The Mysterious Case* Of The Bag On The Bike

The white plastic bag hanging off my bike's right handlebar was new. I was pretty sure of that. I hadn't pedalled to work with a plastic bag on my bike. Had I? No, no, I hadn't. It was a long day at work, and I was pretty tired, and now here was a mysterious bag on my bike in the bike cage at the end of day.

It's in the bag

For some reason, my first thought was maybe not what everyone would have first thought: here, I deduced, is a bag with a corn cob in it.

But it was heavier. Different shape. No, not a cob of corn. Why was I being tested like this? (Actually, my first thought was it was bag of dog poo, but there's no use even mentioning that as part of the official story.)

I untied the loose knot and opened the bag and saw that whatever it was was wrapped again in paper towelling. Poking out was a red and white top with printing that said: New Belgium Brewing. This was a beer bottle, I concluded.

And there was beer in it. It was bottled beer. There was a bottle of beer on my bike. Bonus.

And weird. The night before my ride home had also featured beer. The talk of beer, that is. At the red light on 105 St I had caught up to a bike rider who said hello, said something about the weather, and then, before 106 St was behind us we were talking beer. That conversation lasted until 127 St when he turned north and headed home to St. Albert.  His name was Darcy. He worked in the office tower next to the one I work in at ATB Place. He said he liked Deschutes and New Belgium.

Beermeister
That episode replayed itself as I stood in the bike cage looking at the beer. It was a bottle of Fat Tire And Friends fat wild ale. Taped on it was a handprinted note:

Happy Trails 
-Darcy
I phoned Shelagh.

"The nicest thing just happened to me," I said.

Let the record show that bottle of New Belgium nicely accompanied the biryani Shelagh summoned for dinner. And it was a very satisfactory chaser for a hard day at work. And it was a perfect punctuation mark on a bewildering week.



*Case closed, bottle to be opened!




Comments

  1. Maggie16 November 2016 at 13:22

    A lovely, random ray of light getting in through the massive cracks of this dark week. I'm sure you savoured every sip. That's what it's all about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glenn Kubish14 December 2016 at 20:27

      It so struck me that way exactly! It was a great tasting beer. I remembered a Kokanee or three that hit me the same way.

      Delete

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