The temperature has not reached the freezing point in more than a week. That might not have been unusual last month, but here in New York, the daytime high temperatures start inching above 5 degrees C (40F) in the middle of February.
Tomorrow the temperature might reach 1C and a high of about 7C (45F) is expected, with rain, on Sunday. Will it be enough to free this bike parked down the street from my place?:
I've seen the bike, but not its rider or owner, around the neighborhood. It's been parked in this spot ever since the first significant snowstorm we had nearly three weeks ago.
If we get more snow--or if the temperature drops and Sunday's rain turns to ice--will this bike be glacially encased until some future archaeologist finds it? Or, perhaps, some life form from some distant galaxy will chance upon it. What would such a being make of it?
Of course, being the bike aficionada that I am, I wonder whether the bike originally came with its dropped bars or rat-trap pedals. I couldn't see the name badge on it, but I'm almost entirely sure it's an English three-speed. Time was when bikes like this one were sometimes equipped with dropped bars and road pedals--and even alloy rims and brakes. Such machines were known as "club bikes".
How would my hypothetical archaeologist of the future--or visitor from another part of the universe--know such things? I'm guessing that if someone could make it here from someplace far away from Earth, he or she would have a database far more advanced than Google or our libraries. So, for that matter, might a yet-unborn archaeologist.
Oh, dear. If I'm thinking about such things, that's proof I need to get on my bike more. I'll do that soon, I hope!
Tomorrow the temperature might reach 1C and a high of about 7C (45F) is expected, with rain, on Sunday. Will it be enough to free this bike parked down the street from my place?:
I've seen the bike, but not its rider or owner, around the neighborhood. It's been parked in this spot ever since the first significant snowstorm we had nearly three weeks ago.
If we get more snow--or if the temperature drops and Sunday's rain turns to ice--will this bike be glacially encased until some future archaeologist finds it? Or, perhaps, some life form from some distant galaxy will chance upon it. What would such a being make of it?
Of course, being the bike aficionada that I am, I wonder whether the bike originally came with its dropped bars or rat-trap pedals. I couldn't see the name badge on it, but I'm almost entirely sure it's an English three-speed. Time was when bikes like this one were sometimes equipped with dropped bars and road pedals--and even alloy rims and brakes. Such machines were known as "club bikes".
How would my hypothetical archaeologist of the future--or visitor from another part of the universe--know such things? I'm guessing that if someone could make it here from someplace far away from Earth, he or she would have a database far more advanced than Google or our libraries. So, for that matter, might a yet-unborn archaeologist.
Oh, dear. If I'm thinking about such things, that's proof I need to get on my bike more. I'll do that soon, I hope!
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