Wheeling Into A New Paradigm

Well, I did it. Finally. I have a bicycle. And I even ride it. For those of you who don't know, Mark has been a bicycle berserker since he had a "cardiac event" 7 years ago. Now, I'm not complaining about it. I'm so happy he took the warning seriously and is much healthier. But he is a berserker because he now owns FIVE bikes (2 custom-made), subscribes to AT LEAST 1 bicycle magazine, owns a DRAWER full of "bike garb", listens to EVERY bike podcast made, and avidly follows ALL bike discussion groups on line. We often discuss the deaths of cyclists in Iowa or Nevada over dinner and how it was something stupid either the cyclist or driver did and how this city or that is voting to put in bike lanes which have PROVEN to be bad according to studies and opinion and why do we continue to support infrastructure for cars SO HEAVILY and not for bikes which are better for the environment.... you get the picture. Mark has participated in AIDS vaccine research fund-raising rides that cover over 400 miles and last days. He rides to work.... and did so in the old neighborhood.... even when there was snow and ice on the roads and it was in the single digits. So you can see what I was up against. I had to work REALLY HARD to be a lazy fat slug that refused to give up my comfy car to get to the grocery store five blocks away. I did TRY bike riding back East. I rode one of Mark's bikes. He said we would "just go around the block"..... right......!! The block was AT LEAST 5 miles and ALL UP HILL BOTH WAYS. I ended up walking his bike part of the way. And my butt bones HURT on that VERY LITTLE leather seat of his. So much for riding in New England. But I must admit... Mark never nagged or begged or coerced. He just kept talking.... and that was enough. So now that it is FLAT and NOT FROZEN and the streets are WIDE and things ARE CLOSE, I have no more excuses. We went bike shopping and found a cute iridescent pink girl's bike (no high bar to get caught on) and a BIG SQUISHY seat. So I rode it around the parking lot and it felt OK. But you can't JUST get a bike when you are married to BikeMan. I had to get a helmet, lock, basket, lights.... you get the picture. I tried on Girl helmets... too small. So I tried on Boy helmets.... but no cute colors or patterns. And of course, I want to be fashion-forward when I am tooling around town. So the very nice and VERY YOUNG sales woman suggested a shiny black one - after all, black goes with everything and you can dress it up with jewelry for an evening look.... VOILA! Then the 30 lbs. of lock stuff you need as bike theft is common in parts of town (and where do you KEEP all this metal when not locked up??). Got that covered too. So now a "Little Old Lady" style basket to put stuff in. Mark uses a panier system (that's new bikespeak for saddle bags). He started pulling several styles out for me to test. But I wasn't happy with that. After all, as a girl with a purse, I would then have a wallet in the purse in the panier. Talk about being a bag lady! So we decided to wait and do more research... ONLINE of course. We squished my new bike into the car (it fit!) and as soon as we got home, Mark was online checking out baskets. "Come here honey and look at this one!" We found a wire one that comes in pairs and fits on either side of the back wheel attached to a rack. AND they collapse when not being used to cut down on the drag (very important when you are a little old lady cruising around!). They and the front/rear light system are on their way... I have even gone for a bike ride and..... I hate to admit it...... I REALLY enjoyed it.