In August of 1994 my girlfriend and I were on the way back from a day out when a pretty serious storm bore down on us. We heard the air raid sirens from the town we were passing through which this meant tornados were a possibility. We pulled off the highway and into a gas station to wait for it to blow over (maybe not the safest choice, looking back). To pass the time we read classified books. I found a brand new Breezer Thunder for a very good price and decided that I'd give the guy a call the next day.

It turns out he really loved the bike (for the short time he had it--the tires still had the nubs sticking out of them), but needed money to pay for college. I promised I'd take good care of it for him.

The Breezer's early life was touring around trails in Minnesota and Wisconsin. I wasn't so much into the "summer job" thing so most of my summer days were riding.

It then hit the local race scene with a components upgrade (XP and Ritchey with some nice hand-made Avid brakes and American Classic cranks). At the time we won our first intermediate race at Buck Hill it was one of the last bikes on the course without suspension, even though it was probably 3lbs lighter than most bikes at the start line.

Aaron, making another one of his grimace-faces for his blog. Note to self: post some more civilized looking pictures

We then moved to New York where we navigated potholes, curbs and cobblestone.

Coney Island

We raced one last race in northern NJ before it was parked for a big box (gasp) road racing bike.

Years passed and I was summoned for jury duty, which had me commuting to city hall in the heart of rush hour. The trains are so packed here that you often have to wait for them to pass because there is no room to get inside. I decided on that first train ride into downtown that I was going to use my jury duty money to buy that kryptonite chain lock that I've had on my list forever and bike in the next day I was called. After getting the lock a few days passed until the coldest day in NYC in years was upon us, 22 below with windchill. This was the day I was called back.

Since moving to this city I have become a man of conviction so I wasn't about to have this get me down, or alter my plans at all, really. I put on my outfit for the day plus an extra few layers (my leather jacket to stop the wind and my pair of old snowboarding gloves for a second layer over my fingers). Aside from pink cheeks and chilled legs this turned out to be a great reminder of how liberating cycling is. I had no issues with traffic or timing and from that day on I started using my bike for little errands that were just out of reach of walking (and that I didn't think I'd have time to run during the day).

So now that I'm hooked again I decided to feed the Breezer some new parts to help with it's new urban life: fenders, panniers, Ritchey Tom Slick tires, Nitto "all rounder" handlebars, and new shift/brake cables.

The classic Breezer paint job lends itself well to the nitto handlebars and panniers. Little do most people know but even after all the gear was added this 1994 bike tips the scales at 25 lbs -- lighter than many mountain bikes sold today.

The Breezer has always been a dream to ride and I was saddened when Joe decided to discontinue his line of high performance bikes in the early 2000s. From a business perspective it makes sense, with all the consolidation happening around him there was no way a small outfit like his would have the money to throw into carbon fiber like the Treks and Specialized of the world. The day of the hand-made bike came and went and his current focus is on advocating for bike commuters in California.

Interesting, though, that one of his old high-end racing bikes now rides side-by-side with his commuter line of bikes over a decade later.

Box inside window, far to near:
- Rosemary
- Catnip
- Sage
- Oak Tree (mysteriously appeared this summer and we thought we'd try to bonsai it)

Box outside window, far to near:
- Thyme
- Mint

and oh... what's this? This isn't something we planted. Free lollypop for the first dude or dudette who can identify the bonus plant that "blew in in the wind" while we were out one weekend.

Right around the corner from my apartment is a fresh fish market, a butcher and a vegetable stand. For under $6 I procured the following ingredients:
- 1/2 lb fresh salmon filet
- a sweet potato
- asparagus

Using a few other ingredients lying around the apartment I assembled what would have been a $30-$40 restaurant dinner (grilled salmon, mashed cinnamon sweet potato, steamed and buttered asparagus) for the price of a McDonald's meal.

With everything being so accessible on the internet there is no reason not to seek out a few recipes that you'd like to try (or have paid a lot for dining out) and make them happen. It's an easy way to work your mind, increase your health and elevate your standard of living without costing you any extra money.

In the first one I was in a brand new apartment building that was supported by the outer walls and had an open inside with a glass elevator that you could see all the way up or down from any floor.

I rushed to catch one and just made it with one other guy as the doors closed. Oddly I had to reach all the way down to the floor to push the down button.

The elevator started going down a few floors then abruptly slowed and stopped and headed up again. Near the top it again reversed but this time started moving quicker downward. I made a mental note not to worry and that everything would be fine, though I'd have to tell maintenance to shut the elevator down as soon as we got out.

Near the bottom of the building it tilted out from the bottom and started accelerating up and this time it passed the top floor and continued three stories before unhinging from the rails and sending us flying towards the roof. I awoke immediately.

In the second dream I was at a party on one of the piers on the west side of manhattan late at night. It was a pirate themed party with lots of docked ships and boats and free flowing rum. I decided that I was a bit bored and went out down the pier in my row boat. I was warned not to go too far or I would not be able to return.

As I coasted down the pier it got darker and darker and all I could see was the glow of two dull lanterns on either boardwalk. The mist turned to fog. I passed a skeleton in a boat who was standing guard. I realized at that point that I may have gone too far.

Again, not worried, I floated a little further and saw many dim lights coming into focus. There was a strong and visible current at the end of the pier where the river flowed. It was like rush hour traffic, filled with rowboats and ships piloted by skeletons.

I was pulled into the current amongst the dead.

Since I couldn't go back I tried to navigate my way towards a larger ship to explore by I was awoken by my alarm.

With this as a backdrop I got dressed, packed some food and drink, and headed out the door to face Bear Mountain.

