Vancouver Returns

12 July - Well, the sunshine couldn’t last forever, this is Vancouver after all. Thinking it would just be a bit of god's spittle I just wore an extra layer and didn’t bother with a rain jacket - was pretty sodden by the time I got downtown and got fairly saturated throughout the day. Was wearing cutoff jeans, which are really not ideal for riding in the wet - they get swollen and they stay wet which is particularly dangerous for the water sensitive blackberry that I keep in my pocket, my bold experiment with using a condom to keep it try failed as it was very difficult to wash the lubricant off the latex and even after that it fairly broke apart when I tried to stretch it over the device. also got so wet that the glue in my silly hat completely melted out, every time I touched it there was a slick film oozing out of the brim. Did have some amusing moments downtown though - when I arrived at 885 a tourist puffing away on a cigarette exclaimed to me, 'Gee, y'all sure do have yrselves a beeyootiful city', I thanked her despite the city onlybeing mine for a short while longer, 'Where are all the fat peeple?', I assured her they were around - it turns out that she was from Weezieanna down south - and I tell you what, if I lived in Louisiana i'd sure as heckfire be hyperobese too ... Best goddarn food in the world (yep, that's what I say, my limited world travelling has led me to conclude that it just doesn't get better than the American South). In the afternoon a young lady was doing a photography project on biking in Vancouver - she wanted to get action shots of couriers in action, some of them weren't being too helpful (paranoid about having their picture in the public domain is my guess) but yours trulywas very happy to help her out if it meant gettingsome shots of me. The slick conditions were perfect for practising my skids and managed to do a few throughout the day but I know i'm still not doing it right because every time I try to lock up the wheel the chain creaks and I get launched up into the air and the bike keeps rolling - very frustrating. Had two crashes throughout the day, both times at the exact same location at 401 georgia the firlst time I came up knowingthe area was really slippery and I was telling myself to be carful and not to crash and the bike just went out from under me. The second time I managed to negotiate the tiles but I thought to myself that the mirror surface would be perfect for trying out a skid and I skidded for about 5m before the bike collapsed. Both times the security guard at the bank came up to me to ask if I was alright - I fairly ran away in embaressment the second time (foold me once, shame on you, fool me twice, fool ... Fool .. You can't fool me again! Oh yes, you can apparently). No real damage done so I guess i'll be trying again tomorrow. Herb came down in the afternoon as well and it was great to be able to ee him before I go, we had a nice chat and it was very difficult to have to say goodbye, because I don't think i'll meet someone like him again for a long time. A very good man. He asked me when we parted ways to do somethingfor him, he didn’t want to preach and he told me not to bother about the rules and the guilt of Christainaity but he asked me just to 'consider Jesus' - think about him every once in a while and consider what he means to me - well, when someone like herb asks for that I think I will.