The beginning of a beautiful relationship

I’m three days into what I hope will become a very serious relationship.

But I understand that it will take time.

Everybody has pressure points. Different things that make us stop, and others that allow us to go without restraint. Little by little, you find out what these things are. You make things work. And eventually, you get to know the other better than you know yourself.

I think that the long-run benefits of this relationship are infinite. And the more time I spend in this relationship, I think I will become a better person.

This has been the case the last few days between me and my “new” bike.

To describe the last few days as learning process would be accurate.

For the first couple days, the gears would grind and stop every time I tried to pedal. Shifting gears was an adventure, and the sound hurt my ears (kind of like scratching the blackboard).

After receiving some parental advice, I went back to my bike guy, Don Campo, to get the chain oiled up. That made things a little better but it still didn’t ride like the well-oiled machine I wanted it to be, even though it was well-oiled.

Well, one thing I learned from the “Seinfeld” episodes I’ve been watching is that an excursion or vacation with your new significant other is like putting the relationship on steroids. You can fast forward six months in a matter of 24 hours.

So I decided to go on a long bike ride this morning with some co-workers from the office. This would allow me to spend some quality time with my bike (If you have any suggestions for a possible name for her, I would like to hear them). At first , we were going to do a hilly ride up to the dam. But putting this in relationship terms, that would be like meeting the parents after one date — relationship suicide.

We opted for the flat, 13 km road from my site to the ocean. After a few, expected bumps at the beginning, I got in a rhythm. And if the following picture is any indication, I would say this relationship still has a lot of potential.



I have to make this relationship with the bike work out. I understand that we have some irreconcilable differences (I’m tall. The bike’s not.). But I know that we can overcome these and have a fruitful partnership for the next two years.