Wheels

I have 2 bikes. A semi fancy race bike that is purely for fun/exercise and a cheapy bike that I bought from Craigslist. The latter is the bike I commute with and the one I was going to affix the baby ride along seat to for Mariana in about another month when she's big enough. Well, plans have changed.

Last week I had a friend at work help me draft a letter to the building owners where I work; 7 World Trade Center owned by the Port Authority. I wanted to request that they find a secure bike storage room somewhere inside the building so that people like me can bike to work and not have their bikes stolen. A few co-workers were willing to sign on as well. I decided I'd better run it by my boss before sending to anyone but he's travelling for a couple weeks so I'll just sit on it for now. Yesterday I got stopped at a light in my neighborhood by a guy with a clipboard doing a survey for the city. He asked a bunch of questions about bike stuff ie: "Have you ever been injured?"(yes) "Do you wear a helmet?" (yes) "Have you ever ridden on the sidewalk?" (whoops, yes) "Do you want to see more bike lanes and racks?" etc. Wow this is great, the tide is turning and people care about making the city more bike friendly. He gave a water bottle for my participation and I rode off to work. As I came down the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan I was feeling pretty damn good. It was a bright sunny day and the tourists were not yet clogging the pathways. I thought "Why would I ever ride the train to work?"

At the end of the day I was going to ride home through Chinatown to pick up some food for dinner. I found what was left of my bike by the rack in the back of the building. Someone had stolen the fork and front wheel and left the handlebars hanging by their cables. The rear wheel and frame were still there, locked to the rack. That's some timing huh? The letter, the survey, the jubilant morning rider. Well, I'm not getting Chinese food tonight. I'm not riding this bike with Mariana. Shit, I'm not even riding home today. I clipped the cables to set the handlebars free, took the seat and left the rest to bring home today- if it's still there. I'm not sentimentally attached to that bike and it's paid for itself already in the $4 a day it saved me by not taking the subway. But it still sucks. That was my only form of exercise these days. It's something I didn't have to make time for because I had to take 1/2 an hour to get to work either way. It's been rough adjusting to how much less time I have to do everything that I want to do now that Mariana is here. They say it will get better. ugh. She's lucky she's so damn cute and sweet and perfect.