Bicycling Into Taichung and A Dog With The Power Of Ten Thousand Gods

This is the new set of wheels I'm borrowing from a teacher for a month. It's a big, big, big step up from the single speed, rusty bun buster I've been riding. I decided to ride it into Taichung this weekend and get some textbooks. The teachers at school thought I was a little crazy when I told them my plan. They said it would take about two hours. I'm happy to say I did it in an hour and twenty minutes and that was with a couple stops. Once to take some photos of graffiti (see my previous post) and once to bask in the power of the god dog.

I must write about the god dog. I was drenched in sweat pedaling up the small mountain between Wuci and Taichung. In the distance I noticed a medium sized black dog trotting toward me on the sidewalk. He was right in my line, and, as I got closer, I realized he wasn't going to break his line. He had thin jagged lines of fur missing from his head. This boy had seen some action. I thought about a short poem from Charles Bukowski called Dog (Love Is A Dog From Hell). It's goes, "a single dog / walking alone on a hot sidewalk of / summer / appears to have the power / of ten thousand gods. / why is this?" I moved out of his way and stopped as he passed. I wanted to bask in the power of this god. He trotted by without a glance. Unaffected like the god he was, his attention would not be wasted on me. I was a mere mortal, and he had a lot of business to take care of.

After my encounter with the god dog (dog spelled backwards...) I was ready to conquer the rest of the mountain. I made it to the top and soon I was racing down into Taichung. With the blessing of the god dog and my Zen Stone cranking bluegrass I was passing scooters into Taichung. Wide eyed scooter drivers were amazed at this crazy foreigner passing them on a bicycle. Without a glance, unaffected, I kept my line...I had a lot of business to take care of. There were textbooks to buy, spicy beef vindaloo and tomato soup to eat, and glass art to admire at Tittot. Tittot makes glass castings with amazing detail and craft. They sponsor the only museum dedicated to glass art in Taiwan with exhibitions of glass artists from all over the world. Check out their website at www.tittot.com if you want to see and learn more.