plonq | May. 30th, 2010

This little statue has seen better days.

After two solid days of rain,

atara had finally reached her fill of being stuck indoors and had rendered herself sedentary across the bed in a fit of uncontrolled ennui. I hated seeing her in such a state, sighing forlornly at the meaningless of inaction, yet lacking the ambition to escape from that downward spiral of boredom. I tried to come up with some ideas for fun things that we could do together, like mumblety-peg or pin the tail on the neighbour. Ideas exhausted, I lay on the sofa for a quick nap.

I had a nasty dream last night about my bike. I also dreamt that somebody burgled our house and stole everything while we were away, but I digress. This is about my bike. I was in Victoria, well, or in Winnipeg. There is this weird hybrid city that I sometimes dream about that I shall call Victoriapeg. Think of Winnipeg if it was by the ocean, and had hills, and didn't suck. Oh ya, I also dreamt that it snowed. Anyway, I was going riding with some friends in Victoriapeg, but when I went to use my bike I discovered that the fenders were rusting through, the seat had split and a spring was poking out, and the handlebars were slightly off-centre so that I had to hold them slightly to the right in order to ride forward. Also the front wheel was a bit "loose" in the sense that it would sometimes wobble back and forth on its own, and I would have to compensate by turning the handlebars to keep the bike straight. Also everywhere we went seemed to be uphill.

I was enjoying the ride immensely, even though it was snowing and I didn't have my jacket, but I was also really pissed. This bike was supposed to last for at least four or five years, and here it was rusting through and falling apart in less than a month.

Why do I mention this dream? Because it amused me upon waking, and also because I remembered it vividly as I was waking from my afternoon nap. Around this time I also noticed the sun was making a pretence of breaking through the clouds, and if you squinted out the window just right the streets almost looked dry. I strode into the bedroom where poor

atara was still rendered prone in her languid state and announced, "I am putting on pants." And I did so. Obviously I would not be putting on pants if I had not been intending to go somewhere, perhaps even do something interesting. As I had suspected would happen, she rousted herself enough to enquire about my plans.

"I am," I replied, "going to ride my bike."

"Without me?"

"You are welcome to come with me if you like. I think the weather is conducive to riding a bike now."

"But you were just going to head out without me if I hadn't asked," she said, with an accusatory tone.

"I made a point of announcing that I was putting on pants specifically because I knew it would prompt you to ask."

And that's when we hopped on our bikes and went for a lovely ride between the parks; which is where I snapped this picture of the bison.

One of these days I will either take a picture of the commemorative plaque, or at least take the time to read it more thoroughly. What I have gleaned by skimming it is that the statue marks a location reasonably near where a girls' school once stood. Maybe. Also, do termites eat bronze? I always thought that this little guy was made of bronze, but he seems to have contracted a nasty case of termites.