Riding By Their Home

Even though I have lived and cycled in this city for most of my life, an afternoon ride still can include a “What’s this?”moment

So it was late yesterday afternoon, as I spun down Park Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.  

This T-shaped building takes up most of a square block and seems out of place , only because of its size, in a neighborhood full of elegant brownstone townhouses and min-mansions. (Crown Heights was one of the most fashionable neighborhoods in New York—something Stingo, the narrator of Sophie’s Choice, notices.) To me, it looked like a sanitarium attached to a church.

Turns out, my hunch wasn’t far off the mark:  It opened late in the 19th Century as the Brooklyn Methodist Episcopal Home of the Aged. About two decades later, the chapel was added.

When the Home was built, Social Security and public services for the elderly and other vulnerable people didn’t exist.  So, whatever help was available came from charities, whether secular or church-related.

Mercein Thomas, the architect of the Home, refused payment for his services. So did William Kennedy, the architect who designed the extension and chapel.  The money was donated by members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which included some of Brooklyn’s most prominent families.

Today the building houses the Hebron Seventh Day Adventist Church and bilingual (French and English) school that mainly serves Haitian and Senegalese immigrants.

As I understand, the building is in peril:  A developer wants to demolish the south wing and build an apartment tower that would dwarf, not only the school, but the neighborhood. And it would accelerate gentrification, which would drive out longtime residents as well as the families of the kids who attend the school.

Where would be the sense of wonder in riding past another tower block?

11 Years

 Eleven years ago today, I wrote my first post on this blog.

I was just returning to cycling after the longest layoff of my adult life:  the months following my gender affirmation suregery.  I could have started to ride again sooner than I did, but I figured that it was better to stay off my bike through the winter and allow a full, thorough healing and formation.

I had no idea of what cycling would be like in my "new" body.  Although I have to pay more attention to signals it sends me, I have found cycling more rewarding than it's ever been.  I am riding, and living, in my true self--and for my own reasons.  I no longer have to impress anyone with my speed, endurance or anything else.  Being on my bike is enough.

COVID-19--Who, except for a few scientists, foresaw that?--has reinforced that lesson: Being on my bike is enough.  It allowed me to endure the ravages of the pandemic-- which struck New York, my hometown, early and hard--with my health (mental as well as physical) intact.  Cycling allowed me to avoid mass transportation and offered me a mental as well as physical release.  And it, along with writing this blog, has brought at least some degree of continuity to my life.  

I am thankful--to ride, to write, and for you, dear readers, for 11 years.

Marlee had yet to be born when I started this blog!

Feel The Burn--In The Right Place!

If you've been following this blog for a while, you've endured, shall we say, a few bad puns.  So I am guessing you can endure one more.

Here goes:  Sunscreen is a sensitive issue for me.

Actually, it's not as much of a pun as it might seem because, well, my skin is sensitive.  I have always known as much, and a few doctors (including my primary care physician and the orthopedic surgeon who treated me after I was "doored" in October) have confirmed it.  Some of that sensitivity has to do with my melanin deficiency:  I burn easily. 

From Bikeradar

So I pay attention to the labels on my suncreen.  In addition to being alert for chemicals that don't sound as if they should be applied to any part of my body (and that, in microscopic amounts, can damage coral reefs as well as other marine life), I also look at the number almost everyone else checks:  SPF.  A higher-number SPF gives you more protection; I've been advised to use a 50.  When I went to Cambodia and Laos three years ago--my second trip in the tropical zone--I packed a 100 SPF sunscreen.

While a higher number does indeed offer more protection, one-third of all sunscreens Consumer Reports recently tested actually had less than half of their claimed SPF.  Moreover, some experts cite the law of diminishing returns:  Any increase in SPF over 50 offers less of an improvement in protection than any increase up to 50.  That argument is based on the fact that a 50 SPF sunscreen offers protection from about 98 percent of Ultraviolet B (UVB) rays:  the ones that burn the surface of our skins. (Ouch!) 

But SPF ratings don't tell us anything about a sunscreen's ability to protect us from Ultraviolet A (UVA) rays.  Those are the ones that penetrate the skin and lead to premature aging.  In the European Union, all sunscreens have to offer at least a third as much UVA as UVB protection.  

Thoug both kinds of ultraviolet rays contribute to skin cancer, B plays a greater role, espcially in malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of the disease.  The good news is, of course, that a sunscreen with 50 USB or more will protect from most of the harmful rays--that is, when it's used properly.  The American Academy of Dermatology recommends using enough lotion to fill a shot glass (two tablespoons), more if you're a larger person.  

The AAD also prefers traditonal lotions over spray-on because the latter disperses the sunscreen into the air.  When you apply a lotion with your hand, more of it ends up on your skin.  And, sprays are generally a bad idea for sunscreens as well as any number of other products because the chemicals used as propellants are bad for the environment as well as your lungs.  (Even if you can't smell it, you're likely to inhale droplets of those chemicals, as well as the rest of the sunscreen, when you spray it.)  And, finally, the AAD "sunscreen pills" are basically snake oil.

Whether you're like me, or darker, you should be using sunscreen when you're out for half an hour or more--even if you're covered up. (UVA and UVB can penetrate fabrics.) At the end of your ride, the burn you feel should be in your muscles, not on your skin.