I stepped right out into a thick, persistent fog which we almost never have in the city. Visibility was no more than 40 meters and I ran the lights on my bike to hopefully help cars to see me.

After passing through Brooklyn and Manhattan and began to cross the Hudson river I began to wonder if I wasn't actually dead. 40 miles later in Piermont, NY at 1pm the fog finally broke and I was greeted with sunlight.

Here are a few pictures taken from my Treo:

Fog in Prospect Park, Brooklyn

Thick fog on the Brooklyn Bridge

Manhattan obscured

Fog soup

Arches of the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson river leaving Manhattan

Most bikes that go up Bear Mountain are gas powered

A view from the top

The ride itself was the furthest I had traveled alone; 122 miles. There are a lot of hills on 9W both there and back but the actual Bear Mountain climb itself is pretty interesting. It is a constant uphill grind with some sections near the top steep enough that I had to stand to keep going in my lowest gear. If you can maintain 10mph it will only take you a half hour to reach the top. After you've gotten your fills of the scenery you'll be treated to a 10 minute uninterrupted ride down coasting between 40 and 50mph, which beats the pants off any carnival ride.

Today I am glad to be alive and fit.

Instead I've gathered up a few notes from the summer and am posting here.

The big news this summer is that I finally (after almost 7 years without) picked up health insurance which allowed me to take the jump and try out racing. One of the race teams that has a strong east-coast representation Kissena puts on a fairly regular Saturday morning race series in Prospect Park in the spring and fall. They are a lot of fun with the exception of the 5am wake time needed to get my things together and pedal the 3 blocks to the start line (I am not a morning person).

For those not familiar there are a number of different race categories going from Cat 5 (beginner, any age) through Cat 1/Masters. One must complete a certain amount of races in Cat 5 in order to advance and aside from being required to have a yearly race license and team affiliation, I think your jumps up from 5 can be arbitrary (though I don't know a lot of Cat 5 people crazy enough to try to make the jump to Cat 2 or 1 and race the longest distance versus professionals).

I competed in 7 of the races and managed a 5th place finish on July 28 and a 1st place finish on September 8. Our friends at Team Organic took some great photos of the Kissena Prospect Park Race Series including pics of people who weren't on their team (thanks, guys!).

The photographer they had on the course had a very professional setup and took some great shots including our Cat 5 sprint finish. These three snaps are in chronological order. I'm the one in the blue jersey on the left.

The guy in the orange in the middle was a monster. He was also visiting from out of town.


A split second after this shot was taken I "threw" my bike over the line which was just enough to win the race by inches. I actually thought I had lost by that amount and introduced Sam as the race winner to a few friends when he corrected me by saying the video replay put me on top.

There was also a guy digging in the trash for something. And I don't mean just casually glancing and poking. He would repeatedly jump up on the steel container and stuff his body in past the shoulders and dig. Every one in a while he'd surface with something and put it in a black plastic bag he had on the ground. Other times he would let out an audible huff over not being able to reach something.

Apparently he was more odd than threatening as nobody made any attempt to move away from him (and a few were literally 5 feet away leaning against the wall).

Sometimes you'll see peddlers taking advantage of a captive audience by walking between cars selling things like bottles of water or flowers.

The guy that came up to our car was not selling either of these things. He was selling a full set of shrink wrapped knives (chefs knife, bread knife, filet knife, steak knives). Yes. He was selling knives on the street.

Here is one of the walls as observed as CL and I were heading into Manhattan to shop for spiked leather bracelets. You can see that not only did the MTA only use the paint to cover graffiti and not wall rot (which is just as unsighlty or more), but that the "wet paint" sign has been re-engineered to be part of the constant expression that the wall is an unwitting participant in.

So many heartwarming stories. The achilles group starts the marathon first and contains people missing arms and legs and some with debilitating diseases. Most would finish and it's very inspiring.

The wheelchairs were not as fast as I expected so we had no problems handling our duties. ING set up 'cheering stations' along the way filled with people wearing orange ponchos. They, as one would hope, were very easily provoked into a cheering frenzy. We led the wheelchairs by about 50 yards and signaled their approach by blowing traffic whistles. As soon as the cheering stations heard the call they were on their feet waving and hooting.

The course was very well marked so that took care of my other concern: getting lost and taking the wheelchairs with me. Not only did this not happen but a few first-time cyclists and I also got to give them some guidance so they didn't miss any important turns.

Lots of bands on the course and a very interesting tour of culture: they had jam bands in Brooklyn, hard rap in the Bronx, and top 40 in Manhattan. Even though we spent all of 8 blocks or so there, we did get acknowledgment as we came off the Queensborogh bridge: 'welcome to the Bronx' said a confident-sounding DJ.

Wheelchairs do draft like cyclists and it's cool to watch. It also makes it a little challenging to have two bikes covering each wheelchair because bikes take up more space on the road.

After finishing up and showering CL and I used my 'incidental expense' money to buy some homemade goodness from Amy's bread and walk around for the day. We watched some of the marathon and walked around the park. I kept my volunteer course credential on.

The city is overrun with tourists surrounding the marathon and everyone wants to see a movie tonight. Luckily everyone wants to see Borat (shows are all selling out) so we decided to see 'Running with scissors' which was a much darker comedy than expected. About a dozen people walked out. A drunk homeless man also made it into the movie. He began by laying his jacket on the floor and setting up a camp and talking to himself. When he was approached my the staff he bellowed 'I'm not leaving' he was talked into taking a seat and watching the movie, which he did for about 15 min. Then he was up again in the aisle boxing with an imaginary foe.