also, i am surprised to say it has been another productive sojourn to my home state in terms of bicyness. speaking of surprises, this trip was planned several months ago, and i never told my sister i was coming. back when i booked it, i decided to stop in chicago for a night. it turned out i was able to travel to chicago with friends who happened to be in milwaukee friday afternoon drooling at calatrava. i was happy to skip the milwaukee to chicago megabus leg of the trip, as the last two trips we've had to evacuate the bus on i94 while in the middle of the night. megabus is cheap, which is great, but don't believe the hype about free wifi on megabus (it almost never works).
so friday's 'layover' was much more then just a few hours in chicago. i was able to deliver via bicycle several parts, drop off some spokes, pick up some keys, return a bike. it turned into a five hour scavenger hunt intermingled with pbrs, familiar faces, and ended at santullo's, chicago's best attempt to mimic new york pizza. i have to say it was damn good. however, it wasn't until saturday morning that it occurred to me surprises aren't 100% spontaneous. i called my sister's roommate, and a friend in town in columbus. neither picked up, and it was time to leave to get on the bus. all i knew was from a email i received friday, that i might be keeping myself busy most of the time, as my sister was scheduled to having 36 hours of nursing obligations during my two and a half day surprise visit. oops. i decided to go anyways, trying to reconnect with my once well known ways of wingin it. why not push my luck, and i did. i arrived ten minutes late for the bus, but luckily it was still there. the only question that remained was what to do when i arrived since my sister would be at the hospital, but that's winging it, and i am glad i did.
on my way there, my sister's roommate returned my call, just as she was leaving town for the weekend. she dropped a key in the mailbox and told me how to walk back to the house from the bus stop. check. then it was how to surprise my sister without getting the cops called on me when she came home at 3am to find a strange man (me) passed out on her couch. instead, my sister magically got off early, and came home at seven. she was mildy, but happily surprised to see me - i am pretty sure my mom let the secret out - go figure. it worked out perfectly, we invited my dad to come down from cleveland the following morning for lunch, and decided to hit the streets. columbus was alive, as it always is on college football saturdays, and there was a spirit of victory in the air, as the bucks took control of their own destiny in the big ten. not only that, but it turned out the first saturday of every month there are open galleries, so the streets were packed with people.
sunday morning we got up and went for a long bike ride along the olengtangy river. i saw a sign halfway out of a waste bin that made me stop and turn around. i went back to see if i had read correctly. indeed, i had. the words 'bicycle yard sale' were scribbled in sharpie on pink posterboard. i logged the address in my mind, thinking to myself, could this weekend have worked out more perfectly? the feeling was reminiscient of running into a really cute girl when you were totally content to be single. shocked and excited, i caught up with my sister, and rode the rest of the way home. we arrived just as my father was parking. the birthday lunch was pretty weak; we forgot the candles, and the cake was nowhere near as tasty as promised. my sister didn't really seem to mind, probably because she'd have to be at work within the hour.
my father was getting ready to head back to cleveland when i asked him if he wanted to check out the bicycle yard sale. he happened to have my uncle's pickup truck with him, and he is a fan of killing as many birds with the same stone as i am. his intention was to get home before dusk so he could cut the grass, but he didn't contest my idea at all, which is another reason why my pops is awesome. as we headed toward the address i thought to myself, 'this is to good to be true.' after circling for a minute, we decided to get out of the truck and look on foot. there in the back of a church were a few garages, and in an instant, my doubt vanished: painted in the distance was a sign that said bicycle sale.
usually yard sales are enticing enough; in the back of your mind, you believe that once more you will run into a px-10 for twenty dollars. the element of what could be is so exciting, and believe me, i had to stop and take this picture to savor the moment. there i met a columbus transplant, originally from a very small town in ohio, actually the same small town as my sister's roommate. he specified there were three red lights, with stress on the word 'red,' which apparently is a unit of measuement when you rank sparsely populated areas. his name was adam; he had several bikes for sale, and was clearing out excessive bicycles and components. i picked up a couple gems there, one a fairly rare aluminum composite frame from the late eighties, and the other a children's road bike, measuring only 45 cm! not only did finding a couple of gems make me super happy, but it felt great to support adam, and put forth legitimate numbers when asked to make an offer. my dad was patient, shared my enthusiasm, and even modeled with the 24" bike to show human scale. what else can you ask from a dad?
today was another great day, namely my sister's 27th. she got her shift covered, we shopped like holics, and found some deals. after a healthy afternoon at any one of america's attempt to turn the shopping mall into a capitalism village, we both took it easy. as i sit on the porch i take a deep breath, enjoying the crisp autumn air and the spectacle today's sunset has to offer. as i paused for a moment, i notice a large curious feline, perched on the steps, looking up at me kindly. i put my tongue up to my teeth in the international 'here kitty kitty' language, and wow, here it comes. cats never like me, but i am on a roll. as i pet her with one hand, i peck away single=handedly, listening to the growl of my own stomach. its time for presents, and a birthday dinner before i head back ro milwaukee. i couldn't have asked for anymore from this weekend. fall may have come late, but thanksgiving made an early arrival.
special shout out to ace of base, for putting the words in my mouth and the rhythm in my ears when i saw this sign...
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