PITY THE POOR TECHNO-YUPPIES

Promptly somewhere between seven thirty and eight o'clock the racket started on the street. Multiple Caterpillars. Orange visibility vests, and from the garbage men electric green.
I caught the bus, then ended up walking for several blocks.

Because I had an early appointment the first pipe of the day was delayed. The bus broke down after a couple of blocks, so I walked the rest of the way. Turns out they had no record of my needing to be there at that time, despite the appointment card (their mistake), so the appointment is now tomorrow and a little later. I had arrived with plenty of time to spare because I always show up very early for appoinments, what with being quite neurotic about things going wrong. I ended up having a pastry and a cup of milk tea down the street. Filled my pipe, and stepped out for a walk. Darn good thing I had popped a Tylenol before leaving the house. Legs painful.

But the pipe was good.

It's a GBD bulldog I've had since the Drucquer years.
Pauline sold it to me. Fine hunk of briar.
First smoke after ten.

No power to the overhead lines, vehicle battery below twenty percent.
A major cock-up on the public transit front.
Office droogs huffing.

It turns out that a bus problem is a major lifestyle disaster for downtown office workers. They lament. They whine. Their pressed togs are not what they wished to hike in.
The heartache. The humanity. The woe.

Steep slopes require effort.

Life is hard.

Additionally, there is NO coffee between my apartment building and Chinatown, so you can just imagine the pinstriped despair. Honestly, my piles bleed for them and their immeasurable discomfit. Did I already mention that I arrived for my appointment with time to spare? I really must stress that. Things can go wrong, and you should keep that in mind when you need to get someplace at a certain time. It also helps to have one or two strong cups of coffee before you leave, so that you, like me, are bright eyed and bushy tailed upon arrival twenty minutes early despite municipal transit mishaps.


Tomorrow morning I may leave at the same time as today. Those caterpillars and the men in orange vests are still out there.


Meanwhile, I've been up at the crack of dawn, it's gloomy outside and looks like a grey morning on the moors, and I have zip diddly scheduled for the rest of the day.
Laundry perhaps, then cheung fan across the hill and another pipe.



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