I’ve always thought it’d be cool to have a bike-based business (selling what, I don’t know: ice cream in the summer, socks in the winter?) and I got a little taste of that today. As one of the million Seattle parents selling Chinook coupon books, I’m trying to stand out from the crowd by offering bike delivery. I emailed my ad to the 1800-strong local moms group and got one bite. Not the best odds, but more books than I thought I’d sell.

Almost as exciting as the Chinook Book sale was today’s marvelous weather. I really didn’t think we’d see the sun again until next July so we enjoyed a bonus beach day after preschool. We even saw a dog riding in a bike basket along Shilshole in Ballard which only happens on the most summery of days.

As we were getting ready to leave the beach I admired the lights on a guy’s electric bike. Turns out they’re just for electric bikes, but we had a nice conversation about bikes and he asked if my loaded-down bike had a motor, which always makes me feel superhuman. I think this wasn’t your everyday electric bike, but more of a hybrid bike-only/electric-only vehicle. He mentioned he’d recently had the bike part worked on by Dutch Bike Co, which just so happened to be our next stop.

I’d scheduled a tune-up at DBC for tomorrow and was originally going to drop the bike off midday Wednesday, but it seemed even better to dump it off on the way home from the beach. I’m so spoiled getting to bike everywhere; walking half a mile to catch the bus took forever. But it’s a good thing I dropped the bike off when I did. A few days ago I noticed a thwacking noise every revolution of the back tire and it turns out that was due to the excessively worn tire bubbling out. Fritz said I was lucky it hadn’t blown out. I assumed he meant getting a regular old flat, but he elaborated by making a big explosion gesture and saying “Flames and death!” Fortunately the boys were busy with their dollar bananas in the cafe area and didn’t hear the scary news. I’m a little sad my cute redwall tire will be replaced with a whitewall, but that’s better than being bikeless while waiting for a redwall to arrive.

Today’s miles: 17.1 miles
September cumulative: 139.7 miles
Days missed: 5