Ciao, Old Schwinn....

Picture 1

The end of the month came pretty sadly. My bike, my baby, bit the dust. Penelope was a 1974 Schwinn Breeze,
kelley green, generators and all. It was, like, the best bike ever. I mean, even the handlebars sparkled.

One day I decided to wear a long sleeve shirt over my tank top and I got hot. So I pulled over, took my shirt off, and tied it around my waist. Now, I'm not stupid. I know that if there is ANYTHING hanging, it will get caught in my gears, so I made sure I was cool. As I was riding past the Chicago Tribune I noticed my back tire just skiddddddd. Yep. At that moment, my heart broke along with my back gasket caught like a struggling fish out of water in a fisherman's net.

Luckily, there was a security guard hanging out in front of the Tribune building. So I walked Penelope over to safety and asked the security guard if he had a knife. To my surprise, he pulled out an old black and pink rusty.

I walked back over, and straddled my bike and went away at the back gasket and the shirt like an eager surgeon. I cut and pulled and I cut and I pulled, until I finally freed the shirt from its Anaconda death grip on Penelope.

I hopped back on my bike to make sure I could pedal, but to my dismay, the chain was completely off track. Sigh.

Mr. Security Guard must have felt my pain. He came over with a bottle of Windex and some paper towels. Bless his heart, but what the words'  Windex going to do for embedded grease in my fingers?

As I was electing on what I should do next, Randy showed up like 'the greatest cowboy to ever ride into the Wild West, from Poland.' (Those of you know who I am talking about.) Randy was the Chicago Tribunes' handy man who broke the bad news to me that Penelope was in a coma.

So, what should I do? I love riding a bike. I love my Schwinn Breeze but I can't walk it to work the rest of the way. So I leave her laying there all locked up and on life support until I can rescue her again.

I know what you are thinking. But I did the opposite. I went out and bought a new Schwinn. Didn't really want to drop the funds for it but I have to have a bike and I don't know how much it would be to fix Penelope. She still bears a special place in my heart, and in my basement.

Comments

[Khalid El-Nahmean]

having a vintage is so much better!  worth a fix!!
i'm saddened by this harrowing tale of sweater danger