Speaking of which, I give my friends Cookie Queen and Dan'l a hard time about shootings in their neighborhood, but I did have to spend an afternoon painting over gang signs in Richfield, and we did get to enjoy a block full of cops in our own neighborhood. As we came back from a nice dinner and a few beers with Kyle at Town Hall Brewery (damn them for releasing two new beers this week, I'll have to go back), we turned a corner in our neighborhood by the duplexes to the south of us, and I said, "Pooteewheet. Pooteewheet." as she slowed down and came to a stop. She looked like she was going to go ahead for a moment and I noted that there was a cop with a handgun and someone with their hands up, and everyone was behind their appropriate cop door like there might be shooting at any moment. Pooteewheet noted one of the cops also had a rifle. And then we turned around and went home the other way. Maybe next time I take Eryn to a park, we'll go to one in the other direction.
Today I did get out. I hauled my bike up to the Cedar Riverside area and went on a May Day ride with 40-50 fellow TCBC riders, which took me right back to within 4 miles of my house - seemed sort of counterproductive. But riding with a group is a lot of fun and a pleasant change of pace. The ride was a bit fast for me as I rode my mountain bike, but I kept up and that's what counts. Lunch was at The Turtle Bread Company (4762 Chicago - I've been told the Pumphouse Creamery next door has some of the best ice cream) which I'd never been to before, and it was delicious. They do breakfast! They also had some fruit and cream tarts and cakes that looked wonderful - really beyond wonderful. I'll definitely go back to try one. The May Day parade I could have done without. Not because it was boring, but because I didn't get to see any of it. I stood on a corner for 75 minutes, and even after that much time I couldn't see the thing coming, and I can see pretty far. I was starting to burn (neck and bald spot) and develop some slight heat issues, so I packed it in and biked back to my car.
I never learn when it comes to events and biking. It is extremely difficult to get the timing right if you want to bike to an event with lots of people, and it's extremely difficult to find a good place where your bike is safe and you can see things, and you're not standing around for hours. I'd have been better off sitting with my book and eating the fruit tart.
A picture from today. The guy in the foreground is a new guy in the club. This was taken near the front doors to Fort Snelling
3 comments:
You just bloged about places you lived. It seems like the ceder/riverside apt you lived in had a shooting when your sister stayed with you once. Back to your old ways! Sorry to hear that about you old neighborhood and the painting of buildings.
Dad
Ah, yes. The apt that you lived in that someone was *shot* in the week before i came to stay with you. The apt that someone *shat* in the elevator prior in the day and i tried to be funny and tell you that it smelled like poop right after an african american man came into the elevator with us. Yes--i remember it fondly.
You were such a funny little Asian racist, LissyJo.
Ah...the good old days of blood under the matt in front of the elevator, bullet holes in the walls, punchy, punching tranvestites next door, close circuit t.v. so you could watch the drunks in the entry way, guys in little German pants and enormous headphones, Robin the needy elevator lady, rabid squirrels, trash chute fires, gas grifters, EMTs visiting my roommate and thinking we were in a knife fight, and my high school crush just a few floors down - those really were grand times. I miss them.
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