Get Lost!

     I rode up to the gym this morning, swam for about 40 minutes (that's 80 lengths, front crawl), and decided to go for a bike ride and find a water tower that I see from the bus in the south part of G-town.  First though, I stopped off at a nearby Tim Horton's for a coffee and toasted sesame seed bagel with cheddar cheese.  Okay, so first off, G-town is not always known for it's service, and, secondly,  I find Tim's can be frustrating at the best of times.  They hire an interesting mix of teenagers and seniors, so you are either dealing with hormone-induced catatonia or dementia.  But before I even got to experience that, I walked through the front door of a wide but not very deep franchise that put me right in front of the counter.  "Perfect", you say, except there's a line-up, so I have to squeeze past the customer being served and wind my way to the right and get to the back of the line, luckily, before all the soccer-parents come in with their hyperactive brats.  The line up is interminable because of above-mentioned problems, but finally I reach the cashier and place my order. She hands me back my change and says not another word, so I go to the left where I see other people patiently waiting.  After other lined up customers are served, someone asks me what I'm waiting for and tells me to go to the right-hand counter because that's where the cashier was.  My coffee is waiting for me and I stand waiting for my food order.  Someone else asks me what I'm waiting for and I tell her, "a toasted sesame seed bagel with cheddar cheese", and she directs me back to the left where food orders are dealt with!  I'm muttering/swearing under my breath like a full on Tourette's syndrome sufferer and finally get my food order!  Sheesh, all that stress-relieving exercise out the window.

     Now I really need the bike ride, so I head off along streets I haven't been on before and end up next to the Hanlon Expressway (probably the only expressway in the world with traffic lights, but that's another story...).  To my surprise and delight there is a small road that leads to a pathway populated with dog walkers and other cyclists and it is the escape I have been looking for.  The gravel makes my ride a bit bumpy, but I soon find a path that leads off into greener pastures.  I see lots of doggies en route, along with their foolish, mind-controlled slaves, so I have to be careful not to get too close lest I trigger their fascistic, canine-centric anger.  After some peaceful, back-to-nature vistas, I approach a suburban enclave that looks like it fell out of the sky (and crushed everything natural underneath) and see the object of my attentions.  It's a simple water tower, but there is something about these structures that feeds my curiosity.

     After snapping some pics, I take a different route back, one that involves riding through the forest and encountering a charming little boardwalk over some marsh and a big pile of stones in a meadow that begs a big WTF?

     Finally, I end up in the middle of yet another suburban enclave, walk my bike up a steep, grassy hill and am back on the road home.