The Mexican bike shop

This afternoon I took Linc's motorcycle and my camera out for an adventure.  I did my normal route and then decided to go a little further.  I left downtown Playa and went into the regular streets of a Mexican city. the houses became more concrete and had less windows and walls.  A lot of the homes had clothes lines strung full of multi-coloured clothes on the roofs.  The odd man just calmly leaning against a sign post.  For some reason mexican men love to chill on the corner and see what the world is going to do next.  As I drove down these streets, I was the epitimy of a "rubber necker".  I kept looking left and right and was lucky that I did drive the bike into something more stationary than me.

After roughly 30 blocks or so, I rode pass a bike shop.  I don't think I could have the braked any harder as I pulled over and laid down the kickstand.  I walked up to the bike shop which had 5 guys in it.  One older man, 3 middle aged guys and one younger kid.  One guy was sitting on a upside down 5 gallon pail while rebuilding a hub from an "late-model" bicycle.  Another guy was behind the counter cutting tomatoes and putting them into a larger bowl that already contained onions, and fish and was making some sort of pico degio.  The younger boy and the other middle aged guy were just sitting there stare at me as the "white guy" walked in.

As we all tried to break the language barrier, (I could not speak much spanish, and they could not speak much english) we managed to get across a few simple thoughts.  I took out my camera and asked if I could take some photos.  Well the camera sure triggered their excitement.  We didn't speak the same language but a camera is known everywhere.  They all start pointing at things that I should take photos of, smiling at every item.  This is when it happened.  My ego took a huge jump off a endless cliff.

As some of you know, I have spent many years working in bike shops in Winnipeg and have had many bicycles over the years ranging from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars.

The older man that I had mentioned whom was also there, turned out to be the owner.  And the item he wanted me to photograph he pulled out from behind the counter.  It was a framed photo.  As soon as he had the photo in one hand, the other hand was wiping the frame and the glass piece.  He wiped it with such meticulous care and attention, that left me with such anticipation to see the photo.  Once he had finished wiping the little to no dust off the perfect frame and placed it on the counter for me to see, my heart dropped.  The photo was of bicycle in front his counter of his little store.  This bike was a full suspension bike, that at home could probably find at Canadian tire for $300 dollars or so.  The owner had somehow sold this bike through his store but it was the most amazing bike they all have ever seen.  The owner was incredibly proud of this bike and the photo, which anyone could see.  He handled the frame with such attention that it caused my tongue to twist in knots.  Here was a bike, that I used to make fun of when it came through the service department at the bike shop.  I was left speechless (which was probably a good thing), and all I could do was snap a few photos.

Assignment 1

Trying something different with the camera

The prelude to beat all preludes

Well some of you have seen one picture from this car but here is the entire set.  And you when you say wow, AJ that looks a lot like Duct Tape - you would be right.  This car is half a block from my apt and I didn't expect to see this downtown Calgary (maybe in Winnipeg) but not here.

And the images I took from this evening...

Well I was on my home from a patio and..

We were driving down 17 ave and saw a bunch of people with blood on their faces and I stuck my head out the window and asked a person on the sidewalk and aparently it was the world wide zombie walk.  I took some pretty neat photos and here is here is the result.  I also met this cool couple with a bull dog who were nice enough to let me photograph them

John from the bar

Well I just had an hour conversation with John at the bar called classic jacks. John was a late 40's heavy set man who was pretty neat. He introduced himself as owning a cleaning company, security company and a doctor. Well at least he aspired to be a doctor. He also told me that he was cut by the Chicago Bulls and loves the game of basketball. His Hobbies were Working out and Church (his church has a billion members - he later told me his church was Catholicism).

As the diet Pepsi flowed through his cup we discused the nuances of religion and the differences of Catholicism and Christianity. John had quite a lot of difficulty getting his point across with me but in that his message came across clear. Life is about being the best person you can be. He was a regular at classic jacks. Every waitress that walked by knew his name and the bar tender never let his Pepsi go dry. He was the regular that every one liked. He repeated a few jokes to me and quit sentences in the middle but John had my attention. The one theme that he kept bringing up was to do good and treat one another fairly. He was not an average man, his heart was twice as big any one else's.
He welcomed me to Calgary about 3 times and asked me how the bombers were doing. We laughed about many things.

John mostly walked or took the transit he said but he did drive from time to time. When he did drive he went to this neat ice cream shop "just over there" that has a piano in it. I told him I would like to go sometime.

Finally 8 o'clock came and he had to go. So I bought him his diet Pepsi and told him I hoped to see him again.

John helped me remember that it is not the little things that matter but it is how you conduct yourself that gets you from day to day.

The bar tender said that John frequents a few local bars and when he comes in he puts $10 in the tip jar and has a few pepsi's and leaves, the bar tender also told me he admired John's style and bravery.

I am not sure if John actually had a job and had too many real friends but I am sure that he enjoyed his outings and his goal to make people happy was successful tonight.
AJ
Sent from my rotary phone

Flames game