New Bike

Sadly, the hooligan who stole my bike never became overwhelmed with guilt to the point of rushing back here to return it to me. Not even an anonymous letter to tell me where it is hidden. No ransom note. I can only assume that it is gone for good. Perhaps the Norfolk Constabulary will find it (yeah, right) because I did file a police report with them. Not because I thought I'd get it back, but just for the principle of it. It was the least I could do.

Anyway, since the bike never came back, I had to buy a new one. An exercise that I was LOATHE to do. Because my £80 bike was stolen, every single additional pence I had to spend was a pence that I detested with every fiber of my being. Well, at first anyway. On Saturday, I trekked around to different bike shops looking for a replacement, but everything seemed so expensive. There was a really nice one for £169 that I was salivating over (the bikes in the £200 and up range were not even considerations, so I didn't look at them). £169 was out of my price range. To be honest, £50 was out of my price range too. I couldn't decide what to get, so I decided to wait and discuss it with Kristen that evening. She seemed pretty ambivalent about it, giving me the straight-forward advice, "Get the one you want."

After much deliberation, I decided to go for the £169 bike. It was the perfect one, a Giant Expression XL (23" frame, 28" wheels, aluminum frame, shock-absorbing seat, mud-guards, all black). I "negotiated" a free combination lock, too. Unfortunately, when I tried to set the combination on the lock I accidentally set a scrambled number because I missed one single dangling fragment in one of the steps in the instructions. Like a rubicks cube, I sat there with it for about an hour trying different combinations to no avail. So, I had to pay for a lock anyway, but I bought a key-operated one with a fatter cable. I consider it an upgrade. As is the bike. Major upgrade. I don't even want to take it outside because it'll get dirty! Speaking of which, it's going to live INSIDE until we find a suitable method of anchoring it outside. I'm thinking one of those armed guards from Buckingham Palace.

-RP-

Envous (n'vuss) n. - a feeling remorse, guilt, fear, or all three that is encountered after purchasing something beyond one's means