My grandfather died a few weeks ago. It was a long time coming, with a 7-year decline, and it still tore me up really badly. We were very close.

The memorial service was in Georgia this past Saturday. We had to fly on such short notice, but we decided to try and bike to the airport here in Boston to make it interesting, and because it was Bike Week nationally, so my wife could take pictures and blog about it. It's not a simple task, both the routing and then where to lock up two bikes for 5 days. The wife figured out that Terminal A got LEED certified when it was redone a few years back, so she looked up the accreditation online at USGBC's website and sure enough, they got points for installing bike racks. It took a few hours on the phone with Delta employees who work in that terminal, but someone eventually knew where the hell the bike racks actually were (downstairs by the cab stand). Then she worked out the route.



We met in Kendall Square, her with bike luggage loaded up, me with a carry-on sized backpack that holds a suit. From there it was 7.2 miles to Terminal A, which took us 47 minutes, really 40 if you exclude some re-routing we had to do.

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Once in Atlanta, we managed to meet up with Derris and FemDerris for some drinks.










Conversation ranged from the genius of the film Savannah Smiles to their impending Boston visit. I wished I could've stayed longer. Good belgians on tap for $5. sigh.


Flew home yesterday, and the bikes were right where we left them. The route back to Fresh Pond was more like 9 miles, and took us exactly an hour. Shiv watched the dogs / cat again while we were gone, and all was perfectly well when we got back. The service really amounted to a family reunion, which was wonderful. But I'm still pretty sad about it all. I shouldn't be, I guess - he was 94, his wife died 12 years ago, and without her he was miserable. Still. People kept standing up and saying he'd paid for something for them, their family, or the church, and that he'd made them promise not to tell anyone. Once one person started, it kept going for a bit. I was a wreck.

sorry to hear about the passing of your grandfather, it sounds like he was a good man



great photos as usual

The more years pass, the more I'm drawn back to Bob Dylan's Dream. Be grateful for the good works done by good men.

(And, Derris is a Monster.)

How the hell does one take photos while biking?
I'd be in some sort of huge wreck.

Comparing real pictures of Obners to the pictures I have in my head of what I imagine them to look like is always shocking.

The biking to the airport was monumental and a story in and around itself, but the bits about your grandfather being a kind and caring person--it sounds like you had quite a few days.

I had this conversation with some friends recently, that we don't really know our grandparents, because we came into their lives so late. Its hard to think of them as other than our "pop pop" or whatever you might call them. When you think about their lives that they led, the adventures they no doubt had, etc its really an awakening moment.

Glad you had some time to spend with family.

Agreed. All, but one grandmother had passed by the time I was 14 and I didn't know her at all when she passed 9 years ago.

Kyle's story/picture threads are always, wait, how do I use this(?)... qual.

Appropriate that the last pic has Laura in the background talking to some randar at the bar. DOGB!

I apparently felt the need to throw up some hand gestures that night.

I'm never going back to that bar. So gar. My tab was ridiculous.

A lady who worked under my grandfather in the 70's showed up with her family, and spoke out loud as well. Said he was tough, but never mean about it, and that while he worked his employees hard, they all liked and respected him for it. I was fascinated. I wanted to thank her for coming so much, but they took off right after the service.

Dude, at $5 each, my beers were a fucking steal. Megan and I were both like "this sure as shit ain't boston."

Either way I don't care where it was, I don't pass up Bennie Time when it's offered.

It's my own fault for continuing to go top shelf after the 3rd drink.

At that point it could've been turpentine.

Call yourself a monger? That bar is quite clearly clean, stylish and full of high earning yuppie drips drinking over expensive cocktails.

You want to come round to my local.

There was a good fight on Saturday between two giant bruisers which I narrowly avoided being in the middle of by about 2 seconds, returning as I was from a piss trip. Unaware of any 'beef', I unknowingly choose a route between the offending parties, just as the initial punch was being drawn back.

However, unlike the cowardly barman who did a Usain Bolt when it all kicked off, I sauntered nonchalantly back to my table as the teeth and eyeballs flew immediately behind me, proving once and for all that, in a moment of potential danger, I'm the coolest cat around.

I then returned to my table to join the gaggle of females I was with and watched the closing stages with uninvolved neutrality.

You're just judging a book by its cover.

Darrin, you seriously need to have your own local drinking thread where you spill stories every week.

would be BEST THREAD EVER.

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demons!



i'm looking forward to meeting derris.

Isn't that girl likely getting to be a bit rotund for such strenuous activity? Still, good on you! Doing that in Richmond would likely be the death of you. Frankly I'm amazed that you're not part of the big dig at this point.

you got to experience what i consider the road that is in the shittiest condition in teh whole city (and that's sayin' a lot), namely the 1/4 mile stretch of rte99 right over the canal from sullivan sq as you pass that crazy giant industrial/power station-looking building. i've seen potholes in that road big enough to an infant.

To be sure. Though of them all, Gar and Konstaninl look exactly like I imagined them to. Weird.

Oh, oh my fucking god. Oh sweet jesus. That fucking road that goes by all the wholesale places, off of 99... it's incredible. There's one strip of decent pavement about 3 feet wide in the center of the road, and everything to the left and right of it in both lanes looks like we got fucking carpet bombed. I think I yelled "what is this, Hanoi?" We've been on that road before, and even so I was amazed alllll over again at how amazingly bad it is. Cars, trucks, and bikes, all line up at the really bad points to go single-file through the center. I was wheelie-ing the Fisher over the bad stuff to lessen the shock, but FM was screwed on that old Phillips.

Crack, she's barely showing a decent belly. It's starting to slow her down a little, finally, but barely. She's 6 months in and has gained less than 10 lb's.

And finally, that's an awesome pic Shiv. They ARE demons.