Monday Blues: In Kind

I can't be sure how long this old Huffy has been sitting out in the rain and the cold, but looking at how leaves have kind of taken shelter and collected in its shadow, I am thinking its elemental exposure has been significant. You may not be able to tell from the photo but both tires are flat, which may have something to do with its current demise, and however temporary that might turn out to be. There was a time when leaving a single flat on a bike of mine, for as little amount of time as overnight, would have been anathema. I would have expected to ride the next day and, not one to wait until the last minute, expedited a changing of the tube.

And so, as I surveyed this wounded warrior of campus byways at the Colleges this past weekend, I was suddenly troubled by a certain similarity. You see my trusty mtb developed a case of the flats two weeks in the past and remained disabled until, inspired by the derelict Huffy, I finally took action during an extremely rainy Sunday. Two weeks of calculated thought, determining how long before the next ridable day, when work, family, rain, or mud would allow a couple hours pleasure ride.

Clearly Labann found a quote from another time, a different winter. This winter's few bicycle excursions have been less about victories, and more about desperation - how much off the bike time can I take, how long can I defer, and remain sane? (Admittedly, Saturdays Cross Town Loop, on the Ibis, did take the edge off). Well, it may have been blue, the Huffy in its own desperate straits, but the sight also inspired me to action, and in that, I suppose, there is some victory