Glenn Kubish

The examined ride is worth reliving. It started when Tim caught up to me on Jasper Ave this afternoon. By the time we reached Railtown, we had had a good talk about our public duties as bicycle riders. He shared a story. I shared mine about the day last week I watched, while stopped, a fellow bicycle rider fly through a red light, oblivious to the couple who had the pedestrian-walk right-of-way, narrowly missing them. What to do? I told him I was surrounded by a double dilemma before I could check to see if my Go Pro had captured the scene. First, I routinely share images of automobile drivers showing disrespect to bicycle riders and pedestrians. Left turners, crosswalk deniers, bike-bus-taxi lane interlopers, middle-finger wavers and the rest of the fish in the barrel. But what to do now? Here was a member of the club behaving badly. Do I share the image, or quietly censor it? Then, what to do about the actual bicycle rider? Do I try to catch up and share my thoughts? I d...

At Andy's IGA we glided to a stop and Shelagh went in to get some groceries for supper. I stayed behind to mark the bicycles. A tall figure rattled his shopping cart past the bench I sat on. He had just finished his shopping trip. His cart was overflowing with plastic bags bulging with the shapes of concealed packages and cans and pieces of fruit. He had spent a lot of money, I thought. The man was pushing the cart, but he also seemed to be steadying himself with it. His tan jacket was unzipped even though rain was falling. His pants flapped around his ankles as the wind blew. The ashy, orangey tip of a cigarette looked like a dead fuse as it hung from his bottom lip. He coughed. He stopped in front of me. I decided to slowly pick up and go to cleaner air. I have a chronic bronchitis condition. "What's the trophy for?" he asked, pointing at the back of my bicycle. His voice was lighter than I had imagined. Earlier in the afternoon I was at a team-building...

Here, preserved in the brine of Twitter for as long as the container holds, is a selection of logogram/emoji I worked up this afternoon reading Chapter 6 of The Marvelous Clouds by John Durham Peters and considering writing, the wind, pens, pencils, lipstick, reading, ants, music, the dead, time, sound, birds, atonement, beauty and forgiveness. Thinking about the basics while watching the Raptors-Cavs game and fighting a sore throat and a bit of pain behind the eyes. 😷