Bicycle! Bicycle! - Part 1

Yep! I finally did it! I got up. Got dressed in my bike gear (sans shower - a bit "ewwww", I know). Put my "street clothes" on over my bike gear. Added helmet, shades and gloves - et Voila! One bike ride accomplished. It was a small bike ride. Only about a half hour, but I broke the "get up, turn on computer, get coffee" routine - 1 Time. Here's to building a pattern on this one.

I need a new pump, since I discovered mine is broken. Any suggestions? I really should have one that I can take with me. To the best of my recollection, I've never had a flat while riding my bike anywhere. I'm thinking I might be due after forty-five years, so I want to be prepared.

Of course confessing that I've never had a flat while out on the road also implies that I don't know how to change a flat out on the road. Hmmmm. Not to worry. I have sitting next to me, "The Complete Bike Book" by Chris Sidwell with Foreword by (the infamous) Ned Overend. Ta Da! (I paid $3.99 + tax for it, too. Gotta love my Sale finds.)

"The Complete Bike Book" is pretty darn complete. The parts that I'm mainly interested in are "Maintaining your bike" and "Health and fitness." It's structured and concise. I need structure, so I'm thinking, "What if I just approach this as an experiment on following a program rather than focusing on 'losing weight and exercising'?" I mean, what if I kind of conduct an independent study program about becoming a cyclist - Again.

You see, the summer between 6th and 7th grade, after much whining, begging, nagging, and negotiating on my part; my mom and dad surprised me with my first ten-speed. It was a Columbia, sparkly, rust-colored ten-speed that I had until I moved to California when I was twenty.

I gave it to a dear friend before I left the Midwest. I hear he rode it all over the place. I heard he rode it "to death." He's dead now, too. I miss him more than the bike and am glad that he was happy with my gift to him. He sure did smile and thank me a lot.

The situation that prompted my parents to break out the big bucks, over eighty dollars, on a ten-speed was a practical one. I was involved with the local Children's Theatre program at our relatively new community college. This summer I had a bigger part and better cast mates. I found out that three of my fellow cast mates rode their bikes to rehearsals practically passing by my house. Since my parents knew and were friends with one boy's parents, and because they knew of the other parents and approved of them; I was granted permission to ride along with the group. This was my first experience of "complete" freedom. The good times started on the first day Karl, Shawn, and Jay showed up at my door on their ten-speeds.

I pulled out my Sting Ray, hopped on, and said, "OK. Let's go!"

"You're riding that?" Jay said.

"Yeah."

"You'll never keep up," said Karl.

"Sure I will."

"Doubt it," retorted Jay.

"Come on," said Shawn, "We'll be late," she looked at me and continued, "Don't worry about it."

We headed out, and I soon learned that peddling my Sting Ray to keep up with them on their ten-speeds was really hard. I was consistently at the back, peddling for all I was worth while they seemed to glide along effortlessly.

This is when the whining, begging, nagging and negotiating started. When I got home from my first day of riding to rehearsal and back, I started in. My parents turned a deaf ear informing me that a new bike was not in the budget; and that, since I had wanted to ride my bike, I was stuck with my decision and my Sting Ray. Goodness. This was not the response I was looking for. I had a big dilemma.

Karl, Shawn, and Jay were pretty cool kids. They seemed to like me just fine. Riding my bike made me feel all grown up. I wanted to be part of the gang.

Karl was funny and cute. He looked very much like Jimmy from "H.R. Pufnstuf" with his Prince Valiant hair-cut. He was very intelligent and had a habit of telling us the exact time whenever we asked, which we did a lot just to hear him say, "It's 10:37 and 25 seconds," or something similar. Karl was cast as the Prince in Rumpelstiltskin.

Shawn was absolutely beautiful and nice. She had long, wavy, sandy, blonde hair. She was intelligent and confident, too. She would often put the boys in their place and was happy to be my friend. Shawn was cast as the Princess in Rumpelstiltskin.

Jay was funny and nice. I'd known him for years through church, and because his dad was a ref; and my dad was a coach. Jay's whole family was nice. Comedic character parts were Jay's specialty. Jay was cast as the Head Guard in Rumpelstiltskin.

All three were way cooler and better looking than I was, or so I thought. I was an awkward, skinny kid with a pronounced under-bite who was stuck with a Sting Ray. I was cast as Rumpelstiltskin's mother; a witch.

