Originally Posted by DigitalQuirk
What I learned from the death of my father-in-law is you can't put off the things you want to do. I always wanted to rebuild my road bike and get back into commuting with it; now I'm doing it. I also wanted a paticular type of car with certain characteristics, so I did that as well. I learned that nobody really cares if you're a minimalist or not; whether you ride a bike or drive a car.
Do I need a car? Heck, no! I also don't really need my digital camera, a house with nine foot ceilings, a computer, an internet connection, a hi fi stereo...I could go on and on. I could rid my life of so many seemingly "Unnecessary" things for the sakes of simplification...but then I start to think, why? Why is it necessary for me to live a life without these things? To save money? It's not like I'm poor. To spend more time with my family? We go out every weekend, and they enjoy a lot of these things. We enjoy watching the digital pictures, the home videos taken with the camcorder, listening to the stereo together. Nothing thrills my son more than loading up the car on a Friday night for the drive to Grandma's house (a 2 hour drive) where we enjoy a spot of fishing in the summer, or skating on the lake in the winter.
Now, I'm just waiting for a warm day to paint the bike. I have everything ready for reassembly, but my better half won't let me paint in the house. Hopefully, I'll get a lot of riding in soon!
Man I've never heard anybody come up with so many excuses not to do something he supposedly wants to do! First a car seduced you, then the people on this forum hurt your feelings, now your wife won't let you ride.
If you really want to ride a bike, just do it! (Apologies to Nike.) Otherwise, I'm going to start thinking that you have some kind of psychological issues that stop you from doing something that would make you happy.
Riding really isn't
that difficult. Just start at the beginning and go from there. If you have
legitimate problems, we'll be glad to help.