Our BRAG cycling community lost another friend last week. I only knew Vern for a little more than a decade, meeting him at my first BRAG Spring Tune Up (2015, the year it rained so much that all of the riding I did consisted of riding to happy hour on Friday, and leaving on Saturday.) and didn’t get to ride with him much because by then his better cycling days had already passed him by, but he was a kind and funny soul who will be missed.
Vern was also a creative person, he made all of the items pictured above.
As time goes on we will become increasingly drunk at BRAG events as we salute our fallen comrades with shots.
While cleaning out the Florida house has been a chore, there are some interesting things which I have found. For instance, during the last trip we were certain that we had discovered all boxes and emptied all drawers until we moved furniture. A teacart had a drawer on the backside that was not discovered until we pulled it out of the corner; it contained bus schedules, maps, playing cards, and the like. A shoebox was found under a dresser when we removed that, it contained coins. Here’s the interesting part. In the shoebox were three rolls of pennies. I haven’t cracked open the rolls yet, but looking at the “top” penny in each roll reveals that all of these pennies are probably from the 1950s, and may have been in these Chase Manhattan Bank wrappers for almost seventy years. Unless a rare coin has been included, the copper value may be greater than $1.50, but I have no idea about that yet.
Wordle: six, my starter was CUMIN
Connections: two mistakes, Yellow > Green > Blue > Purple
Suffice to say, not my most brilliant day of wordplay.
Wordle in 3.
If it’s the same Vern I remember, he was riding BRAG back when I was and we all know that was 30 years ago, easy. Very funny guy- rest in peace.
Apparently, I missed a call from the cardiologists office first thing yesterday morning. I’m WFH this morning in the hope they reach out again- after I left word late yesterday.
Good job on Wordle.
Vern from South Carolina, probably the same one. Barb, Allan, and Sal knew Vern much better from their days of riding BRAG.
That would be the one… ask me sometime when we’re out riding about the game “Squint”. I don’t know where Vern found it, but it’s a scream.
Will do. Perhaps when we have the Great Luthersville Ride and Barbecue sometime this year? 😀
Yes, Vern will be sorely missed along with his always delicious cookies served in an armadillo basket. He was one of the original RoadKill gang. Funny, nice and very talented. My house is adorned with many items made by vern. My favorites are the fire hydrant pottery mug and roadkill dishtowels.
I did venture out to do Black Sheep Founders Day. Dang traffic sucks on that part of town. It was a great trail though.
Meeting Minnie Brew this morning for a ride. I hope it warms up. JoAnna dropping the dogs off around 9:30. GUTS run tonight. We had so much smoked pork left over from the race, we are serving up BBQ sandwiches after the run.
Wordle in 6. I had the first 3 letters on the second guess. Soooo many words with those letters. Thought I was going to crash and burn. No mistakes in Connections: y, g, b, p. I would not have guessed purple. Used one hint in Strands.
Glad Black Sheep was fun.
Enjoy your ride. I will be making my triumphant (?) return to Tuesday night cycling tonight. The gang will get me for a week, as if all goes to plan I will be back in Florida by this time next week.
YouTube has been serving me up classic episodes of the panel show “I’ve Got a Secret” from the 1950s-1960s. It’s a lovely window into life as it was when those pennies were minted.
In this episode one of the secrets revealed was that the woman had a baby in a Macy’s Department Store. The host of the show, then Garry Moore, made a brilliant joke that she had the child a Macy’s because she heard that Macy’s had free delivery. 😀
That’s a good line! My sister delivered one of hers in the Burger King parking lot on Peachtree near Lindberg. We debated appropriate names for that kid, but none were approved.
I’m in a mental trough with nothing to say. Hopefully this malaise will lift soon. I really do hate spring forward.
Hang tough, my friend!
Thank you, Steve! I’ll get there, we can’t always be “up”.
I also hate spring forward (and fall back) with the power of a thousand suns.
Fall back is my jam, it completely works for me. Spring forward always disregulates me for a period of time. I wish they’d just pick a damn lane and stick with it regarding moving the damn clocks around.
Yes. Just let the sun rise when it rises and set when it sets.
I actually love Daylight Saving Time because I can get in a late afternoon bike ride.
But I do agree we need to pick one and stay with it.
We had Finn for almost two weeks and delivered him to his mother’s yesterday afternoon and promptly went to a patio! With no need for a babysitter! It was magical. We went to Moe’s & Joe’s and enjoyed the nice weather, then when it got cold we went to Manuel’s for dinner.
So sorry about your friend, Paulie, Sally, and Steve. Sounds like a fun guy!
Time well spent!
Though not a close friend of Vern, he was incredibly nice to me as many others.
Thank-you Jenka. He was a good egg! I love sitting out on patios when the weather is nice, esp. Barb and Allan’s. 🙂
Trying, and failing to burn wood in my fire pit. Everything still too damp? Effort interrupted by the sight of an owl flying into a neighbor’s tree. Don’t want to be lunch for the owl.
Giving up on working the farm today. I had little success and lost my mojo.
My morning math was as bad as my wordplay. Yes, I knew Vern for about a decade, but the first STU I did was in 2015 and not 2006. Weird how wrong I was.
But you did hang out with him at a Hartwell ride or two. 🙂
Very true. I was genuinely surprised to see how off I was on my guess about the first year I rode STU. I’ll blame the pandemic. 😉
Just completed about a 1.5 mile walk to Buddy’s to buy some post ride beer for tonight. Twenty-five years of living at the ITP Estate and this is no more than the fifth time that I’ve walked to a store to buy some beer. Weird.
Hi from I285.
Good times in NC but decided to not extend the trip a day & get some things done at home tomorrow.
Cell service was very iffy at the campground- I’ll try to tell y’all about it tomorrow when I’m not on my phone in the car.
We will go to Columbia Sunday for the memorial.
Vern had the best dry sense of humor- always made me laugh.