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there's no basement in the alamo!
Aug. 7th, 2006 11:01 ami've got a bike!
so. siri got herself a bike and i was jealous. and then kris got herself a bike for cheap cheap and fixed it up and i was jealous. then kris found a retro cruiser on craigslist and sent me the link. i asked gabe for his opinion.
gabe: you know it won't go very fast, and it's probably not great for jumping off curbs and stuff...
amber: you know, i'd thought about this, and then i thought: I'M NOT A BOY.
gabe: yeah, well, some girls like to take thier bikes off jumps and race their boyfriends down the greenway. If their boyfriend had a bike...
(gabe's bike was stolen.)
amber: and i would definitely be looking for that option if i had a boyfriend to race who was here....besides. would you really want me to be getting a bike capable of racing boys while you're away?
gabe: I just want to make sure you can ride faster than all the boys who are going to be chasing you when I'm gone, and if needed i want you to be able to ride off through the woods or up a mountain to get away from the very persistent ones.
in the end, i promised to carry some sticks in a basket to put though the spokes of said persistent ones. and to get an oil-slick like pee-wee's bike. and a nice horn. and laser beams.
but then i missed out on it, and i was sad.
fast forward to last week when the boy came back through town for one last night. i pulled into his aunt's driveway while he and his dad were packing up the van and he says, "c'mere, i wanna show you something." and he shows me an old wine-colored 3-speed coaster with a wicked cool tan vinyl seat. this had been his grampa's bike, and he brought it back from kenosha for me.
best. going-away pressie. ever. eeee!!!! bike!
but he was concerned. the tires are almost rotted through and it needs some maintainance. i promised i wouldn't ride it until i had it tuned up and re-tired.
enter kris.
dear kris.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
couplandesque.
she gave up her saturday night to help me out. we ran all over the damn cities looking for tires, and i say, "in the butt" to sports authority who had ONE tire (but, see, "bi" in bicycle is the latin for TWO...) and "in the butt" to walmart who had a big ol' tire rack....completely empty.
sidetrack: i hate walmart. tony and i went there once and it was full of dirty children playing with toys they'd taken out of the packages and there were all sorts of mislaid items in the isles and employees standing around talking, but then mysteriously invisible when you needed help. it was horrid. my co-workers assured me that i went to the ghetto walmart and that walmart is a WONDERFUL place. so kris and i went to a better one and you know what? fk walmart. in the butt. better my buttkiss.
alright. at least we could clean it up. the chain was completely filled to capacity with years of dust and grime and oil, so we set to work.
and we worked.
and worked.
and 2 and 1/2 hours later, sweaty and with fingernails like garage denizens, we had most of the grease off the chain. and the gears. and the wheels. and the pedals. and the rims. and the body...that bike was 5 pounds lighter by the time we were done, i swear.
it's so pretty. now, all it needs is new tires (we picked up new tubes), new handlebar grips, a bell, and a lock....and i think zach morgan's gounna help me cut off the cable lock that's been on there since the '70s....and then?
i RIDE.
yay! *^_^*
so. siri got herself a bike and i was jealous. and then kris got herself a bike for cheap cheap and fixed it up and i was jealous. then kris found a retro cruiser on craigslist and sent me the link. i asked gabe for his opinion.
gabe: you know it won't go very fast, and it's probably not great for jumping off curbs and stuff...
amber: you know, i'd thought about this, and then i thought: I'M NOT A BOY.
gabe: yeah, well, some girls like to take thier bikes off jumps and race their boyfriends down the greenway. If their boyfriend had a bike...
(gabe's bike was stolen.)
amber: and i would definitely be looking for that option if i had a boyfriend to race who was here....besides. would you really want me to be getting a bike capable of racing boys while you're away?
gabe: I just want to make sure you can ride faster than all the boys who are going to be chasing you when I'm gone, and if needed i want you to be able to ride off through the woods or up a mountain to get away from the very persistent ones.
in the end, i promised to carry some sticks in a basket to put though the spokes of said persistent ones. and to get an oil-slick like pee-wee's bike. and a nice horn. and laser beams.
but then i missed out on it, and i was sad.
fast forward to last week when the boy came back through town for one last night. i pulled into his aunt's driveway while he and his dad were packing up the van and he says, "c'mere, i wanna show you something." and he shows me an old wine-colored 3-speed coaster with a wicked cool tan vinyl seat. this had been his grampa's bike, and he brought it back from kenosha for me.
best. going-away pressie. ever. eeee!!!! bike!
but he was concerned. the tires are almost rotted through and it needs some maintainance. i promised i wouldn't ride it until i had it tuned up and re-tired.
enter kris.
dear kris.
couplandesque.she gave up her saturday night to help me out. we ran all over the damn cities looking for tires, and i say, "in the butt" to sports authority who had ONE tire (but, see, "bi" in bicycle is the latin for TWO...) and "in the butt" to walmart who had a big ol' tire rack....completely empty.
sidetrack: i hate walmart. tony and i went there once and it was full of dirty children playing with toys they'd taken out of the packages and there were all sorts of mislaid items in the isles and employees standing around talking, but then mysteriously invisible when you needed help. it was horrid. my co-workers assured me that i went to the ghetto walmart and that walmart is a WONDERFUL place. so kris and i went to a better one and you know what? fk walmart. in the butt. better my buttkiss.
alright. at least we could clean it up. the chain was completely filled to capacity with years of dust and grime and oil, so we set to work.
and we worked.
and worked.
and 2 and 1/2 hours later, sweaty and with fingernails like garage denizens, we had most of the grease off the chain. and the gears. and the wheels. and the pedals. and the rims. and the body...that bike was 5 pounds lighter by the time we were done, i swear.
it's so pretty. now, all it needs is new tires (we picked up new tubes), new handlebar grips, a bell, and a lock....and i think zach morgan's gounna help me cut off the cable lock that's been on there since the '70s....and then?
i RIDE.
yay! *^_^*
