I realize that through various 'rant' posts I have revealed my not-so-hidden Grumpy Old Man persona. It's time to make this official by including it as a searchable topic and sharing those little things that set me off.
Well, internally, as I am still a WASP in control of his outward expressions.
Tonight's episode: the rules of the road.
We live in a society with certain rules that exist to protect us from each other. Some of the most delicate balances concern roads, streets, bicycle lanes and sidewalks, especially in a city like Montréal, where the rules seem to be something we don't necessarily follow, but that we love to point to when someone else's free spirit has inconvenienced our own.
Tonight, I took a bus home after seeing a movie at the other side of downtown. While waiting for the bus, I watched with some degree of amusement as four bicycle cops bore down on what they seemed to think was a drug deal in the park. It may well have been, but the small group scattered and that's all the cops succeeded in doing. Shortly after that, it seemed to be the end of their shift, and they set out eastward like a pack of dirtbikers, whizzing past me at the bus stop with mere centimetres to spare. Oh no, I was not perched on the curb; they were speeding from the park across the sidewalk right past me onto the street. Now that's respecting the rules of the road, no? And by the people who are charged with ensuring that the rules are followed.
It gets better.
The configuration below might be familiar to many: the crosswalk. (In Montréal we tend to think of these as 'targeting zones' and don't really believe the cars will stop for pedestrians at them. We are usually not disappointed in our assessments.)
At the corner of my street where I get off the bus, debarking passengers must cross a bicycle path to reach the sidewalk. Luckily, there are crosswalk stripes painted across the bicycle lane at both bus door locations. Do you think my mad cycling police officers stopped to allow me to cross? Not a chance! They whizzed by as I pointed at the crosswalk with my own cross look directed at them.
Good thing they were wearing their sunglasses with the anti-glare feature or they might have been withered by my look.Thanks for showing us all how to respect the rules of the road, boys!
Il est revenu. Le journal que je déteste, que personne ici ne veut et dont j'ai pensé avoir mis fin à la livraison…est de retour.
Mercredi passé étant la journée nationale de déménagement au Québec, ils auraient dû pensé que la femme qui y était abonnée il y a plusieurs années a décidé de revenir s'installer à nouveau dans son ancien logement. Non, ça ne fait pas de sens, et ce n'est pas le cas.
Donc, je passe à la prochaine phase de ma lutte contre le Journal de Montréal, cet espèce de déchets produit par des briseurs de grève que je trouve devant ma porte chaque matin depuis jeudi. C'est la phase où je livre ce même journal chez eux, par un moyen qui va leur coûter chaque fois qu'ils livrent chez moi.
Je les mets dans une enveloppe sans timbre, avec leur adresse comme destinataire et comme source, et je les mets à la poste. J'inclus une note avec chacun qui lit comme suit :
« SVP ARRETEZ DE LIVRER VOTRE JOURNAL AUX [omis] À MONTRÉAL
IL N'Y A PERSONNE VIVANT À CES ADRESSES QUI VEUT LE RECEVOIR
LES JOURNAUX NON VOULUS REPRÉSENTENT POUR NOUS UNE MÉNACE À NOTRE SÉCURITÉ, CAR ILS ANNONCENT DES LOGEMENTS PRÊTS POUR LES VOLEURS
DE TEMPS EN TEMPS, VOUS LIVREZ AVEC LE JOURNAL UNE FACTURE AU NOM DE [omis]. CETTE FEMME NE DEMEURE PAS ICI DEPUIS AU MOINS 4 OU 5 ANS
VOS JOURNAUX VOUS SERONT RETOURNÉS PAR LA POST, NON TIMBRÉS POUR QUE ÇA VOUS COÛTE, CHAQUE FOIS QUE VOUS LES LIVREZ »
Et comme partout, la guerre n'est pas gratuite pour moi : j'ai eu à acheter des enveloppes assez grands pour envoyer ces journaux. Espérant que mon investissement porte fruit.
The 30th Montreal International Jazz Festival is underway, and the zone in which it is traditionally held is in full construction mode.The location of the welcome banners is obviously pre-determined and did not take into consideration the street closures for construction work. Here is what greets people at the intersection of de Maisonneuve and St-Laurent:
…and a close-up of that barrier fence across the "entry" way:
Welcome to the Festival indeed!I guess we will find out later what the purpose of the work depicted below will be, but it started out with the removal of some rather lovely flowering crabapple trees that outlined the two little triangle-shaped parks flanking that section of de Maisonneuve, between Clark and St-Urbain.
And I didn't even take pictures of the demolition of the Place-des-Arts parking structure (just to the right of this view of the big hole) or, to be fair, the part of Jeanne-Mance that was apparently completed in time for the Stevie Wonder concert last night. Or mostly completed…
At the corner of my street where I get off the bus, debarking passengers must cross a bicycle path to reach the sidewalk. Luckily, there are crosswalk stripes painted across the bicycle lane at both bus door locations. Do you think my mad cycling police officers stopped to allow me to cross? Not a chance! They whizzed by as I pointed at the crosswalk with my own cross look directed at them.
