Health & Fitness
If You Think It Won't Happen, It Probably Will
Think about it. It could happen to you.
Well one thing I can’t complain about is the weather. It’s been great, to say the least. But something happen last Thursday night, Friday morning, sometime in that time period.
My prized possession was taken from my life. That would be my 21-speed KHS Road bike. I just got that bike two months ago for $50. It was a great deal and the best bike I ever owned.
I have been riding a bike since 1990. In 1989, I got my third DUI that took my license away and I never went to class or programs to regroup my driving privileges. It was too much money and basically I said to hell with it. Frankly, I thought five weekends at Elmwood was enough but there’s additional ropes and hurdles and money to make it complete. So with my old station wagon on its last leg, and bad tags, I junked it, got myself a bike.
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It seemed like a real bummer at first but with a few months I found to be not that bad as long as you make a little extra time to get where you need to go, it was all good. With a few bus hook ups and legs getting stronger, I started to really enjoy my bike. I felt like a kid again, racing around bike trails, sidewalks, creeks, parks. Whatever path made my trip faster and complete I would take it. By the way, earlier I said that that bike got stolen was the best I ever had. That’s incorrect.
My Schwinn lime green Super Deluxe Stingray that I received as a Christmas present when I was 10 or 11 years old was by far my best bike. It was the best looking bike in the whole neighborhood and I was proud to show it off. I practically slept with that bike.
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When I go to my camp at night to bed down, I would lean my bike up against the tent, cover it up with blankets so that it wasn’t visible, most of the time I would put a couple soda cans in the spokes and a bungee cord hooked to the wheel and fastened to my backpack, inside, on my side just in case somebody someone tried to take it.
Well that night, before bedding down I just covered it with blankets and just went to sleep. I remember being really tired that night. I was out like a light.
All I know is that somebody had to be really quiet to walk through the trees and bush and remove the blankets and take my bike without waking me up.
I must have been snoring. I do snore. At least I’ve been told that. That would make it easier for whoever to take the prize.
Only a few people know I’m there and I don’t think they would do that terrible thing. My guess is that some low life, alcoholic drug addict, desperate son of a … had wandered back to my area, saw my tent, snooped around and proceeded to find a way to get my bike.
Any decent human being wouldn’t do such a thing, even homeless people with the understanding that other homeless people don’t have a lot and respect that fact wouldn’t do such a thing. So whoever pulled this off was a pee brain, undesirable, no compassion, no respect for what they did to me. I was totally pissed off and spent the whole day walking about to wherever I had to go, about five miles, grumpy and could not shake the emotions of the situation.
I hate to be walking everywhere. It seems like it takes forever to get somewhere. I’m not young anymore. So it takes a toll on you, especially with a full and heavy backpack.
Anyway, today I am more composed and knowing that I will make money on Sunday at the Campbell Farmers Market to find another used bike to buy.
I learned another valuable lesson: you cannot assume anything is safe anymore. There are so many thieves out there that you have to lock down everything or it will be taken by one of these disgusting people. I mean, they make locks for everything, the only thing they don’t make a lock for is other locks. Or maybe they do.
The next bike I will take the extra three to five minutes to secure my prized possession. I can’t believe how lazy I was to not put on those extra deterrents to prevent this from happening.
Think about it. It could happen to you.
The opinions expressed here are the blogger's and not necessarily those of the local editor's or anyone affiliated with Patch.