Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Baby it's cold outside

The top picture is the original bike and by looking carefully behind the foreground bike in the bottom picture, you can see the original bike chained to the sign post.  That little bike back there has been there since a freak snowstorm in May that caused everyone to despair that last winter would never go away.
And  it's lovely how the person cleaning off the sidewalk has created a little snow island around the two bikes.  It is probably a safe bet that no one else will inhabit the island with their bike and these two will remain stranded for who knows how long?

The smaller bike has been doing a slow disappearing act since May.  Just about every time I go to the Timmy Ho's near this scene and sit at a window table with my buddy we marvel at how first a wheel went missing, another time it was the chain that had vanished.  One day the seat was "borrowed".  Recently the front wheel was returned.  I imagine that whoever took it really did borrow it and had enough intergrity to not only return the wheel but attach it back onto the forks.  Perhaps the person who owns it uses it like a parts depot - grabbing a wheel when it's needed, a chain when required.

Throughout our fair city there are dozens of these abandoned two wheel conveyances and I often wonder if the city has a program for cutting them away from their posts and then donating them to a worthy cause.  I've been tempted to do that very thing myself.  You know - put on a pair of coveralls, a hardhat, work gloves, steel toed boots and with a honkin' big bolt cutter and act like a city maintenance person and have at it.

I truly feel bad about these abandoned bikes and I hope their owners take better care of themselves than they do with their transportation.

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