what was that? is that all there is? who is this? this is it.

Yesterday I half-assedly read the headlines in the New York Times, noting one article about life after death. 

Several hours later in the day in which it never stopped raining I pulled the electric ass bathtub all the way up into a covered cubby near the Ocean Sciences Building door to get out of the rain for a moment and deliver their mail. When I looked over at the bike on the rack I got a vague message from the bike’s owner who passed away a couple years ago. 

Then I went back and read that article in the New York Times and I was fortunate because it was my only free article as I’m not a subscriber. I hope you can read it too. It focuses on a group of scientists doing research on reincarnation, life after death and the possibility of receiving messages from the dead. Or the possibility of the dead sending messages over to this side where we’re still living. If a message is sent but there’s no one to receive it, does it make a sound? 

Long ago, Russell mentioned that this guy's bike was still locked up on campus. But it didn’t register with me, didn’t sink in. I visit Ocean Sciences often but I don’t usually park the bathtub in that spot and there are usually 50,000 people milling around campus and several other bikes on all the assorted bike racks. 

Yesterday however, there was no one in sight and only one bike on the rack and I stood and stared at it for a couple minutes. Like a ghost bike in more ways than one. 

This bike’s owner lived in his Astro van near the mothership. His van no longer functioned as an automobile and it was covered in reflective insulation bubble wrap. He kept his bike locked to a railing outside the mothership. As you can see in this  old photo I pulled from the archives.  

I would often see this guy riding to or from campus where he spent a lot of time in various buildings. We’d pass on sidewalks or the Burke-Gilman. I’d also see him in and around his Astro Van too because we rode by it all day everyday. 

I never had any conversation with the guy. Perhaps that’s why yesterday’s message was vague but I acknowledged it respectfully like a subtle chin tilt when crossing paths with another messenger. 

2 Comments

Over the last few years I've taken a virtual stroll down NE Northlake Place from time to time, using Google street view, and taking advantage of the option to look at street view photo's from various years. It used to go back to 2014, and you could see that guys Astro van evolve, as you pulled up photos from progressively more recent years. In its final form it had become what looked like a cheap special effects UFO from a cheesy 50's science fiction movie. Checking now, I see that Google only shows a street view photo from 2019, so you can't use it as a virtual time machine anymore. Too bad. I never talked to the guy that live in that van but I used to see him all the time and always wondered how difficult his life was, especially at the height of Summer and Winter. RIP.

as of this afternoon I'm a half-ass intro price subscriber to the NY Times, so I can go back and actually read an article all the way through and through. And Alistair I agree with you and also wondered about the guy in his Astro van in the heat and cold and every day living life. RIP yes

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