her office and Muggins here will be pressed into service.  Just part of the deal. 

Oh,  and you read that right.  FIVE.  As in, several hours before she normally packs it in for the night.  Admittedly,  with the traffic being the way it normally is between say,  the hours of five and seven,  it really makes very little sense to head out most nights before 6:30 p.m. or so. Unless you don’t mind sitting in the car.

I recall that was my usual ploy once upon a time when I would try to get home from Toronto to Burlington.  If I could possibly keep from dying of hunger,  I’d just wait until the traffic died down later in the evening.  Considering I had to be on the QEW the next morning before 6:30 a.m. to “beat the traffic”,  getting home at eight or nine at night made for a pitifully short period of time to actually be there.   Oh,  and from what I’ve heard from hapless Toronto bound commuters in the last few years,  6:30 a.m. is “late” when it comes to getting a jump on the morning traffic.   So glad I gave up that routine so very long ago.

This was way back in time before I ever became a Caretaker.  See, for anyone who just tuned in,  you may have thought that I just made up that title?   Nope.  Not that there are any great stories to tell about being a Caretaker or anything,  but the absolute best part of the job for nearly the whole time that I did it was,  I was always no more than about 10-15 minutes from home!  Oh man!  There were even times when that was by bike,  and by that I mean bicycle.   Of course,  I really had no clue what kind of a bike I really should have had for even such a short commute,  so it was no wonder that going to and fro on a bike wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience. It never would have occurred to me that we would one day move to the Netherlands,  where I would finally get an education on just what kind and size of bike is needed to be comfortable.   I think I would enjoy that short commute much more these days on “New and Shiny”.

I’m not even sure if this is going to work,  but I’m going to paste in a link to a picture I took back in 2009 of New and Shiny,  since any first hand pictures I have are on a back up drive.   That picture (assuming the link works) is from when I took the bike in for its first service appointment.  I think I got the first one or two services done for free,  and than a certain percentage off a couple more.  We moved to Vienna before I ever went back for the later instalments.  Seeing as it’s a Gazelle,  I don’t think it’s going to start getting all wonky any time soon.

Some folks buy souvenirs,  we bought his and hers bikes.  Functional, and full of memories.

 

I got a little bit of a late start this morning for my normal jaunt,  which of course means that the main drag is already starting to get a little nuts.  I did manage to get the car back and tucked into the parking garage before it got too chaotic,  but I was surprised at how quickly everything got totally busy. 

The thing that always gets me too is,  the shoppers and passers-by are,  for the most part,  totally oblivious to a lot of the stuff going on around them.   Nary a soul gave these installers a second glance.

I must have a good imagination or something,  but I’m never too keen on hanging around underneath overhead devices of any kind.  I just have this vision of something suddenly “letting go”,  and I’m not just talking about somebody’s bowels.

That’s a heck of a thought to leave you with,  but that’s what I’m going to do.

 

That’ll be it for today’s missive.

 

Keep it between the ditches.

 

Thanks as always,  for stopping by.

 

 

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