A Narrow Escape - Sue

I took Pete for a bike ride this morning, as per usual. First, Phyllis and I swapped seats from my bike to her bike. The reason is that the seat on Phyllis's bike was too worn. The front part was down to the metal. I had that seat since before I knew Phyllis, when I bought that bike that I had traded her for when she got me the street bike. So it's probably 10 years old. Maybe older. Anyway, Phyllis had to take the hammer to the allen wrench to get the seat off the street bike, and then I put it on Phyllis's mountain bike, which I use when I take Pete for a ride, due to its stability. Phyllis said that it looked funny, a "ten-speed" seat, as she called it, on a mountain bike. No one but Phyllis calls them ten-speeds anymore, because they have way more than ten speeds. Even mountain bikes have way more than ten speeds. But Phyllis doesn't know very much about bikes. That's okay! She knows a lot about other stuff, but those things are not germane to this account for now.

The bike seat that had been on my STREET BIKE was not very comfortable, partly because I rode with it as low as it could go. That was to keep my center of gravity low. Pete pulls hard on the bike, and when we go fast, it can be a little unstable. I think I am going to end up getting a new bike seat.

But there we were, humming along down the street, enjoying the beautiful morning. Bright sunshine, green trees in full August leaf and pretty flowers, all that. Nothing unusual so far, except for the STREET BIKE seat, of course.

Nearly home, just a few blocks away around the corner, and as we were passing two men leaning over an engine, with the hood open, of course, one of the men shouted, "Excuse me."

Well I was raised in the mid-west where you show civility towards people who approach in a civil manner. So I stopped. The two men walked up to me, one of them asking where I got that dog harness thing that attached to my bike like that. Pete growled at him because Pete had some sense that the man had evil intentions, so that made me wary. But still, I explained that I got it by googling "dog harness bicycle."

The man got a quizzical look on his face, and I didn't know if it was the word "google" or "bicycle," or what. So he asked me again and took a closer step, and then Pete growled even louder. Then the other man started to circle around. There were no other people up or down the street, no other cars, and that was when I started to think I might be in trouble.

I told them to have a good day and I continued on my way home, disaster averted. I told Phyllis I had a nice bike ride, and I did, other than the uncomfortable bike seat.