Palmarés Sunday

There is a German word Drahtesel which is a colloquialism for a bicycle.  It literally means "wire donkey" and today is a day we celebrate the importance of the donkey.  For you see, without the lowly donkey a very important event would have been very different. 

Today is Palm Sunday and in the gospels (found in Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-44; and John 12:12-19) we are told that Jesus made his triumphal entrance into Jerusalem while riding on a borrowed donkey as the residents covered his path with palm fronds.   Although we ourselves didn't live back then (that would put us somewhere around the lower back of the dachsund of time);

(Right in front of the rear "hips" would be the famous procession)

Thanks to the imagination of Andrew Lloyd Weber we can see what it might have been given a driving rock musical accompaniment;

How can you possibly feel threatened by guys with open shirts and REALLY tall fur hats?

Despite the heavy metal celebration of the day, devout Christians across the world attend church services and Catholics in particular celebrate by receiving palm fronds during mass.  As I live across the street from  St. Philip Neri in Northport, I tend to find a lot of aforementioned fronds in my front lawn, deposited there by our younger celebrants.  However many of the older devout, not content to leave them in their natural state, turn them into something more by engaging in Palm Sunday folk art from the simple;

to a bit more complex;

A little more complex version of the fish;

To highly intricate and beautiful works of art created out of a simple palm frond;

And if you have followed my blog for any time at all you know that I have problems drawing simple stick figures, much less creating something as beautiful and intricate as that!

Of course, if you are a cycling fan (as I unabashedly am) you will also realize that today (for some) is a day to make collecting palmarés an art form.  What's that you say?  What are palmarés?  Well, its not an Italian dessert.  Nor is it a Tex-Mex side dish or an Andulacian delicacy.  Its the term given by cyclists to honors won while racing and today brought us the Tour of Flanders known to the Dutch as the Ronde van Vlaanderen.  Its held in the Flanders region of Belgium and this year was won by the local favorite Tom Boonen (pronounced "Bone-in") in an exciting fashion and in the process becoming one of only four people ever to win it three times.  Despite his reputation as a bad boy of cycling, when you are Belgian and you win one of the great classic races on home turf, the people are willing to forgive you almost anything, especially when you win like this (sorry, I can't tell you what the commentators are saying, I think its all in Flemish);



Now I myself also rode today but I have to admit I did not earn any palmarés (or Tex-Mex for that matter) but I did manage to spend a large part of  my Sunday morning hauling my ass (I mean that of course in the Drahtesel sense) over various roads of Long Island.  Now you have to realize I was riding with a competetive speed skater who just placed 9th at the World Championships in his age class and a former track racer so the fact I was able to stay within 100 meters of these guys throughout the ride was a palmaré all to itself for me - even if I did have my donkey handed to me on a silver platter;

Nevertheless, I made it back and with the miles I put in getting to Mike's house and back, I had put in 30.2 miles at an average of 18.2 mph (I really gunned it heading home) and still had some energy to spend with the kids.

First I took a little trip to Dunkin' Donuts here in Northport (a favorite haunt of ours) with James to rehydrate and get some carbs in my system.  It was fun hanging out with my little man since he and I don't get to hang out as much or as often as I do with the other two.  William was on a play date and Sarah was hanging out with her friend Cedar so James was by his lonesome.  I just took it as a great opportunity for the two of us to hang and to laugh and enjoy each other's company - gee, all this male bonding in one day!

After I picked up William and brought him home (a chore in itself, he was ensconced at his friend Jake's house with a computer game) we worked on his catching skills.  Apparently on his Little League team he is going to be doing a lot of catching this season so we went out yesterday and bought him some shin protectors.  Today I took him out back and threw some pitches to him so he could get used to the feeling of the shin guards.  I purposefully threw some off target to him to get him used to the idea of reaching and watching the ball all the way into the glove.  The only problem being we got him the smallest youth shin guards they had in the store and they still come all the way up his thighs.  He has now assumed a new secret hero identity - Lobster Man!  and this is what he looks like;

(Beware of large pots of melted butter!!!!)

Okay no, but very, very close.  Here is the actual photo of my little baseballing cherubim;

(They Call me "Catch"!)

Of course I would be remiss if I didn't relay some of what I did yesterday.  The first thing was I entered the Bicycling Magazine's "Win Any Bike" contest. I won't bore you with the rules (you can click the link on the left) but here's the photo I sent;

(ahh, my noble Drahtesel!)

and here is the text I sent them as my entry;

“This is it, end of the line.”  This thought spun through my head as I lay there waiting to be tossed into the back of a trash truck.  I’d outlived my usefulness and was now destined to be left rusting in a dump.  And then this guy stopped his car.  Could it be?  Would he?  He did!  He took me home, he stripped me down ( a little embarrassing!), and painstakingly rebuilt me.  Over the years we’ve traveled many miles together to raise money for cancer charities (over $20,000).  But it’s our next ride I’m worried about, cross country to raise money to send eight kids with cancer to a summer camp.  I’m not sure my old bones will make it.  I wish for my rider to have someone younger to take with him, someone who’ll last.  He’s been so good to me, can you be good to him?

Now I was limited to only 150 words and the theme was "a picture is worth a thousand words - if your bike could talk".  I'm hoping it is quirky enough for someone to them to perhaps see that I'm worthy of a new bike to help haul my donkey (euphemism for body part) across the country this summer!

The other big thing that happened yesterday is I finally heard some great news from the Northport Fire Department that I've been hoping to hear for a long time!  Back in the summer I had put in an application to become an EMT and had my initial interview.  It was then that I was told it might be a while because they had to wait on approval for new hires and that it might take a while.  I am so incredibly excited to say that yesterday I received a phone call telling me that the approval has come through and if all goes well with my background check and interviews, I will be sworn in as a member of the Northport Fire Department on June 7th (a week before we leave for San Diego) and I will start training in September!!!!!  With any luck they'll let me join the bicycle EMT Corps and really combine my passions!

And finally, a musical video (or two) for your entertainment and edification.

Recently a lot of hoopla (the technical term for hula hooping and yelling excitedly at the top of your lungs at the same time) has been made about a drunk Canadian singing Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and the video has gone viral;



Now I'm not sure what is more disturbing, that he can render it word-for-word while drunk, or that Canadians can sing (Rush not withstanding, of course there is Bryan Adams, but don't get me started on Celine Dion!).  However, with all the hoopla (there's that word again) we're losing sight of the really important issue here - NO ONE DOES IT LIKE FREDDY AND THE BOYS! 

So to bring us all back to reality and remind us of why we love this song in the first place, I bring you Queen;



Well, I don't know about you but I'm going to straddly my Drahtesel, listen to some killer Queen and go for a ride!  Oh, and for those of you starting to keep count - 83 days until the Grand Depart (uh, that's French for big leaving)!

Stay well and I'll see you on the road!