I know I'll have to drop whatever pretense I have of being a hipster who's full of post-modern irony. But I do indeed have reasons to give thanks. Not least among them is that I didn't have to travel yesterday or today, and that I still got to share a Thanksgiving dinner with people I love. And I got to ride a bit before going there--on a really nice bike. I know there's more, but those are certainly ample reasons for giving thanks!
24 November 2011
23 November 2011
Up The Col Du Galibier: The Day Before Thanksgiving
In the last moment of my life, I saw the day before Thanksgiving...
I'd just pedaled a few strokes around the virage; a bed of wildflowers turned, in an instant, into a glacial field. The sun was so bright it turned into the kind of liquid haze through which dreams skip and float along with the words that make sense only in those dreams.
It was noon. We were all lined up--the boys on one side, the girls on the other--to leave school for the day, the next day, and the three days that would follow. For some reason, when I was a kid, that was always my favorite moment of the year. Even the seemingly-capricious discipline of the Carmelite nuns who taught in our school could not make that moment less happy. They could cast a pall over the day before Christmas Eve, over Holy Thursday. Whether or not they loaded us down with homework, they left us in such a mood that Christmas, even if we got the gifts we hoped for, seemed more like a truce, and Easter was just too holy of a day to really consider as a vacation, even if we were home for the week that followed.
But noon on the day before Thanksgiving always seemed like the most carefree moment of the year. In most years, it began the last interlude of Fall; the lights of Christmas only accented the darkness that consumed ever-larger parts of the days that would follow. In that moment, on the day before Thanksgiving, one could still see the last flickerings of the autumnal blaze that burned green leaves into the colors of the sunset. Somewhere along the way, they turned as yellow and, for a few days, as bright as the sunlight that filled the air around the mountain I was climbing on my bike.
It was just about noon; I would soon be at the peak of le Col du Galibier, one of the most famous climbs on the Tour de France. From there, I would have a long effortless ride to the valley. In the meantime, each pedal stroke would become more arduous. I'd been pedaling all morning, but even more important was the altitude: I was more than a mile and a half above sea level. The air is thinner, and even though my breath steamed as I puffed up that mountain on that July morning, the sun burned through the layers of sun screen I'd lathered on my arms and face.
Bells rang. Dismissal? Or the cows in the herd down the mountain? I stopped for a drink and one of the crepes I'd packed into my bag. I took a bite and a gulp.
You're free. I wasn't sure of whether I was hearing that. Perhaps I was giddy from the thin mountain air. Yes, you're free. But I wasn't hearing it: It was being told--or, more precisely, communicated--to that child who was being dismissed from school on the day before Thanksgiving. You can go now. What are they talking about? Who's "they"?
You don't have to do this again. I'd never heard that before, certainly not in those days. What did that mean? What won't I have to do again? Climb this mountain? Go to school?
Down the Col du Galibier, through the Val de Maurienne, as the eternal winter of that mountaintop turned into the hottest day of summer in the valley, my mind echoed. What, exactly, wouldn't I have to do again?
Near the end of that day, I reached St. Jean de Maurienne, just a few kilometers from Italy. There, I would see the stranger who, inadvertently, caused me to see that I could follow no other course but the one that my life has taken since then. A year later, I would move out of the apartment I'd been sharing with Tammy; about a year after that, I would change my name and begin my treatments.
22 November 2011
Riding Off Into A Sunset Of Foliage
November is a strange and interesting month, especially this year. It may have to do with the fact that we had a warm, wet fall before our late-October snowstorm, which seems to be the reason why the foliage (Can you call it that in Brooklyn or Queens?) has changed colors later in the season than it has in previous years. And, while the red and gold trees may not be as striking here as they are in, say, Vermont or the Adirondacks, the city's buildings can provide a nice backdrop to the leaves of sunset.
I took that photo just before starting to ride with Lakythia and Mildred to the Canarsie Pier and the South Shore of Brooklyn.
Off into the "sunset" we rode!
I took that photo just before starting to ride with Lakythia and Mildred to the Canarsie Pier and the South Shore of Brooklyn.
Off into the "sunset" we rode!
19 November 2011
Power To The People: Bicycles At Occupy Wall Street
I haven't been posting as often as I had been a few months ago, mainly because my classes are bigger this year and, it seems, falls into one of two categories: those who need more and those who demand more. I guess that's just part of being in the current economic situation.
