This one is nothing to be proud of.
I used to do it now and then, but when the Pandemic was in full swing, I started to do it regularly.
Going to the washroom outside.
I figured it was best not to use a public washroom.
Not for me, but for others.
I did not think it would be a good idea to go in one.
Hot, sweaty, that kind of thing.
The rides were far out of the city, and if I had to go, there was nobody around for kilometres.
I still did a quick check, just to be sure.
Behind a bush, around a tree, down a ditch, you get the idea.
If you are riding, and you have to go, it becomes all you think about.
‘Just stop and go,’ I told myself.
I was in a park that I had ridden through many times.
It is always empty.
I put my bike against a tree and found a space about five metres into the bush.
I was about three-quarters done when I hear rustling in the bushes a couple of metres away.
It was a woman wearing a knapsack.
She did not ‘catch me,’ but she knew what I had done, better still was doing.
‘Oh man,’ I thought.
I quickly walked back to my bike.
She was now walking on the path, and I knew I had to pass her.
As I approached her, I noticed something odd.
Her knapsack had a clear dome on the back.
Inside her knapsack and looking out the dome was a cat.
It was staring at me with a look of, ‘Yeah, you are the guy that peed in the bushes.’
I had never seen them before, and since then, I have seen them at least twenty-five times, possibly more.
They are easy to spot, I just hope I am not.
I know the cat knows.
‘You know how cats are eh?’
Insert emoji wiping its brow here.
‘There is another way to ride.’