City Mouse Country Mouse

Just another facet of my pending bi-polarness I am certain. On the most part I see myself living in the solitude, peace and quiet of a surrounding ample with close growing 100 year old trees, whispering in the breeze and the every so often murmur of a little creature among them. An evening without constant emergency vehicle sirens, trains passing in the night and testosterone filled street racers would be quite welcome. There's a certain whimsy about driving past a road sign that says Population ~ 1100 and then sailing through their one Main St., but then the scariness of ALWAYS knowing your grocery clerk, your banker, or even your gas bar attendant and gawd forbid them knowing you and all of your business. It's so 'small town', but can it really be all that bad? I have lived all of my 27 (almost 28 ick) years in the largest metropolis in Canada, and what does this mean? I have never seen a full night of stars from my driveway, ever! In order to get that, it had to be from my 'summer home' about an hour and a half outside of the city; where we hear the afforementioned whisper of trees in the evening breeze. Every so often however I have an urge to consider myself a city boy. I think about living 30 floors above ground level, having the bustling sidewalks just a short mechanical ride away, dodging conversations and yuppies with coffee in one hand, newspaper in the other: however I am pretty sure that would get old and annoying much faster than what my possibly quiet country life could behold. My thought for today as I watch what could possibly come next in this rather uninspiring mundane life of mine.

Toodles

Public Transportation

I'm a driver. I've got a car, and for the most part I definitely consider myself fortunate that I have the ability and the finances to do so. However, I am not adverse to taking public transportation. I did it for the first couple of years back home from high school (mother of course drove me there) and for the couple of years between Bessy and the G6, so although not a 'card carrying member' like a friend of mine refers to herself as since she has a Metropass, I can certainly hold my own on the TTC. I can still remember the immense joy my best friend and I had felt when my mother said I could take the bus with just him and I to the movies or wherever, I think I was maybe 10. Is it even safe now for kids that age to ride without PG? Waiting for the bus is no fun, I try to remember to bring reading material. My favourite is the people who walk out into the road to check if it's comiing...how exactly is that helping other than enhancing your stunt double career in Hollywood North? A few years ago here in Toronto they introduced a system of displaying the bus route's number on the back of the bus at the top right corner. No window, just a lime green LCD kinda thing right beside the exhaust fan panel. I have yet to understand how it's helpful. Is it so you can be more pissed off that you missed your exact bus? Rubbing salt in the wound that the driver saw your fat ass running but still kept on excellerating? This much I can tell you...for the brief millisecond that I think I could possibly give up my car and 'bus-it' around town on a permanent basis, I just remind myslef of the crowded, b.o. infested standing room only rides home I used to endure and realise that I will continue to pollute the Earth with my exhaust fumes and likely still wait in traffic for a lesser amount of time in the comfort of my own car than the thankless pat on the back I am going to get from anyone for taking the bus. Ick.

Toodles