Given that my parents were unsympathetic to my plight, I had a decision to make; continue riding my bike with the group to rehearsals or get a ride from one of my parents. I opted for riding my Sting Ray. I'm glad that I did because as the days went by, I started earning some respect. I didn't whine about having to ride my Sting Ray to my friends. I just peddled as hard as I could to keep up with them. We even had races on our way to the campus. I never won, but I started coming closer and closer to winning. My friends told me that I really needed a ten-speed. I told them that I was working on it. They offered to talk to my parents on my behalf. That made me very happy, but I declined their offer. Looking back, it would've been fun to see my parents' reaction to "My Negotiating Team" and their pitch.

We spent a lot of time together because when we weren't in rehearsal, we would camp out in a lounge in the theatre building, watch TV, eat God-awful food from the vending machines, drink too much pop, and play Yuker. Yuker was a revelation to me. I'd never played before, and learning this new game was fun. We played every day after rehearsal and after getting whatever "food" we wanted from the vending machines. This "food" included sandwiches that could be heated up and lots of candy and chips. On occasion we actually paid money for apples, oranges and bananas, too. Our Yuker games became all consuming. We held tournaments. We switched partners and held more tournaments. I fell in love with Yuker.

It was during our Yuker games that Karl, being the oldest and the recognized intellectual of the group, started coming up with negotiating strategies. Shawn and Jay chimed in. I listened and got ideas of how to continue my barrage of appeals. I added my insights into my parents' psychology. We developed numerous plans of attack that I reported on each day. Strategies were devised to circumvent all objections. Arguments perfected. Timing was discussed. I had a team helping me lobby for what I truly needed!

Life was pretty darn great! My new friends saw that I didn't whine; and that, I accepted my circumstances. They realized that I was a strong cyclist because I really did start keeping up with them, even while they were switching gears. It didn't hurt that I was a pretty good Yuker player and caught on quickly. Of course there was the that wonderful fact that we all got along famously. We really did. They were there for me and vice versa. I wasn't pitied. Getting me a ten-speed was an auxiliary project we undertook while enjoying our time together. Winning Yuker tournaments and surviving the very annoying guy who was playing Rumplestiltskin took up even more time than figuring out how to get me the bike I needed.

It's amazing what can be accomplished when the right team is put together. When they focus on accomplishing their goals and support each other wonderful things can happen. Of course, we didn't realize it at the time. We were just figuring out ways to get "our" way; ways to wear down my parents' resolve based on "factual information" as Karl would say. All of a sudden my dilemma became the group dilemma. After all, we could make it to rehearsals and do more things together if I had a ten-speed just like they did. Our focus was solution-oriented, not just for me, but for the group as a whole. All of these perspectives were duly offered to my parents. With each rejection, I came back with a revised suggestion. My

Our group became a gang. My gang helped me wear down my parents. We were a gang. We were a Theatre Gang. We were a Cycling Gang. We were a Gang of Kids when being a Gang wasn't a bad thing. Our Gang was very much like the "Our Gang" kids on TV. We were good-natured, amusing, hard-working, intelligent, nice, fun kids who were all about doing something about whatever obstacles faced us. To our credit, we were pretty successful at achieving our goals.

Regarding "The Ten-Speed Campaign", one day my dad came home and asked me to go unload the trunk of his car. I groused at being told to do yet another task for my father, but stomped off to get whatever it was that he wanted me to get. Opening the front door, I saw a ten-speed bike sticking out of the trunk. Of course, I ran over to the trunk and got MY NEW Ten-Speed Bike OUT!

"My Bike! My Bike! You got me My Bike!" I screamed and looked back at the house. Mom and Dad were standing in the doorway with huge smiles on their faces. It was a very good moment in our family history; one of the best.

There is more to tell, but in the interest of length; I will stop here, for now. So now you know that my theatre involvement was one of the reasons I got my ten-speed. Kind of a strange fact.

I also learned the value of teamwork, collaboration, working hard without whining, and the joy of finding people I got along with who liked me. There were so many good things surrounding this ten-speed. No wonder I will never forget it. That's how it is sometimes. Looking back at the events surrounding one material object are just as or more meaningful than the object itself. Thing is, I know why Thor kissed his bike. I bet a lot of us know why he kissed his bike.

In any case, I have more than half of the rest of the story written, so I'll either post it tonight or tomorrow. I think I'm all caught up on my "numbers" for posting every day.

I'm learning that going back to the things that made me happiest when I was a kid seems to be something that is very beneficial for me, right now. I'm looking forward to my cycling plan. I'll keep you posted and finish this bike story up with the next post.

Take care! :D