I am no longer angry, but a couple of days ago I was furious. In the heat of the moment I wrote a rather inelegant Facebook status-update that included the f-bomb, and a threat to the person who had stolen my bike. You see I left it unlocked because my son had split his lip open and I had scooped him up to rush him home.
I was a little mad at myself for not remembering to rush down soon after to lock up my bike, surely I should have, but I was more upset with the type of person who would steal a bike, in my case this was the third time to experience the frustration.
The first time (about 10 years ago) someone used a massive bolt cutter and lopped off a thick cable-lock (which I learned to never use again), the second time someone wandered into our garage in Edmonton and stole my bike that was attached to a child-carrier (come to think of it, I recall that I also wrote an inelegant Facebook update that time as well).
This time it seemed extra shitty due to the circumstances – my son had an odd little accident on the school bus, he was leaning forward at the same time the bus made a sudden stop and he banged his mouth on a metal bar, in so doing his tooth actually broke through just below his bottom lip. I arrived at home just as the bus arrived and saw that he was crying and bleeding from his mouth. He was extremely upset and was almost in shock as he started to shake from the pain (as I understand, it had just happened). We ran inside and quickly administered ice, soon followed by ice-cream. After determining that he had, thankfully, not-broken any teeth and did not need stitches we popped in a movie and I snuggled-up on the couch to help him feel better. Within in a short-while he was as good as new.
I understand that people can be desperate enough to want to steal. Unfortunately there are many people who struggle in life and their circumstances are challenging, but for crying out loud – steal cars, not bikes! (joking, sorta’)
At any rate, another bike is down the tubes. Looks like I’ll be using my wife’s bike to commute to work, which is ok because she doesn’t use it and her bike is much “better” than mine (technically it is vastly superior).
But I had actually grown to love my quirky little three-speed city-bike that was as old as I am. I really hope it turns up, although I doubt it. I called the police and left a message. I was supposed to get a call back to make the report but no luck yet. Anyway, c’est la vie!
Oddly I can’t find a picture of my bike, but you can see it in this short video. If anyone sees a 1970 Old School Ralleigh three-speed cruiser with a funky headlight, please advise, you’ll get ice-cream and snuggles too.
