Admittedly this is post is more than a little influenced by my recent purchase of my Vespa LX150, and less a product of what’s going on in the world of pop culture as of late. 

Or is it?  How much has the non-stop news coverage of rising gas prices influenced my subconscious decision-making.

Whatever.  The point is that I live in Toronto, Ontario which means when I get my motorcycle license I go into the Ontario graduated licensing program.  I got my M1 a few weeks ago with the standard, straightforward written test.  About 30 minutes start to finish, and I got 3 wrong.  You’re allowed up to 4 wrong in each of three sections, so it would appear that they aren’t trying to keep many people from getting their first level license.

To get my M2, which lifts all of the driving restrictions except for blood-alcohol level (which is pretty irrelevant to me since I never ever want to touch a motor vehicle after drinking), I either have to take a road test with the Ministry of Transportation or take a rider training course that includes a road test as part of the program.  I chose the latter.

So the program I signed up for is through the Rider Training Institute.  There are others at local colleges like Centennial and Humber.  The RTI program is a bit less expensive, but the most important factor for me was that they have a downtown Toronto location.

So last night was the 3 hour classroom portion.  There’s some paperwork to fill out, waivers to sign, etc.  They walk through a lot of the content from the Driver’s Handbook I had to study to get my M1 (which is a prerequisite for this course).  We also got to spend some time getting to know your classmates and instructors, which is nice considering I’m about to spend an entire weekend with them.  One of the instructors, David, even memorized all 20 of our names and recited them back to us at the end of the night.  It was pretty impressive…like the dude on TV who used to do the Mega Memory infomercial.

So anyhow, I’ll be down near the Docks entertainment complex on the Toronto waterfront all weekend–rain or shine–pushing and riding motorcycles around the parking lot.  I’ll let you know what the rest of the weekend is like as it unfolds.

For something far more interesting, creative, and mutually rewarding along the same lines you should read about Kyle MacDonald, a resourceful Canadian who set out on July 12, 2005 to barter his way from one red paperclip to a new house.  Quite the trail of adventures and trades already, including his current offer of spending one afternoon with the esteemed Alice Cooper.