rain gears

Coming up with a title for this stuff is becoming a preoccupation with me. I should be working. I am now gainfully employed again, and lazy as ever. I want to write about bicycles, but there is so much more to it.... I bought a bobo bicycle a couple of years ago: an new old-style single gear cruiser that worked well on the roads of talent. And that, by the way, is an issue here. All the people I sit with in meetings have lived "on the streets." They "come from the streets." This is heavy shit. Me? I come from the roads. I lived on the roads. See? It just doesn't carry the same weight.

Anyhow.... My bike flew, usually under cover of darkness, down the roads (well, one road) of Talent, effortlessly, or relatively so. But pedalling up Division is a fucking bitch. (Did I say that in my outloud voice?) The thing is.... I've never been able to figure out the whole shifting thing about bicycles. Its a walk-and-chew-gum-at-the-same-time issue. Keep pedalling while you shift!! Don't stop pedalling or the chain will jump off the gears!!! It scares me, so when the cruiser craze hit, I happily paid way too much for a like-old bike rather than risk looking stupid (or fast) on a mid-grade street bike.

(I'm baking a chocolate cake for my sweetie. I slammed the oven door which it occurs to me is the psychological equivalent of yelling at the cake. I hope there is no long term damage.)

Anyway, now that I'm a city girl -- actually a displaced small town girl -- I need gears. I pause at intersections and fall over because I can't free-wheel, and I have to place the pedal just so for take off or I end up braking rather than accellerating. Very inconvenient. My woes have resulted in a city wide hunt for the perfect cruiser-plus a few gears. Just a few. I have to have a boulevard cruiser, though. Will I never learn? But they are so pretty. I can't stand the silvery sleek bikes. The modern rockets. I want a red raleigh cruiser, maybe. Schwinn has a beautiful cruiser. Or a trek calypso. Turquoise and cream. Goes with my hair. (Not the turquoise, of course.) So, I've narrowed it down, and will put a for sale sign on my single geared model and stick it out on Hawthorne. It's a Torker Boardwalk. Nothing fancy. It'll sell. But that's me... remember my yard sale? I recall admitting to complete ignorance about what other people want or will buy. This time will be different, I'm certain of it.

At any rate, the rain part of the title is about acceptance. I live in a rainy town. Back home I used to wait for the perfect 70 degree day. There were usually about three a year. Now, I have nothing but 70 degrees day after day, but also a little rain to keep it that way. So I wait and wait for a dry day to ride. I sensed a pattern in my behavior (inaction) and corrected it this morning. I rode to a morning meeting in the drizzle. It was cool on my face as I coasted downhill to the place. Going home? Uphill, as you might imagine. Steep and wet wet wet. I am here.