Old gretta has been on my mind for quite some time. We bought her under the impression that she had 3 working gears, just like we bought the cool 80's zwart en wit tv under the impression that he would be able to receive the Belgian public tv channels. Duds. In used car lingo, lemons. Similar to people exiting a casino only to realize they've somehow spent/lost all of their money..."We've been had."

But Gretta is a great bike. I've wanted to replace her, but didn't have the money or the heart. I've gathered tools in a pile in my living-room several times with great intentions of fixing both Gretta and Eva's bike. (I dont' know that it has a name.) And weeks later, in a cleaning frenzy, the tools go back to their original resting place and the bikes remain unfixed.

All of this craze started in the back of my head when I saw a Jewish boy on a mountain bike too large for him, but a decent bike. On further inspection we noticed that it was propaganda-ed with decals from a electronics store around the corner (fridges, freezers, irons, tvs, computers, stereos and cellphones.) I vaguely remember thinking that the bike must have come with a freezer or something or he entered for a drawing and ended up with it. Not until the fan-need yesterday did I find out that the store was selling them for 75 Euros a piece.

And so, after finding such a great deal on a mountain bike much like a mountain bike I would have dreamed of owning back in 1998 before I got my Giant (which I moved from the walkout basement deck to the garage when I was home) and after Eric too recommended the bike as a sound investment for 75 Euros, the bike is mine.

Jessica said I asked Eva what she thought about the bike at least 5 times last night, and after a quick phone call to her again this afternoon, we went to get it. I said, "I would like a bike." And the guy said, "How many?" (Were people literally buying 5 at a time or something?) And I said, "een fiets, a.u.b."

A typical promotional item, with stickers saying Megapool (the name of the store) and Megagoed (Megagood) plastered all over it. But under all of the silliness is a nice dark blue bike frame. I'm utterly pleased. I peeled the stickers and added one. A Righteous Babes sticker.

The day was complete with the addition of a fabulous meal. To celebrate such a wonderfully frugal purchase, I fixed a "mess of beans" and cornbread, and they just might have been the best beans I, myself, have ever created. Not to be confused with "the best I've ever eaten" because that would include my mother's...and anything cooked my a mom is better than a concoction created by her offspring. :)

For a test run, the three of us headed to a movie on the outskirts of town via bike. Eva was first with her great CatEye halogen bike light, me in the middle without any sort of reflective bit or light, and Jessica in the rear riding Gretta in all of her glory, little air in the tires, 1 gear, but the best set of lights one could want.

Now Gretta has been put out to pasture. She's locked to a pipe outside of our house, susceptible to sun and rain. (More rain than sun...) But before she gets sold or gifted to some shop to be refurbed I'll take some of her with me, the seat, the rack in the back, so though my new bike is so shiny and new that it refuses to have a pet name (I'll manage to come up with one over time) I'll take bits of Gretta with me.

IN THE NEWS:
A large bomb exploded in a busy cafeteria at Hebrew University's Frank Sinatra International Student Center today, spraying shards of glass and metal across a lunchtime crowd and killing at least seven people and wounding more than 70.