Good Thing It Wasn’t In Traffic

It was a close call. Sweet Roast was riding her bicycle home one afternoon and just after crossing a busy highway her seat flipped backwards and she fell to the ground. There were no serious injuries but quite a scare. I helped fix the seat when she walked it back to the office that same day. We discovered the parts holding the seat in place were no longer going to do the job. Until she could get to the out-of-town bike shop the bicycle came from to get the matching parts she would be without her set of wheels. I knew there was no way she’d start to walk to work, so I gladly traded her for the car while I walked to work most days. It was nice to get back into the power walking routine after a bit of a break. I still do the walk a few times a week, but not as often as I had been so it was just as well that the bike seat flipped backwards. It wasn’t long and I noticed a change in the Sweet Roast. She was losing her energy again. It was almost as if the daily bike rides were feeding her something that impacted the rest of her day. It was as if she was getting a shot of energy each time and soon after she stopped riding, the opposite occurred. It was probably triggered by her mental health, I figured. She was so excited about the bike ride daily and got so much enjoyment out of it that it may have also assisted in putting her in a positive mind set for the rest of the day. Again, without the bike, a very opposite reaction was obvious to me. I encouraged her to get back into the bike routine as quickly as possible and within days the bike seat was replaced with a brand new one. In fact, she changed it herself in the middle of the office while I dealt with a customer. She was focused. She was driven. She couldn’t wait to get back on it and test-drove the bike around the block to make sure the seat was secure. I tried to force it to fail with my weight pushing down on the seat and it held. There was no way the incident would repeat itself. Now Sweet Roast is riding again and her energy level has improved, but by midday she’s done.