logloglog

In 2004, the Naked Bike Ride in Montréal wasn’t exactly a success, even though a naked picture of me made it into the Mirror.

Today was the second try for Montréal. So while in one part of the city one of the worlds’ most polluting events took place, the Formula One races, we protested against cars and pollution by riding our bikes in the buff. It’s also Clean Air Day, even though there is a smog warning in effect.

and it was much better. About 150 to 200 people showed up, and most of them bared it all and rode through the Plateau neighbourhood naked. Of course there were about 500 onlookers at the start and many more along the roads. The police escorted us and closed roads and intersections for us. All happened without any incidents.

Halfway my bike’s front tire was punctured so I spent the last 2 kilometres running with my bike in hand. I was surprised of my endurance, since I normally never run, and certainly not on my Teva sandals. I’m sure seeing me run must have been a spectacular sight.

If you want to see me naked on a bike watch the news tonight or read a newspaper tomorrow. I’ve seen so many cameras along the route that I’m sure they snapped me as well.

Just after Alison left for work, a cat sneaked into our kitchen through the backyard door. Poupoune saw her first and chased after her, followed by a fierce Pepe, who isn’t so fast with his short legs.

They gave the cat a good workout across the garden and then came back into the kitchen. Poupoune was still panting from all the excitement. Pepe however, left a trail of blood behind him. Not a big trail, but enough to make a mess. I picked him up and inspected him. Fortunately it was rather minor, he probably hit his foot onto something. No cat scratches, which is good because Chihuahuas are easily blinded by cats hitting those big bulging eyes.

But now what? I had to bandage him, so his blood wouldn’t be all over the house. So out came my first aid kit, that I keep in my workshop for when I cut of my fingers. I also took some high friction tape, a rubberized tape that sticks only to itself. I use that on tools to make them less slippery. I noticed they used something like that on Poupoune when she was hospitalized, and it seemed handy to keep the gauze in place.

After some fidgeting with the gauze ó Pepe didn’t exactly sit still ló I wrapped it up with the tape. But of course Pepe immediately went for it with his mouth, and notwithstanding having only a few teeth, he rid himself of the bandage in no time.

I had to make a Elizabethan collar. So I grabbed a piece of Tupperware (well actually it was from IKEA), cut a hole in the bottom and cut one corner open and fitted it around Pepe’s head. A perfect fit in one try! I’m so good.

After that is was an easy task to re-apply the bandage and after I took this picture he’s now sleeping in his basket, under a blanket. There is no use fighting Elizabethan Tupperware.

Last night I started to hear voices.

Umm no, make that noises. This weekend I replaced the main water valve to our building. The old valve was broken and could only be closed with lots of force with a big wrench, and even then it still leaked slightly. I was afraid that some time, the stem would just break off completely and I wouldn’t be able to turn off the water anymore. Not good.

So I put a new, better valve behind the first one. It’s scary to cut 1 inch thick pipe and then solder a new piece in it, but that part went well. So far so good. But because now the front garden tap was behind the main water valve, there would be no way to turn it off. So I re-routed the water pipes so they connected after the main valve.

But since there was a slight noise heard in the pipes, and it got worse an worse. Now, whenever I close a tap in our apartment, a moaning sound can be heard. It’s not very loud but loud enough to be annoying. I’m alone at home (Alison is in Toronto) so I can’t really pinpoint from where it emanates, because I can only be next to the tap when I turn it off. It appeared like it was coming from one of the apartments bathrooms, and after some googling, I found it it could well be caused by a malfunctioning toilet tank valve. So yesterday I finally got permission of the tenant to come and fix this.

Exchanging the old valve for a new one was not much work, but then I discovered that the toilet was not very stable anymore, and also that the toilet was continuously running. The running is easy, I’m going to get that part in a moment. The-instability however I can only cure by replacing the floor, and when I do that I might as well renovate the whole bathroom. The problem is that this particular tenant, um, is a heavy bather. At least 1 hour a day but often two or more hours a day he, and his girlfriend and daughter take a shower or bath. Their energy bill must be higher than their rent. So if I start renovating it, they can’t use the shower for a week, which is a big problem for them. There’s another point: If I renovate his bathroom, he certainly isn’t going to move out anymore. Plus, according Québec’s rental board laws, I can only augment the rent a little bit, just enough to recoup the renovation costs in 22 years. But I told him I want to do it anyway (if it’s going to leak it will leak in our bedroom) but only during his holiday. He wasn’t sure he was going anywhere though, they might just stay home…

Anyway, back to the noise. Changing the valve didn’t cure the problem. It is something else. Air in the pipes? I just drained all the pipes in the whole building (again, needed permission of all tenants to turn their taps on and off again to let the air out) and filled them again. No dice, the sound is still there. I’m out of ideas. Why can such a simple thing make me so depressed? It literally drains all my energy.

Okay, I’m done ranting now. Let’s see if the noise, while I was writing this, has magically disappeared.

No such luck…

I’ll wait for Alison to come back and see if, with her help, I can pinpoint the exact location of the noise. Maybe with the two of us it goes away. Until then I’ll sleep on the couch with earbuds, so I won’t hear the noise.

After a lazy Sunday afternoon supper at Dorothée’s, I tried to get Poupoune in the hammock and thought she wouldn’t like it. But she just jumped on it, no problem at all. To get a nice photo of her we repeated the jumping on and off twenty times or so. We go through great lengths to produce loglog: we even torture our dogs. Not that she didn’t like it.

Whenever you need Poupoune, just start petting Pepe.

Pet Pepe as if he was Aladdin’s lamp and Poupoune will show up immediately. The difference with Aladdin’s genie is only that this genie doesn’t fulfil your wishes but just wants her own wishes fulfilled: Pet me.

SCENE 1

EXT. HOME DEPOT (Montréal) – DAY- TRACKING
to follow MARE in shorts with a flatbed cart with assorted building materials

MARE HANDS
uses bleeper to open car from a distance

MARE
opens car back door

CAR BACK
back seat of car is folded down, to the left there is an umbrella and a blanket

MARE FACE
puzzled frown

CAR BACK – PULL BACK
reveals two identical cars next to each other

MARE
closes first car door, opens second car door, loads building material in car

FADE OUT