A Good Story

Photo Credit: Alison

The weather has been stunning so it was only a matter of time before Alison and I decided to hit a bike trail. I agreed to bicycling yesterday but felt guilty when I told Alison that I didn't think that I'd be able to do yoga and bicycling. We've done that combo before but there's a lot of planning that goes into it and I also didn't think that I'd have the stamina or time budget.

It was my first bike outing since purchasing the Subaru and I made assumptions. At the last minute, I was looking for a way to secure the fifth door but there's nothing that you can hook a rope onto. Still, I tried to secure a telephone cord around the flimsy license plate housing as part of the bike was sticking out. As I strategized, I wanted to cancel but knew that it wouldn't be fair to Alison.

Headed out knowing that any serious bump in the road was going to snap the license plate cover and that's what happened.

I'd also bought a jump rope along so I pulled over to try to secure the fifth door and, minutes later, a fire truck pulled up. I thought that maybe I hadn't paid attention and parked in front of the fire station and, next, I saw a fireman walking towards me and I thought that he was going to reprimand me or give me a citation. Not once did it cross my mind that he might help me but that's exactly what he did.

The fireman was so calm and so cool. During "the class" that I took at Subaru, I was told how to pop out the house casing but I had forgotten. The fireman popped it out in two seconds and he also guessed that I had a quick release front wheel on my bike which I knew about but my apprehension about getting the wheel back on stopped me from even thinking about that as an option.

Even without taking the front wheel off, the fireman was able to maneuver the bike into the car which was such a relief. He made my day -- and a couple of more days. He was also pretty funny too. He likes to bicycle with his daughter but he doesn't think that he'll be able to get two bikes into his current car because it's not as big as the car that his daughter wrecked and, boy, does he miss his wrecked car.

I called Alison to let her know that I was running behind schedule. When we finally hit the trail, we were going at a nice pace and I think that it was total adrenaline.

Around the eight mile mark we took a closer look at Cementland. The area around the red, white and blue barrels is hilly and I tried not to think about the additional energy that I'd expended. However, I did feel grateful that my ankle is at a point that I can tackle hills and uneven terrain.

The bike ride back was windy and tough and even though I was knackered when I got home, I cooked but nixed the salt bath that I had planned to take. I didn't have the time since we spent three hours on the trail. Time well spent so I made adjustments to my agenda and moved on.

Outskirts of Cementland, Photo Credit: Alison

But the fireman, for real, I get emotional thinking about him. I was so moved by his act of kindness and it just made me resolve to continue my efforts to be steadfast in my kindness. The interaction with the fireman was also a lesson in staying calm and "feeling the fear and doing it anyway..."

P.S. I figured out how to take the wheel off which made getting the bike in the car so much easier. Not sure that it's on right but I'll take a look at it later.