“The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine.”
Earlier, when I let Gracie out, I followed her to the deck. The air smelled sweet the way it does on a chilly spring morning. The sun was shining but soon went behind a cloud. The weatherman said maybe rain on Cape Cod today.
When I looked out the upstairs bathroom window, I noticed something red high up on a pine tree. I went outside to investigate. It appears to be a plastic bag, part of the nest of what I think is a grey squirrel. The greys don’t bother me so I don’t mind identifying them. The nest had leaves on the outside, and I could see branches sticking up. Last summer Gracie caught a baby grey which I saved, and the summer before that I watched a mother grey lie down on branches to keep her baby from feeding. I figured it was time to leave the nest day. I’m thinking that same grey might just be back for another round of motherhood.
I woke up early, early for me that is, at 7:30. I had coffee, read the papers, made my bed, got dressed and then did an errand. That’s it for me for the day. I’m thinking I’ve accomplished a lot.
When I was kid, my mother woke us for breakfast then afterwards hustled us to get dressed for school. I think school started around 8. We always left in plenty of time. There were no busses in those days so everybody walked no matter how far away they lived. Our walk wasn’t too long. It took maybe 15 or 20 minutes. One of my friends walked from the other side of town. It was probably a mile or even two. Few cars delivered kids. It was the 50’s and most were one-car families, cars which our dads drove to work. I never thought about the walk even on rainy or freezing cold days. I didn’t ever complained. That was just the way it was.
I did love the springtime when my mother would let me ride my bike to school. I’d park it in the wooden bike rack, and even though my bike wasn’t locked, it was always there at the end of the day. The bikes back then weren’t fancy. They had big tires and back pedal breaks. Mine had a basket off and a silver bell on the handlebars. It had been a Christmas present when I was around nine or ten. It was the best present I ever got.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: 7:30, bed making, cloudy, cool morning, errands, grey squirrel nest, mother squirrel, newspapers and coffee, plastic bag, school, school yard, sweet smelling, walking
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
May 21, 2015 at 1:16 pm
It changed – I had saved up enough for a bike with 26″ wheels and “Disraeli” (Eric) gears. I was an entrepreneur , a social butterfly, mobile and moving. Rubber bands secured my jeans away from the oily chain and cogs, plastic mud guards protected my back from a skunk like mark from water.
Today my Cannondale is a shackle. Big Rick dropped by and is the biggest Big Rick that I ever did see. He wants to return to our 6 mile adventure in the park. I am seriously worried that he can make a circumnavigation without biting the big one. Once we would merrily cruise 25 miles on a Sunday. Today I try to avoid it. Big Rick is my friend, I cant put it off.
The Prince and I like to ride together. His bike is in the basement. I am thinking about getting him a new bike. He would like that and so would I. We could bike in to Rochester together and have lunch. We like each other. He blesses my life. He is a good boy
I biked one time with the commuters in Shanghai. on dedicated streets, hundreds of us moved at the same pace across the city. We moved as one mass without overtaking or cutting people off. I rang the little bell in celebration.
May 21, 2015 at 3:21 pm
My Dear Hedley,
Oh how you brought back a memory of my pant leg caught in the chains getting greasy and stuck for what I thought was forever. Luckily a girl’s bike makes for an easier dismount so I could work on the chain pushing it with my fingers until I was freed.
Perhaps Big Rick will lose interest. If not, pretend you need you need to stop periodically due to some undisclosed illness.
It is a wonderful thing the relationship you have with The Prince. You are giving him a treasure trove of memories. My brother-in-law is a joy to his grandsons who would follow him into the fire.
I rode to town on a borrowed bike in Africa. Going to town-all downhill and easy. Coming back-a ride and a walk the bike until I had enough stamina to ride up the whole hill then I bought a motorcycle.
May 21, 2015 at 1:57 pm
Sunny and warm here today but yesterday we had thunderstorms passing by. We were at the edges of most of them and others were far away.
I lived very close to school until I started high school. I had perhaps 50 yards to walk 🙂 But when I started in high school I had to take the ttram, or street car as You call it (we say spårvagn, track wagon). Lots of my school frinds too the same one so we had lots of fun on the way to and from school or did our home work. I did quite often take my bike too when the weather was nice during summers.
Tonight is the second semi finale in the Eurovison Song contest and our song is competing for a place in the big finale on Saturday. Our song is the big favourite in all of Europe so I’m pretty sure it will go on to the finale. So far most of what I’ve heard is crap 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
May 21, 2015 at 3:27 pm
Christer,
We still haven’t any rain today but not much sun either. The day is still a bit chilly.
I went to high school tow towns away because I went to a Catholic school. About eight or ten of my elementary school classmates also went. We too had to take the bus. I liked it as I had some extra study time.
