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Bon Journal
Have lights, will cycle
It's one of those things I keep procrastinating until it becomes a sore inconvenience and irritation. In this case, it became dangerous.
Every time my bicycle gets stolen, I lose the fittings to my lights. So I have four bicycle lights, all without the appendages to the bicycle. All the batteries have long since died. And I keep meaning to find a supplier with the matching fittings and batteries.
It all came to a head yesterday. I had arranged to go to a classical guitar concert with a neighbour. Without lights, it was too dark and dangerous to cycle across town. Her husband refused to let her cycle in the dark. Knowing that I had to cycle to my NLP class tonight and to concerts and plays in the future, I figured that it was high time to do something about this.
The other motivation came from reading "Get everything done and still have time to play." It advised setting up systems to make things easier. One of these is to get bike lights so that I don't have to navigate blind.
I cycled to Halford's on the high street. They specialise in anything that moves and all the gadgets that go along with it. Why didn't I cycle to the local bike shop which is now a monopoly? Apparently I wasn't the only one to think that one of the guys who worked there was arrogant. Bicycle shops should be friendly places.
To make the long story short, it was so simple to get everything fixed. The gentleman at Halfords loved fixing things, I could tell. He had a spare light fitting. We both lamented over the demise of another bicycle shop whose owners had decided not to renew their lease and go into early retirement. That was the friendly bicycle shop with all the spare parts and friendly service.
Tonight I cycled like a fearless Amazonian warrior princess. I no longer have to dodge the cars by joining the unlit pedestrians on the pavement. I no longer have to slow down everytime I think I'm coming to a bump. Thanks to my cycle lights, I am now another vehicle in the night.
