2 - How I Roll
Oct. 28th, 2020 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewdayIt was 4:30 in the afternoon, and I was about to draw my final breath when the phone rang.
"Hello, this is Mello Velo and your bike is ready."
"OMG, you're a life saver! I'll be there as soon as I tear up the DNR and cancel the organ donations."
Silence for a moment and then, "Um, OK, we're open until 6 today." Click.
Mello Velo Bicycle Shop & Cafe was started a decade ago by a group of newly-graduated SU students who suddenly found themselves with thousands of dollars in student loans coming due and assorted liberal arts degrees which had seemed like a good idea, four years earlier, in their high school guidance offices.
(In the interest of journalistic integrity, I feel compelled to admit that some of this is speculative on my part. But it does enhance the story, right?)
About 45 minutes later, I walked into the bike shop which is on the geographic outskirts of their alma mater. And farther yet from the philosophical outskirts of higher education. Thankfully.
As I walked though the door, I heard a barely audible whisper from behind the service counter.
"Pssttt! This one's for you, Michael."
I'm pretty sure Michael was a psych major in his undergraduate days. (More speculation, more enhancement.)
Anyway, Michael calmly wheeled a sparkling clean Black Allegro out for me, resplendant with her new fenders and brake pads, tautly-adjusted cables, and repaired and lubricated derailleurs.
With equal calm, I slid my credit card through the machine, thanked them for their service, and exited the shop. Which seemed to exhale its collectively-held breath as I walked out the door. (More... never mind. You know what I was gonna say.)
Back home, I made a few adjustments of my own to the new fenders--because that's how I roll--and then, under relatively clear skies and in the very midst of rush-hour traffic, I took the ride that body, mind, and spirit had been begging for over the past two days.
Because that, too, is how I roll...
LPK
Dreamwidth
10.28.2020 (b)
"Hello, this is Mello Velo and your bike is ready."
"OMG, you're a life saver! I'll be there as soon as I tear up the DNR and cancel the organ donations."
Silence for a moment and then, "Um, OK, we're open until 6 today." Click.
Mello Velo Bicycle Shop & Cafe was started a decade ago by a group of newly-graduated SU students who suddenly found themselves with thousands of dollars in student loans coming due and assorted liberal arts degrees which had seemed like a good idea, four years earlier, in their high school guidance offices.
(In the interest of journalistic integrity, I feel compelled to admit that some of this is speculative on my part. But it does enhance the story, right?)
About 45 minutes later, I walked into the bike shop which is on the geographic outskirts of their alma mater. And farther yet from the philosophical outskirts of higher education. Thankfully.
As I walked though the door, I heard a barely audible whisper from behind the service counter.
"Pssttt! This one's for you, Michael."
I'm pretty sure Michael was a psych major in his undergraduate days. (More speculation, more enhancement.)
Anyway, Michael calmly wheeled a sparkling clean Black Allegro out for me, resplendant with her new fenders and brake pads, tautly-adjusted cables, and repaired and lubricated derailleurs.
With equal calm, I slid my credit card through the machine, thanked them for their service, and exited the shop. Which seemed to exhale its collectively-held breath as I walked out the door. (More... never mind. You know what I was gonna say.)
Back home, I made a few adjustments of my own to the new fenders--because that's how I roll--and then, under relatively clear skies and in the very midst of rush-hour traffic, I took the ride that body, mind, and spirit had been begging for over the past two days.
Because that, too, is how I roll...
LPK
Dreamwidth
10.28.2020 (b)
no subject
Date: 2020-10-29 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-29 04:13 pm (UTC)