Old men on bicycles

I haven’t written in yonks! There was this flurry of activity and then things got so hectic that it was impossible to put pen to paper. It’s old men on bicycles. If you want to get in tune with the homeless in Calgary, you got to get on a bike.

Somebody had a brilliant idea. He/she, somebody, got the idea that we could get old bikes, fix them up and let the homeless have a free bike to get around town. What a great idea.

And you can see them all over town, in the morning, afternoon and at night. They are peddling like mad, screaming through traffic with the fear of God in their eyes. Then again, maybe it’s the fear of the traffic. Have you ever tried biking through downtown traffic in rush hour? I didn’t think so. It’s quite the experience – for both the peddalist and the drivers in the cars. Sometimes I don’t know who is the more frightened.

You see, this is the prairies. It’s flat -- real flat. There is a beautiful river park running right through town for miles and miles and bike paths on both sides of the river. It’s mostly flat and great for getting on your bike in the hot summer and getting all over town for free. It also is great for keeping in shape. I’ve lost a ton of weight.

I’m going to try and get down to the bike shop in the drop-in centre this weekend and see what’s up.

Mental illness affects the body as well as the mind. You’re either going like a bat out of hell all the time or you can’t get off the couch. If you’re in between, you’re a lot closer to sanity. Hopping on a bike not only keeps your body in shape, it’s a great way to forget about, or ignore the voices going on in your head -- especially if it’s rush hour.

The plan at the bike shop is pretty fair. You fix a couple of bikes and the third one is yours – free. If anyone is interested, they can learn how to fix bikes and in this town, that’s cash in the bank. It is just about impossible to find a decent bike mechanic. I had to hunt all over town to find mine in a made-over church in Kensington called Lifesport. They have a great young bike mechanic with an incredibly dry and sharp wit. It took forever to find a place that does a decent job on bikes. There are a lot of bike shops in the middle of this on-going boom that simply don’t fix bikes; they don’t have the staff.

I have no idea how many people have managed to hook a job from the drop-in bike shop training ground, but I’d love to find out.