As one of my most faithful readers and assistants, my older son has requested, quite reasonably, that I devote an entry to his most recent efforts and special acquisition.  He is an avid bicyclist, particularly off-road, pounding his gears through mud and rocky terrain, popping his tires on honey locust thorns, and catching his chains on trailing vines and stinging nettle. He is, in short, our bike repairman’s dream. But he is also enthusiastic about this trash collecting project and was eager to find a way to help me more.  His idea: a heavy duty trailer for his bike.  It carries up to 190 lbs, and, when it’s not carting his reckless brother, it holds a very generous amount of unruly garbage.  It even moves easily through the unofficial paths on our “island,” which hide more than a few natural hazards.

My son has also asked to make the trailer a chariot for our arthritic dog, but, remembering what happened when she tried to ride in our canoe, I have declined on her behalf. (But that’s another story.  And, for that matter, another river.)

Maybe it’s time to deal with those tires.