scenes from June 1

It's rare to catch both a special-looking bike (well, more like a trike) and a truck at the same time on the bike path. I've gotten used to seeing trucks on the bike paths in this part of Seoul; I now know that a lot of these guys are on this path because of various construction or landscaping projects. I don't like their presence here, but I at least understand it. As for the biker (triker) up ahead, I'd at first thought he was on some sort of recumbent contraption... but then I got closer. He's not recumbent at all.

truck and trike—June 1, 2026, 10:52 a.m.

And while I've seen this sort of person before, the sight hits me fresh every time: The dude's not recumbent, and that's because he's upright. And he's upright because he has no legs.

Guess you gotta have some ball protection between you and the ground when you're motoring around without legs.

To be clear, I'm not laughing at the guy at all. This is one of those cases where I have to use humor just to deal with the situation. If anything, I feel the same "I wanna salute you" level of respect for this guy that I do for the poor saps I see on the path who are suffering from what looks like the vestiges of polio, out on the path and limping around, legs swinging awkwardly from malformed joints, getting their kilometers in. These people—the legless ones, the polio-stricken ones, the handicapped ones who try and try despite severe disabilities—these are the people who put me to shame, and who are guaranteed a place in heaven if heaven exists.

You go, buddy.