A scare over my bike yesterday..... Whew! It's still with me!

This is my mountain bike, lately in our now-ripped-off bicycle room lockup, and therein lies a tale.... I forgot to pick up the day's paper at my door all day, until suppertime. With it, this letter from Management...

So, instead of making supper right after reading this, I rushed down to P1, and our bike lockup at the far end of it, under the far corner of our companion building of this pair in our Strata Title. The bike room had definitely been ripped off. As I unlocked the door (the safest part of it all) immediately I noticed a big swath of bikes missing from the nearest couple of rows of hooks. And some showed dangling pieces of cut cables as thick and strong as the one on my own. Then, I glanced down the line to its far end, where my hook is, and Black Beauty was still there. I heaved a huge sigh of relief, unlocked it, brought it upstairs to my unit, and then re-installed its seat (which I'd kept in the back of the Dodge downstairs in the garage, and had to go retrieve it) and then after that, I pumped up the tires, gone soft from a winter's storage, and as I was now safely indoors with it, and had my pencil box handy, I took a China Marking Pencil (hard wax core) and wrote the date on each wheel's rim, beside its valve, so I'll know how long ago it was, next time.

Since the first rental I've had here, in 1981, (this I'm in is #5) I've lost a couple of expensive bikes, one of them from out of my locked storage locker in the locker rooms which are inside each building, just after I'd brought it home from the shop that installed about $300.00 worth of fancy lighting system on it for me. The door was torn right off the locker and thrown down the passageway, and the locker was cleaner than Mother Hubbard's Cupboard. So I'm just delighted to have management's approval to keep this one right where I can see it, and know for sure it's safe and ready when I am. This may not look like much, but as bikes go, this one's a real mover. And it has spring-loaded front forks, for when a kid like me wants to jump another curb. I love that! I don't do it much now, but it's comforting to know I can if I want.

That long-wheelbase women's cruiser with only 7 speeds (this has 21) is more comfortable, but it is also more awkward to load & unload in the Dodge Journey's rear hatch, because of the width of its bars. This one loads much easier.

This seat isn't original equipment. I tossed that one after the first week, and went to John Henry's for a real seat. And added this longer post to it as well. It was a hundred bucks well spent. This don't look like much, but it's actually quite scientifically engineered. As your weight is applied, the two halves tilt inwards, lowering its center and raising its outer edges, and 'cupping' your bum, and it's actually much more comfortable than it looks. And it has all the latest space-age materials, of course. All in all, I'm really glad those thieves missed it. This is a nice little bike. And I can still do 'standing still on the spot, without putting a foot down' with it, too! I'm lucky - many people my age haven't retained their sense of balance that well. I was 'showing off' one day last summer on this one, doing that balancing act "on the spot", and this healthy young blond rode up beside me, and asked, "How old are you?" I replied, "85, Darling...why?" And she said, "I think you're absolutely amazing! Keep it up!" I bit my tongue as she rode away. Better not say that at my age.... But it's nice to be an inspiration to the younger ones. It's been an exciting evening, or was as it began, and now the 'happy ending' is even better than I hoped. It took some thieves to give me

what I've been hoping for around here for years. A common sense approach to bikes and bikers. And we are legion! This is the 78th year since I got my first bike, and I'm still loving it, and still doing it. That really is quite amazing!