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Monday, April 23, 2012

night light bright

In the past two weekends I’ve had two headlights stolen. Or taken, maybe I should say. I mean, it’s hardly stealing, really. It’s about as petty a theft as you can come by. These lights aren’t worth anything, really, maybe a couple bucks on the black market (ebay). Or maybe they’re just being used on bikes around town here. Hopefully they’re at least going to be used on a bike somewhere. Taking a light off someone’s bike is pretty petty, though. And both times it was at night. How can you take someone’s light at night? You must be a bicyclist, right? You must know why that light is there? It’s there so I can get home safely. And sure, it was an easy steal, I mean all you had to do was unclip it – 5 seconds, tops. And yes, I could unclip it and put it in my pocket every time I park my bike somewhere in the world – every day! But jeez, what a chore. Luckily, for me, I was able to find an easy replacement in the garage – being essentially free, having bought it years ago, that money forgotten. I think I ended up using that replacement light three times before it was taken. Then, luckily for me, again, there was one more super old light in the garage that magically still worked. So now it’s on there and will hopefully stay on there for at least a few months. In the process of riding home in the dark for a couple of nights a realized that I don’t have a front or rear reflector anymore, having just been relying on lights, it’s been fine. But while rummaging through the bicycle junk box in the garage to find old lights I came across a bunch of reflectors, too. It used to be, when we were kids, that it was really uncool to ride with reflectors on your bike. It somehow meant that you hadn’t bothered, yet, to customize your bike and it was all about custom. And, we never really rode around at night much back then anyway so it didn’t much matter. That mindset stuck with me for a while, and unintentionally persists on my bikes today. Now, decades later, I’m starting to think that maybe reflectors are pretty cool. Which, necessarily, proves that they’re still really uncool, but now that I can’t be bothered to keep up with and/or care about running with the cool kids, I’ve got options. And, more importantly, I’m pretty damn sure that no one is going to steal reflectors off my bike. So I loaded up the Mule with reflectors every-which way I could imagine.
Am I becoming that crazy old reflector man?

9 comments:

mindful mule said...

Apparently blogger doesn't like paragraphs anymore? Or it's just a glitch in the transition to their new layout.

JustinM said...

I know you're laid-back, but intentionally taking something that doesn't belong to you is stealing!

Remember Pulp Fiction: Don't f**k with another man's automobile. That can be extended to bikes.

mindful mule said...

And, remember The Big Lebowski: This is what happens when you f**k a stranger in the a*s!

mindful mule said...

Which brings up another point, though. I’m not sure how I would react if I were to encounter this little prick in the act. It’s probably better for everyone if he just makes off into the night without being caught. Because lights can easily be replaced. And so can entire bikes. But a mule can only be mindful to a certain tipping point, after which danger is at the door – just typing this I can feel it coursing through my blood.

JustinM said...

I would take out my blade and say: I have lost two lights in the last week. You will lose a finger for each light that you cannot produce right this second. But that's just me. I'm not going to be a father soon; I have less to lose.

mindful mule said...

Or perhaps, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

JustinM said...

I bought a t shirt a few years back with a picture of Fezzik (or I guess Andre The Giant) and the words "I don't even exercise." Liz won't let me wear it in public.

SuperLarge said...

I came in here to say how much I like the way you write, but now I feel I have to come up with some clever, pop-culture relevant quip and I haven't had enough coffee for that.

mindful mule said...

Thanks, SuperLarge! I’ll put on a fresh pot…