Yeah, this one was special. I had to leave early, but I made up for it by showing up late.

What a great crew to spend time with. John, (bigbossman), Stan (scooper), Bill (BlankCrows) and John (TIOS), I'll gladly hang with any or all of you any time.

So here it is, Paramount Day. There's Bill with that resurrected 1972 beauty to be built up with a collection a parts that can only be described as "decadent.". There's Stan, with a beauty of a chrome Paramount of similar vintage and his spectacular chrome Waterford 953 heirloom machine (and we all know that Watgeford id the true keeper of the Paramount flame, regardless of what the curent Schwinn folks ever use the name for). So, did I do the logical and appropriate thing and bring my 1967 Paramount over? Noooooooooo. Okay, it is loaded with seriously period-incorrect parts, and it is not a Schwinn color (charcoal gray, courtesy of Ed Litton) and it has braze-ons that nobody included on a 1967 frame (again, courtesy of Ed Litton), but it is a classic old Paramount, after all.

No, I brought the 1982-ish Ron Cooper instead, and while the multitude of cooks tried to spoil Bill's proverbial broth, I went off to a corner to swap out bottom brackets on the Cooper (thanks, TIOS or BlankCrows, for the use of the portable stand).

I was supposed to leave by about 1:00 p.m., so of course I didn't make it out until close to 2:30. (I call it a "previous engagement." Bigbossman calls it "whipped." ) But it was a blast while I was there - and the beer had only just started to flow. I just wish I could have been there for the duck. Simply a great day with great company.

Kudos also go to BBM's wife and daughter (she of the blue Battaglin with pink accents). They were very tolerant of us invading Old Pharts, although BBM's daughter was a tad peeved that her Dad served me ice water in her very own light-up disco glass from Denny's.