Good Deed of the Day

Last night I went to a librarian party. It's the birthday week of the librarian that I know, and some other librarian was having a party anyway, so all the librarians got together and partied (and I got invited). This party took place about 2-3 blocks from my house.

At one point it came up that the librarian holding the party had her bike stolen from her front porch. It was locked to a bannister, and the thief broke the wood and stole the bike. She's been meaning to get a new bike

We live in a fairly bikeable neighborhood, pretty close to downtown. I much, much, much prefer to walk. Partly I'm afraid of getting in a bike accident. I've been in a head on collision (car vs. car). I've been hit when crossing the street (car vs. pedestrian). I'm hoping to avoid the accident trifecta. The only times in my life when I've biked on a regular basis were before I could drive and when I lived in San Diego.* Around here I just don't feel safe biking.

In fact, I didn't have a bike from the time I was in college until I lived in San Diego and my car became annoyingly unreliable. For the cost of one decent-sized car repair, you could buy an entire bike! So I did. A fairly nice bike. Aluminum frame. Shimano components. It's been sitting in my garage for about five years now. I don't think I've ridden it at all since I've lived here.

So this afternoon I hosed the spiders off my bike, put air in the tires and gave it to her.


*I could bike up the hill on Torrey Piens leading from Del Mar to La Jolla without stopping.