On the Road – Drowning Grass, Blessing Boxes, Spider Webs and More
June 3, 2022
Highlights and lowlights from yesterday’s bus-bike excursion to and from Port Colborne:
1. Whereas almost every other ship gets through the canal under its own power, a large ship called the Metis was being pulled through the canal by tugboats on either end, one of which was called the Salvage Monarch. I will leave it to loyal readers in the Old Country to interpret the symbolism.
2. At Lock 7 was a truck from a lawn company drenching a spot of grass with water. Less than 12 hours removed from a torrential downpour.
3. I hope the cyclist who passed me near Lock 7 realized his rear wheel was wobbly.
4. For those who use the trail, the section that passes E.S. Fox Construction is open once again and with a fresh coat of asphalt. The resurfacing is long overdue and appreciated, though it still does not excuse the failure to post signs at logical detour points while that section was closed.
5. Free bike. Slight wear.
6. Two old biddies standing and chatting in front of the entrance to the washroom near the skateboard park in Welland acted as if they were doing me a favor by getting out of the way.
7. Sadly, such warnings from the Port Colborne Fire Department probably come from hard-won experience . . .
8. Do they actually get any tourists in Port Colborne?
9. Another sign that this is not the Old Country, as this blessing box would quickly be raided, vandalized and/or smashed. Not necessarily in that order.
10. Inside the Green Apple Coffee House was a group of three older people who gave me a “who the hell are you” look as I took a seat nearby. Across from me was someone busy working on the seeds of a future novel while munching on ice cubes. None of them likely noticed the many spider webs on the track lighting overhead. By the way, if you’re looking for gelato there, their compressor blew as soon as they turned it on this spring.
11. Video from the Port Promenade:
12. Passing me on Canal Bank Road was a motorcycle with a stuffed Alf perched on the back.
13. Just dump all your Minute Maid juice boxes on the side of the trail. Don’t bother using one of the many garbage bins the city provides.
14. Not far from this scene was a fat woman wearing a sleeveless top, showing off her rolls of fat, sitting in a car and smoking. Welcome to Welland.
15. For some reason, both the men’s and women’s washroom doors at the Welland Transit Terminal were propped open with garbage bins. Were they airing them out after some people took a stinky crap?
16. Is there anyone who still buys into this?
17. “Under stand” this . . .
17a. I’m not the only one increasingly adopting the “up yours” attitude to all this silliness. And it’s about bloody time.
18. Speaking of the “up yours” attitude, most of the passengers, including yours truly, were not wearing a mask on the regional transit bus that took me back to St. Catharines.
19. Two of said passengers were in the back discussing the poison injections sweeping the land. One of them said her friend, a former cancer patient, took the injections and a month later, ended up with a grapefruit-sized tumor.
20. Another of said passengers was a fat woman sipping on a Big Gulp while wheeling a cart in which there was a jumbo-size bag of potato chips she didn’t need.
21. Even though our driver had the pedal to the metal heading north on a busy Merrittville Highway, someone in a tan pickup truck actually passed him.
22. Pulling out of Brock University, the first St. Catharines stop, I was astounded to see one of their flags stating that they have an inclusive campus. That takes a special kind of gall, given that they still insist on poison passes to enter their our buildings.
23. Before getting off the bus, a fellow cyclist who was in town from Hamilton asked me where Queenston Road was. Turns out he wanted Queenston Street, unaware that there’s a Queenston Road on the other side of the canal that is not connected to Queenston Street.
23a. Did you know that there’s a Queenston Street in Queenston?
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