A Bike's Tale
My old mountain bike has been sitting in the closet of my old apartment for nearly a year, untouched because I had no intention of taking the heavy thing up and down the narrow stairs to ride to the few places in Hyde Park that are worth visiting but too far to go to on foot or by bus. On Monday I finally had to take it out of storage and transport it uptown to Logan Square via wheels, trains, and pure will (which is a story for another day, and boy is it a story). However, the tires were both flat. I had a pump but I couldn't figure out how to get the pump onto the little wheel nozzle things. I've got an appointment in half an hour so I figure I'll just squish my way up to the other end of the street, go to my appointment, and figure it out later.
A quarter of the way there I'm stopped by an older man, also on a bicycle. He notes that I've got two flats and I mention that I've got a pump, I just can't figure out how to use it. He stops and helps me figure out what's going on with the nozzles (somehow they retracted into the wheel-holder (?) and he had to deflate the wheel to pull them out again), and then pumped the bike up again. He said he had a bike repair service nearby, and all he asked for in compensation was that I maybe buy him a pack of cigarettes. I gave him some money and told him I'd put up his business on my blog, to spread the information around.
Only now the odd thing is that I can't find him. He had me write down his information and said he has a Facebook but it's not there. The name is Uncle Donnie's Bike Repair, and the number is 1-773-288-3002. And for the life of me, Google, and Facebook I can't find him again. It's like one of those things where some Good Samaritan pops out of nowhere to aid you in your time of trouble, goes on his way, and then later you find he was a ghost or an angel or some bullshit like that.
I'm tempted to call the number just to see what happens.
A quarter of the way there I'm stopped by an older man, also on a bicycle. He notes that I've got two flats and I mention that I've got a pump, I just can't figure out how to use it. He stops and helps me figure out what's going on with the nozzles (somehow they retracted into the wheel-holder (?) and he had to deflate the wheel to pull them out again), and then pumped the bike up again. He said he had a bike repair service nearby, and all he asked for in compensation was that I maybe buy him a pack of cigarettes. I gave him some money and told him I'd put up his business on my blog, to spread the information around.
Only now the odd thing is that I can't find him. He had me write down his information and said he has a Facebook but it's not there. The name is Uncle Donnie's Bike Repair, and the number is 1-773-288-3002. And for the life of me, Google, and Facebook I can't find him again. It's like one of those things where some Good Samaritan pops out of nowhere to aid you in your time of trouble, goes on his way, and then later you find he was a ghost or an angel or some bullshit like that.
I'm tempted to call the number just to see what happens.