Warming my frigid little heart
Joie de vivre January 25th, 2010
Last night I left my office late to have a wonderful dinner at my friends J & P’s house and along the way I encountered an entire extended family out for a bike ride here in the barrio. Their ages ranged from very young to old and all were on bikes of dubious repair and safety. They were just out for a bike ride. We chatted briefly and they asked me about my blinky light after apologizing for taking up the entire street.
It muchly warmed my ordinarily cold and steely heart to see a family out enjoying the evening by bike!
I think times are changing. I think bikes are winning.
–Erik Ryberg
January 26th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
AW Gee I miss the Ol’ Barrio. That’s just about as heartwarming a barrio bike story as the BMXer beatdown last year. Remember E?
I was jogging by the wash behind my house in the barrio and heard random death/rape threats being screamed at me from the underbrush. I recognized the voice as the same villainous meth-head I’d seen causing trouble on 4th Ave. the previous evening. Went to the police station to file a complaint and they scoffed at me.
Next thing I knew the crazy meth-head surfaced in the barrio as I was on my way to the office. Right in front of TBL headquarters, he was running down the street being chased by two face tatted BMX riders with 2×4’s w/ nails protruding. The BMXers apparently received the same death threats and decided to do something about it. The crazy meth-head was yelling that he was running to the police station to save himself from the BMXer beatdown. It was hilarious. I can only hope the police were smart enough to make the correlation there.
All I can say is that those BMXers with 2×4’s really warmed my heart. They even offered to give me a free face tat. Bikes FTW!
January 27th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
So sweet Eric,
A family just out on bikes!!!
January 28th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
I’ve been trying to figure out how to ride with my family in the ciclovia.
Trouble is, our daughter will only be 4 months old and her helmet will be too big.
I just got a used xtracycle on CL and am thinking about having my wife ride side saddle with Luci in the sling and go very slowly.
The other option is to rig the car seat to the xtracycle.
At least I won’t have to worry about cars!