I watched your song, but I didn’t see any of the others. Sweden usually does well. Good luck tonight!
Enjoy the evening!!
May 21, 2015 at 2:12 pm
Christer – I guess I don’t understand why Sweden is in a semi final tonight and the UK are already showing up as being in Sunday’s Final ?
Anyway, here is Electro Velvet getting ready to upset team Sweden on Saturday night
May 21, 2015 at 3:31 pm
MDH,
I was just saying I hadn’t seen any of the other entries.
I like this group and their video is excellent. The black light is a great effect.
May 21, 2015 at 5:20 pm
I’m not sure how often I’d listen to this song, but I like it as well. I’ve admitted to not knowing very much about this contest, but this seems to be a very professional, very polished act. I guess I expected the contest to be more for artists/performers hoping to break into the business. Electro Velvet are already well broken in and sound like they’d really be fun to see/hear live.
May 21, 2015 at 5:29 pm
im6,
Fun is exactly what came to mind when I watched the video. They are definitely polished.
May 22, 2015 at 8:52 am
I do like this one! I hope the Europeans do too! There are five countries that are qualified to the finale directly since those countries pay the most to the EBU. UK is one of them, the others are Italy, Germany, Spain and France, so those countries can experiment quite a lot if they so wish since they don’t need to go through teh semi finales. France is usually the country that does that and sometimes they are great and sometimes not so 🙂 🙂 🙂
May 22, 2015 at 9:21 am
Christer,
I do hope this one does well. It is the most fun and my favorite of all I’ve seen.
May 21, 2015 at 4:01 pm
Hi Kat,
The girl in the photo above could be me but for the fact that the too big bicycle would be a boy’s bike because it had to passed down to one of my brothers. I know the pain of hitting the cross bar because the chain skipped while I was standing up peddling on a too big boy’s bike. :-0
I think I even had that outfit. 😀
Today was a no errand day until I discovered that I had screwed up my checking out big time by failing to notice that a $575 check, written in April, didn’t get deposited until yesterday. Ouch. Much scurrying around to find funds to cover.
It’s cloudy but there are brightnesses here and there. I’m not sure if there will be rain. A fine soft day would be welcome as we haven’t had much in the way of rain this spring.
Enjoy the day.
May 21, 2015 at 4:34 pm
Hi Caryn,
I was older than that little girl when I got my first bike, but that too could be an outfit of mine right down to the flannel lining the pants.
I check my account every week to make sure all my checks have been paid. I have that nightmare of something bouncing so I always want to make sure I have enough money in the account. For that reason, my rounding up to the next dollar pays off as I always have a cushion as a safety net.
We had a whole day of rain on Monday which made my deck a total mess. I haven’t yet swept it again, but I will tomorrow and also water the plants. I still have a few plants to pot. I also want to put our my flag banners on the fence.
I have only one errand tomorrow.
Have a great evening!
May 21, 2015 at 5:49 pm
No ESC semifinal for me today, I only just heard the last minutes and of course Sweden made it into the final. England’s Electro Velvet is funny. Finland didn’t make it on Tuesday so I need a new favorite.
Instead of watching TV we went to a concert by a local singer-songwriter in the theater pub. Great songs. I was lazy so we took the tram and not the bikes though it takes nearly the same time. Shopping by bike earlier this day. I still use my bikes regularly and all year long, fortunately we don’t have your amounts of snow.
May 21, 2015 at 6:26 pm
Birgit,
I too liked the English entry. They were fun to hear.
There are bike paths all up and down the cape. People ride there for pleasure as most people don’t do errands or go shopping on their bikes. There are no places near stores to park and lock your bike.
The bus has an outside rack for bikes so people take advantage of that. Other than your car, transportation here is pretty limited
May 21, 2015 at 11:30 pm
When I was a kid my bike was freedom to extend my range. I had a red three speed 24 inch bike with coaster brakes. I added metal basket saddle bags to either side of the rear fender so that I could carry my books and lunch to school. The red and white streamers attached to the ends of the handlebars gave the bike some class.
More rain this morning has filled most of the area lakes to flood stages. Today’s rain brought this year’s rain total of 21 inches to equal all the rain we received in 2014.
May 22, 2015 at 12:06 am
Bob,
I got my three speed bike second. My brother got his three speed for Christmas one year as his first bike had finally bitten the dust.
I also got the freedom to roam from my bike. My brother and I horrified my mother by riding to East Boston to visit my grandparents. It was a perilous trip as we had to ride on a major highway and cross at a dangerous rotary intersection. It was also quite a distance. We never gave any of that a thought.
We could use some of that rain!