Balancing Act

Evenings are a lovely time to go for a bike ride this time of year: the breeze is cooler, the leaves are turning, and the sun drops early and sets the horizon on fire.

On my usual route I stopped by the turtle pond near the West End Community Centre, mostly to enjoy the evening. It didn’t take long to find another half-dozen beer cans in the bushes around the pond — the second time this week. Someone is having a very good time in this park.

Just around the corner, in another set of bushes, a full car bumper, the whole curved length of it, pitched in where the shrubs meet the grass. This is the second bumper from this area this summer — at least this one did not end up submerged like the one we found in July. Getting this one out was easy. Getting it home was the problem. It is roughly twice the length of the bike trailer, so it rode balanced across the top, one end out past the wheel, the whole way back.

The evening ride turned into a balancing act to get the bumper, a bucket of debris and 33 cans and bottles home. As the weather cools further into October, hopefully the bush parties will wrap up for the season. Then again, with spooky season upon us, you never know how many more of these rides will come up.