Vertamae

I picked up my bike on Wednesday. It's big and green. You know how some bikes are sleek and sexy? If they were human they'd be tall and svelte, they'd have deep voices and wear slinky clothes. Even my Giant hybrid has some sex appeal in this way, but she's more like Greta Garbo.

Not my new bike. Vertamae, as I've named her, is the kind of sexy where if she were human she'd look like Lena Horne with hairy armpits and cat eye glasses. She has a big wicker basket on the front, and fenders, and a bell. I rode her to town on Saturday and had a little accident where I broke the bracket that holds the derailleur to the bike. As luck would have it, this happened in front of the co-op, and a couple of friends whom I haven't seen in a really long time happened to run out the store and offer me a ride. They took me to the bike shop, I dropped Vertamae off, and picked her up today. It was actually a good thing. I got to spend time with my friends, who are moving to Costa Rica in August, and the damage was minimal.

Vertamae and I are going to have a good summer. There will be biking for the whole family. I'm going to ride to work as often as possible (except when I work in Amherst). Ingrid is big enough for our tandem bike attachement this year, and she still fits into the bike trailer. Bea looks so cool on her Electra Cruiser (if it were human it would look like, well, Bea). And Chris isn't taking any classes this summer so he'll have a chance to get on his road bike. His bike is sexy in that sexy husband way. So I guess if our bikes had babies they'd look like our kids as bikes.