And so is Occupy Wall Street. I've gone to it three times and learned that bicycles are becoming an integral part of their protest, movement, or whaotever you want to call it. That's not surprising, really, when you consider than in much of the world (and, increasingly, in some parts of the US), bikes are transportation for the "99 percent." And, as a form of recreation, it's far less energy-intensive, and less expensive than other activities.
However, bikes are an important part of OWS for practical reasons. Some of the protestors got there, or come and go (as I did) on two human-powered wheels. Some of those who've stayed are transporting food and water (which, interestingly,they're getting from the taps of local homes and businesses) on bike-towed trailers or tricycles.
But what I found most interesting of all can be seen in this photo:
Yes, this young man is powering his cell phone and laptop computer with power he pedals into a generator. Someone at OWS started rigging up these bicycle-powered generators after police seized the gas-powered ones they'd been using. Now, in addition to making power for cell phones, laptops and other electrical and electronic devices, the generators are being used for a variety of milling and grinding purposes, including the making of compost, which they are using themselves in Zuccoti Park and giving to farmers who are selling fruits, vegetables and other foods in nearby markets.
While I'm on the subject, Crowdrise, Times Up and other organizations are accepting donations of bicycles, as well as tires, tubes and other parts--and, of course, money to buy bikes and parts--for OWS.
If OWS turns into a full-blown revolution, will bicycles be credited (or blamed)? After all, what revolves more--and is therefore more revolutionary--than a bicycle wheel?
And so is Occupy Wall Street. I've gone to it three times and learned that bicycles are becoming an integral part of their protest, movement, or whaotever you want to call it. That's not surprising, really, when you consider than in much of the world (and, increasingly, in some parts of the US), bikes are transportation for the "99 percent." And, as a form of recreation, it's far less energy-intensive, and less expensive than other activities.
However, bikes are an important part of OWS for practical reasons. Some of the protestors got there, or come and go (as I did) on two human-powered wheels. Some of those who've stayed are transporting food and water (which, interestingly,they're getting from the taps of local homes and businesses) on bike-towed trailers or tricycles.
But what I found most interesting of all can be seen in this photo:
Yes, this young man is powering his cell phone and laptop computer with power he pedals into a generator. Someone at OWS started rigging up these bicycle-powered generators after police seized the gas-powered ones they'd been using. Now, in addition to making power for cell phones, laptops and other electrical and electronic devices, the generators are being used for a variety of milling and grinding purposes, including the making of compost, which they are using themselves in Zuccoti Park and giving to farmers who are selling fruits, vegetables and other foods in nearby markets.
While I'm on the subject, Crowdrise, Times Up and other organizations are accepting donations of bicycles, as well as tires, tubes and other parts--and, of course, money to buy bikes and parts--for OWS.
If OWS turns into a full-blown revolution, will bicycles be credited (or blamed)? After all, what revolves more--and is therefore more revolutionary--than a bicycle wheel?
14 November 2011
Strange But True In NYC
New York City may well be the "Frankenbike" capital of the world. Even if you live here for a couple of decades, you'll see permutations of bikes you simply won't see anywhere else.
Today I'm going to show you two "Frankenbikes" that were parked near a train station in my neighborhood.
Until I saw the first, I never realized what, exactly, my commuter bikes have always lacked:
They are mountain bike "bar ends," which were very much in vogue during the mid-'90's. I used a pair myself. There was a good reason for them: Mountain bikes, at least as they were configured then, didn't offer a variety of hand positions. That could be very tiring on a ride of an hour or more. So, bar ends like these were made to clamp on the ends of flat bars. Most, like these, used a wraparound clamp; a few had ends that inserted into the handlebar, much like a bar-end shifter or brake lever.
Here, the person mounted them on the middle of the handlebar to get an "aero" position. That's exactly what the owner of that bike needs.
It's a Schwinn Suburban from, I'd guess, the early 1970's or thereabouts. Essentially, it was a Varsity or Continental with upright bars, fenders and a single rather than a double chainring in the front. Like the Varsity or Continental, it's a tank. At least the "aerobars" can help its rider lop a few seconds off his or her commute.
