Gnarly Vines and Lit Fuse

Today is the Transportation Alternatives Park(ing) day.

Park(ing) Day NYC is a New York City Streets Renaissance collaboration which supports the conversion of parking spots throughout New York City's 5 boroughs into human-friendly places for a single day. These small, temporary public spaces provide a breath of relief from the auto-clogged reality of New York City, and aim to spark dialogue about our valuable public space and how we choose to use it.

As part of Park(ing) Day NYC, Gnarly Vines is reclaiming the parking spot in front of their store and transforming it into an engaging, people-friendly public space for wine tastings and bike repairs!

Angel and Sean will be tasting wine and helping our beloved Brooklynites with their human-powered cycles from 1pm to 4pm today while the wine tasting will last until 8pm.

A great partnering of vino and Cicli harkening to the days of Fausto Coppi.

What it's all about

Moss makes me smile and this is what keeps me going throughout the day. As well the satisfaction of delivering well repaired bicycles and refurbishing old beaters and making them into super whips. My pal the sign painter came through and painted the sandwich board that we now set out on Willoughby Ave. every day.
We got cats to control the mouse problem in the building. Today Angel and I were going to feed the cats and Angel called me over to see what to my horror was the out come of cat vs. mouse '09. There in the empty cat food can was a fat mouse. I lifted the can and that forker jumped out and landed in a bin full of shop vac plastic tubes.
I was livid and wanted to banish the mouse to the beyond and kick the cats out on their lazy tails. I trapped the squealing mouse in the tube and was figuring out a way to dispatch of him. As I set the tube trap on it's end to imprison the mouse in the cylinder, I thought it was not such a good idea to leave him but I wanted a shovel to hold under him so I could give him a better home (preferably 6 feet under was my hope at the time).
He sensed an opening as I walked to get the shovel and BEAST MODE!
He knocked his jail wall down, shot out the tube like a Houston rocket and pulled a stewart little right behind my back as Angel laughed his ass off at my buffoonish attempt to eject a silly little mouse.
Cats 1, Mouse 1, Damian 0
But like Carmello gone fising, I have my rich family life to come home to. My dear son and lovely wife both make me feel so good about myself. Like the Tony Hawk of the bike game.

Then the baby goes "boom boom" and I am knee deep in poopy diapers and screaming Moss again. Ahhh, that's the life.

The Results...

We overhauled Mina's sweet Suteki mixti so you can see the almost done photos. She was tired of riding in such a prone riding position so we replaced her drop-bars with a taller Nitto Technomic stem to have her more comfortable. The catch to raising your handlebars in style is; if your steerer tube is not tall enough to accept enough of the stem, you are left with a minimum rise that may be a little high for some people. You can see Mina's handlebars are now at leasat 4 inches above her saddle. Fortunately this is just where she wanted them.

After admiring and photographing Mina's lovely ride, I washed my hands and removed my wedding ring in the middle of it and there was a little greasy heart left in the sink. I could feel the love from the ring pulsing like Frodo, but it made me have to give props to the talented jewler who made my wedding ring, and produces more hand-made fashions than I can even mention with my wife.Yesterday we had a tag-sale ALERT and ran out the door like Firemen for a local sidewalk rummage sale where a Boricua sold us a load of bikes that are for sale today in our showroom. Angel got the trike out with the quickness and we gobbled up these bikes for your enjoyment and benefit.
I am happy and feel like I am living the good life here today. We shall get the word out that we are here, but many thanks to you all for recommending us to your friends, neighbors and loved-ones. Victorcito has arrived and is repairing one of his hybrids for sale here.