Bikes

We have gone on a sudden frenzy of bike riding 'round here.

The oh-so-welcome mellowing of the sweat-sapping heat that sat between the earth and the clouds was part of the impetus.  In some places hot and cold comes from above, in some places hot and cold comes from the ground.  In the south it all sits in the middle and it sits heavy, whatever it is, liked a trapped, sulky prisoner.  Except in the fall.  In the fall some happy witch unlocks the earth and the sky and lets coolness tramp around all pixy-free-spirited like.  I'm totally into the fall around here.  But people keep reminding me that August isn't the fall and there is still more heat to come.  But still I like to pretend the happy witch's work is irreversibly done until November comes to lock things up again because that means we can ride bikes every day for a couple of months.

The other motivating factor in getting us to be daily riders is our almost-three-year-old neighbor boy who can zoom up and down our driveway on his tiny training-wheeled bike like he's Lightening McQueen himself.  Suddenly Captain Kindergarten (renaming in process as he has started the 1st grade) decided it might be time to ditch the training wheels.  Sidekick Sister put a little more oomph behind her peddles on her blue princess handle-bar tasseled bike.  The Little Linebacker can hardly stand to look at his green three-wheeler and whines for a turn on his sister's distinctly feminine wheels.  All the while Baby Girl wanders around with the Sidekick's scooter pushing it into cars or standing on it until she falls over sideways into the grass.

It is a bit of a logistical problem for me, these four anxious riders, none quite capable of independent transportation.  I push CK down the driveway and let him go yelling "Wiggle your bottom.  Don't forget to wiggle your bottom to balance.  No!  No!  Don't put your feet down.  Remember you can do it.  You can do it!  Hey, good bottom wiggling there."  And while I'm yelling that the Sidekick has reached the bottom of the driveway and is impatiently waiting for a push back up.  Her short leg isn't quite strong enough to crush gravity's downward push yet.  So I push her up while the Little Linebacker comes alongside and asks if it's his turn yet and CK starts calling for me to help him back up the hill too.  And then I realize Baby Girl is in the deep recesses of the garage perhaps finding screw drivers or unfriendly spiders.  But even with this chaos - this not-enoughness of me - I just love what we are doing. 

Bikes and cool weather and too many kids, I'd buy a painting of that.