autograph

i want to tell you an andy bishop story.

in 2000, at the end of his professional cycling career, he was sponsored by gary fisher/ saab. it was his job to ride around in team kit and stuff.

and i think i remember that was a big year for hatwipes not really involved in sports teams buying expensive team cars and driving around in them as if they'd actually been part of the team.

that year there was also a gary fisher/ saab commercial with the team car driving off into a pretty sunset, and one evening i was on route two and a car JUST LIKE THAT turned left and went down french hill and i thought "who does that self-important twit think he is? andy bishop?"

and then i realized that he was actually andy bishop, and that he was paid to drive that car.

oops. hi, andy.

and when he got the actual end of his pro career, he had all this stuff left over from sponsors, stuf he had been paid to wear and use but you can only keep so much stuff, equipment and clothing with all the brand names on it, so one wednesday night at a race he brought in racks and tables of the stuff and had his retirement garage sale.


it was good stuff, too, pro gear that hadn't been used very long and clothing that was a great deal if you were the right size and on one of the tables i found a nice shirt that fit me, with the gary fisher/saab logo embroidered on it and it's sporty, but something you could put on after a race and go into a restaurant with and look pretty decent.

and of course i had brought a sharpie, because there's no fun in an andy bishop retirement garage sale if you don't get andy bishop to autograph what you buy.

and this is the funny part, the part that tells you what kind of guy andy is. we went to him with our newly purchased shirts and our sharpie markers and andy took the shirt i was asking him to sign and he looked up and said "you know this is permanent marker, right? it won't come out in the wash."