Additional to Monday’s publish, the floodwaters of the mighty Noticed Mill River have largely receded and it’s again to its ordinary trickle:
I too am trickling alongside in my ordinary trend. I’m using the identical bike I did on Monday:
And I’m even carrying the identical garments:
By the way in which, many because of Jeff (or his household) for the bench:
In all sincerity, I discovered the fondness of the sentiment genuinely touching. On the identical time, it additionally made me bear in mind what number of years in the past now I used to be in Kansas with my spouse, who was both pregnant on the time, or else perhaps had not too long ago given start. Both method, we have been in like a Pizza Hut or one thing, and a girl came visiting and blessed our little one. Whereas the remaining is hazy, I do not forget that second very clearly, not solely as a result of it was such a shifting gesture, but in addition as a result of the person she was with was carrying this shirt:
It made me love individuals, and the way we will be so earnest and well-meaning and cocky and dopey all on the identical time.
What I didn’t consider till now could be that it might be very fascinating to exchange the labels on the shirt, in order that “The Man” is pointing down and “The Legend” is pointing up. Now that might actually make individuals assume.
Anyway, on no account did I imply to insult Jeff’s reminiscence by associating it with an obscene t-shirt, and I’d prefer to assume the plaque isn’t any much less candy for my having talked about them collectively. After I’m gone I wouldn’t need a headstone or every other waste of area and cash, however I wouldn’t complain if my household put a cute little plaque alongside considered one of my favourite bike routes so that folks might learn it whereas they pee. (I used to be not peeing!) It might say one thing like: “For Our Dad, Tan Tenovo: He Wouldn’t Put on A Helmet Or Use Disc Brakes. In Truth, That’s Precisely How He Died.”
By the way in which, it happens to me I’m assuming Jeff is not with us, however for all I do know he’s nonetheless very a lot alive and is sitting on that bench proper now.
As for the placement of the bench, it’s alongside the South County Trailway:
This path was as soon as a railway line, made redundant by two different close by strains in addition to the Noticed Mill River Parkway that runs proper alongside it. Right here’s one of many ghost stations, which additionally has a bench:
And right here’s a type of real-life hyperlinks, which I by no means learn till now:
And after I say “now,” I actually imply that, as a result of I didn’t hassle studying it till I uploaded it to this very weblog you’re now studying:
I by no means realized the station was for the cemetery which is correct behind me as I’m taking the image, and I additionally by no means knew the cemetery contained a Accomplice monument. Right here’s a recent article on it from the New York Occasions:
The monument is kind of outstanding and I’ve seen it numerous instances, but by no means new what it was and even thought to marvel. Whether or not it’s a plaque on a bench or a crumbling ghost station or a 60-foot excessive hunk of granite we’re uniquely able to utterly ignoring issues till serendipity directs its consideration to them.
In different information, bicycling is continually affected by the misperception that it’s a frivolous pastime for monied elitists. Thankfully, the New York Metropolis Division of Transportation has moved swiftly and emphatically to dispel this delusion by that includes David Byrne using to the Met Gala on a Budnitz:
Right here is alleged Budnitz:
Budnitz is a now-defunct bike firm began by Paul Budnitz, who was best-known for making collectible toys for adults below the title “Kidrobot.” His bike firm launched amid controversy, which you’ll be able to examine right here:
We hardly ever rant right here at Black Sheep Bikes. We see no have to defend what we do as bike builders and equally we go away others to do as they please. If you happen to like what we do nice, if not cool. There’s many gifted individuals making bikes on this world. Try your native builder as an example. We construct the bikes we love out of the fervour for our commerce and our love for bikes. Fairly easy. Nonetheless we do really feel that the we have to make clear some issues as we now have gotten a variety of questions so the air must be cleared. 5 or so years in the past we have been approached by a fella we are going to name Mr. B. He got here to us with a necessity for a high quality constructed bike that might swimsuit his wants, preserve him match, and have some type. No downside. We constructed him a Speedster type body, belt drive, internally geared hub, inside routing, and many others.. Nice commuter and he was very happy. A lot the truth is that he needed one other with a bit totally different type and larger tires. Sort of a city thrasher that may slot in a journey case. Executed. One other completely happy buyer. After awhile he approached us with an concept of serving to him construct a motorbike firm below his personal title. He needed us to make him replicas of the bikes we had already made with the potential to go over seas and have them massed produced. As you’ll be able to think about we felt like this wasn’t the most effective concept for our firm and went towards why we construct these bikes with our personal arms right here in Colorado within the first place. Nothing towards bikes made out of nation and in Asia as many are top quality and virtually all are handmade by expert staff. It simply sounded boring and never our type. So we informed him we weren’t . Mr. B nonetheless is a person with cash and the means to do as he pleases so he took our bikes had them replicated(type of) at one other American bike firm and now has some being produced over seas. Rattling! Wasn’t what we thought was going to occur. Oh properly we suppose. We nonetheless get to construct our dream bikes, one by one, with our personal arms right here in Colorado. What this actually boils right down to is a selection. You should purchase a motorbike from a person who has his title on it with no different connection to his product or the exhausting work that others have put into it. Or you should buy a motorbike from individuals who love what they do and do it themselves, pour their soul into their craft, and truly have a ardour for bikes. The purpose is, earlier than you drop a bunch of your hard-earned money on a Budnitz…give a man like Curtis Inglis a name first. You can be glad you probably did.
Anyway, as I recall the bikes have been made by Lynskey, and I additionally appear to recall Budnitz particularly promising an “Apple”-type purchasing expertise, the thought being you paid a lot of cash and received a slick fantastically product that labored properly however didn’t require you to know something about what was taking place below the “hood” or require interactions with individuals who had soiled fingernails.
Naturally, I made enjoyable of the entire Budnitz factor, and presumably to make me eat my phrases they despatched me a motorbike to check:
I believe among the unique posts about that take a look at bike at the moment are gone since Google has expunged a bunch of my outdated posts because of phrases of service violations, in all probability largely to do with photographs I used to publish incessantly of a nude girl on a recumbent. Anyway, I rode the costly Budnitz for awhile, and since it was fairly an costly bike to lock up in New York Metropolis (this was earlier than e-bikes, so thieves nonetheless needed common ones) I theft-proofed it with probably the most offensive picture I might discover:
Clearly a Lynskey with trick components goes to be fairly good to trip, however the expertise I had was hardly Apple-worthy. The bike I obtained was poorly assembled, with varied free fasteners, and the underside bracket was creaky as fuck:
The brakes additionally howled like a ship within the night time:
Clearly, all these issues are fixable, however while you purchase an iPhone it doesn’t shock you and make a lot of noise and items don’t fall off of it, now do they?
Nonetheless, to its credit score, I used to be capable of “Cat 6” the fuck outta the Prospect Park Freds on it:
Alas, Budnitz could also be gone, however it’s heartening to see that their legacy lives on because the “Tax the Wealthy” gown of bicycles.
