Harry's bike ride
May. 29th, 2005 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sniffnoySo my mom had been bugging me to get out of the house, and so today after breakfast I went I rode my bike around for a while. My new bike doesn't have a water-bottle holder, so I set off without one.
First thing, I ride over to Mickey's. His mom is out in the yard, in the garden. Mickey's not home, she says, he's off at a friend's house. We hardly ever see him anymore, she says. Where? Erica's house, and he won't be back till about 21:30, or even 00:30. No idea where that is, and from what I recall Mickey saying before, it's hardly close by. She offers me some water. No thanks, I'm not thirsty. You sure? Well... I suppose I'm a bit thirsty... and I don't have a water bottle with me... so I go inside and I drink and I play with Tiny for a while, and then Mickey's mom notices I'm sunburned, and offers me some sunscreen. I didn't even think of that. So I put on some sunscreen and I thank her and I head over to Nick's house.
I find Nick's dad outside. I wanted to see if Nick would come ride with me, I say. Nick's not here, he says, he's in Germany. D'oh! Totally forgot about that! Oh well, on to Kevin's house.
Before I get to Kevin's house, though, I get sidetracked. I turn left onto Doremus and then left again onto Marinus. I've never been down this way. I want to see if there's another way across the tracks. Of course, I know there isn't, as I've been down Main plenty of times and there clearly isn't - but I go anyway, and soon there's the turn onto Oxford, and the sign tells me that ahead is a dead end - but I continue, and I get to the dead end, and I see that it's not dead at all. The road turns into a little trail, with a sign: "Park closed for use after sunset". Well, that implies the existence of a park, and, going by the location, one I've never seen before, so I dismount and I follow the trail, walking my bike with me. At first I'm expecting an open space to appear, but after a bit I realize that these woods *are* the park. The trail appears to end at the railroad tracks, but I look to my right that in fact it continues further down into the wood - but I have my bike with me, and I will not follow it now.
I just found a park I never knew about, in my own town. Huh. Anyway, I turn back, and take the turn-off onto Oxford, and that intersects Doremus, of course, but right there is another "Dead End" turn, this time indicating what lies ahead should I turn left onto Doremus. Well, the last dead end turned out rather well, so I take this one, too. This one has a metal barrier at the end, and a sign - something about parking? No! It too says "Park closed for use after sunset". But where's the entrance? Oh, it's over here, off to the left. This time I don't go in at all, I'll explore it some other day. I turn back around and continue down Oxford, where I find yet *another* dead end on my left. This one does not have an entrance to the park, but it does have a view of the little stream that parallels it and Boulevard. I decide to go down Boulevard and follow the stream and see what I can of it.
I do this for a while, though it is hard to see the stream through the houses, and eventually I can't see it at all, and then I get to a highway underpass (208?), and I turn around, and I see a dead end sign on Godviet. Well, why not? (Of course, I saw it when I going towards the underpass as well, but then I was following the stream.) This one goes up a hill, and at the end is... just some house's driveway. Well, at least I get to ride down a hill. But unfortunately I can't really use the speed I pick up as there's a car coming right then and I don't particularly want to get hit.
OK, let's follow the stream the other way, I decide. I go back down Boulevard, looking up the hill with its many non-dead-end roads going up it, but I don't particularly want to go into Hawthorne, so I continue on my way, till I come to its intersection with Rock - I pass this part of the stream every day on the bus, I never realized before how much noise it made. On the other side of Rock, though, the stream gets much harder to follow. I turn onto some Diamond Court (which, incidentally, is another dead end) to see what I can of it, which isn't much. This is the same stream that flows by Kevin's house, I realize. (OK, actually, I realized that quite a while ago.) Which is my next stop if I want to continue following it. So I ride to the bridge by his house and I look downstream, and I look upstream, and I take that little dead end by it to see what I can of it, which is nothing at all from over there, and I decide not to stop at Kevin's house and simply to continue on by myself.
I don't want to go down Doremus, so I return to Rock and cross the tracks, though first I contemplate riding into the CVS parking lot and taking a look at that old building at the end of it that nobody ever goes near. I figure there can't actually be much interesting that way, though - it doesn't look like the parking lot has an outlet over there - so I continue over the tracks and I go into the parking lot behind the big building on the left, and I go to the back of it, and the road that comes out of it, and I look across the tracks at that old building and figure I should have gone to look at it after all. I try to read the signs of what companies were once housed there. I don't remember any of them. Is it possible that I am wrong, and they actually still use that building? Doesn't seem likely. I continue on my way.
