Just Fine

I rolled down the alley toward the garage and hit the remote. Done it a thousand times before. Half of those thousand times I've surprised Sherrie, my neighbor across the alley, for one reason or another...most times because she's expected to either hear a car coming or see me heading out from the inside. When neither has occurred, she's looked around with big eyes, seen me arrive on the bicycle, and said oh THERE you are, Hon! I didn't know what to think!

She's finally getting used to my stealth arrivals: sometimes back from a ride, now and again ending my commute, at times hauling baskets of groceries.

This time, I was pedaling up to the garage through nearly three inches of snow-covered slush while heavy, wet flurries were still coming down. Sherrie and her daughter were across the alley unloading groceries in their garage. They looked at me.

I was a tad embarrassed at being caught, snow piled on my shoulders, hands and helmet. I didn't want them to think I was some crazy lady who goes riding in a blizzard, so I rattled away I wouldn't NORMALLY be out riding on a day like today, but my car is dead over in the Cub Foods lot and I was so lucky that my bicycle was actually in the car since I'd not unloaded it after returning from SD, and the NAPA store was still open so I headed home to change then went out again and picked up a part that the guy at Batteries Plus said I'd need -- shoulda done that one weeks ago -- and I've got AAA so everything will be fine....

Truth was, I was having a ball.

Sure, I fretted initially -- it's always a pain to have car problems -- but then it all hit me: my car was dead, but I pretty much knew what was wrong and figured I'd be able to fix it; the car hadn't died while on the road traveling back from SD; the bicycle had been in the car sparing me a walk home in a sloppy wet snowstorm; my clothes were fleece, tights, travel pants and boots instead of my normal denim and wool clogs; the parts store had still been open.

All I had left to do was to call AAA and head back through the slush and storm to the grocery store to meet the repair truck.

Sherrie wanted confirmation that everything was OK and that I'd let her know if I needed anything because that's what neighbors are for, Hon. You call us!

I assured her I was just fine.

- The adventurous OB