Ugly and Grey, Just Like My Friends

I rode my bike over to the Postal plant this morning to give my support to the striking workers. OK, I went over to rub in the fact that I was retired and they are yet again walking around the plant wearing sandwich signs.

Just a word of caution to those of you that are of a like mind; it turns out that when people are on strike they seem to lose their sense of humour. Jokes that bring a smile to my face just thinking of them have the opposite effect on the strikers. They were in a pretty positive place until I arrived and then the rain came. Talk about a one-two punch. I tried to point out that even though they are getting royally screwed, the good news is that I won’t be affected at all! If that isn’t a silver lining then I don’t know what is.

It was nice to see some of my old friends and to find out the truth of what is happening during this strike. Well, labours point of view anyways. I spent so long as labour that although I understand management’s point of view, my sympathies lie with the workers. I took some pictures while I was there, to prove to myself that I was there.

Oh, my mistake, this is a bunch of nuts.

No mistake, this is a bunch of nuts!

The weather started to turn ugly and grey, sort of like the friends I was going to have coffee with. I waved goodbye to my striking friends and they all waved goodbye to me. Even though I was riding the bike and needed to steer, I used my whole hand to wave, but a good number of my friends used both hands but only one finger on each hand.

Of course the sky opened up just as I was leaving and I couldn’t help but think this should work in the strikers favour. Everyone that drives by now will see the pathetic, cold, rain soaked people shuffling along with their wet cardboard sandwich signs and know that they just aren’t fair weather workers. Good for you! I on the other hand had no such sympathy, just a long and wet ride to the coffee shop. Half way there, the front wheel decided to slip on some mud and drag the rest of the bike and myself to the ground. Why would a wheel do that?

When you are riding along and then you suddenly find yourself on the ground beside a busy road, it isn’t pain that you feel, but embarrassment. I don’t know any of those people driving past, but I could sense that I was blushing in shame. I pick myself up and wipe off the larger clumps of grass and mud, hop on the bike and continue on my way. Something is rubbing and something else is “ticking”. The rain comes down just a little harder, which is a good thing because now I am relatively clean.

Just about five minutes from the coffee shop the rain stops and although I can’t say that I am drying off, at least I am not getting wetter. I pull up to the window of the coffee shop and my two buddies start to laugh. That’s the good thing about men; you give none and get no sympathy. I could see they were thinking “What an idiot!” but neither one of them said the obvious. Someday, when they do something incredibly stupid, I will do the same for them.

Maybe…