Today was a day made for riding a bike. The weather was perfect, the sun was shining, and spring was in the air. Besides, a good bike ride relaxes you. So I hooked up the tag-along tandem, and my daughter and I got ready to roll.
But I couldn’t find my helmet.
And I couldn’t find my gloves.
Or the hand pump.
After a frantic search, all lost items except the gloves and pump were located. So after an hour and a half delay, I had my helmet and we were ready to roll.
Except my tire was flat.
I prepared some goop to shoot into the tube, but the bottle would not work on Presta valves.
So I took off the tire, located the leak and patched it. After putting the bike back together, I re-inflated the tire. Ready to roll.
It went flat again.
Frustrated, I drove to the bike shop and bought another one – this time with goop inside. Plus a pump and an extra tube, just in case.
Three hours and 80 dollars after the original go time, the new tube was in and we began our trek.
And you know what? It was great. The weather was still perfect and we got to enjoy the first days of spring. When we returned, we were reinvigorated. My stress was gone, having been replaced by a mellow, satiated inner peace.
I was relaxed.
As we put the bikes away, I looked down.
My tire was flat.
