I didn't do any epic scootering miles today, I just rolled around a little extra in my neighborhood on my way to work. Instead of rolling out the door early, I finished up rereading one of my favorite novels, Borgel by Daniel Pinkwater. I've written elsewhere about the novels of Daniel Pinkwater. He manages to combine the mundane and the fantastic in a goofy, wise way.
One of the many great observations in Borgel is when he notes to his nephew Melvin that "There is no limit to what most people don't notice." Borgel and Melvin spend the course of the novel travelling in Time, Space and the Other in an old Dorbzeldge. Time, by the way, is like a map of New Jersey. Space is sort of like a bagel, but an elliptical one, with poppy seeds. The Other is the hardest to explain, but it's sort of like a mixed salad with only one ingredient you like.
Now I don't have a Dorbzeldge, but I have a scooter. I travel in Time, Space and the Other with this scooter and I notice things. I've concluded that I notice things because of the pace. I have a certain scootering pace and attitude. This pace, which can be mundanely quantified down to maybe six or seven miles per hour, doesn't tell you much when you're just looking at numbers, but the thing is, I don't look at numbers. I wind up tracking distance with my phone and later it tells me how fast I went and where, but the more important thing to me seems to be that I go at this wandering pace. I go further than I'd walk so I find more things. I'm sifting through this space salad, stopping and here and there when I find things I like. And a lot of times I like scootering, just the motion of it. I'm bad at taking pictures of motion, you'll just have to trust me on that.
But I stop places, like by the statue of Pan behind the town candy factory.
Have I mentioned that Issaquah has a candy factory? It looks like this.
The next to the candy factory is a little park with this statue of Wilhelm Tell.
The candy factory grounds also include this little church.
Here's a view of the mural that's painted along the side of the Darigold Creamery.
As I scooter off to work, I cross paths with my colleague, Hughie.
Hugie is taking Dillon for his morning walk. Dillon works with us 5 days a week at the bike shop.
By the way, this is a busy weekend for us. It's Trekfest.. If you're in the market for a bike, Trek makes good ones.
Where does the money you spend at your local bike shop go? Some of it goes to feed this guy. Some of it goes into the donuts and chocolate that power the scooter and bike adventures that you read about on this blog.
It was a busy day at the shop, but I did get to scooter home for lunch. As I said earlier, nothing epic, just scootering through Time, Space and the Other.
2.26 miles today bringing April's total to 122.19 miles.
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