Take better care of my bike

to the rescue!

to glass in my tire. For some odd reason, when I thought of glass getting in my tire, I thought that it would get in my tire. It didn’t occur to me that some would get stuck on the outside and only when I applied pressure would it puncture my tube. Well, I lost two tubes this way before finding out that there was a chunk of glass lodged in my tire.
I lost the second tube when I was biking up a hill – not too far away from home, but far enough so it was terribly inconvenient to return. I was kind of in a hurry and I herd the hissing. I automatically cursed the guy from Recycled Cycles who had traded me the tube for one that I had had with a different valve. He’s the same guy who gave me the “cute girl” discount… and he put my inflated, deflated, box-had-been-kicked-around tube right on top of the stack of other tubes. He said it was a fair trade, I felt weird about it. You know, I like to support my local bike store and I don’t want some random employee giving me discounts and whatnot because he’s wrapped up in his cock. As soon as I heard the tube his, I cursed his name. Then everything bubbled up, all the frustration of not driving, never driving, but knowing that my life would be a whole lot easier and less complicated if I did drive. That I make sacrifices every day to compensate for the people who drive around just like it’s their god-given right to have their foot on the gas peddle. And they have the fucking nerve to tailgate me on my bike and zoom past me and kick up dust and gas in my face! I was so fucking mad at motorists for comfortably zooming past me as I aggressively removed my wheel from my not so trusty aluminum steed. How dare they be so comfortable as polar bears drown. This is why bicyclist feel righteous and break the rules from time to time – because they make these sacrifices that turn into an entirely different lifestyle that is sustainable and when they go out into the world, they see these people who are completely oblivious – fat and lazy, eat at McDevil’s spewing fumes all around downtown trying to find a parking spot so they can support overseas manufacturing at some over-priced store. We see these people and get honked at by these people … it’s hard not to feel righteous sometimes.
Anyway, I’m on the side of the road, frustrated about cars and horny bike sales people, I pull out my patch kit and while I’m waiting for the glue to dry, I sit in a meditative posture and breathe, with my diaphragm. I feel better. I put the patch on and the tube back in the tire. Now I have to pump with my hand-pump.

to be continued…