Things Taken

I know that it might sound trivial or what not, but there are some things that I just miss. Sure, they’re material items and shouldn’t have any particular power over me. And yet, I find that I still miss them for how they managed to empower me.

The one thing that I miss more than anything would be the bike that was stolen.

For many years I had wanted to get a beach cruiser. I like them. They’re great to ride and I like how the handle bars force me to sit upright. I finally got one a year or so ago. It was a 8-speed beach cruiser with hand brakes. It had an aluminum frame, making it lighter than most beach cruisers… and it was the perfect color, black.

I loved riding that bike. The ride was smooth. I could ride that bike for hours (and many times, I did). I would ride it to and from work. I wound biking about 20 miles for three days a week. Not only did I enjoy riding the bike (of course, riding along the Bay was also pretty awesome), it also made me want to ride more often. It was like I had found my bicycle soul mate.

Even more than that, I had managed to loose 30 lbs by riding as much as I was… and I would enjoy it. When I had a day off I would go out on a bike ride. I would also time my rides. I think the quickest I biked home was 30 minutes for almost 10 miles.

One day, after locking my bike up for the night, some kids cut the lock and took it from me

Much like Peewee Herman in “Peewee’s Big Adventure”, having my bike stolen had a profound effect on me. I felt numb. Numb isn’t everything I was feeling but that’s all I could manage at that time. I was angry, I was hurt, I felt unsafe… which is generally what one feels when something was stolen from them.

But it went further than that.

Even after replacing the bike with something else, I still hadn’t felt the same desire to ride the new bike as much as I loved riding my old bike. To this day I feel pretty meh about riding.

I thought I had gotten over the loss. I know I’m not going to get the bike back. No matter how badly I want it back, it’s gone. To this day, I still feel a very profound loss.

Now, that’s not to say that if I got a new bike that was just like the one I loss that I would be meh about it. I think I’d feel just as happy as when I had my bike before. It’s a matter of affording it. I just don’t know when we’re going to be able to afford it again.

At this point, I hope to find another bike like the one I lost. Perhaps one of these days I’ll find another bicycle soul mate.