and the baby + bike sagareaches an eventual conclusion

i love to bike. we live directly across the street from the seawall that encircles the city, which is paved and bike-friendly, traffic-free and a beautiful way to see vancouver. so it only makes sense that we'd find a way to combine biking and baby...

for about a year now i'd been thinking of getting a bike trailer. seeing them whiz past us and ogling the freedom of the parent biking while wishing to be the kid hanging out in the back, all comfortable and speedy. so about a month ago i went out and bought a bike trailer. i didn't get the one i had in mind, because seeing it whiz by on the street didn't clue me in to the fact that it was about $600, the one i was liking... cripes almighty - that is a wad of cash to drop on something that is basically a novelty act. i looked on craigslist first, with no luck and eventually went and got a more affordable version at crappy tire. that was a pain in itself, finding someone who was actually working at canadian tire, persuading that surly someone to help me carry it up to the front of the store, going up front a few minutes later to realize that it never made it to the cashier and having to do it over again, then trying to drag it to the car while carrying a baby in a sling...

i assembled it while jamie was out of town, labouring in 30 degree heat and our kitchen once the sun went down and after cole was asleep. i actually read instructions. i got out tools. i sweated. and when i got the thing assembled i realized it was for two babies, which had not been noted on the box. ahh - that's why it was so large, i thought... and i got the heebie-jeebies because although having something that carried two babies did not mean i had two babies to carry, it's kind of terrifying to think about, what with the sheer amount of work and all.

i took it apart because i hated the thing, packed it back into the box and took it down to the car. then i thought maybe i was being silly for hating it because it was huge and cumbersome and smelled like it was offgassing at a fantastic rate. so i brought it back up (again with the sweating) and put it back together again, which was easier the second time. and sheez, it was huge. monstrous even.

the next day i put on cole's helmet and we manoueuvered the thing down to the bike room in our parking garage. i got to our bikes only to discover that someone had decided they were apparently up for grabs and put their own kryptonite bike lock on them. um - i know the tires were flat and we hadn't moved them in the year and a half since we moved here because we were pregnant and then had a baby and all - but why would you, someone, think they were abandoned and have chosen to claim them for your own?

discouraged by fact that i couldn't get my bike out at all, and realizing that yes, i really, really hated the thing, we rolled back to the elevator, nearly taking out a couple on our way in. the guys we ran down were all "woah - that thing is huge!" and "you could use it as a tent!", confirming that i was not alone in thinking it was of monstrous dimesions... once upstairs we took it apart again and gladly dumped off at canadian tire for a refund. in hindsight i'm glad a trailer didn't work out, since it seemed too disconnected for cole, who likes to be in the thick of things and interacting, rather than chugging along behind in a bubble.

but now what? i kept looking at other folks bike trailers and noticed that even the crazy expensive model was enormous. so i checked out child seats and we found a front-mounted seat that looked like a blast. dutifully i traipsed over to more than one place (since the first place needed to work on keeping their online stock up-to-date) and picked it up. easy - and a third of the price of the crappy trailer!

before we could try it out, we had to figure out how to remove someone else's unremoveable bike lock from our bikes. thankfully, my father in law is a swell guy who happens to be very, very handy. he brought down his tools (the kind you have when you don't live in an apartment!) and was planning on cutting the lock off for us. well, why cut off a bike lock when you can just guess at the combination? yes, he guessed and guessed correctly... not 1-2-3-4 or anything either - apparently he has a little known skill of lock cracking!

now, the flat tires. i was planning to walk the bike the five blocks or so to the gas station to pump up the tires, but apparently i didn't know we own a pump. jamie pumped up our tires and got to the business of attaching the new bike seat. hooray! helmets taken downstairs again. excited baby attached to baby-toting apparatus. adorable! hooray! and then... i couldn't get on the bike. the front seat attaches itself with a bar between your handlebars and the seat and i have a ladies bike which means i get on over the low bar... i actually can't disengage my leg from my hip in a way that would allow me to throw a leg over my seat. and even with help i could get on but not touch the ground. oh, and hey - why not have an excited baby wearing a helmet keep headbutting you in the chest? off thing number 2 came. back into the box with all it's loose bolts and promises of biking freedom. back to the store with it.

and on to three more stores in search of a rear-mounted baby seat. did you ever realize how many bike stores there are on broadway? a lot. cole and i got in and out of a couple stores and he learned the word "helmet" all on his own along the way (he says "ham-maa"). at different bikes we finally found the type we were looking for - you know, one that seems of good quality since your precious baby will be strapped to the back of your bicycle. except that the bike dudes couldn't find the rack that comes with it and attaches the seat to the bike. much to my consternation (otherwise known as i must have seemed like a bedraggled, grouchy mess since i was all sweaty and we'd been to three stores and by now cole was leaning backwards and poking me in the eyes) i had to order one, which was supposed to come from toronto and take at least a week. fine. we left and took a trip to the beach which was fun and also sweaty but highly enjoyable.

the bike guy called back later that day and hooray - had found the rack. so in we went the next day and picked it up. are you thinking by now i'm done with this long tale? nearly, but not quite... i felt all industrious and went down to install thing number 3, armed with my minature tool set and good intentions and poorly written instructions. and was feeling good, grouping my screws in little piles and getting a handle on what was what, dropping nuts and thankfully finding them, making progress... except that my bike was the special circumstances type listed on the instructions that required you to remove the damn back wheel in order to attach the rack. f------- whooshing out of my mouth - picture it.

jamie saved the day. he brought the bike upstairs and did the rest. removed the wheel, attached the rack, reattached things that needed reattaching, secured things that needed securing. and at long, long, long last - we went for a bike ride last night.

marvelous. i love this bike seat - it's awesome and sturdy, simple and functional. cole loved it and he patted me on the butt and said "mama" as we rode. couldn't get much better than that. he does have to look at my derriere as we ride, but he seemed to enjoy himself a lot. and he got to wear his ham-maa.