I wasn't a devotee of the Seinfeld show. Then again, I don't think I've ever been a devotee of any TV show in a very long time.
However, I will admit that I saw a few episodes of Seinfeld during its original run. One thing I remember is that he always had a bicycle--which neither he nor anyone else seemed to ride--hanging in his apartment.
I was reminded of it when I saw this bike:
As I recall, the bike in Seinfeld's apartment was a Klein mountain bike--in a really scary fluorescent green that makes the bike in the photo seem restrained. Actually, this bike is probably the most understated Klein mountain bike I've ever seen.
Although they weren't my cup of tea, some Klein road bikes, like this one, weren't bad-looking:
In the mid-1970's, Klein was one of the first builders to make bicycle frames from oversized aluminum tubing. Trek took them over around the time Seinfeld's show began its run. It seems that Trek made Kleins until about five years ago. Since then, I haven't seen any new Kleins--or, for whatever reasons, the shops I frequent aren't selling them.
When I was writing for a newspaper, we referred to some days as "slow news days." That's when we'd publish stories about the spouse of someone who was elected president in some country none of our readers had ever heard of. Or, for fun, we might put in a story about a duck crossing at the foot of a skyscraper. You get the idea.
It was common knowledge that Wednesday was usually the slowest news day.
Now, what I write about in this blog isn't always news. So what do I call a day like this. "Slow blog day" doesn't sound quite right.
In any event, I'm going to take this post to present something that might make you chuckle or groan, or both, and is utterly inconsequential. Here goes: Along my ride to Point Lookout on Saturday, I came across a restaurant in Long Beach that has, possibly, the worst name in the world--in the English-speaking world,anyway:
Fear not: There are better posts coming!
As I've mentioned in other posts, I don't mind riding in the rain, as long as it isn't cold. What I like even more, though, is something I've described as "playing chicken with the rain."
So it probably wouldn't surprise you to hear that one of my "guilty pleasures" as a cyclist is starting a ride just as the rain ends and arriving at my destination, or simply ending my ride, just as the rain begins.
That is exactly what I managed to do today. Of course, only leaving just as the rain ended, albeit temporarily, was intentional on my part. Arriving at work just as the rain started again was merely a consequence of crossed fingers (or, what we called "birth control" in my teen years. Don't ask!)
Anyway, it's always nice to start the work day feeling as if I'd won, or at least gotten away with something. Tonight I'll see whether I can do the same going home.
