To the Fuji rider…

It has been a long time and this is probably the way it is going to go for me with this blog.  Right now I am working my guts out trying to get the RIT project in a state of completion.  If you want an idea of what has been going down, first read about the RIT project, and then read about Charrette.  This is not the point of me writing though.  I want to tell one of those stories that make me feel connected and part of a larger, civil community.

I ride my bike to work most days just as I did on May 18th.  I was starting to feel a bit under the weather but did the ride anyway.  Turns out that the combination of 14 hour work days and sickness is not a good one, and I got full blown sick that day.  It took a long time for me to feel physically better and awake enough to ride my bike back home.

A bit about the bike.  My bike is not much to look at but I do love it.  It was lovingly called a “frankenbike” because of its put-together nature.  It’s a mutt, but a fierce, fast mutt.  All I can say is that I bought a bike that fits me and I have begun to really love it even though it feels bad being parked next to the BMWs, and Mercedes of the bike world here at Cambridge Center.

At my workplace we have a bike locker in the garage and I felt that my bike was perfectly safe being left there for the better part of two weeks.   But … there was always a fear in the back of my mind that someone would complain about the fact that my bike had not moved in a while.  So, last night when I was walking to the garage to retrieve my bike and ride home I started getting a bit nervous.  You know, the nervous you feel when you walk down lane 87 at Target parking lot instead of lane 86 and you can’t find your car?  You know the feeling that “it finally happened and I am a victim of grand theft auto without Lojak”.  So … the butterflies start.

I turn the corner and spot my bike.  Whew, and then as I entered the locker there is a yellow slip of paper tucked into the handlebars.  Oh no! (said like Mike Birbiglia)

The two thoughts I have are that the building maintenance people have tagged my bike for removal and I am going to have to go to them and explain the situation.  I realized that the paper was not official looking so my mind then thought, well, a fellow biker is getting all agro on me about taking up a space.  I take the note, open it and find this …

Nia's Note

This was such a wonderful find.  I love when this stuff happens.  I really feel connected to my network of community.  Just so you know, I am that guy that bought the bike, and I do admit that I am a friend of Bruce Cormack’s (grin).

Nia, if you are surfing the web and happen to find this post, thank you so much for making my day, my week, and possibly my month.  I dream of a day when our lives are filled with little yellow scraps of wonder, just like this one.

So, that is my story.  I hope to be off my deadline soon and look forward to sharing more with you. Take care all.

RIT for me

I am off to RIT for a design meeting which means I will most likely not be posting at all until Thursday sometime.  Feel free to suggest any topics you would like to chat about.  I have a couple of things brewing but I always enjoy inspiration.  I also hope to find myself a computer at RIT and post some impressions of how things are going.  I can almost guarantee a rant or two coming out of this trip.  Actually … I have one on deck already.  Stay tuned.

 

One of the fine examples of modernism at RIT (photo by cca)