The Poem of Last Sunday

fix that tire
Originally uploaded by Polish Carpetlayer.

Popped a tire.
Fixed it on the road.
Finished the bike ride.
Went and had a beer.

Another Saturday Morning

farmers market
Originally uploaded by Polish Carpetlayer.

There are a lot of people here. There are a lot of cars here and a lot of concrete. And, lucky for us, there are a ton of farmer markets. Fresh fruit, fresh bread, fresh eggs, fresh cheese, fresh as much as we can get. One of those farmer markets is open on Saturday in Prospect Park. So pretty much every Saturday morning we find ourselves mingling with the locals, clothe bags in hand, picking up as much local food for the week as we can. It’s become kind of a weekend ritual for us. We get up and go for a jog (we drove today) to the farmers market and pick up what eventually becomes our weekly meals.

September 22, 2006

IMG_3803
Originally uploaded by Polish Carpetlayer.

Yesterday was exactly five years after our wedding date. It’s been a great, interesting journey so far. Thanks for being a part of it.

Bush Visits

So Bush is town for a big shindig at the United Nations. The city is under a cloud of security. Roads are shut down and gridlock ensues, and this city doesn’t deal well with gridlock (unleash the horns). On my way to work yesterday I walked through Madison Park and had to weave my way across Madison Ave through a thick, completely motionless, never ending line of vehicles. Thank god I was walking.

Granted, Bush isn’t the only one in town. A whole host of other dignitaries and heads of states have landed in Manhattan. Lucky us.

This morning I woke up to NPR reporting that, of the 25 largest cities in the United States, NYC is the safest. Now how does that reconcile with the fact that, today, we have Mr. Bush in our city? I guess the safest city data wasn’t collected while he was in NYC, or safe doesn’t mean without war mongers. How many more days do we have left of his presidency? The world is counting the days with us.

Yes, We Visited the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory

Vermont Teddy Bear Factory
Originally uploaded by Polish Carpetlayer.

I’m hanging out on my couch (futon) watching the new Monday Night Football game on ESPN (so far I think it was better as the old Monday Night Football on ABC) and trying to decide what I’m going to write about last weeks Labor Day trip up North.

This is what I’ve got to say—Vermont is spartan but awesome. New Hampshire sells liquor at its highway rest stops. Rhode Island is small, I mean really small. Massachusetts is a New England movie set. Connecticut needs to get rid of that Republican light Senator. And New York loves toll roads. Along the way we ran into Paul Reveres’s grave, some micro-brewed Vermont beer and the beginnings of the fall season. Michelle had to stop at the Vermont Teddy Bear Company, just because it would be so un-cool to stop at the Vermont Teddy Bear Company. We went for a bike ride along Lake Champlain and one through Massachusetts into the historic town of Concord. And to top it all off we found an REI in Boston. It was awesome.

Not Saddle Sore

July 23, 2006 018
Originally uploaded by Polish Carpetlayer.

Let humidity hang out somewhere down south. Michelle and I don’t want it. And on Sunday, we didn’t have it. It was an absolutely beautiful September Sunday, full of great weather, clear skies and humidity levels that someone from the northwest could appreciate. It was also the perfect day to take our new bikes on a long, long ride.

Some of you may know that we just purchased road bikes (two Trek 2100's) and we are learning the wonders of wheel sets, cranks, carbon forks, saddles, saddle soreness and the like. Yesterday we took our bikes on the North County Trailway, a 22.1 mile paved bike trail just north of New York City, and rode for 35 miles. It was the longest ride we’ve had in the 2 week period we’ve both had bikes. Neither one of us had any problem with the distance and I’m happy to say, I love blowing past those runners on the path.

I don’t see any Tour ‘de Frances in our future, but I can see many long rides together. Of course, Michelle is already talking about “our first 100 mile day”. She can’t wait until we have one, while I’m just happy to be on the bikes together. We’ll see what happens. All I know is that this biking thing has got a future. We can’t wait to do some miles on some of the beautiful Oregon roads.