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Four Pillars

Tinking Turtle Raverly

Things you Don’t See Everyday

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The other day my derailer on my bike was gunked up, which resulted in my bike not working the way it should. (For those of you who don’t know, I commute by bike three out of five days a week.  My bike not working is a problem.)  You see, my derailer wasn’t springing back, so every time I stopped to coast, my chain would fall off my bike.  *unhappy face*  This means I had to keep peddling on the downhills.  Not fun.

It also meant that I couldn’t take Sweetness and Light where I wanted to take them in the bike trailer.  I was pretty bummed, because I really don’t like to push a stroller when I would be pulling a bike trailer and riding.  Then, Sweetness said, “I can take Light on my bike.”  Keep in mind Sweetness if five.  Her bike is maybe a third of the size of a grownup bike, and also fixed gear.

I told her that I wasn’t sure I wanted her pulling her sister around, but Sweetness insisted she could do it.  The hookup to my trailer is only a clamp, so it can work on any bike, even Sweetness’ so I couldn’t protest that technically it wouldn’t work.

Well, I figured she’d tire out soon enough, we’d walk the bike home, switch to the stroller, and go on our merry way.

Not so.

Sweetness biked herself and Light (with me running behind to keep up and to assist on some of the uphills giving a starting push because Sweetness couldn’t downshift to start on hills) ALL THE WAY TO THE LIBRARY.  AND BACK.  That’s just over two miles.

Can I mention just how proud I am of Sweetness?

And also what an incongruous sight it is to see a child pulling a child in a bike trailer.  It was also really cute.  Just sayin’.

Anyway, I am now, in this regard, completely superfluous.  I don’t even feel bad about it.

Good things coming, Relationships, Little Girls

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It’s been an interesting week and it’s only Wednesday.

I got a bunch of packages in the mail and had to bike to the Post Office to get them (which is about 2 miles away).  This is a huge excursion for me, even though it isn’t that far away, because no matter which way I go I  have to bike along some busy roads (which I don’t enjoy so it makes it more like work) and it’s mostly uphill (which, by definition is work.  Heh heh heh… what?  No-one remembers science class?).

This is unlike my morning bikeride, which is 4 times longer, but all along nice trails, so doesn’t seem like work at all.  Anyway, I got some really great stuff in the mail, mostly for my business.  This included:  stitch markers (which I have begun to buy in bulk), because I go through them so fast, a swift (because I can no longer mooch off of my room mate), and most exciting, a tripod!!!  This for me is really exciting, because I can now take videos of myself doing different techniques, which means so interesting content in the next few weeks.

~~~

Michael came home with a fever (100.2) today, proceeded to consume dinner (which included a rather salty gravy which he should not have found delicious, but did, which tells me he’s really sick).  He told me he knew he probably was running a fever today because he didn’t have seconds when someone offered him bagels, which would make me concerned.  Michael rarely turns down free food.  Later in the day, he was offered free cupcakes, and he didn’t feel up to eating them.  That is DEFINITELY a sign that he was sick.

Now?  He’s passed out on the couch.  It’s down to 99.8.  It’s so strange.  Normally I’m the one to get sick frequently, and Michael never gets sick.  This winter neither of us did, and now it’s spring and he’s the one getting sick.  *knocks on wood*

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Now that Sweetness has been biking, we’ve been taking longer and longer bikerides in order to build her endurance.  This is because Sweetness wants to be able to bike to my new house for a playdate.  I’ve explained to her that my house is about 5 miles away, which means she’d have to bike five miles there and five miles back.  I need to be comfortable with her biking ten miles, because if she gets tired on the way home, I can’t stuff her in the trailer because somebody needs to deal with her bike.  The other day she rode 7! miles, and we’ve been planning some bikerides to take her longer and longer distances.

Today I come into the house, and Sweetness runs up, excited.  Apparently they’ve discovered a new playground, and she wants to take me.  She’s trying to give me directions (to be fair, Sweetness has an excellent sense of direction, and has gotten me places I’ve never been to before with her directing me.  The only problem is, her directions are based off of well, a five year old).  The directions went something like this:

“So we go by the lake, and then instead of going the place where we saw the deer, we go up that part where it was really windy.  Then we go by the dead rat…”

At that point, Sweetness’s father and I loose it.

After we stopped laughing, we had to explain to her why a dead rat was not a good landmark.

Sweetness and Light

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Poor Light.  Sweetness’s gotten a new bike, and she’s really thrilled about it.

To tell the truth, I’m pretty thrilled about her biking too, because Sweetness has been getting rather heavy over the winter (she’s five now!  FIVE) and hauling the two of them around meant I was pulling an awful lot of weight.

So we’ve been going on a bunch of bike rides as Sweetness has gotten more and more confident with her bike, an I’ve gotten more and more sure that she’s able to stay in control of her bike, which dictates where I’m willing to take her.

This means Light’s taken to riding in the back of the trailer all by herself, which she has mixed feelings about.  On one hand, she’s pretty thrilled about all the extra room she has, on the other hand, she misses having her sister to play with and read books with as I haul them around.  She also doesn’t appreciate all the attention Sweetness has been getting.

Still, Light did pretty well the other day, drawing and taking “notes” in her notebook as we went along a trail.  She still will pipe up when I’m going slow and up a hill, telling me “You can do it, Jen!  You can do it!”

Well, we were going up a hill, and it was rather hard, and she said something too me about paper and her helmet.  Not really understanding, but getting the gist that it was about preventing them from blowing away, I just made the noises any adult makes when they’re only half listening, because we’re concentrating on something else.  I put the conversation out of my mind after that until we got home.

When I got home, I went to take of Light’s helmet and lo and behold, I find nearly two dozzen “notes” in her helmet wadded up.  I go and ask her, “What’s this?”

Very solemnly Light replies, “I was keeping them from blowing away.”

To this I have to say, good job light, I would have never thought of that myself.

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