My strength is returning more every day. After several months of sickness and side effects, the thing that’s been eating me alive is full, and can eat no more. My doctor tells me that I am officially in remission.
Recently, I’ve been planning to head down to Working Bikes in Chicago with a cycling buddy for a day of volunteering. Their mission is re-mission, only theirs is to re-purpose old bicycles that Americans discard and send them off to third world countries, where bikes are sources of transportation and revenue. I’ve been working on an old 1986 Cannondale I’m planning to donate, a testimony to the fine work that the bike builders in Bedford, Pennsylvania put into their products. Most of the bike is intact, but after 25 years, it was time for an overhaul. Like me, after a few painful procedures that tore it open and removed some grime, it was put back together again, nearly good as new. Both the old green bike and I are ready to get rolling again.
At the end of the day, the ‘86 will be carefully set aside for loading into a shipping crate. Now that its re-mission is complete, I hope it is excited as I am to see where it ends up. It’s tempting to crawl inside the shipping container as a stowaway to see where it goes, who gets it, and how it performs for the next 25 years; but that’s pretty unrealistic.
Recently, I’ve been planning to head down to Working Bikes in Chicago with a cycling buddy for a day of volunteering. Their mission is re-mission, only theirs is to re-purpose old bicycles that Americans discard and send them off to third world countries, where bikes are sources of transportation and revenue. I’ve been working on an old 1986 Cannondale I’m planning to donate, a testimony to the fine work that the bike builders in Bedford, Pennsylvania put into their products. Most of the bike is intact, but after 25 years, it was time for an overhaul. Like me, after a few painful procedures that tore it open and removed some grime, it was put back together again, nearly good as new. Both the old green bike and I are ready to get rolling again.
At the end of the day, the ‘86 will be carefully set aside for loading into a shipping crate. Now that its re-mission is complete, I hope it is excited as I am to see where it ends up. It’s tempting to crawl inside the shipping container as a stowaway to see where it goes, who gets it, and how it performs for the next 25 years; but that’s pretty unrealistic.
Sometimes it’s more fun to make up a story when you just don’t know where things are headed.
-sw
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