if i didn't care

I knew a guy growing up—hard to forget—named, Daniel “Tippy” Finney. At some point we became co-owners of a Mongoose BMX bike we’d rescued from a dumpster. We worked on the thing all summer to get it roadworthy. Once we did, I recall some sort of feud with another (independent) bike owner named Mike Cahill… over the merits of a Mongoose frame. It was a matter of honor for me and Tippy; we were, by default, Mongoose Guys.

Anyhonk, Tippy’s brother (Donald, aka “Dewey”) had a preternatural sense of both mechanics & electronics, and drew-up schematics for computer circuitry—from scratch—on enormous sheets of vellum, spread over the kitchen table. Dewey also ran away from home for months at a time, living out of a lean-to he built in the woods. It was a big enough area, even in suburban Boston, that he was somehow able to do this unaccosted. (NB: I never actually saw the lean-to—most likely a security measure—but I was assured of its existence.)

I think of that now and then… and the thought usually ends with this.