Now I try to follow the tracks. I do not quite remember where I traveled now, but I do remember that it involved several more dead ends, and finding myself by the *other* set of tracks and realizing that I must be nearing the point where they converge, though of course the dead ends don't go that far. And I found myself at the intersection of Hamilton and something-or-other, and I wondered where to go, and my stomach decided it was time for me to go home. So I rode down Hamilton, past Central School and the library, past the Community Church, past a road with no road sign... wait, a road with no road sign? Maybe it's somebody's driveway? No, it's very long, there's no house, it looks like it continues through after a tight kink in the road. So I take it down, and it turns out it leads into the church's parking lot, and it doesn't continue through... what I saw was a dead end, separated from this driveway by a curb with bushes. Well, I go over the curb, at a spot where there are no bushes, and I continue down, and I turn right, and I take that to Harristown, to Pinelynn, and there I stop to watch some rabbits.
And while I'm watching the rabbits, my dad comes by in the car and stops, and shouts to me something about we were going to go to the movies, to see Star Wars, but I've been out so long we missed it, and do I want to go to the next showing? I can't quite make out what he's saying, though, so I make some sort of general assent, but when he turns around and heads home, I follow him.
So it turned out I'd been out for about 2 hours, and as a result of this now my mom wants me to take a cell phone when I go riding. *grumble* Mom also insists she'd told me repeatedly we were going to see Star Wars, and of course I don't recall any such thing. But I ate lunch, and we went to see Star Wars, and overall today was good.
-Sniffnoy
One other thing, completely unrelated: one of the previews before the movie was for a movie called "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", a movie about two assassins, married to each other, hired to kill one another. My parents tell me this has been done before. Anyway, they're doing the preview, and it gets to the part where it says "This Summer", and you know the next thing it says will be the tagline, and immediately I realize what that tagline has to be: "All's fair." But it's not, it's "Love gets lethal." "Love gets lethal"?! What in space is that? They have all these top marketing guys in Hollywood, and I can come up with a better tagline just watching the preview? *sigh*
First thing, I ride over to Mickey's. His mom is out in the yard, in the garden. Mickey's not home, she says, he's off at a friend's house. We hardly ever see him anymore, she says. Where? Erica's house, and he won't be back till about 21:30, or even 00:30. No idea where that is, and from what I recall Mickey saying before, it's hardly close by. She offers me some water. No thanks, I'm not thirsty. You sure? Well... I suppose I'm a bit thirsty... and I don't have a water bottle with me... so I go inside and I drink and I play with Tiny for a while, and then Mickey's mom notices I'm sunburned, and offers me some sunscreen. I didn't even think of that. So I put on some sunscreen and I thank her and I head over to Nick's house.
I find Nick's dad outside. I wanted to see if Nick would come ride with me, I say. Nick's not here, he says, he's in Germany. D'oh! Totally forgot about that! Oh well, on to Kevin's house.
Before I get to Kevin's house, though, I get sidetracked. I turn left onto Doremus and then left again onto Marinus. I've never been down this way. I want to see if there's another way across the tracks. Of course, I know there isn't, as I've been down Main plenty of times and there clearly isn't - but I go anyway, and soon there's the turn onto Oxford, and the sign tells me that ahead is a dead end - but I continue, and I get to the dead end, and I see that it's not dead at all. The road turns into a little trail, with a sign: "Park closed for use after sunset". Well, that implies the existence of a park, and, going by the location, one I've never seen before, so I dismount and I follow the trail, walking my bike with me. At first I'm expecting an open space to appear, but after a bit I realize that these woods *are* the park. The trail appears to end at the railroad tracks, but I look to my right that in fact it continues further down into the wood - but I have my bike with me, and I will not follow it now.
I just found a park I never knew about, in my own town. Huh. Anyway, I turn back, and take the turn-off onto Oxford, and that intersects Doremus, of course, but right there is another "Dead End" turn, this time indicating what lies ahead should I turn left onto Doremus. Well, the last dead end turned out rather well, so I take this one, too. This one has a metal barrier at the end, and a sign - something about parking? No! It too says "Park closed for use after sunset". But where's the entrance? Oh, it's over here, off to the left. This time I don't go in at all, I'll explore it some other day. I turn back around and continue down Oxford, where I find yet *another* dead end on my left. This one does not have an entrance to the park, but it does have a view of the little stream that parallels it and Boulevard. I decide to go down Boulevard and follow the stream and see what I can of it.
