So, as I was taking this photo . . .
. . . a gentleman stopped and asked me what I was doing.
“Taking a picture of the bike rack!”
“Oh . . . and where are you from?”
“Here!”
“Oh, have you not seen one of these before?”
“No, I have, I just wanted to take a picture for my blog, because so many other cities already have these and it’s great that Ashland joined the club!”
“I see, and where are you from?”
“Umm . . . here.”
“Born and raised?!?”
“Well, born in Oregon, raised here, yeah.”
“Soo . . . you’re just taking a picture to share with your friends in other cities?”
“Sort of: Seattle recently got one of these and I think it’s great that Ashland has one, too.”
“Well, Seattle has always been pretty progressive when it comes to bicycles and liberal, progressive thinking. They were, after all, the first city to have bicycle-mounted police!”
I refrained from commenting on the current state of the Seattle Police Department.
“Uh huh . . . yeah, Portland is pretty big on bikes, too.”
“Yeah, they were actually the second city to get bicycle-mounted police.”
“Oh.”
The feller then continued on about how the west coast has always been a place of progressive minded people and was, in fact, the last place in the genocide of liberal thinking in the 1980′s.
Or something.
I had sort of quit following the feller at that point and was more interested in choosing a filter for my photo on Instagram (I went with X-Pro eventually).
After a few more minutes of liberal, progressive-genocide type talk, the gentleman handed me his business card and told me to stop in “anytime” for a soul reading.
To this he added that he and his wife were the “cellphone line to God” and that I was welcome whenever to talk. Even just to talk about how I could succeed in getting more of these bike rack installations in other cities.
As the feller walked away, I was struck by the idea that I could call up God via this guy—or his wife (wonder which gets better reception . . .) and ask about installing a Bike Fixtation in other cities. Why don’t more US cities have such easy access to God? There could be an almost infinite number of the handy Fixtations by now . . .

Pingback: Ashland gets a “Fixtation” public bike repair stand! « Southern Oregon Bike Blog
Dude! Totally know who this guy was! I ran into him while walking through the nature preserve in Ashland. He stopped Winston and I and started going on and on about all sorts of things, seemed like forever, and then gave me his card and said the exact same thing about being a line to God. That’s hilarious!
Small town, eh?!?
I definitely chuckled today when I read this post. Thanks for sharing
Great Post Q! I thot it was mainly Tim Tebow who had God’s phone number, but this is spooking me if lots of others do too and they are walking around among us, not just butting heads with infidels out on the football field!
Changing gears, I noticed that bike stand on the Plaza a couple weeks ago — thot it was the neatest thing. Glad you featured it. All best to you — kc.
Great Post Q! I thot it was mainly Tim Tebow who had God’s phone number, but this is spooking me if lots of others do too and they are walking around among us, not just butting heads with infidels out on the football field!
Changing gears, I noticed that bike stand on the Plaza a couple weeks ago — thot it was the neatest thing. Glad you featured it. All best to you — kc.