inpromissum

A Wheeled Donation

So my mom bought herself a bike - a very nice commuter bike. She did this because she suddenly had a flash of inspiration - she would get in shape by riding her (new) bike to work . . . it's only about a mile and a half and there's one short but steep hill. How many times did she ride this bike to work? Perhaps twice. And now she had donated it to the "Maybe Kara can ride to work" fund. She and my dad couldn't figure out how to pump the tires and they were very flat so I screwed up the paint on the bug I'm leasing and took it to a shop last night for pumping advice and a helmet. Turns out that not only is this a nice $1200 commuter bike, it also has gizmos the bike guys had never even seen before. There's some kind of built in lock on the back tire that they've only seen from bikes on Europe, a headlamp that is powered by friction from the front wheel, a similar tail light, and - get this - a fancy-ass pump that is attached to the bike. I'm not sure what I'm most amused by - the fact that my handy parents either didn't see this attached pump or couldn't figure out how to use it, or the fact that I was just donated a bike that was ridden twice and costs more than . . . well, just about anything I own. Good stuff. My smooth move was to get home, pull the bike out, and ride around without the helmet I had just gone and purchased. Duh. I've been almost hit by enough cars that I was awestruck by that lapse, such as it was. Especially after spending the last hour mocking my parents with the teenager at the bike store. =P