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"Cliff!" 17 August 2010

Cyclists quickly learn to warn one another about hazards on the roads. Hand signals and calls of "Car up!", "Sand", and "Stopping" are frequent and heeded companions when out for a ride. Sometimes, though, it's incumbent upon the lead rider to improvise ... and in this case, add just a little more urgency to the cry. "Cliff!," Jennifer yelled. We were out on our mountain bikes on the grounds of the former Truro Air Force Station, once an integral part of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) system designed to provide advance notice of a Soviet nuclear attack, but now a deteriorating former base with the only sign of vibrancy provided by the tented Payomet Performing Arts Center. (The evening's event: "Yiddle with a Fiddle" featuring "World-renowned NYC Symphony Space Artistic Director Isaiah Sheffer and Eleanor Reissa, accompanied on piano by 6-time Emmy Award winning musician Lanny Myers, perform songs from the film of the same name and regale the audience with stories about that film and golden era of Yiddish Theatre.") Jennifer led on what turned out to be a short stretch of single track. As I neared a small shack on my left, Jennifer's not-so-distant early warning rang in my ears and prompted on my part an enthusiastic application of both brakes. Coming to a halt with a comfortable number of feet to spare, we spent a few minutes taking in the spectacle, snapping a few quick pictures, and warding off a rapidly arriving set of stinging flies before remounting and continuing on our way, happy to have averted the threat to our reaching the next day's 20-year anniversary of our marriage.