It’s August 22, and the clock is ticking down on summer. All is well; the lawn is mowed, I’ve made a dent in the weeds, and we’re preparing for the boys’ return to school.
Part of those preparations is to get kid one a decent bike, in good repair so that he and his best bud can ride to and fro. Leastwise on days when the weather permits.
In an effort to do this, I’ve kludged together a couple of bikes, picked up from here and there, along with a couple of new parts, into said decent bike, in good repair. The next step? Have him map out and do a few practice runs on the route to school.
To do this, I had a choice, get my bike into working order, or roller blade with him. I didn’t feel like blading, so fix my bike it was, and I did. Or so I thought, right up until I finished inflating the tires on his bike.
As luck had it, I filled my tires first. By the time I had his filled, and he took a couple of quick turns to make sure everything was in working order, my front tire was already going flat.
Sigh.
Time for a new inner tube, but first, I don’t want to go back to the bike shop again, and second, time was winding down. So I took another kludge of a bike, checked its tires, raised the seat, and off we went.
The ride was a blast. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but I have great kids. Number 1 and I had a lovely ride to his school, testing out the route and his new bike.
On the return we got a little more experimental with his gearing, which led to a race between kid 1 and ol’ daddy. He had the better bike, but I’ve got experience and a foot of height on him. Plus I wasn’t gonna let a 12 y/o beat me in a bike race.
Last week I asked you to think about what you have to be grateful for.
As for me, among those things I’m grateful for is pretty much everything that happened today. It was, simply, a wonderful, magical, late summer day.
Be well.
