This morning, I couldn't be late for a business meeting that started first minute of the working day. I had set off on my bike at 7:20 AM, and I started with a call to Port City Taxi to cancel my 7:40 AM pick-up. I had forty minutes to make work, yet I didn't want to be out twelve dollars for mere transportation from point A, home, to point B, work. Port City Taxi is often flaky with time. The taxi arrives earlier than or later than scheduled pick-up and rarely exactly on time. So I decided to set a time record for biking to work. Now I have a way out of this residential district with a handful of industrial buildings. Otherwise, when bussing it, it's better to wait for the 6:15 PM bus at the corner of Sherman and McCracken, a corner called Shermac.
I had just bought a Schwinn one size fits all gel cushion, and I wish I could always spend 16 dollars so well. No longer do I have to worry about giving myself a perpetual boner while cycling. I could really focus on the pedaling. Of course, as I cruised along the road between the airport fence and the Mona Lake south shoreline, I scared up a Least Sandpiper in the short grass, and it burst into flight and landed closer to the water. I am pretty sure I scared up a Least Sandpiper. It had the stintly legs of a shorebird and the beak of a shorebird. Resolution: Wear a HD Pro on my hat and think of someway to zoom it. Plus, turn off the camera because what can be more boring than footage of a middle aged punter running the asphalts? I guess every bird from Woodcocks to Snipes looks about the same. Family brings in the plovers, a bird family I rather like because there's a natural product store in Stratford, Ontario with that name. It amazes me how the Least Sandpiper looks like a ball of feathers on a pair of stilts, but looks similar to a powerful flying Jay when wings open and the bird takes the air. It's a Transformers kind of change.
It's adorable how these sandpipers run in the surf. If I have my facts right, the members of this bird family have bills for probing and pecking, but lengths vary from species to species. A snipe and a sandpiper can work the same sand and find different kinds of food. Bills are sensitive and can detect the movement of fish in the water. I admire how the American Goldfinch makes a waterproof nest and the Cardinal weaves several sturdy nests a season. The Least Sandpiper makes a scrape in a convenient bog. I guess its simpler when one lives on the shore.
I got a late start, so I was happy to see all my moving landmarks show up in the same places. The woman who jogs with pain and inconvenience showed up at her mark on Russell Road. I passed the eastbound Henry bus near the fire station for Norton Shores, so I knew I had made up time. I locked up my bike at 7:50 AM. The woman with the Paris coffee mug opened the door as I parked, as she always does. She was in a bit of a daze because her husband had celebrated her birthday the night before. It must have been a great birthday because she is usually the first to say good morning. I said good morning to her and added, "You'll always have Paris". She repeated it. "I'll always have Paris". She burst out laughing.
I was sitting in the meeting room when my colleague dialed into the Level 3 teleconference and browsed out to WebEx. I had no idea when I watched Charlie's Angels that I would become a teleconferencing angel in the new century. The last guy to arrive called in from his car, caught in construction on the way to work.
It's pretty cheap to Go Pro: http://gopro.com/
White Plover, White Plover, let Wilbo Come Over: http://www.plovers.ca/
Some birds outdo the Transformers: http://www.transformersmovie.com/
Level with me: http://www.level3.com/
This is no penalty for excessive use of WebEx: http://www.webex.com/
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