Touch his feathers and they won't come loose!

I have a new running route. It’s great. I really liked my old circuit, and it prepared me well for the marathon, but I was getting kind of bored with it and so decided spontaneously last week to branch out a bit. My new route serendipitously hits most of the major highlights of Ottawa, so it is kind of like taking a scenic, double decker bus tour every time I go out. For example, I had no idea there was so much going on behind the Parliament buildings. There’s an entire community of people that hang out back there fishing, picnicking, and generally frolicking around. Now that I know about it, I too have adopted the romantic notion of a sunset picnic overlooking the Ottawa River. It’s really beautiful.

On a less beautiful note, I realised this week that I’ve developed a real phobia of Canada geese. I think this dates back to my days at the University of Waterloo. The place was some kind of travel hub , and at any given time, there could be hundreds of them hanging out on campus. They were not the friendliest, especially when they had their goslings. I never wanted any trouble with them, but sometimes a girl has t o get from A to B. I distinctly recall riding my bike down the path near St. Jerome’s and just putting my legs straight up in the air for fear of getting them pecked off by those nasty, hissing freaks. They also shit everywhere, which is gross.

Anyway, there’s one spot on my run where the geese are always on the path and I must admit it scares the crap out of me to run through there. My heart rate goes up as I tread lightly, and I seriously try my best to sneak through without being noticed. None of these Ottawa geese have ever even hissed at me, but I guess classical conditioning is hard to undo...

I’m on call tomorrow...again.