"Or was it simply fate striking out and declaring it a dead ringer?"
With no way to test, I'll vote for the "dead ringer" hypothesis. dougP On Friday, August 12, 2016 at 7:29:16 PM UTC-7, Mark in Beacon wrote: > True story. Yesterday I was contemplating posting a quick trifle here on > RBW about the mismatch between my bicycle and its bell--my Rivendell has > (had!) a bell with "PEUGEOT" written prominently in black beneath the > golden *panthera leo erectus* logo. I idly pondered whether maybe this > was an offense even greater than, say, mismatched bags, or clashing grips > and saddle, or even running two kinds of brake on the same bike. Then, this > morning, on my regular commute over the Newburgh Beacon bridge, I heard > something hit the steel decking after going over an expansion joint plate; > several seconds later I realized it was, of all things, the top of the bell > just described. > > It's true that it had been producing a truncated and muffled ring the > past few days--perhaps the raging humidity was having a bad affect on all > those whirring parts--and because of this I had been fiddling with it, > mostly loosening the cover to restore the full *brinnnggg brinnngg*. But > really, what are the odds that, the very next day after my thoughts > questioning the propriety of this bell, its cover should come flying > off--and in the one spot on the journey where the odds of recovery were > slim. > > I did turn around to see if maybe it had not gone over the edge and > plunged several hundred feet into the mighty Hudson River. I even held out > hope that it may have landed on one of the support beams or catwalks about > 15 or 20 feet below. I imagined coming back with a magnet on a string or > something and pulling it up, kind of like fishing out a key that had fallen > into a sewer grate. Alas, there was to be no happy ending--the Peugeot lion > now sleeps with the fishes at the bottom of the river. And I am left to > wonder, did the bell cover fling itself off in despair at the possibility > of being taken out of commission (silly thing, there are no Rivenbells)? Or > did the bicycle, my (until now) relatively well-mannered Clementine, now > aware of a competing brand perched like some parasite on the handlebars and > basking in undeserved glory, buck it off in a fit of murderous jealousy? Or > was it simply fate striking out and declaring it a dead ringer? A question > that will probably always remain unanswered. Meanwhile, I need a new bell. > > <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pOt5Oj617n8/V66B7g5QD-I/AAAAAAAAHdI/jCqzxrppI_EU5SlVqP6mHqL1cFguxSbawCLcB/s1600/IMG_0780.JPG> > > > > <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pOt5Oj617n8/V66B7g5QD-I/AAAAAAAAHdI/jCqzxrppI_EU5SlVqP6mHqL1cFguxSbawCLcB/s1600/IMG_0780.JPG> > > > <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pOt5Oj617n8/V66B7g5QD-I/AAAAAAAAHdI/jCqzxrppI_EU5SlVqP6mHqL1cFguxSbawCLcB/s1600/IMG_0780.JPG> > > > <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cBlN7ntV37Q/V66B9CPnZNI/AAAAAAAAHdM/-2aWmQ_gMskrEBo3kCZbUpFjWYdjTfb0QCLcB/s1600/IMG_0781.JPG> > > > Happier times: > > > <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dxPnkH8EEEM/V66FrPp7OxI/AAAAAAAAHdc/WX-rT7cq1iAbxrSachH9XccBTcLMCxKWwCLcB/s1600/peugeot%2Bon%2Bbridge.JPG> > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
