One Last Ride

Walking to school today I came across a tricycle someone was throwing away to be recycled. It was identical to a tricycle we already own.  Rather than have it be crushed immediately by the compacter I took it down and tried to get Noah to ride it. He didn't want to take it. He said he wanted them to throw it away instead. So I put Jonah on it. After a while Noah was jumping up and down in protest.
Eventually Noah was on the tricycle and Jonah was on my shoulders. At first I was just going to take it to Stony Brook and leave it at the playground there. And if someone else took it, that was still better than having it be thrown away, and at least this would be garbage would get on last ride. But the more I thought about it, why not take it all the way in to Chinatown. And after all, the whole fear of not bringing it in to school was that there was no place to put it right? But again, if someone took it, that's better than the trash heap right?

Well Noah has a grand old time and a tricycle seat on the subway. It actually took up less space than a stroller because I could stand over it and all three of us only took up the space of one person.

I left the tricycle in the playground area at Acorn and dropped Noah off. Then Jonah rode back on it all the way to Green street and we rode it to the tot lot. I considered leaving it at the tot lot briefly. But there are a ton of tricycles there already and the more I thought about it, it's good to have two identical tricycles one for each kid. And it's also good to have a spare that could become a throw away at any time if necessary. That way we actually get to ride it out into the world and have tricycle adventures. And so the tricycle was ridden most of the way back from the tot lot as well. Though pushing Jonah I quickly remembered why I had stopped bringing out our tricycle which is locked up in a shed. (I will have to take a hack saw to that soon because the key is lost and frankly the lock is rusted anyway.)

Jonah can't steer and it is just frustrating and difficult. But Noah can steer much better now, and after a time, Jonah actually did get better. And again, if necessary, this Tricycle can become a cast aside item at any time and I am sure that someone else will pick it up if it is still good. And if not, I gave it more life than it would have had if the garbage truck of toy death had taken it away today.