cycling at 2 am with two sammys...

Ever since my brother Sam passed away, he's been sending me, my brother David and my poppa reminders that he's still with us, stuff to keep us on our toes. Now I don't know if you all believe in this kind of stuff, but I got a story to tell...

Two weeks ago I was bicycling on Gerard Drive with one of my dear friends, Sammy O, the Lion. This road happens to be one of the most beautiful in the world and there is a beach on this road where my brother's ashes were spread, taken by the tides, he finds his way to new countries, different seas and tranquil beaches everyday and moment till the seas dry up...

As the Lion and I were bicycling that night, round 2 in the am, I said to the lion "Sammy, this is the beach where we spread Sam's ashes..."

At that moment, the Lion's bicycle (brand new, by the way), ceased to work. You know how when you peddle backwards the gears and pedals move but the wheels don't catch and move? Well, the same thing was happening but when he peddled forward?!?! The back wheel wasn't catching...

I'd never seen that before. Nearby, two fisherman happened to be casting their rods by the light of their headlamps. All four of us took a look, the chain was on and all looked good but no dice....

The Lion and I were perplexed and we walked home that night. The next morning we took a look at the bike and it was still broken.

Ten days went by and I finally brought the bike into a bike shop in East Hampton. The owner started taking it apart and looked at me with his mouth agape.

"You know," he said, perplexed and confused, "I've owned this bike shop for 30 years and this is a first. The threads that attach the pedal's gears to the back wheel are all stripped?!? The only way this could really happen is if the bike was being spun by a car motor and even then these threads shouldn't strip, the threads on the wheel should strip cause they are weaker. Hmm, not so sure what happened..."

And so it goes with life. It's a perplexing world we live on. The universe is strange in all the right ways and all the tough, difficult, wrong ways too... But we all keep on living and breathing and smiling and laughing and hoping and dreaming and bicycling and living...

Sammy keeps on reminding me to smile every single day...

love and health to all...