The bike also has a generator lighting system. I wonder whether it works. Lots of people buy or inherit used bikes like that one that have generator lights on them. Often, the person who buys or inherits the used bike never even knows whether or not the lights actually work, for they do no night riding--or, perhaps, even know how to use the light. Or the person riding the bike may well know that the light doesn't work but simply doesn't bother to take it off.
At least the generator and lights are where they're supposed to be. The same can't always be said for any bike you'll see parked here in NYC:
A headlight in a water bottle cage--on the top tube of a women's bike? In some crazy way, it seems ingenious. After all, the light on that bike is in a less prone position than it would be on other parts of the bike. Plus, it could be really useful for checking runs in my stockings or rips in my pants legs.
No kind of bike paint job is more widely detested, justly so, than the '80's fades. (Some of the most unfortunate samples from that genre were found on Klein bicycles of that era.) However, around the same time, there was another kind of paint job that was as almost as bad, and common on European bikes (or bikes for the European market,at any rate). I call it the tricolored Easter egg look:
The owner of this bike, or the person from whom the owner bought or was given this bike, probably brought it in from Italy or someplace in Europe, as I don't think this model was ever inported to the US. In fact, I think that around the time the bike was made, Atala bicycles were no longer being imported to this country. Some of their better models were rather pretty, but I was never particularly impressed with the rides of the ones I tried. Plus, the workmanship was such that we used to joke that its paint and chrome flew off when the bike was operated at too high a speed.
Anyway, even though these two bikes caught my attention, they're hardly the most mutated bikes I've seen here in New York. Unfortunately, I never photographed the crazier bikes I saw. But then again, I'll probably see others that are just as zany.
Today I'm going to show you two "Frankenbikes" that were parked near a train station in my neighborhood.
Until I saw the first, I never realized what, exactly, my commuter bikes have always lacked:
They are mountain bike "bar ends," which were very much in vogue during the mid-'90's. I used a pair myself. There was a good reason for them: Mountain bikes, at least as they were configured then, didn't offer a variety of hand positions. That could be very tiring on a ride of an hour or more. So, bar ends like these were made to clamp on the ends of flat bars. Most, like these, used a wraparound clamp; a few had ends that inserted into the handlebar, much like a bar-end shifter or brake lever.
Here, the person mounted them on the middle of the handlebar to get an "aero" position. That's exactly what the owner of that bike needs.
It's a Schwinn Suburban from, I'd guess, the early 1970's or thereabouts. Essentially, it was a Varsity or Continental with upright bars, fenders and a single rather than a double chainring in the front. Like the Varsity or Continental, it's a tank. At least the "aerobars" can help its rider lop a few seconds off his or her commute.
The bike also has a generator lighting system. I wonder whether it works. Lots of people buy or inherit used bikes like that one that have generator lights on them. Often, the person who buys or inherits the used bike never even knows whether or not the lights actually work, for they do no night riding--or, perhaps, even know how to use the light. Or the person riding the bike may well know that the light doesn't work but simply doesn't bother to take it off.
At least the generator and lights are where they're supposed to be. The same can't always be said for any bike you'll see parked here in NYC:
A headlight in a water bottle cage--on the top tube of a women's bike? In some crazy way, it seems ingenious. After all, the light on that bike is in a less prone position than it would be on other parts of the bike. Plus, it could be really useful for checking runs in my stockings or rips in my pants legs.
No kind of bike paint job is more widely detested, justly so, than the '80's fades. (Some of the most unfortunate samples from that genre were found on Klein bicycles of that era.) However, around the same time, there was another kind of paint job that was as almost as bad, and common on European bikes (or bikes for the European market,at any rate). I call it the tricolored Easter egg look:
The owner of this bike, or the person from whom the owner bought or was given this bike, probably brought it in from Italy or someplace in Europe, as I don't think this model was ever inported to the US. In fact, I think that around the time the bike was made, Atala bicycles were no longer being imported to this country. Some of their better models were rather pretty, but I was never particularly impressed with the rides of the ones I tried. Plus, the workmanship was such that we used to joke that its paint and chrome flew off when the bike was operated at too high a speed.
Anyway, even though these two bikes caught my attention, they're hardly the most mutated bikes I've seen here in New York. Unfortunately, I never photographed the crazier bikes I saw. But then again, I'll probably see others that are just as zany.
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