In The Saddle Again, With Or Without Yogurt

Oddly, I think that might have been the reason why I didn't feel any pain in my knee.  Riding fixed forces you to spin at a more or less even pace; sudden power surges are difficult and even dangerous, especially in traffic.  Now, my ride was flat, but still, I felt good about it.

Perhaps even odder, the pain I felt was around my lower back.  I'd been doing some excercises the physical therapist recommended for loosening up the muscles in my leg and hip.   Then again, those exercises had been about the extent of my physical activity until today's ride.  So, perhaps, my body still has to re-adjust to normal activity.

Well, I'm glad I got out, anyway:  It was a mild day for this time of year.  So my ride was pleasant, even under a threat of rain that didn't materialize until I got home.

However, there was one disappointment.  Along the way, I hoped to pick up some fresh Greek-style yogurt from Kesso Foods, which makes the stuff.  Alas, they were closed by the time I got there.  I knew they closed earlier on Saturday, but I didn't know how much earlier.  Oh, well.

 Fage yogurt is nice, but Kesso's stuff is like creme fraiche by comparison.  Even people who dislike yogurt will eat Kesso's:  I think yogurt-haters dislike the slimy texture of other kinds of yogurts sold in stores.  Kesso's sells the stuff plain, or with various toppings.  (My favorite is their sour cherry with almond slivers or crushed walnuts.)  They also sell various Greek and other Mediterranean foods that you won't find in your local Pathmark or Safeway.

All right..enough about culture for now.  I did, as a celebration, treat myself to one of my favorite takeouts:  The King of Falafel and Shawarma.  Life is good, again.

P.S.  I'll soon have more posts about the bikes of  my past!

Today I took my first ride since going down last Thursday.  It was a short ride--only about seven miles.  But I did it on Tosca, my fixed-gear bike.  

Bike Porn and Stuff I See From My Bike

I know that some cyclists' blogs include "bike porn."  I don't know that mine does.  If I have any kind of porn in this blog, I'd say that it's of land- and sea-scapes, skylines and people who may or may not have known that I photographed them.  


Perhaps the following photo doesn't qualify as any of the kinds of porn I've described.  But I did take some sort of perverse pleasure in taking it:

Aside from the actual or non-porn, there are things I see.  I'm trying not to turn this blog into Stuff I See When I'm Riding My Bike, but it may be going that way in spite of my efforts.  Here's an example of the genre, specifically something I saw yesterday:

To take a photo of this car without the light pole in it, I would have had to risk being flattened by the traffic.  I want to be skinnier than I am now, but that's not the way I had in mind.


At first glance, I thought I was looking at a Renault that had been left on a radiator.  Or, at least the front had been left there.  I rather liked the color--a shade of orange rather like a dusty vermilion.

Now, what the car was doing in front of a service station in Glendale, Queens, I'll never know.  I know that there are Polish and Albanian communities nearby, but not very many Romanians, as far as I know.  (Where are there very many Romanians outside of Romania?)  Even if Queens were full of emigres from Bucharest, I doubt there are very many who would have taken the trouble--or had the means--to bring a Dacia from their native land.


I did some quick research (translation:  I read a Wikipedia page) and learned that Dacia was founded during the 1960's with assistance from Renault.  Hmm...Romania gave France one of its best twentieth-century playwrights (Eugene Ionesco) and the French started their auto industry.  Who got the better of that trade?


Anyway, Dacia are still making cars.  In a not-too-surprising twist of fate, Renault bought the company.  The French automaker saw a growing market in the former Communist-bloc countries, and believed that Romania would make a good base of operations for their incursions into that market.  (Renault also makes cars in Turkey, among other places.)  


Now, while I'm out riding my bike and filling my brain with stuff that I'll turn into pointless ruminations, other people are slaving away over hot grills.

I've mentioned these guys on other posts in this and my other blog.  They make a chicken-and-rice platter to die for.  I'm not the only one who feels that way:  Once again, they won the "Vendy" award:

All I can say is that in the majority of the world, and through the majority of history, art is and has been utilitarian.