Back on the bike

Spring arrives today and we enjoy Mary’s first bicycle ride of 2026

I walked across beautiful green grass on Sunday afternoon to open the door to my backyard storage shed.

After I carefully rotated the doorknob, I gave the handle a firm tug. The door opened with a creak. It had been a while since I went out there looking for bicycles. I mean, just three weeks ago there was nearly two feet of pure white snow piled up on that very grass!

With the Great Blizzard of February 2026 in our rear-view mirror, it was time to start thinking about spring, which officially arrives today. I was made aware of that joyous fact earlier in the weekend when I heard the first landscapers going to work down the street in our Queens neighborhood.

There aren’t many sounds in the Northeast U.S. better than the sound of those first lawn mowers and leaf blowers roaring back to life in March. One by one, the trucks will pull up over the next few weeks. Lawns will be power raked and reseeded while landscapers blow away loose leaves left over from the cold winter days.

Already I can see the bright green tops of daffodils and tulips reemerging from the soil in our front yard and throughout the neighborhood. Those short green signs of new life will add splendid yellow, red, pink and purple flowers in another few weeks.

Buoyed by these sights and sounds of spring last Sunday, I suggested to Mary that we go for a bicycle ride. I tipped the scales in my favor by asking if she wanted to go on the longer bike ride or the shorter bike ride. The shorter ride, Mary exclaimed! Done.

So, there I was, in the backyard peering into the storage shed at last. Our bicycles indeed were still there, collecting dust and losing air. Both tires were halfway flat on Mary’s bicycle, while my front tire was completely out of air.

While Mary filled our water bottles, I inflated all of the tires and we were in business. Just to be on the safe side, I suggested Mary wear her winter jacket. And she put on some gloves too!

Mary and I happily suited up and off we went. We always head west for the shorter route through the neighborhood, and east if we’re going on the longer route along the waterfront. Mary chose the shorter ride, so we headed west and rode through the neighborhood.

It was cold, but not bad at all. I glanced at my iPhone weather app and thought it was 46 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius). Later I realized it was only 40 degrees, but hey what’s a few degrees anyway? Sometimes you see what you want to see!

Most importantly Mary and I were wearing jackets and gloves and back on our bicycles finally!

Mary, 24, has moderate autism so for safety reasons we always follow one of the same two routes described earlier. If Mary and I get separated she knows how to get back home. There was one time when we did get split up and Mary managed to find her way back home ahead of me!

About 30 minutes into our ride Sunday, we pulled up on a familiar street corner and got out our bottles. “Water break!” Mary exclaimed.

Mary polished off her entire bottle of water in one go and was ready to complete the mission. We secured the water bottles back on the bars below our bicycle seats and headed for home. I was pleased to see a group of teenagers playing pickleball in the park by the Whitestone Bridge, and on another street, we saw a boy shooting basketballs while presumably his younger sister rode her bicycle around on the street and sidewalk nearby.

Signs of life re-emerging, and it wasn’t just us.

Mary didn’t say much during the ride, but when we got home, she gave me a big high-five. “You did it,” Mary said happily. We were both thrilled to have that first ride together of 2026 completed successfully. It really wasn’t too cold, although the air flowing through the tops of our bicycle helmets was a bit cool when we rode against the wind.

I rolled the bikes back into the shed, secured the helmets on the handlebars and gently closed the shed door. Hopefully the next time I open that door will come again soon!

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