So far, this winter hasn't brought much snow up this way. However, we still have a couple of months to go. You never know what can happen.
That's the reason why you never know whether you'll need this bike:
The fellow who posted the photo uses the bike to train for triathlons. Seriously, he does triathlons and lives in Minnesota. Maybe he's using that rear wheel to grind the grain he'll use to make one of his training foods.
No, I didn't enlist. That photo wasn't taken in any sort of official combat zone. Rather, I snapped it while riding Rockaway Boulevard in Rockaway Beach.
It might be the roughest paved cycling surface I've encountered in an industrialized country. That's not surprising, given that Rockaway Beach was one of the areas that incurred the most destruction from Superstorm Sandy.
I rode along the Atlantic shore of southern Queens and Nassau County to Long Beach. There, as in most of the Rockaways, the storm destroyed most of the boardwalk so that the only things remaining are the pilings over which it stretched. Yesterday, construction crews began to take down the remaining wood, most of which looked something like this:
Some people were taking boards from it--as souvenirs, I guess. (I wonder whether they'll end up on eBay.) Others seemed to have other motives in going to the beach.
Was this man enjoying the solitude, feeling resigned to his fate or trying to come to terms with his grief?
Whatever he was feeling, he and the couple may have to follow the same path for the foreseeable future.
I didn't get to do a real ride today--just a spin to Astoria Park and a yogurt run. However, I got home in time to witness a near-perfect ending to a winter day:
At least, it's about as close to perfect any day's end can be in these parts. As the sun descended, a mist of wispy cirrus clouds rose from the horizon to a deep translucent blue sky: a dream ahead, and a vision above, this day's ride.
