He doesn't have opposable thumbs. He can't balance on two feet. He doesn't know how to use foot retention. The top tubes on all of my bikes are too long. (So, for that matter, are the seat tubes and cranks!) He's doesn't like Brooks saddles. And it's raining.
Oh, the excuses he has....
And you know why he gets away with it? Marley is just unbelievably, ridiculously cute, even when he squints.
Of course, I could say the same thing about Max.
And he has one more excuse than Marley: He's older (in cat-years, anyway) than I am.
This morning I managed to get in a ride just ahead of one of the worst storms we've had in a while.
Just after I got home, I could hear the raindrops pinging like BB's against the awning. We may have had hail, as some other parts of the NYC Metro area did.
Whatever the precip was, a sudden, fierce wind drove it. Some people on Long Island said they saw a funnel cloud; I know that a lot of trees came down.
When I'd finished riding, the temperature was near 100 F (39C). The one good thing about the storm was that it dropped the temperature by about 20 degrees F within an hour. But I could just barely see out my window, so I didn't go for another ride.
But, as brief as my morning ride was, it gave me a pretty good workout. And I felt a sense of victory, however small, over having beaten that storm!
You win a few, you lose a few...
Today I rode to the Steeplechase (a.k.a.Coney Island) Pier. For years, it's been ravaged by storms and tides; the section that meets the boardwalk literally had beach sand "growing" through it.
Well, it's been re-boarded. (Roads are re-paved; I figure that boardwalks and anything else with planks on it is re-boarded. ) Thankfully, actual boards, and not concrete substitutes, were used.
So far, so good. But I got about fifteen meters onto the pier (It's about 150 or so meters long.) when an earnest young woman in a green Parks Department polo shirt blew a whistle. "Miss! Miss!" I turned. "You have to walk the bike!"
Well, that was a first. And how did she know I'm not married, anyway?
Given that it was so hot (The temperature was close to 90F, or 32C, when I left my apartment at 9:30 this morning), I expected to see more people on the pier. If nothing else, it offers, in addition to views (and good fishing, if you're into that sort of thing), nature's first air conditioning: sea-breezes. It was--or felt, anyway--about ten or fifteen degrees (F) cooler than it did when I left my apartment.
But, in addition to the fisherpersons (Yes, I've seen women casting lines into the surf!), you see some interesting, if solitary characters:
Nothing like having the whole city--let alone the whole world--to yourself, eh?
Note: I apologize for the lack of detail in these photos. I took them with my cell phone.
