Christmas in July!

The last time I bought a bike, I was in 6th grade. In what was probably my first real effort at "saving up for something big" I squirreled away my pennies until I could pay for 1/3 of the fancy new mountain bike which I certainly could not live without (mom and dad each pitched in a third to help me out). I still remember picking out my bright teal 18-speed Nishiki - I could even tell you what I was wearing (but I won't because the outfit was purchased in the 80's and nobody needs reminding of what tween girls were purchasing in the 80's). It was 1990, and I had a rad bike.

Flash forward to 2009. Lots of things have changed, but I'm still riding my rad 90's bike. For real! I have been riding the same bike for the last 19 years! Of course I'm on my third seat, second set of tires, new handgrips, several tune ups (which even included some mockery by the mechanic at a certain local shop which I am too polite to name, but will no longer frequent)...and I never have to worry about parking the bike on campus. Who's going to steal the rad 90's bike?

Back in October I took a bike tour of Chicago with my grad school friends. Not only was it a great way to see the city, but it started my love affair with the old-school cruiser bike. Loyal readers may recall me adding a cruiser to my Christmas list, and specifically requesting - via the blogosphere - that Santa deliver one to my stocking. Apparently we cannot count Santa among our readership because there was no Cruiser under my tree last December.

So I took matters into my own hands. Yesterday I became the proud owner of a cruiser of my very own!
It's a shiny red and black 7-speed Schwinn, complete with fenders and a bell that makes that delightful brrrrrrriiing brrrrrrinnng! I took the liberty of adding the granny-basket from my old bike, and was ready to cruise off into the sunset. My commute just got FUN!
Doesn't SoundGuy look like he belongs on a boardwalk somewhere? It's the plaid shorts. You should have seen it when he was still wearing his summer fedora).

So there, Santa! I'm having Christmas in July! Brrringgg Brrrringgg!