It is a nice story. And I can identify. My own story has some similarities.

As a boy I had bicycles and I rode them. But I wouldn't say that I was a serious bicyclist. I did it without giving it a whole lot of thought.

As I was finishing high school I bought my first car. I had also been using my Mom's car for a few years. So I didn't have a bicycle. And I didn't give that matter much thought, if any. The bicycle was a thing of the past. Transportation for kids. It just didn't occur to me that I had any reason to want a bike at that stage of life.

But then when I was twenty-three years old I went to San Francisco and got a job as a bicycle messenger. I pretty quickly got into the same job but using a Chevy van. Then I moved inside and became a dispatcher.

So while I was in that industry for about five years, I was really a bike messenger for about three quarters of a year.

But that was enough. I was so amazed at my ability to get around that city quickly while still being 'connected' to the street and the people on it. I went all sorts of places just because I felt like going there. I wouldn't have done it in a car. It would not have been worth it. It struck a chord in me that still rings and I've never been without a working bicycle since. I've had zero periods of no bicycle activity since. Most of the time, it's been five to seven days a week no matter the weather.

Today I live in a somewhat 'less glamorous' place. The streets are not as lively. They're in poor repair and they have too much debris and, even, trash.

Yet I'd still rather experience them by bike than by car. By car they're to be endured, but not embraced. By bike they're, perhaps, still imperfect. But it's a more loveable type of imperfection.