One of the awesome things about living in Gardner is the city wide garage sale.
It was the brainchild, I hear, of our chamber of commerce, who noted that while the County Fair brought in a lot of people in August, they ate at the fairgrounds and didn't spend money in local restaurants and shops.
This event brings people en masse. There was actual congestion in the streets as hundreds of slowly trawling cars made their way through the loopty-loop mazes developers always insist on building suburban subdivisions in.
I hoped I might spot someone selling a bunch of giant tomato cages they weren't using anymore, but no such luck.
I did spot a recumbent trike I wanted to buy last year, but someone had beaten me to the punch and I honestly couldn't have popped for it if push came to shove.
I met 'someone,' who turned out to be named Kurt. Kurt appeared to be having a bicycle intensive garage sale, but it turns out while he's working on his latest project, a pedi-cab style rickshaw, he doesn't have garage space for 'Daisy,' the side by side tandem trike.
He said me and Mo or Em were welcome to come ride Daisy any time we wanted, though both my daughters insist the answer is no when I propose this to them. What could be more fun?
Kurt has a lot of bicycle projects in his garage, some in progress, some complete. A couple, he flat out said he couldn't get to work the way he planned.
When I told him I'd thought for a long time a tandem would be good for me and Mo, because while I don't trust her to learn to drive a bicycle because she doesn't seem to comprehend the danger of cars even in terms of crossing the street, she could have a blast riding stoker. But of course, tandems aren't mass produced, so there's no economy of scale: you're buying a custom bike when you buy a tandem, and I don't have a custom bike sized wallet.
At which point he showed me a partially completed tandem he's building and told me when he gets it finished I can just have it. I'm not sure I know what to make of an offer that generous made to a total stranger.
Anyway, by then it was time to pick Em up from the bus that took her to State Honor Choir.
Oh, and you know that saying about how it's fun until someone gets hurt? All these people crowding our streets and seeking bargains, they get a little caught up and distracted. I've seen close calls, but this year I saw them putting a kid on a board after he'd apparently been struck by a minivan. I couldn't help but wonder if the driver of the minivan was doing something as irresponsible as taking pictures of all the garage sales from the driver's seat of his car...
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