Showing posts with label bicycling in New. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bicycling in New. Show all posts

08 March 2025

Late or Early?

 Late afternoon, late in the season.  Or is it a prelude to evening, and a new season?

A ride to Randall’s Island after work, after lunch, after everything else brought me to the brink—of changes.

I went for a ride in spite of (OK, you know me well enough to know that I might’ve ridden because of) high wind warnings. Gusts blew at my face, sides and back, depending on which way I rode.  But once I got to the Island—with some of the largest expanses of open space in the city—it seemed there was nothing but wind.

The temperature was around 10C (50F):  not unusual for this time of year. But the inescapable gusts could make it seem that winter would never end.

Or are they what ushers in the Spring?




Is this bare tree a reminder that winter is still with us? Or do its bare branches reveal a sky that’s brightening?




And is the mud around its roots a graveyard of bones and melted snow? Or is it a cradle for irises, purple asters and hyacinths?

Ah, the riddles of a late day ride, late in the winter—or a ride at the precipice of twilight, and a new season!

03 January 2025

Why Did He Build This?

 During my “afternoon delight” ride, I came across this:



In the Bronx, one can find many buildings like it: handsome, even beautiful, structures built during the early 20th century, just after the Bronx became a borough of New York City.

(Most of the Art Deco buildings for which the Bronx is famous were constructed during the interwar period.)

Like so many structures in the Bronx—and throughout New York City—it is not serving its original intended purpose.  Today a moving and storage company operates in it. From some of the building’s details, I am guessing that it was once a medical or health facility of some sort.

What really intrigued me, though, was this:





Apparently, a “Cuneo” family was involved.  That caught my eye, in part because I cycled to Cuneo, Italy during a bicycle tour of the Alps.  But I couldn’t help but to notice the inscription for Lorenzo Cuneo, born during the same year—1913–Anthony Cuneo erected the building but who died in 1924.  I would think that he was Anthony’s son, nephew or grandson.  Why did he die so young?




When I stopped to look at the building, someone gave me a suspicious glance. Did she think I wanted to buy the building (which I am in no position to do) and price her out of the neighborhood? Or is she one of many people in this city who pass things that are beautiful, interesting or simply unusual but has no curiosity about it?

02 May 2024

The Best Of?

 As I wrote this, at 3:33 p.m. (15:33), bright sunshine fills the skies and streets around the Botanical Garden, where the temperature has risen to 75F (24C).

It’s hard to believe that when I rode early this morning, I saw this:


and this:





and the temperature was 52F (11C).

Still, I enjoyed my ride on Tosca, my Mercian fixed gear, down the Hudson River Greenway into lower Manhattan. I wore shorts and a flannel hoodie over a stretchy black short-sleeved top: enough to keep me warm yet still feel the bracing mist. 

You might say I had the best of both worlds. I would agree. Still, I’ll try to get in another, if shorter, ride after work. If I do, would that mean that I’ve ridden from the best of both worlds to the best of all worlds—or, at least all that are available at this time of year?