It's Not a Job, It's a Lifestyle

We used to tell each other that, at the bike shop, when we were broke.  It was a little bit of humor that eased the pain of the microscopic paychecks.  The thing is, it was really true.

Sean and Katina were in town for a wedding, last week, and they stopped by the house on Monday to hang out and visit for a couple of hours.  We talked about all the things friends who haven't seen each other in a while will talk about, and the subject of bike riding came up.

I know Sean because he was a customer, then a mechanic, at Destinations when he was in high school.  He worked with me at Campus in 2001, during Summer Break from college.  So, he understood when I said to him that I was disappointed to not have a ready group of people available to ride with.

Most of the people I once rode with on a regular basis have grown up, or at least grown older, and their lives have changed to the point that they can't constantly go on bike rides.  I ride to work, daily, in part because it gives me a reason to ride alone.  If I wait for company to ride, it can be a week, or more, between rides.

But, when we all worked in the bike shop, there was always someone who was ready and willing for a ride.  It wasn't necessarily always me:  Sometimes it was two or three other people riding as I went home.  But, for the most part, if I wanted to ride, then either a fellow employee or a customer would be available to go, as well.

I went mountain biking an average of 4 or 5 times a week, back then.  And I was on the road bike at least once a week.  I rode often enough, and hard enough, the first year that I worked at Destinations that I went from 190 pounds, in January, to 150 pounds in October.  People thought I had cancer, or something.

Riding bikes was more than a hobby, then.  It was more than transportation, or exercise,  or a business.  For me, it truly was a lifestyle.

I miss those days (but not those paychecks).

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