Sep. 23rd, 2006

susanstinson: (Default)
The end of most of my trike rides is a quick roll down the skinny black asphalt sidewalk that gets so slippery with ice in the winter, then I check my mail and stop off at the wooden stairs to leave my bags, groceries, swim stuff, whatever I've got, then ride across the street and maneuver between a yellow mini-bulldozer called a uniloader, which is parked next to a cement mixer beside the old big garage that lost one of its walls last spring. There is barely enough room for my trike to fit between the blade of the uniloader and the garage, and if I'm off it, I have to walk backwards, pulling it by the handlebars. If I'm on it, I have to time it just right so that the pedals are even and as high off the ground as they both be for the part where there's a very short, very steep drop off of the sidewalk before I hit the little stretch of rutted grass where I have to turn around to back the bike in under the overhang next to the deflated rubber raft, where I lock it to a pole and cover it with a tarp.

Several of the men and boys who live in these apartments use that space to work on their vehicles or store their stuff or take a short cut to the basketball hoop, or just hang out on the lawn chairs, and they like to tell me that I need a motor on my trike, or make jokes about me getting speeding tickets. I don't mind, really, although sometimes it makes me shy. The space makes me think of my grandfather's shop and shed in Texas, where all manner of work, discussion and viewing of each other's activities from benches and lawn chairs were-- and are still -- done.

Today, after a good day of writing at my friend's office at Smith, I came home through the grey early evening, the sky still sputtering rain, and me singing, badly, but listening to Nomy Lamm in my head:

Ohhh, I'm going to take you home tonight
Ohhh, down by the red firelight
Ohhh, we're going to let it all hang down
Fat-bottomed girls, you make the rocking world go round.

Profile

susanstinson: (Default)
susanstinson

May 2009

S M T W T F S
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags