Shadows

Things were pretty quiet during my volunteer shift at BikeWorks the other day.  There wasn't anyone lined up waiting for the gate to open at one o'clock although there was a creepy individual who approached me before I could unlock the padlock securing our yard.  He was shifty enough that when another volunteer showed up, we opened the cash drawer to check that there wasn't too much money in the till just in case he wanted to rob us.  Where did that paranoia come from?

It was so slow that my attention was drawn to the strong shadows created by the bright glow of daylight pouring in through the shop windows.  The first one to catch my eye was from a dusty model of a Canondale that sits atop the east workbenches.



Claire, the other volunteer mentioned that she was planning a bike packing trip from Hinton, Alberta to Vancouver, B.C. which we estimated would take almost two weeks (remembering that what a car can do in an hour a bike takes a day to do).  Naturally what followed was a discussion on what to pack and how much to pack.  I half jokingly suggested that she attend my bike packing workshop that I hope to give in June during Bike Month.

While Claire digested the idea of me finding a three hundred dollar Hubba Hubba tent for twenty five bucks at a garage sale, I observed over her shoulder that the low winter sun had moved to the west enough that it was now casting the word BIKE onto the wall above the benches.

Maybe half an hour later, when we guiltily got back to work, the angle of the sun had changed yet again and the word WORKS was cast onto a different section of green wall.  To me this meant that the creepy guy was prbably still out in the alley (shadowing us) and luckily we hadn't made any sales that would increase the amount of cash in the drawer in case he really intended to rob the joint.