My next birthday is a “5” year — a year evenly divisible by five. I’m not going to tell you how many times that five can fit in the year, but it’s more than five. So on my next birthday, I’ve decided that I’m going to do a “bucket list” activity and climb Mount Washington, the highest mountain in the northeast.
I’m not in terrible shape, but I’m not in great shape either. Before the pandemic, I’d been training to run a series of 5Ks through the spring and summer, culminating in the internationally famous (for real) Manchester Road Race on Thanksgiving, which I ran a few years back.
That all ended when the pandemic closed all the gyms. I could have just run outside, but I didn’t. I could have just walked, but I didn’t. I could have biked, but I didn’t. I didn’t exercise or even go out at all unless I absolutely had to.
Once I’d made my decision, I resolved to go outside and do something every day. Got my trike all set to go — hadn’t ridden it since last October — and rode it up the Greenway. Decided to bring it to the actual office, but had to stop halfway because I’d forgotten my mask. I turned around to work from home, and the chain slipped twice on the way back.
I took it out again last week for a quick ten miles, and the chain slipped again — it really got wedged between the two larger sprockets. The problem is that the gears are a little bent, and if I’m switching the front chain ring at the wrong time, it falls right between them.
It was so stuck this last time that I couldn’t get it free and had to push the trike home — not great for my back. I ended up using WD-40 to get it free, but I couldn’t see riding it again. It was just dumb luck that the chain had gotten stuck so close to home. Next time it could be much further.
I brought it today to the shop where I’d bought it, hoping they’d be able to fix it fairly quickly.
No dice. You now apparently need an appointment to even get in the place, and the door is locked so people can’t just wander in. I did get the attention of the owner, and he came and looked at my trike, saw that I had bought it there, and told me that they’d love to fix it, but that they were backed up a hundred bikes before me.
Every bike they have has been sold, and they’re selling every bike they receive. All these people with all their bikes are keeping them very busy. I was told to call back in three weeks, and they’d be able to tell me then when I could bring it in to be fixed.
My local bike shop won’t work on recumbents. I do have two other standard diamond frame bikes, but the trike — that is super comfortable and just plain fun. I’ll definitely be missing it.
Nice to know someone is thriving in the pandemic…
In the U.K. bicycle shops were one of the exemptions during the full-scale closure of retail outlets. Our bizarre and scary prime minister (yes, I know he’s junior league crazy compared to some, but still…) has a fetish for cycling, which is probably the reason. I’m pretty sure there was no science involved.
Over here, most of the full-on lockdown co-incided with a prolonged spell of very warm, dry sunny weather. The sun shone and it barely rained for many weeks. Since here was literally nothing anyone was allowed to do outside the house other than take an hour’s excercise each day, there were more people out and about, walking and cycling, than I’ve seen in the whole of my life. Mrs Bhagpuss and I already had a habit of going for a walk most days but during lockdown we didn’t miss a day. Even though we’ve lived in this spot for over twenty five years we somehow managed to find a whole load of new walks we’d never seen before.
Now that things are somewhat back to normal, with the roads full of traffic and the skies filled with rainclouds we’re still walking most days but we hardly see anyone. Even the myriad dog walkers have vanished. Plenty of people still seem to be out on bikes but they stick to the main roads. The groups that often nearly ran over us on the country lanes are nowhere to be seen, thank god.
I’m very glad we live right on the edge of town with countryside a mere five minutes stroll away. It made all the difference in the worst of it. Just waiting now to see what autumn and winter bring.