Chapter II

Every ride home the past few months has been miserable. It's hotter than most folks can even imagine here. There have been dust storms that have turned day to night and thunderstorms that soak you to the bone then disappear within a matter of seconds almost. Yet every day I think about riding. Is this what addiction is? I always thought of myself as immune from addiction. I've tried smoking but get bored with it after a few weeks. People have mistaken me for an alcoholic but I've gone without drinking plenty of times and only missed it a little. So why can't I stop myself from riding?

In August/September of 2008 I bought my first bike. It was the first time I'd even ridden a bike since I was probably 10 or 11 years old and I didn't think much of it at the time. Honestly I bought it because I was tired of walking to school in the heat. Soon it became part of my commute to my previous job. It was stolen in the summer of 09 and a few months later I bought my second one. When it was stolen I didn't even care that much as I was planning on getting a car anyway. Time went on and I grew more and more weary of riding. It got to the point during the holiday season of 2010 that I pretty much quit riding all together.

Then something happened. I started to get fat. I've never been a very vain person but I certainly didn't want to be fat. My diamondback that I had bought a year and a half earlier had lost a pedal and I was left with a spindle (the pedals were those cheap plastic rubber ones that I never bothered to replace). I took it to the shop the last week of January. By this time I had quit my previous job and was left with the one I'm currently at. Once I took it to the shop for a little tune up and pedal fix (the spindle was stripped from previous removal attempts) I began to get a little excited at the prospect of riding again.

The very next week I began doing the full commute that I still do today. I realized that my attitude toward riding had made a complete turn around and now I can't seem to think about much else. Well, much else accept maybe getting a motorcycle ;)