Douglas, His Bicycle, And The Daily Tour De South Florida

I don't always see Doug with his bicycle every day. Our schedules (what schedules?) don't match up so we don't spend the exact same hour or so at Starbucks every morning. None the less, every morning Douglas gets up, checks around the apartment building he manages, and pedals his bicycle the five or so miles to the Starbucks near my house. That's where I first met him about a year ago. He buys a New York Times, a coffee, and a bagel. Somehow he manages to bite into and chew up bagels with no teeth.

Most mornings he gets a chance to do a bit of bitching about having to carry around a cell phone so he can answer querries from people wanting to rent an apartment, or tenants with a problem. Then after breakfast he goes for his daily bicycle ride. Lately it's been across the causeway to the beach, a ten or twelve mile round trip on top of the ten mile trek to and from Starbucks. Other days he'll go north to Fort Lauderdale or south to Homestead if he's feeling particularly energetic. Not bad for a seventy-three year old guy pedaling a bicycle! It must be the bagels.