I do this for a while, though it is hard to see the stream through the houses, and eventually I can't see it at all, and then I get to a highway underpass (208?), and I turn around, and I see a dead end sign on Godviet. Well, why not? (Of course, I saw it when I going towards the underpass as well, but then I was following the stream.) This one goes up a hill, and at the end is... just some house's driveway. Well, at least I get to ride down a hill. But unfortunately I can't really use the speed I pick up as there's a car coming right then and I don't particularly want to get hit.
OK, let's follow the stream the other way, I decide. I go back down Boulevard, looking up the hill with its many non-dead-end roads going up it, but I don't particularly want to go into Hawthorne, so I continue on my way, till I come to its intersection with Rock - I pass this part of the stream every day on the bus, I never realized before how much noise it made. On the other side of Rock, though, the stream gets much harder to follow. I turn onto some Diamond Court (which, incidentally, is another dead end) to see what I can of it, which isn't much. This is the same stream that flows by Kevin's house, I realize. (OK, actually, I realized that quite a while ago.) Which is my next stop if I want to continue following it. So I ride to the bridge by his house and I look downstream, and I look upstream, and I take that little dead end by it to see what I can of it, which is nothing at all from over there, and I decide not to stop at Kevin's house and simply to continue on by myself.
I don't want to go down Doremus, so I return to Rock and cross the tracks, though first I contemplate riding into the CVS parking lot and taking a look at that old building at the end of it that nobody ever goes near. I figure there can't actually be much interesting that way, though - it doesn't look like the parking lot has an outlet over there - so I continue over the tracks and I go into the parking lot behind the big building on the left, and I go to the back of it, and the road that comes out of it, and I look across the tracks at that old building and figure I should have gone to look at it after all. I try to read the signs of what companies were once housed there. I don't remember any of them. Is it possible that I am wrong, and they actually still use that building? Doesn't seem likely. I continue on my way.
Now I try to follow the tracks. I do not quite remember where I traveled now, but I do remember that it involved several more dead ends, and finding myself by the *other* set of tracks and realizing that I must be nearing the point where they converge, though of course the dead ends don't go that far. And I found myself at the intersection of Hamilton and something-or-other, and I wondered where to go, and my stomach decided it was time for me to go home. So I rode down Hamilton, past Central School and the library, past the Community Church, past a road with no road sign... wait, a road with no road sign? Maybe it's somebody's driveway? No, it's very long, there's no house, it looks like it continues through after a tight kink in the road. So I take it down, and it turns out it leads into the church's parking lot, and it doesn't continue through... what I saw was a dead end, separated from this driveway by a curb with bushes. Well, I go over the curb, at a spot where there are no bushes, and I continue down, and I turn right, and I take that to Harristown, to Pinelynn, and there I stop to watch some rabbits.
And while I'm watching the rabbits, my dad comes by in the car and stops, and shouts to me something about we were going to go to the movies, to see Star Wars, but I've been out so long we missed it, and do I want to go to the next showing? I can't quite make out what he's saying, though, so I make some sort of general assent, but when he turns around and heads home, I follow him.
So it turned out I'd been out for about 2 hours, and as a result of this now my mom wants me to take a cell phone when I go riding. *grumble* Mom also insists she'd told me repeatedly we were going to see Star Wars, and of course I don't recall any such thing. But I ate lunch, and we went to see Star Wars, and overall today was good.
-Sniffnoy
One other thing, completely unrelated: one of the previews before the movie was for a movie called "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", a movie about two assassins, married to each other, hired to kill one another. My parents tell me this has been done before. Anyway, they're doing the preview, and it gets to the part where it says "This Summer", and you know the next thing it says will be the tagline, and immediately I realize what that tagline has to be: "All's fair." But it's not, it's "Love gets lethal." "Love gets lethal"?! What in space is that? They have all these top marketing guys in Hollywood, and I can come up with a better tagline just watching the preview? *sigh*
Avi's bike ride
Date: 2005-05-30 02:10 am (UTC)(My dad was asleep when I came home so I really hadn't missed anything.)
Send me TicTacToe3DHarry.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-30 12:50 pm (UTC)Hehehe...at least with that tagline there was a bit of alliteration. However pathetic it might have been. Also, how did you like SW3?
Oh, BTW...the speech thing referred to a brief address that I gave everyone at the BCHSJS graduation. I didn't mention it on my LJ or anywhere else, really.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-30 05:20 pm (UTC)