1 post tagged “getting to point b”
So I've decided I need a bike.
Not just the normal ten speed kind that you see all over the place, but the most useless, girly bike you can imagine. Preferably purple. Or sky-blue. With no handbrake. I'm still deliberating on the wicker basket with a flower on it as opposed to the slightly more constructive saddle-bags. But no gears. I will not ride anything where it is possible to change into a different gear. For one thing, Phoenix and its environs are almost perfectly flat, so there is no huge, pressing need for them. For another, I cannot ride a bike with gears. Every single blasted time I try, I do something to make the chain fall off. Then I try to put the chain back on by myself, and end up just making a mess with the grease and cutting myself, with the chain still stubbornly Not On. This has happened more than a dozen times.
I understand the purpose and the physics and the theory behind switching gears. I just can't DO it. (Ironically, I drive a standard.)
But with the number of repairs my car* needs, the lack of expendable cash I have, and the fact that I am simply MILES away from the nearest coffee shop** or bookstore, having a bike would enable me to, you know, leave my house.
Don't get me wrong, I am a firm believer in public transportation and walking. So much so that "reasonable public transport" is on my list of top five criteria I look for in a city, and one of the reasons I adore Rome. But after several weeks of trying to get to work occasionally on a weird combination of city buses (the bike won't actually help that) and out to buy dogfood and toilet paper when necessary on foot in unrelentingly triple-degree weather, I need a third option. I need a bike. The idea of taking a two mile bike ride up the road to the bookstore or to Target has attained the realm of "luxury."
But I have a dilemma. Not only do I STILL have no expendable cash, I have pinned "Desk Chair" to my board for the next mildly expensive nonessential item I buy. So if I happen to come into a couple of hundred bucks, what do I do? Do I override myself? Do I dare? Would this set my world askew?
Here is a picture of the type of bike I want (minus the handbrake):
If it's not abundantly clear, today was one of those walk and walk and walk in the heat days, so I am probably completely dehydrated and insane and rambling.
*Getting a new car is not an option. It's a thing. I will keep my car forever. My dad still has his '67 Ford Fairlane. My folks still have the '76 truck they spent several years living out of as they traveled the country. I have no intention of doing any less with mine, and it makes me unreasonably piqued when people assume I am unaware of this phenomenon called "new cars."
**This is not completely true. I found a Middle Eastern cafe by my house completely by accident this week that serves Turkish coffee and iced lattes when the other coffee shop by my house was unexpectedly closed. So, if you count both as coffee shops, that was a blatant lie.
