John Bikerson III Memorial Post

I sold my bike yesterday. For 45 euros, to a very nice Dutchman named Jens, at a 4th of July BBQ.

I'd put up the ads earlier in the day, and I already had a woman coming to see it that evening, so I was resigned to parting with Bikey that very day. Jens offered me my asking price in cash. I'm pinching pennies right now, I have a two-week European vacation to fund, and to me right now 45 euros is a considerable sum. In 3 days I'm going to Austria for 4 days (during which it would have been right difficult to sell my bike), and I'll have only 4 very busy days left in Berlin after that. Public transit in this city is very excellent and I can get everywhere I need to go reasonably quickly. Speaking rationally, I made the right call at the right time, and I won't face many practical troubles in my bikelessness.

All that said: this was a hard thing to do and I'm pretty sad today. I had a wonderful weekend full of friends and sunshine and non-stop bike rides, I watched some very good soccer games where all the right teams won, I met new people and had a very excellent ex-pat 4th of July, and here I am all torn up on Monday morning. There was a thunderstorm in the night, first rain in weeks--I slept fitfully and now have an absolutely monstrous crick in my neck. The sun is shining and I have so much to do.

He was a good bike and now he's gone. I guess coulda thrown him in the river or something but I'm happy I had it in myself to pass him on. Let's all learn a lesson about letting go, okay? Let's do that.

I'm getting sadder and sadder as I write this. I'll blog some more soon. I have many fine pictures and stories to tell. For now I will apply sunscreen, start my day and put that bike out of my mind. I'll be on foot for a couple weeks now, I can listen to my iPod again, read on the subway. Maybe I'll get a haircut. Take care, everyone.