2:13 am - Thurs 5/25/06
A Little Goofy, Undeniable Fun

Mon 5/22/06 (3:25 p.m.)
My last entry was titled �What�s The Deal With Me And Wheels?�, because of my recent run of bad luck with wheeled vehicles; a bike stolen, two flat tires (One car, one bike), and a minor accident knocking the front tire of my new bike out-of-whack, all in the space of a few weeks.

(Oh, that reminds me�When I recently listed all the things I�ve had stolen since living here in LA�two bikes, front and rear bike lights, and the hubcaps off my car�I forgot to mention the tags off my car. Which, at the time, was a type of theft I didn�t even know existed. But anyway...)

Yes, there�s been a string of misfortune connected to me and my vehicles recently, but on the flip-side, what did I end up with as a result of all this bad luck?

1. A new bike (Thank you, Kay). One that, even though it�s over 20 years old, is actually better than what I had (More on that later).

2. Two new car tires (Thank you, Cary). And really, how lucky was I, to not have a blowout on my way up to Cary�s place last Sunday? What happened, when it happened, was much better than what could have happened.

3. With advice, offers of �loaner bikes�, and people offering financial assistance towards a new bike, I had a nice reminder that I�m not alone in the world: I�d rather not need the help, but when I do, someone-and sometimes a group of �someones�-is always there to provide it.

(I know I�ve addressed all this already, but this is the �glass half-full� yin to last entry�s �glass half-empty� yang.)

And in the latest vehicle news�Where there once was one bike, now there are two.

Chris S., who I haven�t been in contact with for quite some time, recently sent me a birthday card (And a gift certificate to an Asian restaurant on Hollywood Blvd).

I called him up, to thank him for the gift, and while we were talking, and I was getting the scoop on what�s been going on with him these days, he mentioned his car had died, and in the interim, he�d bought an electric bicycle, before a friend made him a deal on (I think) a Kawasaki 600 motorcycle.

(Or maybe it was a Yamaha. I can�t remember. But anyway...)

We went out to lunch on Thursday�turns out, there�s a super-cheap place for Thai food just blocks from me�and he rode over from his place on the bicycle, an �Electric Chopper� (Styled like a motorcycle, as the name would imply).

Chris asked if I wanted to �give it a try�, so I got on, and after taking a moment to work out the throttle, I tooled up and down the sidewalk, laughing like a little kid.
When I stopped and got off, Chris said, �You like it?� (Or something to that effect), and I said, still laughing, �It�s pretty cool�.

And, long story short, he gave it to me.

He knew about the bike I�d gotten from Cary and Kay�I didn�t know he read my journal--so I guess he just thought I�d get a kick out of the �chopper� (Or, seeing how the bike I recently had stolen was the second one I�ve lost since being in LA, maybe he figured I could use a spare).

It�s not going to supplant Kay�s bike, for various reasons�It weighs a ton (I can get it in and out of the apartment, but it�s a challenge), I�d be very afraid of it getting stolen, and knowing me, I�d snooze on re-charging it at some point, and run out of juice ten miles from home (It doesn�t really work that well as a plain old �bike�)�but I rode it around my neighborhood on Sunday (On the road this time, and not on the sidewalk), and it is goofy, undeniable fun.

And what�s wrong with a little goofy, undeniable fun now and again?

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